“Ryan,” I murmur, tears brimming in my eyes. “Please…”
“Tell me what you want,” he says, his voice catching as he gazes into my eyes with such depth of feeling.
He’s so good, so kind—too kind. I’ll break him. I’ll ruin this—
“No.” He cups my face with both hands. “Tess, no, goddamn it. Don’t pull away again. I see it in your fucking eyes. They give you away every time. There’s something you’re not telling me. You feel this between us too. I know you do. But something is holding you back from me. Stop pulling away, and let me in.” He drops his forehead down to mine and whispers, “Give me something, baby. Please.”
Throwing all caution to the wind, I hold him by the hips and give him my truth. “I’m only here because of you.”
32
Tess is crying in my arms, and I only want to make it stop. I want to hold her and heal her and be what she needs to move on. Whatever control I thought I had on my emotions, it’s gone. The woman I’m falling for is falling apart and I can’t pick up these pieces on my own.
“Give me something, baby,” I hear myself beg. “Please.”
She goes still in my arms, her hands clinging to my hips. “I’m only here because of you.”
The words hang in the air between us. Instantly, my mind tries to puzzle out their meaning. Which word carried the most emphasis? She’s only here because of me? Or she’s only here because of me?
She glances up. “Ryan, I’m only in Jacksonville because of you, because of the pictures taken of us dancing together at Rachel’s wedding.”
“Pictures?” I repeat, totally confused.
“One of the caterers was sneaking pictures all night,” she explains. “They sold them to TMZ, who published them all, including several pictures of you and I dancing together looking…well, we don’t look miserable,” she admits. “You really didn’t know? No one told you?”
I rack my brain, trying to think back to the days after the wedding. “I mean, maybe MK mentioned I was in the press a bit, yeah. But I didn’t really think anything of it. The wedding was a big deal. No one mentioned you or pictures with you, that’s for sure.”
“Well, Troy saw the pictures, and he used them to get me put on administrative leave.”
My heart fucking stops. “He what?”
She drops her hands away from me, wrapping the towel tighter around her shoulders. “Yeah, breach of morality clause. He got HR to argue that my behavior with you was indecent enough to warrant a temporary leave. I’ve got six weeks before they’re going to reevaluate, which basically means Troy is giving me six weeks to decide what I want more: a career and a reputation I’ve spent a decade building…or my freedom.”
“Oh, fuck. Tess, I’m so sorry. I’m so…that’s fucking crazy. Over one dance?”
She just shrugs. “I think Troy has just been waiting for the right opportunity. He came down hard. He twisted up the other partners and used the employee contract to force HR into making this move against me.”
“What can I do?” I say. “I could write something—a letter of support or-or some kind of witness statement that nothing happened. Hell, that night I went back to the hotel with the guys and fell asleep on the couch in Morrow’s room. There were witnesses—”
“No. Ryan, you’re sweet to offer, but at this point, it won’t change anything.”
“How can it not? I’ll call MK in the morning. We’ll have them issue a retraction that nothing was going on between us at the wedding—”
“It won’t matter,” she says over me.
“Why not—”
“Because I told Troy it was true.”
We stand there, two feet apart at the end of the beach boardwalk, our eyes locked on each other. The wind whips a few strands of her red curls across her face. She flicks them back, not breaking our gaze. I don’t know what emotions are showing on my face. Her only look is guilt, and it’s tearing me apart.
“You told him what was true?” I say at last.
“I told him we were together that night. I told him we fucked. I told him it was all true.”
I groan. “Jesus, Tess.”
“You don’t know him,” she says, her voice almost pleading. “You don’t know how vicious he can be. I tried denying it at first. I denied it to HR and the other partners, but that only seemed to make him happy.”