It’s none of your business what I do or don’t do.
“The hell it is.”
And there it was. She felt a swell of righteous anger. He had no right.No right.She hadn’t asked for his help. She didn’t need him to step in and take control—to make her feel ashamed of the ways in which she chose to rescue herself.
He’d been hired to get in her way, and he was playing his role beautifully. She couldn’t allow it. She couldn’t let him sit there and spoil all her carefully laid plans.
And so, she said the cruelest thing she could think of.
Do you know what I think? I think you’re exactly like your father.
“Don’t change the subject,” he said, refusing to take the bait. “We’re not talking about me.”
But we were.
“Vivienne—”
There was a warning in his tone, low and dangerous. She didn’t heed it.He spent his life shackled to a job he hated to provide for a family he resented. How are you any different?
“Vivienne, stop.”
She didn’t. She kept going.Not even nineteen, and you’re already trapped.
His knuckles gave an audible pop. Wedged in the thin rectangle of the booth, he was all edges, hard and sharp and white with rage.
“You’re such a fucking princess,” he finally said. It came out scathing, but she knew it wasn’t the meanest thing he could have said. Not by a mile. “You think I don’t know what you’re doing?”
I’m being honest.
“No, you’re trying to push me away.”
You need someone to push you. You could be anything. Instead, you’re here with me, wasting all your potential on a dead-end summer job because you feel like you owe it to your family.
The flash of anger in his eyes sent her rearing instinctively back. He unfolded himself from the booth, drawing to his full height in front of her.
“Don’t do that,” he said fiercely. “Don’t rewrite history. This is more than a job to me, and you know it.”
She took an unsteady step backward. He followed, refusing to let her flee.
“It’s my turn to tell you what I think,” he said. “I think this—whatever’s between us—is starting to feel like more to you, too. That’s why you’re so afraid.”
She bristled.I’m not afraid.
“You’re shaking,” he said.
It was true. She was trembling like a leaf. Tears fractured her vision. She blinked them back, determined not to let them fall.
“You don’t want me to see you,” he said. “But I see you, Vivienne.” No one had ever sounded more confident. No one had ever sounded more doomed. “I see you, and I came for you, anyway. I’ll always come for you. That’s what I’ve been trying to make you understand. You don’t have to do this alone.”
She blinked up at him, surprised.You’re not here to stop me?
“I’d be lying if I told you I didn’t consider it,” he said. “But no. I’m not.”
The first of the tears fell. And fell and fell. It was as though a dam had broken. She wept unprettily, her teeth chattering, her breath coming in shallow gasps. Thomas caught a tear on the pad of his thumb, tipping her face toward his.
“I hate it when you cry,” he said softly.
She reached for him without thinking, grabbing two trembling fistfuls of his T-shirt and folding herself into him. His arms curved immediately around her. His chest was a brick wall, warm and solid and she couldn’t remember the last time she’d been embraced this way. His heart knocked against her hands, as hard and fast as a drumbeat.
