He jerks his head, something akin to fear flushing through his eyes.
“You read my list.” I smile, so he knows I don’t mind.
He sighs. “You left the notebook at my hotel’s spa, and it opened, and I…”
I chuckle. “It has that tendency. It just opened randomly for me.”
“I’m sorry.”
I grin. “Thank you.”
He narrows his eyes. “I fucked up with that island.”
“Only because I forgot about that list.”
“Shit.” He laughs. “So you wanted none of it. I did it for nothing.”
“Not nothing.” I kiss his cheek. “You did it for me.”
Again we grin at each other, until my stomach growls one more time.
After our lunch, Xander drives me back to the main house.
“What are you thinking about?” He breaks the silence when he parks.
“It’s so beautiful here. I think I want to stay longer,” I say, overwhelmed by the views and the emotions.
Xander plays with the car keys. “That’s okay. We can stay for as long as you want.”
We?
After a beat of silence, he adds, “I’ll stay in the guest house, of course.”
Don’t.
“You don’t need to go back to New York? What about Merged?” I shift in my seat to look at him.
“I sold my share.” He shrugs.
I blink. “What? Why?”
“After I left the family business, I believed that building my own firm meant freedom.When you came to confront me in my office, I lost precious minutes in a meeting that seemed utterly unnecessary. I don’t want to spend my time doing things that don’t matter. Much less if they prevent me from being with you when it matters.”
I had resisted this man.
I had married this man.
I fell for this man.
I hated what he did to me.
I divorced him.
A complete circle on the emotional scale. And here I am with butterflies in my stomach.
Smitten by him. Not just the Xander I grew to know and love. But this humbled version of the man he grew into.
Not just for me, but for himself.
