“Feel better?” I rasp, wiping my mouth with the back of my hand.
“What the fuck are you playing at?” He breathes hard, shaking out his fist. “You’re meant to be her boss. My mate. Not another asshole with power over her.”
“It’s not like that.”
“Bullshit.” He paces a few steps, then spins back. “You know exactly what it’s like. You hold her career in your hands. My sister isn’t a fling for when you’re bored. Are you fucking other people while you’re sleeping with her?”
“I’m only seeing her.”
His eyes narrow. “Maren?”
“I haven’t been with anyone else since Georgie.”
“You’re a fucking dick.” He drags his hands through his hair, looking like he’s deciding whether to swing again. “I told you how vulnerable she was. You saw how wrecked she was after uni.”
“Jesus, Jake, I’m not some random guy she met at a party who’s gonna use her and toss her aside.”
“You’re not different,” he snaps. “Same power dynamic. Same bloody imbalance.”
I frown. “What power dynamic? I know it fucked her up, but I’m not some twenty-year-old student who—”
“What?” He stares at me. “You think he was a student?”
I frown. “Wasn’t he?”
“No. He was her tutor.”
The word doesn’t land at first. It just sits there.
“Her... what?”
“Her tutor. Thirty years old. Had authority over her grades, her academic future. She was twenty when it started.” Jake’s jaw clenches. “Sound familiar? He had influence at the university and made her life hell after she finally left him. She ended up dropping out because of him.”
I thought he was just a guy her own age. A university boyfriend who didn’t treat her right.
“I thought he was a student.”
“No.” He grimaces, looking away. “He wasn’t.”
The parallels slam into me. Age gap. Authority. Power imbalance. I’m trying to convince myself I’m not a predator, and just the fact that I have to say it makes me sick. “I’m not trying to take advantage of her.”
“Then what the fuck are you doing? What’s your plan here? You going to commit to her? Or is this just while you’re here playing Highland laird?” He shakes his head, glaring at me. “You could’ve hadanyother woman on the island.”
“It’s not that simple.”
“It’s exactly that simple. Either you see a future or you’re just having fun. Which is it?”
My jaw tightens. I don’t have an answer.
“I sat with her while she cried herself to sleep for months. And now it’s you. Another older man with power over her. And she looks at you like you hung the bloody moon.”
That hits harder than his punch because I’ve seen the way her eyes light up when she looks at me. I’ve soaked it in. Let myself believe I deserved it, when all I’ve done is prove I haven’t.
“You took advantage of the fact my sister has you on a pedestal.”
“No, she doesn’t.”
“Fuck off,” Jake snaps. “She’s had a crush on you since she was sixteen. I’m not blind. I just didn’t think you’d act on it.”
