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He spins me and pulls me to his chest. “You are home, Sugar.” He places my hand against his heart. “This is home. You can go anywhere on the planet, but that won’t change.”
I look at the ocean, both scared and elated that he might be right. “What we have will never work.”
He snorts and shakes his head. “Never took you for a coward.”
“I never took you for a dreamer.”
“There’s a lot you don’t know about me, Sugar.”
“Right back atcha!” I snap, pushing him away.
My shoulders slump, and the anger drains out of me. “I’m tired, Rémy. So fucking tired of it all.”
He wraps his arm around me and holds me to him. “I know, Sugar. But you’re not alone anymore.”
I bite my lip, remembering that after our talk, I might find myself very much alone. “Let’s just get this over with.”
“You make it sound like we’re going to torture you.”
“It’s not that. It’s just been a long time since I had something to lose.” I have my girls but it’s not the same.
* * *
“I haveto fly home tomorrow, but I’ll be back,” Maxim tells me as I accept the tea he offers me.
“Okay,” I reply, my gaze going back to the window.
“The deal I made with Santos was all a lie, Sugar. The only way he would let me close to you was if I was going to play a part in your downfall.”
“I figured that out after he lost his brains all over the kitchen floor.”
“And yet you still harbor such anger toward me.”
“It might have been an act for you, Maxim, but I still felt every cut you inflicted.”
“Ahn-gyil, I’ll make it up to you, I promise.”
“Don’t make promises you can’t keep, Maxim.” I turn and offer him a small smile before sipping my tea and sliding the cup onto the windowsill.
“He knew you were alive.”
I turn at the sound of Calix’s voice. He’s standing in the doorway, with Rémy just behind him. They both walk into the room and sit down, Rémy in the chair and Calix on the other end of the sofa from Maxim.
“I figured that out too.”
“No. You don’t get it. He knew you were Sophia, but he also knew you were Sugar, meaning—”
“He was about to redirect his anger to draw me out.”
He nods. “When I caught you with Rémy, I lost it because I thought what I was feeling for you was one-sided. I didn’t know it happened the way it did. Rémy explained, but at the time, I had no idea.”
“I tried to tell you,” I remind him softly.
“And if the shoe had been on the other foot. Would you have believed me if you’d found me fucking another woman?”
I flinch at his tone. “I would have been gutted because I was falling for you even though I told myself not to. But I’d have still heard you out.”
His mouth snaps shut at that.
