I addressed the elephant in the room first.
“Heath came over last night because he said I texted him about wanting to get back together.”
A shadow crossed Dante’s face at the mention of Heath, but he didn’t interrupt.
“I didn’t. Well…” I amended my statement. “He showed me his phone, and thereisa text that looks like it was from me, but I never sent it. Maybe it was a prank or a hack. I don’t know, but it doesn’t matter. My answer to his…proposal hasn’t changed since the last time we spoke. He refused to accept that, and we went back and forth for hours until you showed up.”
I should’ve kicked Heath out long before Dante came home. However, I’d never quite gotten over my guilt for how my parents treated him when they found out about our relationship.
Vivian is a Lau. She’s meant to marry someone great, not a so-called entrepreneur with a company no one’s heard of. You are not good enough for her, and you never will be.
Two years later, the memory of my father’s harsh words still made me wince.
“Did you say no because you no longer have feelings for him, or because you feel obligated to keep our arrangement?” Dante’s face was unreadable.
“Does it matter? We’re getting married either way.” I threw his words from last night back at him.
His mouth tightened. “I wouldn’t ask if it didn’t.”
“Yet you haven’t answered my question about whether this is still business.”
Dante had indirectly admitted it wasn’t last night, but I took anything anyone said during sex with a grain of salt.
His lips parted on a sardonic breath. “How many times are you going to make me say it?”
“Just once,” I said softly.
He regarded me with dark, hooded eyes.
The clock ticked with deafening precision, and my soft cotton T-shirt suddenly felt too heavy.
“Businesswould be staying in California and celebrating a deal I’d worked a year on instead of rushing back to see you,” he finally said, his voice low and loaded with gravel. “Businesswould be completing my D.C. trip instead of waking my pilot up for a last-minute flight home. In all my years as CEO, I’ve only cut a work trip short twice, Vivian, and both those instances were because of you.” A wry twist of his lips. “So no, it’s not just fucking business anymore.”
The butterflies took flight again, soaring so high the velvety tips of their wings brushed my heart.
I grasped for an appropriate response before I settled on the only word that came to mind.
“Oh.”
Ironic amusement ghosted through his gaze. “Yes,oh,” he said dryly. “Your turn,mia cara. Why did you say no to Heath?”
His tone was lazy, but there was nothing lazy about the way he watched me, like a predator locked on its prey, his muscles coiled with tension.
“Because I don’t have romantic feelings for him anymore,” I said, my voice soft. “And because I might have them for someone else.”
Now that the emotional shock from last night had cleared, I realized my conversation with Heath had provided some much-needed clarity.
Once upon a time, I’d loved him, and I felt guilty for the way things had ended between us. But it’d been two years. I wasn’t the same person I’d been when we dated, and I hadn’t felt anything except surprise, sadness, and a bit of annoyance when we talked.
All this time, I thought I’d missed Heath, but I missed theideaof him. I missed having a partner. I missed being loved and beinginlove.
Unfortunately, I could no longer find those things with him.
The morning sunlight filtered through the curtains and gilded Dante’s face, casting soft shadows beneath his brow and cheekbones. He was so still he resembled a golden sculpture in repose, but the air sparked like dry kindling.
“It’s not just business for you.” I forced back the uprising of nerves in my stomach. “And it’s not just duty for me.”
The air turned dense, heavy with meaning. A faint car horn sounded dozens of stories below, but we didn’t look away.