For a moment, he sits there, back to me, phone clutched in his white-knuckled grip.
“Daniel?” My voice sounds small. “What’s wrong?”
He turns, and the look on his face makes my blood run cold. Gone is the soft, vulnerable man from moments ago. In his place is someone I recognize too well.
“There is a problem.” His voice is clipped. “Cassidy went to the press. She’s running a story questioning our relationship and my ethics.”
I sit up, pulling the sheet around me. “Well? Isn’t that what she has been doing anyway?”
“Yeah, except now, she’s claiming that I’m sleeping with staff to manipulate deals, and Whitmore—” His voice catches. “Whitmore is backing her. He pulled out of the London deal entirely.”
“Richard Whitmore? The investor who—”
“Who I threatened yesterday. Yes.” Daniel laughs, but there’s no humor in it. “Turns out telling major investors to back off your girlfriend has consequences.”
“Daniel—”
“The deal is dead. Twenty million dollars gone because I couldn’t keep my fucking mouth shut.”
I slip out of bed, wrapping the sheet around myself as I move toward him. “You were defending me.”
“And now it’s cost me everything.” He won’t look at me. “They’re calling you a distraction, saying all kinds of bullshit about how I’ve lost focus and making decisions based on emotion. And Cassidy is feeding them evidence with the outburst yesterday. But that’s not all …”
“What else?”
“They found pictures from the bar … the night we met. Now, they’re saying I hired you because of … our relationship.”
My throat tightens. “Tell me it’s not true.”
“Of course it’s not true.” He spins to face me, eyes blazing. “I didn’t hire you because we slept together. Everything I’ve done has been—”
“I didn’t mean the company,” I interrupt. “I meant… tell me this is just a story to you and you won’t push me away again.”
He freezes. In that moment of silence, I see everything.
“Bailey—”
“Just tell me.” My voice cracks. “Tell me that last night meant something. That this—” I gesture between us, “—is real.”
He opens his mouth, then closes. And in his silence, I have my answer.
“Oh my God.” I take a step back. “You’re already pulling away.”
“I’m trying to think—”
“No, you’re shutting down again!” Tears burn my eyes. “How many times do we have to go through this?!”
“This isn’t—Bailey, you don’t understand the position we’re in—”
“I understand perfectly.” I move past him, gathering my clothes from where they’re scattered across the floor. “The moment things get hard, you run!”
“I’m trying to protect us!”
“By pushing me away?” I pull on my underwear, then his shirt. “No, you’re just a fucking coward!”
“You don’t get to call me a coward.”
“Then stop acting like one!” My voice breaks. “You stood in front of cameras yesterday and told everyone I was the only person who’d ever seen the real you. Was that even true?”
