Page 91 of Filthy Rich Temptation

His eyes darken at the mention of Danny, his hand curling into a fist upon the table. But the sight doesn’t strike fear in me – not like it would have with Danny. I trust Theo. I know he’d never hurt me. Not like that. And it’s not the sight of his anger I mind. It’s the weight of it. The hurt he carries – for Lottie, for me, maybe for the part of himself that wasn’t there when I needed someone. Not that he could have known.

‘That’s the one silver lining of him being so ignorant of her,’ I murmur. ‘She doesn’t feel the hole, because he never gave her anything to miss…’

And then it hits me, full force.

‘Much like how my own father…’ I swallow the sudden pang in my chest. ‘Funny how life has a tendency to repeat itself.’

Theo’s eyes soften into mine. ‘You’re everything she needs, Sadie.’

I hold his gaze, the past coming back to me like it happened only yesterday. The riverbank, his words…

‘That’s not what you thought aboutmeseven years ago…’

His head lifts slightly.

‘You said I saw you as some kind of substitute.’

His eyes flicker as he registers my meaning. ‘I’m sorry for what I said back then. If I could take it back, I would. But you were so young?—’

‘I was an adult.’

‘Twelve years younger?—’

‘Newsflash,’ I say with a wry smile, ‘I’m still twelve years younger.’

He huffs a breath, jaw working. ‘But it’s different now.’

I cock a brow. ‘Is it?’

His eyes trail over me, stripped of anything but the truth. ‘No.’ It comes out gruff, pained, honest. ‘I wanted you then. And I want you still.’

Holy fuck.Of all the things he could have said. Of all the things Iexpectedhim to say. It wasn’t that. My own words, my own meaning repeated back at me. And my heart’s not prepared for it. My walls are not high enough.

‘I hated myself back then,’ he says, ‘for wanting you like I did. But I can’t hate myself for it now. Whatever this is… I’m all in. For as long as you need me to be.’

What if I asked him for forever, would he give it to me?

Because that look in his eye says yes. The way he anchored me to him last night, this morning… itallfelt like yes.

But Ican’task for forever.

Because I’m the one who promised it was fornow.

The one who said my life with Lottie came first, always.

And I’m only just getting my life back; pushing too hard, too soon, for something this new, this untested, this delicate… knowing what I know of him, his inability to give that part of himself away. I’m cross I’m even contemplating it, when I should be cherishing what heisgiving me.

So I push all thought of the future aside, and slip behind the now…

‘Until then,Uncle Feo,’ I say, quietly teasing, ‘we’ll just tell Lottie that you’re myspecialfriend.’

His brows lift, his mouth following. ‘Special, huh?’

‘Veryspecial.’

He grins, grabbing me by the waist and pulling me into his lap. His lips find mine in a kiss that’s far too devilish for the breakfast table.

‘Ew!’