He reached for her. She slapped his hand away and took a step back. Her breath burst from her in shallow pants. Her head roared. Her stomach clenched.
“You’ve been playing me this whole time, haven’t you?” Beside them both, Thomas said something. Words. Maybe? She ignored him, her heart pounding. “Manipulating everything. Controlling it without me even knowing. Why?”
A muscle in his jaw bunched. His chest swelled with a deep breath.
“Let me guess.” She crossed her arms over her breasts, refusing to break eye contact with him. “Because of what you think I did to Clinton. Revenge for your brother, yes?”
“Dude,” Thomas said, the word little more than an exhalation of breath.
James’s nostrils flared. The muscle in his jaw bunched again. “Sienna, I made a mistake.”
“No, I made the mistake.” A cold emptiness churned inside her. Radiated through her, from her heart, into her soul. “I stupidly believed that you were actually a decent man. I forgot you were a Dyson.”
…
The world was unraveling around him. He stared at her, the woman he’d fallen in love with, the woman he would change his life for. Watched her eyes fill with hate and tears. Thomas stood—silent—beside them.
Finally, the bastard shuts up.
James ground his teeth, guilt sour in the back of his throat. Self-contempt lashed at him.
Dyson. It seemed he was a true Dyson after all. Dysons didn’t make people feel good. They made them feel weak, beaten. Worthless.
No. I’m not like that. Sienna showed me that. Fix this. Fix this now.
“Sienna.” He took a step toward her. She retreated, disgust etching her face. “I started the Mason Xavier plan the day after Clinton’s funeral. Before I got to know you.”
Thomas cleared his throat. “I think I should—”
“The Mason Xavier plan?” Contempt sliced her words. She hugged herself tighter, her knuckles white. “What other plans do you have? Was there also the Monet Exhibition Opening plan? Is that why I suddenly got an invite to it?”
He tried to stop his jaw clenching and failed.
“I really should—” Thomas began again, but James couldn’t tear his attention from Sienna.
She slumped, her eyes closing for a second. Pain twisted her eyebrows, and then she straightened, glaring at him again. “Of course. And let me guess, the director wanting to talk about my work was a plan of yours as well, yes?”
“No.” He shook his head. “I’d intended to encourage him to contact you, but I didn’t get the opportunity at the opening. He did that without my influence.”
A dry laugh tore from her, mirthless and cold. “Without your influence. Well, I guess I need to be grateful you were too busy parading me around that night to get around to it. Tell me, why did you take me there? Was it to show off your trophy? The woman stupid enough to put herself at your mercy?”
He balled his fists. “That’s not what I was doing.”
She cocked an eyebrow. “Really? Now I understand why you didn’t want your sister to see me with you. It would have ruined your plans. Care to tell me what they were? All of them?”
He drew a deep breath. Thomas’s stare burned into his profile. Christ, he wasn’t prepared for this. To feel like this. To feel so…wrong.
“To destroy you,” he answered. Honest. He needed to be honest with her now. Now, before any chance of mending this was lost. “Emotionally and socially. Out of revenge.”
“Dude,” Thomas muttered.
Tears shone in Sienna’s eyes. Her lips parted, as if his confession robbed her of breath. “Revenge for Clinton?”
“Yes.” James kept his voice calm. Modulated. He had to. If he cracked, every minute of self-doubt and self-contempt he had would crash over him, drown him, and he’d lose any ability to form words. “For his suicide.”
“I think I need to go.”
Thomas’s low voice flayed at James.
He looked at him, his gut clenching at the disappointment in Thomas’s face.
“No,” Sienna said, the word blunt. “You need to stay. Until I’m finished, you need to stay. I don’t want a Dyson able to say I was alone with him.”