Page 50 of Between Love & Ruin

“But I am not lying right now. This is the truth, and I won’t explain any further. But I need you to find out who did this. I will not play about my privacy and especially not if it involves dragging down Sienna.”

“Of course,” she says, rubbing a hand across her face. “I will do it. But for now, during your meetings with her, I will be there. Even if it is here in your office.”

“Why?” I question, agitated. I like my time and space with her. I get so little of it anyway. “That is not required at all.”

“I can’t risk our company’s reputation, Dominic. Plus, I won’t interfere and I won’t sit on your head all the time. You will have your privacy but on my watch.”

“Literally the opposite of privacy.”

She shrugs, and I sigh. Now all I have to pray for is that Sienna doesn’t see this until she comes to me.

Until I can take care of what follows for her.

* * *

She got to know about it.

I could tell from the way she talked to me on call and the way she marched towards me in the office.

Honestly, I couldn’t care less about her anger when she looked so hot yelling at me. Maybe that’s a little toxic, but what can I say? I’m just a guy hopelessly down bad for this woman.

Plus, she looks so beautiful today. She’s wearing an asymmetrical navy blue top that, coincidentally, matches my suit. I say the universe is giving us a sign.

And she’s wearing heels. Pointed heels.

Fuck me.

“How could this even happen?” she says for the nth time, and I honestly get her frustration.

She already deals with a lot with her so-called partner, and now that I am in the picture—though she can’t see the picture—things have only got worse for her.

“Calm down, Sienna,” I say, trying to get closer to her, but she just glares at me, pushing me away with a hand on my chest.

Is it a bad time to wear fully covered clothing? Yes. Because if I hadn’t, her hand would have landed straight on my skin, and I would have loved that.

“Don’t tell me to calm down, Dominic,” she says, her eyes ablaze. “You have no idea how much of a mess this situation puts me in. Do you realize this is the second time we’ve been linked? First, you were spotted with my book at the airport, and now this. I’m not used to this. I have a partner, for crying out loud, and he isn’t going to like this. I know I wouldn’t if my partner were being linked to someone else like this.”

I take a deep breath in before pulling Sienna closer to me. There are not many hateful words in this world to describe what it does to me whenever Sienna mentions that she is taken.

It makes me realize how out of control my life is. It makes me realize that despite having everything a man could possibly want in this world—fame, power, respect, money—I do not have the one thing, the one person I want the most in my life. Her. Her heart.

Not yet, at least.

I know it has nothing to do with me, but it makes me realize how much of a loser I am to have not met her before.

Before she fell for the person who never deserved her.

Because I know I do. And if I didn’t deserve her love, I would become the person who did.

That’s how much I have fallen for her.

I rub a calming hand down her shoulder, and her shoulders drop down slightly at my touch, making me smile.

It makes me happy that my touch has just as much effect on her as hers has on me.

“I know I have caused so much trouble in your life already,” I say, and she shakes her head in denial. “But I promise you I am taking care of it. I know this is not what you signed up for, and I promise I will get the person behind all this. I will handle it all. You are not alone, and I will handle Mark as well. You and I both know we were not doing anything wrong.”

“You will take care of everything?” she asks, staring up at me with her doe eyes.