Page 82 of Rebellious Hearts

“My parents have everything they need in the others,” I said. “Alex and Chris handle the yachts pretty well, and Daniel… he’s the interesting one. I’m justaround.”

Sofia was as shocked at my words as I was. I’d always felt it but never said it out loud.

Not even to Amy and Luke.

“If you’re suggesting that you’re not needed, then you’re making a mistake,” Sofia said.

“Why? I can’t see how they need me. I was adopted last, too. The charity case.”

Again, my words shocked me.

Sofia’s face changed to sympathy, and she put her hand on my arm. “Ben, you’re not a charity case. You carry as much weight as the others, and you’re as valuable to the company, and I’m sure to your family. You can’t for one second convince me otherwise.”

I swallowed hard. I had no idea where that had come from or why I’d said it, but I was suddenly emotional.

“It’s complicated,” I murmured.

“I understand,” Sofia said. “It always is, isn’t it?”

I nodded.

She removed her hand from my arm and I missed her warmth immediately. I stepped closer to her, wrapping my arm around her shoulder and lowered my head, our lips almost touching. She tilted her head up, but before our lips met, she froze against me before she pulled back and slipped out from underneath my arm.

“We shouldn’t do this,” she said.

I frowned. “What?”

“This,” she said. “Us.”

I shook my head, confused. “What do you mean, ‘we shouldn’t’?”

“Look, Ben… we succeeded. Richie is happy about the project, and he’s going to invest the money. Harborview and everything Blackwood Inc. has planned here is going to happen, and you’re going to oversee it, and that’s amazing. We don’t have to pretend anymore. We don’t have to keep playing this game.”

Her gray eyes were serious, the color of slate, as she looked up at me with an expressionless mask that I knew all too well.

It was the mask I usually wore.

And I hated it. I hated not being able to see what she was feeling underneath it all. I was a hypocrite for thinking that, I knew. I used that mask on everyone to protect myself, but now that I was on the receiving end, I hated it.

Especially on her.

“The trip isn’t over yet,” I started. We didn’t have to stop doing this, not as long as we were here. When we were here together, the rest of the world fell away and it was so easy not to think about reality, about my life and her life and what all of this would mean once we were back home again…

“That shouldn’t be the determining factor,” she said tightly. “None of this should have happened in the first place, you know that.”

I looked over my shoulder at where Luke and Amy were staring at each other, rolling their eyes in tandem, or mouthing things as their mother yelled over the phone at them. They were going to be busy for a while, hopefully.

“I know this shouldn’t have happened,” I said, turning back to Sofia, who had crossed her arms tightly over her chest, shoulders hunched a little against the wind that seemed to pick up around us. It tugged at her brown hair, blowing strands around her face, making her look like a goddess. “I was an idiot, an asshole, selfish and willing to do anything to get what I wanted when I told Richard that we’re married.”

Sofia blinked at me when I was painfully honest about what I’d done.

“I should never have lied to him, but my ego was too big and admitting failure to my brothers hadn’t been an option, so I did what I needed without taking you into account. And I’m sorry for that.”

Sofia’s brows knitted together.

“But I’m not sorry about what’s happened between us. I’m not sorry about sleeping with you, kissing you, holding you… I’mnot sorry about sleeping next to you and waking up next to you again.”

“Ben…”