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Sylvia’s eyes grew wider still, but Dominic just gave a sharp nod and took her arm. ‘Let’s go.’
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
WITNESSES. SHE WAS worried about witnesses. Dominic supposed that he should be grateful she wanted to take the conversation out of the public domain, but instead all he could think about was what on earth she had planned she didn’t want witnesses for.
Or perhaps she was more afraid of what he might do. His list of questions rose up in the back of his mind but, in the end, the moment the balcony door swung shut, the first thing he said was simply, ‘Why?’
Leaning back against the balcony rails, too high up above ground for Dominic to really feel comfortable with her lounging over them, Faith raised an eyebrow. ‘Why what? Why did I leave? Why did I lie? Why am I here?’
‘Yes,’ he said. He wanted answers to all of them. He also wanted to know how he could be so furious with her and yet so desperate to kiss her at the same time, but he suspected she wouldn’t have the answer for that one.
Besides, fury was winning by a comfortable margin.
‘You ran away,’ he said, the words hard in his mouth. ‘I was going to fix this. I could have stopped all of...this.’ He waved an arm at the expanse of windows between them and the ballroom, where a host of well-connected people in evening dress were barely even pretending not to be watching them any more. ‘All you had to do was stay put and—’
‘And let you fix my life?’ Faith’s voice was cool, colder than he thought he’d heard it before. As if she thought she had some right to be angry with him, after everything that had happened. ‘No thank you. My life, my problems, my solutions.’
‘Solutions? Since when did running away solve anything?’
Faith tilted her head as she looked at him, and Dominic couldn’t tear his eyes away from the lovely line of her neck above her dress. ‘That’s what this is really about, isn’t it? You’re mad at me for leaving you.’
His gaze jerked back to her face. ‘No! I’m furious because you lied to me. You risked my reputation and you ruined a deal I’ve been working on for years.’
She stilled, and for a brief moment he thought he saw something like guilt in her face. ‘The Americans didn’t sign?’
‘Not yet. They want to see where we are when things have “settled down”.’
Faith winced. ‘I’m sorry.’
‘That’s the thing you’re sorry for?’ He laughed, even though it wasn’t funny. ‘Of course. The job always meant more to you than I did.’
‘No.’ Her eyes jumped up to meet his and for a second he almost believed her. ‘I’m sorry I couldn’t tell you the truth. But I knew how you’d react, what would happen if it got out. I couldn’t risk it.’
‘Because you needed me. You needed the job.’
‘Yes.’ Her gaze dropped to her shoes. ‘I didn’t know who you were either, when I met you. Not when I first asked for the job. And even then...it wasn’t until later that I realised what me being, well, me, could do to you. And by then, things between us had become...more.’
Dominic pushed away from the wall and paced across to the edge of the balcony. From there, he could see all over London, all the places he’d never again be able to look at without thinking of her. But it was still better than looking at her face. ‘It was never more. The first sign of trouble you ran away, like you always do.’
‘I went home.’
‘I know.’ He shook his head, leaning against the rails as he stared down at the street below. ‘Letting me help you was such a terrible prospect that you ran straight to the place you’d been trying to get away from all along.’
‘I didn’t have a lot of options.’ There was an edge in her voice now. Good. She should be angry too. Between them, they’d messed this up good and proper. And even if it was all her fault, he wanted her angry. Wanted her to hate the way their one night had ended.
He shouldn’t be the only one being eaten up by the fury.
He couldn’t show it anywhere else. To the rest of the world, he needed to be the same in control Lord Beresford he’d always been. This couldn’t be seen as more than a tiny blip on his life radar.
But to her...she knew. And so she was the only person he could tear apart.
‘You had my credit card,’ he pointed out. ‘You could have gone anywhere in the world if you’d really wanted.’
Faith gave him a scornful glare. ‘You think I’m a common thief, now? Gosh, you really don’t have any respect for people outside your social sphere, do you?’
