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He clenched his jaw, then nodded. “You’re right. It was. I should never have ordered that report. I’m ashamed I did. And that’s why when I got that envelope, I didn’t open it, Skylar. I respected you too much.”
She shook her head. “You liar. Liar!” She threw the envelope to the couch, then stormed past him, heading to the bedroom. She bent and scooped up off the floor the clothes he’d torn off her only an hour earlier.
“Skylar, just stop. Stop for a second. Hear me out.”
But Skylar shoved past him and stormed into the bathroom, grabbed her toiletries, and then reentered the bedroom and shoved the toiletries and her clothes in her overnight bag. “I’m such a fool. I thought I was more to you than a story to unearth, a mystery to crack, a challenge to conquer. But this whole time . . . this whole time . . .”
“Skylar, you’ve never been a story—”
“I don’t believe you. Itrustedyou!”
“I didn’t betray you!” He reached for her, but she flinched back, causing him to freeze. “Don’t fucking touch me,” she warned.
“I won’t,” he promised, backing up.
She finished gathering the rest of her things, but when she couldn’t find her shoes, she ran into the living room and searched there.
He paused just outside his bedroom door, watching as she found her shoes and slipped them on. Watching as she strode to the door.
He couldn’t let her go. But he couldn’t make her stay.
He sagged against the wall and stared up at the ceiling. For a moment, it was just the sound of the pounding of the rain and sleet against his window.
Before she reached the door, Skylar turned to face him.
The agony in her expression made his blood ice over. Still, he tried again. “Skylar, I’m sorry. I shouldn't have requested the report. Please, stay. Let’s talk. Don’t end things this way. Not when we just started to become us.”
For a moment, her expression softened, and he could see she was tempted. To stay. To hear him out. Then she shut down. “Goodbye, Julian!”
Before he knew what he was doing, he straightened and strode toward her, anger burning in his gut. After everything they’d been through, this was how it was going to end? Because she wouldn’t calm the fuck down and talk to him? “Think, Skylar. Why would I research you to write a story that didn’t have to do withEmpowered in Finance? What story would I write? What would my headline have been?Woman was raped and can’t come, but it made her more charitable?That’s ridiculous. And even if it wasn’t, you know me better than that.”
“I thought I knew you, but I don’t,” she said, shaking her head. “Because I thought you were a good man with a good heart. And all you are is a horrible person, a man-whore who uses women’s bodies and then takes their money because he can, not because he even needs it. That doesn’t make you a sex worker, Julian, it makes you pathetic. Utterly pathetic,” she sneered.
He staggered back as if she’d just pulled out a gun and shot him in the chest. Then he laughed. Loudly.
He got it—she thought he’d betrayed her and lied to her. She was a wounded animal and lashing out viciously as a wounded animal does. Still, the emotional ache in his chest, the guilt over even ordering the report, the frustration at Skylar not believing him, all that paled in comparison to the wound she’d just inflicted.
“Ah, princess, it all comes back to that, doesn’t it? I took money for sex, so of course, I can’t be trusted. Of course, I don’t deserve the benefit of the doubt when you find something seemingly incriminating about me. Maybe if I’d licked just one less pussy or fucked one less ass or shoved my dick in one less orifice, you’d give me a chance, but nope. You’ve been waiting for a reason to throw this in my face from the moment we met.”
“That’s not true!” Skylar said, the expression on her face still angry but laced with something else, too, but he no longer gave a fuck what it was.
“It’s okay. At least you didn’t add fucking my foster mother as yet one more reason you consider me pathetic. But who knows? Maybe you were just waiting to pull that one out too.”
Now she looked stricken. “Julian, no . . . ” she said.
“What are you waiting for, Skylar. I thought you couldn’t wait to get away from my man-whore pathetic presence.”
“Julian, maybe I was wrong. Maybe we should talk . . . ”
“Too late. Get out,” he said.
When she just stood there, he screamed, “Get the hell out of my house!”
With a gut-wrenching sob, Skylar threw open the door and fled.
He closed his eyes as she left. The sound of the doorsnickingto a close was barely audible but sounded like the crack of a rifle. The elevator door’s ding sounded like a funeral knell. When he couldn’t smell her scent any longer, he opened his eyes to see an empty, hazy apartment.
And he was alone.
