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“I know you did everything to get here.” The words wrenched out of my mouth with great effort, my stomach roiling. I didn’t want to do this, saying goodbye when every hello made my heart skip a beat. But I also didn’t know how to give up control over my heart without losing my sanity. “And I’m not mad about it. Although…I do wish you didn’t give that bastard Tate what he wanted.” My face crumpled.
“Fuck the company, Dylan. He can have it. He could take the penthouse, the shirt on my back. I came all this way in a tornado, against all odds, against all reason, to tell you something very important.”
“And what is that?”
“I love you.”
The words hit me so hard they made me keel over, like an iron fist straight to my stomach. Growing up, I’d fantasized about hearing those words. Tucker spoke them so rarely, and always when we were in bed.
But now?
Now I was shit-scared.
Unlike Tucker, Rhyland wouldn’t just hurt me—he’d destroy whatever was left of me.
Worse still, he might destroy Gravity. Continue the cycle and make her distrust men too.
Just because he was the good guy in this specific scenario didn’t mean he wouldn’t be the bad guy in the next. I didn’t mean physically or maliciously, like Tucker. I knew he’d never do that. But he was…Rhyland. He could get tired of us and go his merry way. Up and leave once he’d had a taste of the billionaire lifestyle. Tucker had left, and he had nothing waiting for him. Rhy was going to have temptation at his feet from now until forever. Who could promise me he’d stay?
Ours was never meant to be a love story, only a cautionary tale. And unlike Tucker, getting my heart broken by Rhyland wouldn’t put me back at square one.
It would put me on suicide watch.
He was everything I’d ever wanted, which was precisely why I couldn’t have him.
“Rhyland.” I closed my eyes, pressing my hand to his broad pecs, which flexed instinctively under my fingertips. “I saw your picture with Claire Larsen.”
He cursed softly. “Nothing happened between us. I swear. Bruce wanted me to play nice, so we took a few pictures. I didn’t even kiss her on the cheek. You have to believe me.”
“I do believe you.”
“Then what’s the problem?”
“The problem is I cannot get past my distrust of men, and this weekend was a reminder of it. You were late. That picture of you with her surfaced all over the internet. Tucker kidnapped my daughter—”
“I had nothing to do with the latter,” he interjected fiercely, his eyes narrowing into slits. “And the two former issues were a misunderstanding. You can’t tell me this isn’t real.” He motioned between us. “Because it is, and even though you’re not ready to tell me you love me, I know you do. I’m here. I’ve been here all along. I see the way you look at me, the way you laugh with me, the way you fuck me. You don’t have to say you love me. You speak it with your entire existence, Dylan.”
Gulping a greedy, shaky breath, I put my thumb on his cheek, cataloging him to memory. He wasn’t wrong. I had fallen. Nosedived. Sunk into the endless abyss that was him. There was no coming back for me; I was always going to be his. But only from afar. Loving him up close would be my ruin. If he betrayed me the way Tucker did, I wouldn’t be able to survive.
“Listen to me. I’m not Tucker.” He grabbed my arms, searching my eyes in a way that made me avert my gaze to the floor. “I’d never do that to you. I’m crazy about you. About Grav. When he kidnapped her, I thought…I thought…”
“You thought?” The air stood still; the world stopped spinning.
“I was happily willing to give up my life to save hers,” he finished. “No questions asked. No hesitation. I’m not asking you to do the same for me. I’m not even asking for a fraction of that. All I want is a chance to prove I’m not like them.”
“Them?”
“Tucker. Your dad. The people who let you down. I’ll never do that.”
You already did, I thought miserably.
My expectations were unreasonable. And sure, Rhyland might try to meet them, but he was bound to fail. If not fail then to live miserably, unable to mingle with women, be delayed on a trip, or move freely. Truth was I was doing this for him as much as I was doing it for myself.
“I’m sorry, Rhy.” I unscrewed the engagement ring from my finger and placed it on the coffee table. The exposed skin felt cold without it. “I’m going back to Maine. If there’s one thing yesterday taught me, it’s that I need my mom by my side.”
“Wrong fucking lesson.” He stood up swiftly, pacing the living room with his hands clutching the back of his skull. “Your take should’ve been that you need to be with me.” He stubbed his thumb into his chest. “I solved the problem. I found Gravity. I confronted Tuc—”
“I don’t want to be saved!” I stormed to my feet, tossing my hands in the air. “I want to be left alone, free of complications and drama. I want to not worry about gorgeous Hollywood starlets and canceled dates and broken hearts and kidnappings. I was fine before we got together—”