“Sheisthe strategy,” Jesse muttered like this was still somehowmanageable. “Eugenie loves money. Just give to her.”
I turned on him. “She’s a liability, is what she is.”
He sighed. “So are you, apparently.”
“Let’s not lose perspective,” Alex cut in just as my muscles coiled to spring into action. “Eliza can’t tell you two apart. Let’s not forget that. Eugenie can say whatever she wants, as long as you?—”
Something in me snapped. I’d had so much more than enough thatenoughand I weren’t even in the same ballpark anymore. “I’ve done everything you’ve asked me to, but I’m done. If this goes badly, just know that I willneverforgive you.”
I didn’t say things like that. I didn’t make it personal. But they’d pushed me too far and I was done being the doormat. Done being told what to do for the good of the family who just kept talking at me and planning around me without ever taking either me or Eliza into consideration at all.
It was just enough.
Alex held my gaze with something unreadable passing across his expression, but he didn’t argue or push. Meanwhile, Jesse was watching me like something had finally clicked into place. I wasn’t fucking around when it came to her, and unless I was very much mistaken, he’d just realized it.
I held his gaze for a second, nodded, then turned and walked out. Right now, I didn’t care what they planned on doing aboutEugenie. I didn’t care what either of them thought. The only thing I cared about was Eliza, and I was going home to her while I still could.
CHAPTER 34
ELIZA
It was late by the time Jesse got home. The dinner I’d cooked earlier to stabilize my nerves after I’d let Eugenie dress me like a decorative pastry was sitting in the oven, but making it hadn’t helped to calm me as much as I’d hoped it would.
Jesse’s appearance when he walked in the door didn’t help much either. If I was being honest, he looked more like Will right now, disheveled to the point where I worried he might be hurt as I rushed over to him.
“What happened?” I asked as my chest tightened into knots. “Are you okay?”
That thick dark hair was messy, sticking up in places and with the front sweeping across the forehead in a way I’d never seen before. His shirt was slightly creased too, his jacket off and his tie hanging loose around his neck.
He didn’t answer my questions, turning to shut the door behind him before he crossed the space between us in a few long strides. Those blue eyes seemed stricken, a bit too wide for comfort as he took me firmly by the shoulders.
“I’m sorry, Eliza,” he murmured, his breathing uneven and his eyes searching mine like he was hoping to find an answer to a question he hadn’t even asked yet. “I’m so, so sor?—”
“Sorry for what?” I asked, my heart beating faster as I brought my hands to his chest. “What the hell is going on?”
He shook his head slightly. “I didn’t… this wasn’t—” Exhaling harshly, frustration suddenly seemed to be pouring off him in waves. “You didn’t deserve to be pulled into this the way you have.”
Well, that doesn’t make me feel any better.
My heart was already doing its best impression of a hummingbird, but it plummeted as I looked up into his eyes and saw the pain there. The fear. It made no sense whatsoever.
Since when is corporate America so scary?
“Pulled into what?” I asked slowly, wondering if perhaps he hadn’t come from the office after all.
This certainly wasn’t what I imagined people normally looked like when they got home from their day jobs in a skyscraper.He’dcertainly never looked quite like this before. “I don’t understand, Jesse. What is it?”
Another shake of his head. “I should’ve handled it differently. I should have?—”
“Jesse.” I said his name a little louder and a little firmer this time, pressing my hands tighter against his chest in the hopes of snapping him out of this spiral he seemed to be in. “What are you talking about?”
He stopped for a second. Stopped moving and even speaking, and then, utterly out of the blue, his arms snaked around my hips and he pulled me into him.
I landed with a light thwack against his chest. Then his mouth was on mine and he was kissing me. It wasn’t gentle or sweet either. This kiss was hard and desperate, like it was meant to tell me everything he wasn’t saying.
His hands slid from my shoulders to my waist, pulling me closer in a way that felt instinctive. Like he needed me as closeas I could be, or perhaps simply needing something solid to hold on to.
A small, startled sound escaped me, but it wasn’t a protest and he seemed to know it since he didn’t stop. Instead, he deepened the kiss until it felt urgent. Like he was trying to communicate something too big and far too complicated to put into words.
