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Phillip grins and shrugs. “Might need to give these two a raise sinceSweet Temptationsis going to make me a lot of money.”
“Yours isn’t the only offer on the table. I came into this meeting fully expecting to turn it down, since I don’t have any desire to work with you.”
He frowns. “Is there someone out there who’s offering you more? Because I’ll beat whatever it is.”
I hesitate for a moment, and Phillip sighs. “You’re willing to throw away your chance to be published just because it’s with Loughton House? Because it’s with me?”
“Yes. I’ll do whatever I can, so I don’t have to see you again.”
I can see the pain in his eyes. I don’t want to hurt him, but I need to get away from here. Every second I talk to him is another chance for him to suck me back in. And truthfully, I want to be sucked back in.
“I’m different now, Addison. Everything’s different. Come with me, and I’ll show you. I’ve turned my entire world upside down because I can’t let you go. If you asked, I would set fire to Loughton House. I’d close the doors and burn the building down for you.”
That takes me by surprise, and when he takes my hand, I don’t pull away. “Why?” I can feel his hooks digging in already, but deep down, I want them to be there. If being with him could be like when we were living in my apartment, I’d go back to him in a heartbeat.
“Because I love you, Addison. I’ll always love you. And I want to be the man you can be happy with.” He leads me down the hallway that wasn’t there when I worked here. “We don’t have cubicles anymore. I asked the employees what they would like from their work environment, and the overwhelming winners were work-from-home and solitary offices. So I gave them the option.”
I frown as I look around. “Wait, so you let people work from home? Where you can’t keep track of them? Where you can’t check up on them?”
He nods. “They still have deadlines they’re supposed to meet. If they want to edit or make covers in their underwear at their house, they’re free to do it. They send me status updates on a weekly basis, and if they fall behind, I suggest they come back into the office. It’s still their choice, though.
“Other people chose to come in, and just like the work-from-home employees, they can come and go as they please. There are no watchdogs checking to see when they start or finish work. If they want to come in at ten in the morning and leave at four, that’s fine by me as long as they’re hitting their milestones.”
He smiles at me. “But that’s really the smallest change. We only had people work overtime to train the new hires. We gave everyone raises to help compensate for the temporary extra work, and now we have enough employees to cover all the projects. Everyone’s left with more money for the same amount of work. In most cases, people are working fewer hours as well.”
That’s not what I’d expected at all. Phillip was adamant about the hours worked before. “How’d you pay for all of it? That probably cost a fortune.”
He chuckles. “I paid for it. It’s my project, and I’m taking the risk. It didn’t cost as much as I’d expected, but I have high hopes for future profits to cover it. Addison, you were right.”
He turns to me and takes my hands as our gaze meets. “About it all. From the way I was running the business to the way I was running my life. I didn’t want to work like I had been. I never have. My father dropped the company in my lap, and I reverted to my old ways, but that won’t happen again because I don’t own the company anymore.”
“What?!” Everything else has been surprising, but I could see him doing it and then reverting to the way things were before. It wouldn’t change anything about the way he worked. But giving up the company? That’s not something that his father would have done. Ever.
“I’m selling portions of the company to Andrew and Mason. Well, selling is kind of a stretch since the pricing is ridiculously low, but it’s time that no single person has to be in charge of the whole thing. We’ll run it together, and though I’m sure I’ll still lead most things, the three of us will share the responsibility. None of us wants to become my father. None of us want to give up everything for a fucking business.”
“But you won’t make as much money, right?”
“Fuck the money. I want you. Addison, the only reason I don’t just walk away from Loughton House is because I want you to have everything you could ever dream of. Even more than that, I want our children to have the best childhood they could dream of if we decide to have them. I know that may sound crazy, but leaving isn’t something I could take back.”
He faces me and takes my hands. Until now, I’d still been trying to back away from this. I’d been trying not to get sucked in to wanting the man that I fell so hard for.
Because he’s never stopped being that man. He just didn’t have time for me.
“Addison, you are the only thing that I won’t give up. If you asked me to run away to a deserted island and never see another person again, I’d do it. I’d leave the company, my family, and my life. And I wouldn’t regret a goddamned thing. As long as I have you, my world is complete. Without you, I have nothing. All the money in the world will never fill the hole in my heart that you left when I pushed you away.”
“You didn’t push me away,” I mutter. I walked out.
I know exactly how he feels. I’ve been waking up and telling myself that my life is better without him, but I go through life like a ghost of the woman I used to be. My dreams are coming true, and I can’t stop fantasizing about the days of playing house with Phillip.
“I wouldn’t make you leave everything behind,” I say with conviction.
He pulls me to him like he did so often before the explosions, before the fight. “I will never put you second, Addison. I want you to be mine forever, and I promise I will spend the rest of my life trying to make sure you’re happier than you were the day before. Nothing and no one will ever compete with that goal. Do you understand me?”
When he looks down at me like that, when I see the absolute certainty in his eyes, I know he’s telling the truth. “Addison, I promise that you are the most important person in the world. We may fight or argue because that’s what happens sometimes, but I will move fucking mountains if that’s what it takes to make you happy. I devoted myself to a company, and I became the best in the world in this industry in thirty years. Let me spend the next forty, fifty, or sixty devoting myself to being the best at making you smile.”
“Yes,” I whisper.
Instead of saying something, he leans in and presses his lips against mine. A hard, passionate kiss that rekindles the flame that has been dying inside me. His fingers run through my hair and tighten as his kiss deepens.
