Page 55 of The Billionaire in Her Bed

“But you did.” She braced herself against one of the shelves, knocking a roll of toilet paper to the floor. “Did you get a kick out of slumming? Seducing the poor, lonely bartender?”

“As I recall, the seduction was mutual. And neither one of us was interested in exchanging personal information.”

“I’ll give you that. But you’ve had almost three months to tell me who you are. Was it some sort of game, seeing how long you could keep me in the dark?”

“No. It wasn’t anything like that. That night at the bar…” He scraped a hand through his hair, debating how much he should reveal. Fuck it. Enough holding back. Time for the truth. The whole truth, no matter how personal or embarrassing. “I’d just found out someone was leaking information to Momentum’s biggest competitor. And the prime suspect was my business partner.”

“The guy on stage with you?”

“One and the same. He also happens—or happened—to be my best friend.”

“Ouch.” She crossed her arms in front of her chest. “Sucks to be you.”

He ignored the dig. Hell, he deserved that and worse. “Which explains why I decided to lay low for a while in Brooklyn. I needed time to gather evidence. Uncover the mole before he—or she—did any more damage.”

“But it doesn’t explain why you had to lie to me.” Was he imagining things, or had her voice lost a little of its harshness? “I would have kept your secret.”

“I know. It wasn’t that I didn’t trust you.”

“Then what?”

He loosened his bow tie, struggling to find the right words. “I guess I just liked being Eli Ward, average Joe. Liked knowing you wanted me for me, not…”

“Your money?” she finished for him.

“Who I was—no, who I am—with you, that guy is a thousand times more authentic than the one you saw up on stage tonight. With you, I can let down my guard and just…be. That’s pretty rare for me, almost nonexistent. I didn’t want to lose it.”

She stared at him, silent, so he kept going, hoping against hope that he was making some headway. “Once we got involved, I wanted to tell you the truth, but it never seemed to be the right time.”

“It must be hard never knowing if someone’s with you for you or what you can do for them.” She kicked off one shoe and wiggled her toes, flashing her brightly painted nails. Not fire-engine-red to match her dress, like most women would have chosen, but an electric purple. Totally unexpected. Totally Brooke.

“Yeah.” He let out a short, harsh laugh. “Poor little rich boy.”

“That’s not what I meant.” She slipped her foot back into her shoe and stood tall. “I have something to tell you, too.”

“Wait.” He held up a hand. “I’m not done.”

She sucked her bottom lip between her teeth. “You don’t understand…”

“Please,” he interrupted, his voice dripping with desperation. “If I don’t say this now, it will be too late.”

“Too late for what?” She looked at him side-eyed. “Don’t tell me. You witnessed a mob hit, and you’re going into the witness protection program.”

“Not exactly.” His fingers curled and uncurled nervously at his sides. Brooke wouldn’t be making wisecracks when she heard what was coming next. “But you might want to ship me off somewhere when you find out what it is.”

“How much worse could it be than hiding your identity?”

Way worse.“You know there’s an offer out on Candy Court.”

“Of course.” She rolled her eyes at him like he was Captain Obvious. “The surveyor was there the other day, remember? We’re having a neighborhood meeting at the end of the month to formulate our response. There’s no way some opportunistic asshole bent on gentrification is going to come in and kick us out of our homes without a fight.”

The vehemence in her last sentence made the knot in his stomach seize up, but he forged on. No turning back now. Come hell or high water, this closet was going to be his confessional. He just hoped Brooke was willing to absolve him from his sins. “The asshole is me.”

Time seemed to freeze, the closet eerily quiet except for the sound of their shallow breaths. It could have been ten seconds or ten hours before she spoke. “What do you mean?”

“I mean I’m the one buying Candy Court. My company, that is. The Hearthstone Group.”

“No.” She shook her head, distracting him with waves of coconut and citrus from her shampoo.Focus man, focus.“I heard you up there on that stage. Your company is called Momentum Development.”