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“Your father?” he asked.
She nodded.
“I take it he found out about the sex tape.”
Her shoulders tensed and drew up to her ears. “I’d say that’s a safe bet considering he’s called four times.”
Carson knew this scandal was going to be the nail in the coffin of her career with her father. Unless she gave in to Martin. She looked over at Neil.
How could she succumb to the manipulative ways of a man like him when she knew men like Neil existed? Strong. Determined. He was everything she wanted. Even though she knew he would be done with her in a few short days.
She sighed. Her body slumped forward in defeat. How else was she going to take over the company she had dreamed of running for her entire adult life without giving in to Martin’s propositions?
Neil gestured with his chin for her to return to him at the table. When she was close enough, he pulled at her hip and sat her on his lap. The heat from his body enveloping her, the smell of him, all man, taking over her senses.
She breathed deeply knowing that soon their time together would be nothing but a memory.
“You’re worried.” It was a statement. He knew enough not to ask the question.
She nodded.
“I’m sorry, Carson.” Neil hung his head and pushed the heel of his hands into his eye sockets and let out a groan.
“You didn’t do anything wrong.” She laid her hand on his shoulder.
His body tensed, his back straightening as he looked at her with confusion. “If you weren’t involved with me then your naked body wouldn’t be plastered all over the internet. I’m screwing with your career.”
“I’m a big girl. I can handle my career and whatever my father might say about this…situation.” No, she couldn’t handle it. Her father would have a conniption. Martin would be snickering and the two of them would be plotting his takeover. But it took two to tango. And she was just as responsible for that tape as he was.
“This is all my fault.”
She snaked her hand around his neck and laid her forehead against his temple. Silly man. After all that had been said. After all that they had done last night, how could he not know that she enjoyed every single minute of every day they had spent together.
“I wouldn’t go back and change one minute of last night if I had the chance.”
With his arms wrapped around her, she felt like she could do anything. She was going to take a page from the Neil Harrison handbook. She was going to stand up for herself. Face her father head on. Carpe diem.
She was going to kick ass at her Bower presentation and secure that contract, and her father would have to finally admit that she was good at her job. That she was as special and valuable as she was whenever Neil looked at her.
He pulled away and looked up at her. Surprise stared back at her in the green depths of his eyes. “But I ruined—”
She laid her finger against his lips then replaced it with her own. It was a soft kiss. A gentle kiss. It lacked the urgency and hunger that she was accustomed to when it came to the hulking man that enveloped her. But she had those kisses in her memory bank. Because after today, there wouldn’t be any more in her future.
“You didn’t ruin anything. I’ll handle my father. Just like I always do. I am who I am, and maybe it’s time he came to terms with that.”
He let out a harsh breath. “Thank you,” he said, shaking his head. “This entire time we’ve…”
They what? What did they call the time they spent together?
Hooking up? Dating? Fooling around?
He looked up and she tensed in his arms. In that moment every feeling that she had ever hoped to see from Neil stared back at her. But it was all an illusion. It had been an emotional morning. “You might be ashamed of your past, but I hope you finally realize that it’s your past that urged you to help me. To keep me safe from myself. In a way, I’m your very own Cooking for the Future program. Well, minus the cooking.”
Carson choked back tears. He had no idea how much his words meant. That in a way, he had absolved her from her past. And Neil Harrison was the last person she expected to do such a thing.
“What do we do now?” she asked, looking around the barren cabin.
“We both have too much to lose. We both have careers to think about.”
