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“We are.” I try to reach for her hand again, but she pulls away.
“Please don't make this any harder than it already is,” she begs.
My chest tightens, frustration bubbling to the surface. “You’re breaking up with me?”
Her voice wavers, but her stance is resolute. “I don’t know. How can we break up if we were never really together? We never talked about what we were in Bermuda.”
I scrub a hand across my neck, exasperation making me see red. She seems different, more resolute and determined than ever. “Because we never got the chance to. Had my father not turned up—”
“But he did, and he made me see something. I don’t fit into your world.”
“The hell you don’t,” I snap. “What’s happened?” I move towards her. “You kissed me just the other day like we belonged together.”
“What happened in Bermuda was ... special, but it won’t work here. We have to be pragmatic.”
“Pragmatic? This isn’t a business deal, Cari. This is us. This is—”
“It’s sex,” she says, wearily. “We had feelings for each other, and we acted on them—”
It’s sex?She sounds like a different person. “We made love. Lots of love in the heat of the It’s sex? night. We have a connection, you and I, and we finally got to be together after all those months and years of wanting to be.”
Her mouth falls open, just slightly. And then she closes it again. “It won't be enough.”
I’m confused. “Enough? I’ll get you anything you want, name it.” Someone’s put things in her head, because this isn’t my Cari. My shortcake. “It's more than I dreamed of. It's more than I ever thought I'd get to have again. Someone who understands me like you do.”
“It's sex, Jett. We both had feelings for one another, and we got to fulfil them.”
“What are you saying?” I cannot believe my fucking ears.
“I'm saying, we had a great time and we should move on.”
I shake my head. “You don't mean that.”
“I do. It's for the best.”
I step closer, my jaw tight. “You don’t mean that.”
Her eyes glisten, but she doesn’t falter. “I do.”
“Has something happened? Did someone say something to you?” Her silence speaks volumes, and I feel the pieces clicking into place. “It was him, wasn’t it? My father.”
She looks down momentarily, and that tells me all I need to know.
“What did he say to you, Cari? Tell me.”
“Tell me the truth, Jett,” she counters, her voice losing its steadiness. “Did you know about the Brazilian heiress before we went to Bermuda?”
Fuck. That old man has spoken to her, and he’s messed with her head. It all makes sense now, Cari being like this. Her question presses down on me and I hesitate. “Yes, but—”
“That’s it. A simple yes or no. That’s all I needed.”
“It’s not what you think. You need context—”
“No.” She cuts me off. “What I need is honesty. That’s it.”
“That son of a bitch.” Rage boils inside me. That man will do whatever it takes to keep his legacy safe. He doesn’t care for people, for emotions and feelings. I should know that because of what he did to my mother. Yet, somehow, we’ve all kept going—living under his rules, working for him, in the family business, needing and wanting the money. But it comes at a price. And now the price is too high to pay. I don’t want this. I won’t let him dictate who I love and how I live, but I’ve also fucked up big-time. I should have told Cari about this. It’s not just my father’s fault. I’m to blame as well. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry that I didn’t tell you before, but … the truth is, I’m not interested—”
“You can’t keep something like that from me, Jett. I don’t even know if I believe you.”