Page 75 of The Billionaire Invitation

His deep laugh against the shell of her ear was a salve to her wounded soul. What had happened between them in the past could stay there. They could start fresh.

He wrapped his arms around her waist and held her for a long while. The distant traffic and whistling wind and their mingling heartbeats were the only sounds she heard.

“You’ll need my help for the launch dinner,” he said. “And I can help you with the rollout as well as the logistics.”

She loosened her grip and faced him, confused for a hot second. “What?”

“I never make a promise and leave before it I see it through. You might not know this about the new me, but I finish what I start. I won’t leave until you and your charity are settled.”

Her chest deflated. He was…talking about the charity? Not them?

She slowly lowered to her heels, and then just as slowly unwound her arms from his neck. Back on her own two feet, which were now solidly in contact with the concrete beneath them, she asked, “You’re staying to help with the launch?”

“One hundred percent. I never should have entertained leaving when there was so much left to do. You have a speech to give. And I was thinking tonight if I’d had to worry about the seating and the music and cake alongside giving my speech—it’s too much to do alone. So, you have me.” He was still smiling, the clueless idiot. “You can give your speech. I can handle everything else. This is what I do, Honesty. Let me do it.”

It would be wrong to slap him, right? Her palm twitched with the urge.

Here she’d thought that Dante had been struck by a great epiphany. She’d believed that, like her, he’d realized he had fallen in love. And that the wedding reminded him of what was important in life. And the snit with his father had been another reminder that life was short.

But in which direction would that cliché blow? Was life so short that she should savor every minute with Dante before he ran off to LA again? Or was life too short to waste a single second standing here and listening to his bullshit?

Tough call.

“You’re leaving after the launch dinner,” she said, still trying to wrap her head around what he’d said.

“I figure that’s plenty of time for you to use me up. I mean in every way.” He waggled his eyebrows, which she normally found funny. Now, it infuriated her.

For a brief moment, she’d felt every emotion she’d harbored for two weeks. Unfiltered. She’d dropped her guard. She’d let down her walls. And for what? This…this half-assed promise?

Possibly the real issue was that what he was offering was practical. Generous, even. The charity event, the rollout, the donor relationships—she didn’t have the knowledge or the time to handle those, even with Gabby’s help. Dante could talk money out of donors and smooth out any wrinkles before she would know there was a problem.

He wanted to make sure she had everything she needed before he went back home. If she wasn’t madly, deeply, ass-over-tea-kettle in love with him, she might admire his thoughtfulness and foresight.

As things stood now, she couldn’t.

This wasn’t a “new” version of him. After everything they’d been through together, he hadn’t changed at all. He’d spent his life trying to be the man who did not abandon his responsibility the way his father had. He had believed he was being noble and thoughtful.

It was Honesty who had let herself hope for more. If anyone had broken a promise, it was her. She had broken the one she’d made to herself.

“You shouldn’t stay out of obligation,” she said, her voice flat. “Or guilt.”

Dante shook his head. “I’m not staying out of obligation or guilt. I’m staying where I’m needed. I don’t believe in quitting before the job is done.”

Half of her wanted to find her own way home. And the other half of her, the half that still loved him, wanted to gift herself one last night with him.

When they were facing each other on pillows in his hotel room bed, would he say the same thing? Or would the realization that he loved her dawn on him while he was swimming around in postcoital bliss?

That seemed as far-fetched as his father stepping outside to apologize and agree to stay in town as well. And, if she was being honest, her hoping that Dante would suddenly realize he loved her was a tad desperate.

She rubbed her bare arms with her palms under the guise of warming up but she wasn’t the least bit cold. She was burning from the heat of embarrassment.

She caught sight of Chloe through the glass door, who was standing across the room. Chloe gave her an optimistic thumbs up before turning back to Zander.

Did everyone see the truth except for Dante? Or were rose-colored glasses being passed around like wedding favors tonight? Maybe Honesty was guilty of being caught up, too—of seeing something that wasn’t actually there.

“I’m not sure how long we should stay tonight,” Dante said. “I don’t want another run-in with my father. This is Brody and Reagan’s night.”

“You can stay as long as you like. If I get too tuckered out, I’ll find my way back.” She said that with a smile, despite the monotone delivery. She needed a clean exit plan because she wasn’t sure what she was feeling. Everything had hit her at once and was now flying around her like a cawing murder of crows.