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“Monique—”
“No, let me say this. I’m sorry I wasn’t strong enough back then. I should’ve been the one to call the police on Slater that night. If I had, you wouldn’t have gotten in trouble.”
“Stop talking,” he demands, taking my face in between his hands. “Listen to me when I say this.” His eyes drill into mine.
“There’s not a damn thing you could’ve done to stop me from beating the living shit out of that bastard. I don’t care if he had been locked up. I would’ve gotten arrested just to be thrown into a cell with him to fuck him up. The moment I found out he put his hands on you, there wasn’t a soul on this Earth who would’ve stopped me.”
He’s so certain and sure but I still feel like I could’ve done something differently. Diego lost more than an internship and job opportunity after that. He was practically a leper in his industry for years.
Most people would’ve gone and worked directly for their family business. Especially when that family business is supported by the weight of the Townsend name. But he felt like he had something to prove.
“You know it isn’t true, right?” I ask him.
“It’s true. I would’ve—”
I press a finger to his lips. “Not that. I don’t doubt you would’ve found a way to get to Slater come hell or high water. I mean, it’s not true the lies your father put into your head.”
I know about the bullshit his father used to tell him. I was the only person he confided in about the way Gabriel Garcia used to talk to him.
“The Townsends always accepted you as one of their own. You’re just as much Carter Townsend’s son as Samuel, or Taylor is his daughter,” I say of Diego’s younger siblings.
He nods. “I know.”
“Do you?”
Instead of answering, he runs the tip of his tongue across my finger that’s still on his lips. My nipples instantly pebble.
His hands move to my ass, gripping it and pulling me into the obvious bulge in his pants.
“I said yes the first time,” he pulls back to say. Right before he buries his head into the crook of my neck.
My vision blurs when he runs his tongue along the beating vein there. I’m so close to surrendering, but there’s something I need to give him.
“Wait,” I say.
He audibly growls when I step out of his hold.
“I have a present for you.”
Before he can protest, sprint out of the door and to the bedroom. As I knew he would, I hear his heavy footsteps following me.
“Your ass better be naked in the next—”
“This one first.” With one hand behind my back, I hold out the ring box which is one of two gifts I brought with me. “I made sure to bring this since I knew I’d be spending the night at your place.”
“What’s this?” he asks, taking the box from me but not opening it.
I roll my eyes skyward. “Why do you always do this?”
He chuckles because he knows how it gets under my skin. Instead of just opening the damn present he has to ask what it is.
“Open it, please.”
He looks at me over the box before proceeding to open it slowly. His face ignites into a bright smile.
I peek over the edge of the box as if I don’t know what’s inside.
“I thought these would look great with your suits at your new job,” I say, taking one of the sterling silver cufflinks out of the box. I turn the square cufflink so that his engraved initials are clearly visible.
