Page 28 of Filthy Rich Temptation

There’s no possibly about it!

And I realise my head is right. When he’s this good, this kind, this incredible with Lottie – and still as off limits as ever – the risk he poses to my heart makes him 100 per cent no good for me.

But to have him in my life as a friend again…

To have him in Lottie’s life – a male figure she can trust, bond with, rely on?

There’s something to that. Something safe. Steady. Sure.

‘You know Taylor’s the same age as me, right?’ he says when I don’t respond.

‘Yeah,’ I agree softly, ‘but she’s living her life in reverse.’

‘Meaning?’

‘Meaning she spent her teens and her twenties looking after me. She never signed up for it. She just did it. Now she gets to be the party girl teenage her never got to be.’

He’s quiet for a beat, his hands obeying the commands Lottie’s issuing out, but his eyes are all about me. ‘Is that really how you see it?’

‘What?’

‘Your sister’s lifestyle?’

‘You don’t?’

‘She has a good social life, sure.’

‘That’s one word for it.’

Irresponsiblemight be another but hell, who am I to judge her for having a string of lovers when I settled for one and called it so very wrong.

‘Are you jealous?’

‘What— no!’ I blurt. ‘Absolutely not. I’m happy she’s out there enjoying her money and her life. Heaven knows she’s worked hard for it. I just… worry.’

I trail off as my mind drifts back, uninvited, to that fight.

‘Worry, what?’

I don’t answer.

‘Sadie?’

I inhale slowly, bracing myself, before admitting, ‘I worry that she’s like it because of me. That my mother set her on that path when she lumbered her with me at fifteen. And if she keeps going the way she is, she’ll end up alone and unhappy. Just like Dad.’ I take another breath, shake my head. ‘But who am I kidding? If I’d stayed alone, I wouldn’t be in this mess now.’

He holds my gaze – one strained second, two…

‘But then you wouldn’t have…’

He glances down and I feel his meaning all the way to the pit of my suddenly heavy stomach.

Because I wouldn’t choose not to have Lottie. Not in a million years.

But I’d choose a different father for her any day of the week.

‘I know.’

‘Is that what you fought about?’ he asks. ‘Your differing opinions on relationships, on life?’