“They’re fine,” she assured me, twisting her fingers together. She cleared her throat, and I could see the conscious decision she made to project strength. But her voice came out weak and brittle.
Someone broke my Sunshine.
The thought hit me like a military tank. When had I started thinking of her as mine? When had her pain become something that could literally bring me to my knees?
“I have a proposition,” she announced.
A proposition? This wasn’t a woman wanting to negotiate; this was a broken animal that had been kicked while down. My fists clenched.Who the fuck did this to her?
“What is it, Sunshine?” It took everything I had not to pull her against my chest and wrap my arms around her until whatever was hurting her couldn’t reach her anymore.
I hated how small her voice sounded. “I’ll give you whatever you want. And in exchange, I ask for one night. Oscar-winning performance. A couple so in love that we make every other person jealous.”
What the hell?
Someone got to her. Were they convinced she was lying about us? Whatever the reason, by the looks of it, they’d verbally destroyed her. And that took a lot. Which meant whoever haddone this must have stooped low. Must have known exactly how to hit her where it hurt most.
“I need us to sell us to somebody in my inner circle. So we have to be extremely believable at our dinner.”
“Your inner circle,” I repeated.
“My ex-boyfriend.”
“Mathew?” I nearly choked on his name. “We already knew he was going to be here.”
“I know but …” Her lip quivered, and fresh rage shot through my veins like boiling water.
“Dakota, what happened?”
She swallowed hard. “I went over there to tell him we would never get back together. I didn’t want him to wait for me. But he won’t take no for an answer. He’s determined to prove we’re fake.”
Still, something else had changed. Something that had crushed her.
“What did he say to you?”
She shook her head. “Doesn’t matter.”
“Like hell it doesn’t.”
“The point is, he was angry, and I could be wrong, but I don’t think he’ll let me go until he knows we’re real.”
She’s scared of him,I realized. Maybe not physically, but emotionally.
“He’s controlling,” I deduced. When I saw the look on her face, I added, “He’s acted this way before.”
She squared her shoulders, trying to find some of that Dakota fire. “There were a couple of moments I was concerned he might have been more controlling and possessive than I felt comfortable with.”
Possessive and controlling. A dangerous combination for someone infatuated with her.
I narrowed my eyes. “Did he ever lay hands on you?”
“No.”
“Did you ever worry he might?”
She opened her mouth, then snapped it shut.
Mother. Fucker.“Elaborate.” The word came out like a growl.
