“Stop. Stop.” Tears spill over now, furious and terrified and wild. “If you need me so much, then why didn’t you trust me? Why didn’t you just—ask?”
“Because I was afraid you’d say no.”
“Well guess what?” she snaps. “Now my answer is a thousand times no.”
She storms out of the room.
Panic freezes me for far too long. Then I charge after her.
In the bedroom, she’s grabbing her bag, her clothes, anything she can find to stuff into it.
“Ruby.” I stand in the doorway, heart pounding, voice barely holding together. “Don’t do this. Please don’t do this.”
“I’m leaving.”
“You’re not.”
“I am.”
“You’re not walking away from me. Not now.”
“You don’t get to decide that.”
“Yes, I fucking do,” I snarl with every ounce of terror inside me.
She freezes. Turns. Eyes blazing. “Watch me.”
She pushes past me, flies down the stairs and strides toward the foyer.
I sprint after her, move to block her, but one of my security guys—where the fuck did they come from?—steps between us.
“Boss,” he says carefully.
“Get out of my way.”
He clears his throat. “Miss Lane requested an escort.”
Ruby’s breath hitches and her hands shake. Her panic spikes so sharply I can feel it under my skin.
“Get the fuck out of my way,” I repeat.
“Sir,” he replies, voice steady, “we’re acting on her instructions.”
“You work for me,” I snap.
“And she’s in distress.”
That stops me.
Only for a second. Only because I see it in her eyes—the crack, the fracture, the terror I never meant to put there.
“Ruby,” I say, stepping forward, softer this time. “Baby… let’s talk about this. Let’s…hum for me. Please. I don’t know how to handle this. I don’t…just hum. Let me calm down. Then we can?—”
“No,” she whispers and her face crumples with the denial. “No, Zane. Not this time. You can’t break me then ask for me to help you fix what you’ve broken.”
A chill invades my body. I can’t quite feel my legs. The knowledge that I’ve fucked up. Colossally. It’s too much to fathom right now. “Please, baby.Please.”
She shakes her head. “I can’t.”
