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His eyes and jaw hardened. He gestured for her to continue.
“I didn’t tell her about me, but that kindred feeling only grew when I knew both of our lives were blighted by that monster. Incredibly, she felt the same way. Afterward and for years, we talked for hours daily, using online video chat. We practically designed and decorated this place that way. She and Jeffrey kept pushing me to come live in the States and be their partner. The moment I could, I took my family and came back, thinking I was giving us all a new and safe life. Then you appeared to mess everything up.”
His eyes grew heavier with so much she couldn’t fathom. “I don’t want to mess things up. Not anymore.”
“Yeah, right. That’s why you’re going to shut down the practice Rose and Jeffrey worked for years to build and invested all their money in.”
“It’s all up to you. Walk out of here, and I do, too.”
“You mean you’d leave them alone, for real? You wouldn’t have done that eventually anyway?”
“I already said going after them was to force you to leave. I have no interest in sabotaging their business.”
“So this isn’t about Rose? You’re not after her?”
“It is about her.” Before his reply sent her alarm soaring again, he reached for her, dragged her against his rock-hard body. “But the one I’m after is you, as you well know. So I suppose we can negotiate after all. Taking everything into consideration, I’ll make you a deal.”
She squirmed against him. “What deal?”
“I want you out of here. And I want you, full stop. You want me, too, but need to be assured of your family’s safety. So here’s my deal. You will make use of everything I can give you, will be with me every possible minute that our schedules permit. And I promise to stay away from your family.”
His hypnotic voice seeped through her bones with delicious compulsion, until she wondered why she’d ever put up a fight when being with him had always been all she’d ever wanted. And if he promised her family would be safe...
Then he added, “But only if you stay away from mine.”
She pushed away to stare up at him, her mind shying away from an enormous realization.
Then he spelled it out. “Burton was my stepfather, too.”
* * *
Richard had never intended to reveal that fact to Isabella. But he never did anything he intended where she was concerned. Nothing that was even logical or sane. He touched her, looked into her eyes, and his ability to reason was incinerated.
Not that he cared. As he’d told her, so many things had changed in the past forty-eight hours. His previous intentions weren’t applicable anymore. He wanted her, had already decided to leave her family situation untouched. Laying down the card of his relationship to Rose now felt appropriate.
He’d always wondered if she’d ever worked out that his revenge on Burton had had a personal element, until last night when she’d made it clear she’d always thought it purely professional. He’d expected the truth to come as a surprise, but the avalanche of shock and horror that swept her at his revelation was another thing he’d failed to project.
Before he could think of his next move, the door opened after only a cursory knock.
And he found himself face-to-face with Rose.
His heart gave his ribs a massive thump as observations came like bullets from a machine gun. Rose’s silky ponytail thudding over her shoulder with her sudden halt, the white coat swinging over a chic green silk blouse and navy blue skirt, her open face with its elegant features tensing and the eyes full of affection as she entered Isabella’s office emptying to fill with surprise.
He’d checked her schedule, made sure she’d be occupied with patients during his visit. This confrontation hadn’t been a possibility.
But it was a reality now.
And finding the sister he’d watched from afar for more than twenty-five years less than ten feet away was a harsher blow than he’d ever thought it could be.
Tearing his gaze away, he turned to Isabella, who was gaping at him as if she hadn’t even noticed Rose’s entry.
“I’ll leave you to your visitor, Dr. Sandoval. We’ll continue our business later.”
He turned around and Rose blinked, moved as if coming out of a trance. “Don’t go on my account.”
He gave her his best impersonal glance. “I was just about to leave anyway.”
Before either woman reacted, he’d almost cleared the door when Rose caught him by his sleeve.
