Page 54 of Beautiful Revenge

I shake my head. “There has to be something. You needto eat, and I promise to make sure you get the exact amount of food so not one crumb goes to waste.”

Her dark eyes narrow. “Don’t make fun of me.”

“I’m damn serious. You have enough on your plate—and I don’t mean food. If you give me a minute, I’ll prove to you that I’m not here to add to your stress.”

“Yet you planned out my day for me to do things I didn’t want to do.” She enunciates every word as if we don’t speak the same language.

I say nothing, but I do smile. I refuse to apologize for that.

She exhales like she’s holding the weight of the world on her shoulders, which may be the case.

“It’s dinner. If you don’t want to talk to me, you don’t have to. You’ve proven you’re more than comfortable in my presence without uttering a word. Come on. I promise you a view you won’t soon forget. But you need to get your arse in gear, or you’ll miss it. You might’ve returned to Winslet to live in your grandmother’s old house, but it’s not a hardship to be here. There’s a reason I’m booked solid through the next three seasons. It’d be a shame to sit in this room and miss it.”

She stares up at me as she mulls that thought over in her beautiful head. Finally, she hikes a brow. “I’ll go on one condition.”

A tinge of excitement laced with something else simmers inside me. It’s so foreign, I barely recognize it, but it feels like desperation. Instead of admitting I’ll do anything, I ask, “What do you want?”

“I’m tired of being the one interrogated. If I agree to dinner, you have to answer every question I ask for a change.”

“Easy enough.” That was quicker than I’ve agreed to anything else for as long as I can remember. “Let’s go.”

She puts her hand on the antique wood like she changed her mind and wants to slam it no matter if I’m standing in the way or not. “I can’t go to dinner looking like this. I need to get ready.”

The desperation that nipped at my arse a few minutes ago surfaces. “You’re not going to lock yourself in there and ignore me again, are you?”

“You’re lucky I like sunsets.”

I lift my chin and take a step back. “Five minutes or you’llmiss it. It would be a shame to have to wait a whole day for the next one.”

She shuts the door in my face. When I hear the water run from her bathroom, I realize she’s actually going to have dinner with me. And I might’ve found Harlow’s weakness.

Sunsets.

Lucky for me, there’s one a day. I can work with that.

I can’t remember the last time I stumbled upon some luck. It’s small, but with the ghost of Turner lurking, I’ll take what little I can get.

Harlow

Ididn’t lie. I love sunsets.

There is little else that could’ve lured me from my room in Devon’s suite besides this.

Even if I do have to look past the devilish Brit to enjoy it.

I’m not sure how he does it, but Devon proves he can be a gentleman while being absolutely infuriating at the same time. After we walked silently to the pier as I pretended I was not hungry, he pulled out the chair that offered me a front and center view of the mainstage. That was right before he sat directly in my line of sight to the big event.

Still, he wasn’t wrong.

Even if he was in the way, the sunset was nothing short of spectacular. Golds and fiery oranges are burned in my memory before they disappeared all too quickly behind the mountains. The reflection off the water only enhanced the experience before the blazing ball of fire put itself to bed and the stars took over.

Our waiter refills our wine from the bottle that was waiting on us when we arrived at the singular, private table set just for two.

I pick up the glass of cabernet. “Thank you.”

Before our waiter has a chance to respond, Devon breaksthe silence that has hung between us like a heavy wet blanket. He fingers the crystal stem of his glass as his gaze bores into me. “I’d order dessert, but I have no idea if you’ll eat it. I’m doing everything I can to stand by my word and not let one bite go to waste.”

I hike a brow. “Maybe we should discuss how your business could donate food to a local shelter or a foodbank that would otherwise go to waste.”