Before I could finish my statement, she threw her arms around me, wrapping me in a tight squeeze.
For a second, I didn’t move, completely taken aback.Then I slid my hand along the curve of her spine and pulled her closer.Her scent consumed me, and I lowered my head, breathing her in.Lavender, powder, something uniquely her.
She curved back slightly, pressing her hand to my cheek, her thumb grazing the stubble along my jaw.
“How do you always manage to surprise me?”she whispered.“And confuse me?”
“I don’t mean to.I’m just trying to show you who I am.The real me.”
“I think I’ve always seen the real you, Henry.Even when you didn’t want me to.”
“Maybe so.”I swallowed hard.“But now I want you to.All of it.The goodandthe bad.”
“I want you to know me, too.The good and the bad.”
Her tongue swept across her lower lip, drawing my attention to her mouth.It would’ve been so easy to close the distance.To take what I’d been wanting for weeks.
But I couldn’t.Not yet.I needed her to choose me.To trust me.
So I did the hardest thing I’d done in quite a while.I let her go.
“Come on.I’ll give you the grand tour.”
Pushing out what sounded like a frustrated sigh, she followed me into the open space, then froze, her eyes wide as she took in the wall of glass overlooking the city.Sunlight poured through, illuminating everything in sight.
“It’s no Star Island,” I said sheepishly, “but I hope you’ll be comfortable here.”
“Star Island was nothing more than a prison.”
“Then I hope you’ll feel free here.Like you can breathe.”
“That’s how I feel whenever I’m around you.”She held my gaze, allowing her words to sink in.Then her expression brightened.“Even if you drive me fucking crazy at least once a day.”
“It’s my superpower.”
With a wink, I placed a hand on her lower back and steered her deeper into the penthouse, unable to shake the feeling in my gut that this weekend was about to change everything.
I only hoped it was for the better.
ChapterTwenty-One
Ariana
I stood in front of the vanity, my palms flat against the cool marble, trying to calm the flutter in my stomach.Dinner with Henry’s friend shouldn’t make me nervous, but this wasn’t just any friend.It was someone Henry had known for decades.Someone he considered family.
I tried to picture Henry as a teen.All sharp edges and unmitigated rage, the version he hinted at when he spoke of his past.But there must have been something softer beneath the façade, too.The kind of boy who wanted to protect people, even when he didn’t know how.
He liked to tell me he wasn’t a good man.But he was wrong.Yes, he’d done things.Illegalthings.Maybe even unforgivable things in some peoples’ eyes.
Yet, I’d seen the goodness in him, too.The restraint.The quiet decency Victor never possessed.
Hewas a bad person.I refused to put Henry in the same classification as Victor, despite my earlier insistence otherwise.
The past few weeks had taught me that Henry Fontaine wasnothinglike Victor Kane.
Deep down, I always knew that to be true.
I was just too stubborn to admit it.
