Page 45 of Her Forbidden Bargain

“Yes?”

“I really want you to stay.”

She looked back at him. “I want to. But for the first time in my life, I realize that I can’t keep settling for the least bit of attention. You changed me over the last few weeks. Made me into a different woman. And the one constant through all of that is how much I love you.

“But tonight, I realized that loving you isn’t enough for me, and it’s not fair to you. You need something more. Something I can’t give.”

He didn’t know what she was talking about, but could tell that it made a lot of sense to Sheri. “Are you leaving tonight?”

“No. I gave you my word I’d stay through our pretend engagement party.”

“Very well. Thank you for that,” he said, gathering his facade around him. He always knew how to put on a good face. And it wasn’t like he really loved her. She was his pretend fiancée. “I’ll sleep down the hall.”

“Okay.”

He walked out of his bedroom. In the wide, long hallway he heard her footsteps behind him. “Tristan.”

He looked back.

“I thought you were different,” she said, her voice sad and low but still audible.

“Different how?”

“I don’t know, just different from the other men in my life.”

“I am sure I am different.”

“On the outside you are very different. But inside, you’re the same.”

“Same how?”

“Hollow and empty. Unwilling to let your guard down for a second and accept the gift of my love.”

Her words were heartfelt, and to be honest, he did feel an ache deep inside at her words. He’d thought for a long time that he wasn’t exactly the man he used to be.

“I have a full life. After you break our engagement I will be back to my busy schedule and the life that I have become accustomed to.”

“That doesn’t mean that you’re happy.”

He saw the tears in her wide brown eyes and knew he was going to remember that look on her face for a long time.

“Happiness is a fool’s notion.”

“No, it’s not. Unless you think it’s foolish to take a risk. To put yourself on the line. And I know you don’t, because you take risks every day in business. At the Sabina Group, and with the nightclubs you own with Gui and Christos. It’s only in your personal life that you refuse to take a chance.”

He pivoted on his heel and walked back to her. “Studying me in magazines and tabloid stories does not mean you know who I am and what makes me tick.”

“No, it doesn’t,” she said. “What makes me an expert is having fallen in love with you. And living with you this week has shown me a man that few people really see. I do know the real you.”

“Do you? Who is the real me?”

She took a deep breath and looked up at him. In her bare feet, he felt like he towered over her. “The real you. Are you sure you want to know?”

“I asked, did I not?”

“That’s right. You did. Well, the real man I’ve seen, Tristan, is a coward. Someone who’s felt a deep pain, and I’m not discounting that. But because of one loss, you’ve cut yourself off from ever loving again. And that seems cowardly to me.”

Tristan didn’t answer her, just walked away. And this time he wasn’t coming back. He wasn’t a coward, and he wasn’t about to let Sheri Donnelly use those words to make him do something he knew he’d regret.