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He takes a deep breath, like it takes effort to pull himself back together. “Your brother would?—”

“He knows now. The pact, whatever thing you guys promised… it’s done. Youdiddeflower me in your backyard.” I take a step forward, like this will be easier if my words have to travel through less space. “It’s the obvious solution, West. We’re already pretending to date in front of your family, friends, the entire world. I love… living here. Nothing would have to change. Marryme.”

He’s breathing fast and shallow, the muscles in his shoulders tense beneath my hands. “You don’t mean that.”

“I do. It would help you, wouldn’t it?” I try to smile, but it comes out a bit crooked. He’s reacting strongly, and I know him well enough to know that he’s not used to it. He’s not good at it. He’s used to being in control, and right now he isn’t.

Maybe he’s never considered it before. Marrying me. Maybe he just needs some time.

“We could keep going with the… well. We can have more sex. You told me there’s still so much to try. I want to try that. With you.”

He rests his forehead against mine. The wind catches on my hair, and his hand slides up, fingers threading through it. “Your brother would never speak to me again.”

“Leave him to me.”

“You’d marry me?” His voice is hot and half broken. “You’dmarryme.”

“Yes. You’d get to keep the estate.” I smile against his lips.See how much I want this?“But I want the cat. He’s mine.”

“You can have him. He doesn’t like me anyway.” West slides his hands down. “Hold on to me.”

He lifts me up. The dock creaks under his quick steps into the salty darkness of the boathouse.

“I can walk,” I protest. But I’m smiling widely, too, because he’s cracking open, all of his want pouring out of him. I can feel it in his hands, his hot mouth against my temple.

He doesn’t think it’s a bad idea. He doesn’t think it’s a bad idea at all.

“You’ve been in heels all night,” West says, and sets me down on a large coil of rope. “And I need you.”

CHAPTER57

WEST

She’s offering me everything I’ve ever wanted.

I spend the night after the party reveling in it. Gauging myself in the pleasure of us, of her, of her thighs on either side of my face and her body stretched out in my bed. How unreal she feels around me and the nails she rakes down my back. And then her pleased smile after she comes and the soft sound of her breathing as she falls asleep in my arms.

But I wake up to the knowledge that I’m the one benefiting here. To a throbbing bruise beneath my eye and Fairhaven in post-party disarray.

Nora is still asleep, curled on her side, dark hair across the pillow that’s become hers. I can’t see her wake up. Can’t handle the guilt that kept me awake for most of the night as I held her.

She’s too good for me. Too good for all of this.

Rafe told me not to contact him and to stay away from his family. I didn’t heed the second command, and in the car on the way to Calloway Holdings, I go against the first.

Be angry at me. Don’t be angry at your sister. She’s innocent in all of this.

He won’t respond. But it has to be said.

She values her relationship with her brother. She always has, and I’ll be damned if I’m the reason it breaks down.

Maybe our friendship is over. More than a decade of having him as my own brother… Fuck.

But as long as it’s not her. Whatever happens, she can’t be the one who pays the price. I won’t stand for it.

I use the gym at the office, sit in on meetings that have more than a few of my senior executives looking at me sideways. Coming in unannounced always has them nervous, and here I am, sitting silent, angry, and with a black eye.

Early in the afternoon, I walk into the jeweler. Unease makes it hard to focus on the diamonds under the counter. Harder still when the smarmy well-dressed woman assisting me asks me who the lucky woman is.