She listened to her brothers sing her praises for another few minutes before she kicked them out.
They were sweet. But wrong.
Weren't they?
She cleaned up the detritus of the coffee she'd shared with her brothers, her brain awhirl.
She wasn't good for Valentin. If she'd filled out a questionnaire or gone through one of her client interviews, she would never match herself with Valentin.
But did that mean they couldn't belong together?
She was trying to protect herself from the heartbreak that would inevitably come when he finally figured out she wasn't the one for him.
But what if rejecting him was wrong?
As crazy as it sounded, what if her brothers were right? What if she and Valentin belonged together?
Valentin pushedhimself during his morning run.
Faster. Faster. Harder. Harder. Further. Further.
Until his muscles were aching and he was gasping for air.
He slowed. Jogged.
And then dropped to his knees the sand. The physical exertion wasn't helping the chaos in his head.
He couldn't outrun what was chasing him.
Crystal didn't love him.
Somehow it was worse than when Annika had betrayed him. Because he'd laid himself bare for Crystal. Made himself open, vulnerable. He'd shared parts of himself with her that he'd never revealed to Annika. Maybe it wasn't such a surprise that Annika had turned to his brother after all. Not when he'd kept part of himself safe, protected from her.
He hadn't protected himself from Crystal. He'd shown her all of himself. The darkest parts inside him, the broken pieces that had been left after Max and Annika had obliterated his heart. He'd offered her himself, just as he was.
And she'd walked away.
He sat on the beach, waiting for his bodyguard to catch up, and stared at the water, at the sun as it slowly rose over the horizon. First a sliver of light and then more.
He'd never claimed to be perfect. Only to love her.
And that wasn't enough.
He wasn't enough.
He felt desolate. Empty. More so even than when his life had imploded before.
He'd thought he had everything figured out. He'd foolishly thought that Crystal would be delighted by his declaration. Instead, she'd run away. He'd tried to call her twice later in the evening. She hadn't picked up.
He was nothing without her.
The thought settled.Nothing without her.
He played it over and over in his head.
And then he rejected it.
Crystal and Max had both said separately that he put duty above all else.
