Total pages in book: 64
Estimated words: 61248 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 306(@200wpm)___ 245(@250wpm)___ 204(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 61248 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 306(@200wpm)___ 245(@250wpm)___ 204(@300wpm)
“You should be doing what you’d do for anyone else.”
“I am. I’m not on the phone telling him to pull back, but I don’t have to. Harper’s a good attorney. She and David will fight it out and make this fair for both parties, but what you need to know is that ultimately Moore’s legal team can’t pull out of this contract without my signature, nor would they try without my approval. Legal is trying to please the board. Ultimately, I have the power to control the board. In other words, David is trying to please me.”
“Then Harper’s right. You’re putting yourself in a compromising position by being here. You’re jeopardizing yourself for me, and you barely know me.”
“Harper’s job as my attorney is to be protective to the point of being paranoid. And she’s being paranoid.”
“It’s a conflict of interest for her to represent both of us.”
“She handles my personal business, not my corporate work, which is exactly why she doesn’t need her nose in the middle of my side of this. I’m aware of the circumstances, and I’m handling them. As to why I’m here,” he adds with emphasis, “there’s something between us, Sofia. I know you feel that, too.” His voice is softer now, more intimate. “I don’t just want to know more about you. I have to know you. I felt that before we ever left Hawaii, but you ran, and I’m not allowing Harper to help you do it again.”
“I’m not running.”
“You ran.”
“We talked about this already.”
“Talk about it again, because it wasn’t once, it was twice. I don’t think what happened in New York was about Anna at all.”
My defenses bristle. “It was about her. It was a wrong decision, I get that, and maybe at the core of my reaction was insecurity. I was, I still am, struggling to get by the differences in our worlds.”
“What is so different about our worlds?”
“If I’m honest, I guess it comes down to money.”
“If money creates a divide for you, it doesn’t for me. And that divide you perceive to exist won’t last for long. Not with the Zoey line. Let’s make you your own money. Do what you love, and success will follow.”
“And I love that, I do. I love that you’re here, too, but now that David has restarted negotiations, that seems problematic for you, Ethan. I can meet you in Paris after the deal is signed. Then all of this will be done, and you’ll avoid a compromising position.”
Ethan captures a strand of my hair and gently brushes it behind my ear, the tenderness in him defying the wicked way he’s fucked me on too few occasions. I want him so badly I’m not sure how my brain is supposed to work when he’s touching me.
“I don’t want to go to Paris without you,” he says. “Do you really want to go without me?”
“No. Of course not. And I’m wildly affected by you showing up here, and I don’t even know if I should be admitting that, but—”
“I want you to be wildly affected, Sofia. If I wasn’t wildly affected by you, I wouldn’t be here. And now that I’m here, I’m not leaving without you.”
Be forceful, Harper says again in my head. If you care about his future. She forgot to account for what it’s like to be touched by this man, but somehow, I firm up my voice and say, “No.” I push against his unmoving hard body and try again. “No. This is not going your way.” And when physically moving him isn’t working, I point up at him. “Whatever this is between us has to be good for both of us, not just me. I will not be bad for you. I don’t want that, not now and not ever.”
He covers my finger with his hand. “Sweetheart, you’re the first good thing I’ve known in longer than you can imagine for reasons you don’t yet know. It is good for both of us. This trip is going to change your life. In the process, it’s going to give me just another way that I separate myself from my family business. And that’s a good thing for me right now.”
“I thought you sat on the board as a representative of Dalton Enterprises?”
“Dalton Vault is my own personal company. My investment with Moore’s Department Store is through my company. As are many of my newer business ventures. Taking Moore’s to the next level benefits me. And that means making the Zoey brand a success. In the end, your success is what matters, not any personal involvement I have with you.”
I hate that he feels the need for that separation from his brother and his father. Family matters, but I don’t believe Ethan feels otherwise. He’s just not able to be in the same place I am with my father, and I find I want to know why, how. I want to know everything about Ethan. “You’re sure?” I ask, not sure why I’m so worried over him. He’s not a man to be swayed by a woman where business is concerned. I don’t know why I ever discounted that sharp businessman reputation he owns right along with everything else around him.