Page 65 of Nothing to Tell

Adrenaline fizzed in her veins, but at least her breathing was evening out a little.

Still, it was like her whole existence was in shock.

“This started at Adara’s engagement party,” she whispered, taking herself back to the beginning.

“It started outside the gym.”

Everything he said churned up confusion again.

“At the hotel?Your hotel.Why didn’t you tell me it was your hotel?”

“What does that matter?Building ownership was, is, completely irrelevant.”

It had to be deliberate, causing this frustrated infuriation, he had to be doing it on purpose.

“Not to me,” she said, moving closer.“And that doesn’t answer the question.Why didn’t you tell me?”

“When?”he asked.“When was I supposed to tell you?”

Talk about a copout.

“Don’t give me that, like you had no time to bring it up.We’ve danced alone; we’ve spent the night in the same bed.We’ve talked.All we ever do is talk when we’re together.Why didn’t you tell me?”

He didn’t have to shout to convey his aggravation.“I didn’t want this,” he said, gesturing between them.“Every single time a woman I care about… if I think they…” He took a deep breath and turned his eyes to the ceiling.“Men, women, employees, friends, society, whatever.”He did his half-shrug.“When people know, they… it changes things.I cease to be whoever they thought I was, and I become… a lie.”

The depth of his sincerity elicited sympathy, but that didn’t change anything.

“We were lying,” she said, admitting that they’d both been at fault.“We were never who we said we were.”

“We were to each other,” he said.“We knew what was going on.There was no lie between us.”

Though tension still crackled in the air, resignation settled over them.

“Bastian,” she said and reached to take his hand.

He moved it before she could make contact.“Forget it,” he said, straightening in a fashion she didn’t recognize of him.He looked at his watch, grabbed his jacket, and started for the door.“It’s not important.I’ll have a car take you home.”

She didn’t want to leave.She wanted to forget the animosity and kick off her shoes.She wanted to dive onto one of those couches and pull Bastian down with her.Not this starched, detached Bastian, but her Bastian, the Bastian she knew.

When he opened the door and gestured for her to exit, she couldn’t refuse.He led her back the way they’d come, through the dining room that was now being cleaned by various members of household staff.He didn’t take her through the hall, thank goodness.It would be filled with people curious about the woman being unceremoniously ejected.

Bastian left the building with her, ran down the outer stairs and leaned in to talk to one of the valets who then disappeared.

Now what?They waited.The party was still going on.No doubt he’d rather be there than in the cool evening air with her.There was no need for him to stand there, chaperoning her, unless he wanted to be really sure she was gone.Ouch.This moment, together in silence, punctuated the end of their association.Another chapter closed.How come the chapters of her life always ended with awkward humiliation?

“I can get a taxi,” she said.

“As you’ve discovered, I could have a chopper come pick you up and take you home if there was somewhere to land at your place,” he said, draping his jacket over her shoulders before retrieving his phone from the inside pocket.“The driver is on salary anyway, it’s only right he earns it.”

The same car that drove her to this fate pulled up in front of them.

Bastian opened the door for her.“It was nice knowing you, Harper Scott.”

The smile he aimed for didn’t reach his eyes.

Lifting her hand to his face, she traced where his dimple should be.A dimple she’d never see again.

“Bastian,” she whispered but couldn’t say anything else.