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I smiled at him. “Thank God. That was amazing.” It had been building and building to this moment. Both of us climbing and clawing at each other with no interruptions.
“You should go,” he whispered.
I shook my head. “I don’t have to.” The bodyguards would stay outside. He didn’t have anything to worry about. I tried to reach for him. We had only just begun. I wanted all of him.
“Yes, you do,” he corrected me.
He picked up the bottle of gin and took a drink. I watched him, trying to figure out what in the hell was going on.
“I’ll stay. We can order dinner.” I peeled myself off the piano carefully, making a loud noise against the keys anyway. I tucked my breasts inside my dress. They still felt raw and warm from his teeth.
“I can’t. I can’t do this. With you.” His eyes cut to me, and I didn’t understand. I’d felt the sting of rejection before, but not like this. Not after a moment like we just had. I saw the stiffness in the front of his pants. He hadn’t recovered any more than I had. He wasn’t done either. We werenotdone.
“Knight, just…”
“No,” he barked. “You have to go.”
He took another swig of gin. “How drunk are you?”
“Not drunk enough.”
I tried to straighten my dress in place while biting the inside of my cheek. I didn’t want him to see a tear. He wouldn’t.
“Why?” I whispered. “Why even…” I couldn’t say the words. I took a step toward the skinny French doors. They reached all the way to the tops of the twelve-foot ceiling. Knight’s hand clasped around my wrist, stopping me from leaving.
“I didn’t mean to hurt you.”
I closed my eyes. “What was your plan?”
“To make sure you never come back.” He released my arm and stumbled toward the piano. I watched in disbelief as he finished off the bottle and smashed it against the farthest wall. He started to play. It was haunting. As haunting as the demons I had seen in his eyes.
I didn’t look for my green satin underwear. I ran out of the room and down the stairs. The door opened into the sunlight. Kimble and Joseph both waited outside the car.
“We’re headed home.” I ducked into the backseat. I refused to look up at the window as we drove away.
All I knew was that Knight had accomplished his plan. I would never come back.
Chapter11
Knight
It was almost a week before I presented my father with the letter from Lucien Martin. I knew time was running out before he told Kennedy about the offer. I’d spent the week drunk. I’d spent it playing long ballads on my piano. I’d spent it sleeping off one hangover just to get to the next. I’d canceled meetings. Neglected work.
“What’s this?” My father took the paper stained with drinks and food splotches. It hadn’t left my hand.
I had showered and shaved before appearing at the office. At least I didn’t look like a man who had been desperately lost.
“It’s from Lucien Martin,” I explained. “I told him it wasn’t an acceptable offer.” I waited for my father to read it. He folded it.
“He can’t have my hotel.”
“I know.”
He shoved the letter in a drawer in his desk. “The Vieux Carre is critical.”
“I told him you will have the hotel. I don’t know what else to say. He’s not going to get it. There are lots of ways to make that happen.”
“His daughter, though? Have you met her?”
