“I don’t want that connard to have anything to do with you.”
“I don’t either,” I murmur with lowered lashes.
Tony cups my jaw and turns my gaze toward him. “Why did you not just tell me?”
“Tell you what?”
“What happened with you and him.”
Wait, is he assuming Eric and I...? Did Eric lie and maybe say I came onto him?
“Nothing was going on between me and Eric,” I insist, disgusted with the idea that I would want to come within ten feet of Eric if I had the choice.
“I know it was not that. But you thought I could not sense something was wrong?”
“I didn’t want to mess up your business goals with him. And I didn’t want to talk about it.”
Tony puts his hand to his head and looks up at the ceiling. “Well, ma petite, you did ‘mess up’ the plans.”
I frown and bite my lower lip. “I did?”
“I can’t work with the salaud after what he did.”
“How do you know what he did?”
“I confronted him when I returned to find you gone.”
“Maybe he’s different in business. And his dad could become the next president of the United States.”
“Baise-le. Fuck Eric. Fuck his dad. You think a man could lack integrity in one area of his life but be honest and good in another? You told me how you do one thing is how you do everything.”
“But...” I furrow my brow. “...does it really matter to you?”
“It shouldn’t,” he replies with surprising emphasis. He shakes his head. “I feared I would ruin you, but you’re the one who’s ruined me.”
“I didn’t mean to! Is there anything I can do—I’m not going to bring charges or anything against Eric. I don’t think anything would come of it if I tried. You could still do the deal with him.”
“He’s lucky that all I did was tell him to go fuck himself. Nobody touches what is mine.”
“Oh. So that’s it. It’s not that what Eric did was wrong. It’s that he did something to you.”
Tony stares at me with that familiar intensity of his. “Yes.”
I stare back at him. It’s like he’s daring me to be angry, which I should be if I truly believed my own words.
“You want me to believe the worst in you,” I realize, sitting up so that I can see him more fully.
“I’m no good for someone like you.”
I think for moment. “You could have just let me believe you were engaged to Carmen.”
“Is that why you left?”
“Is that what Sierra told you?”
“She said she didn’t know why you left except that you mentioned you had to study.”
“I didn’t want to be ‘the other woman.’ I mean, what kind of person would I be if I knowingly had an affair with another woman’s man?”