Page 67 of Nothing to Tell

“Sven’s taking her home.”

“You got your driver to take her home?”Carolyn asked.“Why didn’t you take her?”

“One car ride wouldn’t have made a difference.We can’t talk ourselves into caring for each other more than we do.”

“I don’t think it’s possible you could care for her more than you do,” Carolyn said, sitting down and flattening her hands on her lap.“I think you’re in love with her.”

“Mom…” he said with caution.“Where do you get that from?”

Though he chastised, there was a good chance his mother was right.Something in him sat uneasy since he’d welcomed Harper into the house.The second he’d laid eyes on her, he’d known something was wrong.That unease still swirled within him.

“For a man so relentless in business, you are very easily defeated in love,” Carolyn said.“Would you have been so successful in business if you adopted the same attitude?If you walked away when things got tough?Your perseverance is an asset in business, perhaps if you applied that—”

“I get it, Mom,” he said already formulating how he might approach this unfamiliar situation.

He’d never wanted a woman in his life as much as he wanted Harper, in whatever capacity he could have her.

“You’re thinking.”Carolyn smiled.“You’re going to do it, aren’t you?”

“Go back to your party, Mom,” he said, sitting on the chair next to hers.“I need a plan.”

TWENTY-FIVE

“YOU DIDN’T CALL last night.”

Raising her eyes from the work on her desk, the view of Roxie Kyst darkening her doorway was like a mirage.

“You never look real,” Harper said as Roxie strode in, swinging her arms in time with the sway of her hips.“You’re like a movie star.”

“Plenty of that going around in this city.”Roxie descended into the chair opposite.“Why are you still working this late?”

“Nothing better to do.”She re-angled her laptop.“And it’s not that late.”

“It’s after ten.”

Was it?She didn’t know the—ah, wait.

“You didn’t go by my house, did you?”

“Me?No,” Roxie dismissed her.“I sent Zairn over there.”

“Oh my God.”She sprang to her feet.“You didn’t—you couldn’t—he—”

“Relax.”Roxie laughed.“I’m kidding.Think I’d leave him alone with your ex?My man can get along with anyone, if he chooses to.”

And Damon wasn’t the kind of man anyone would choose to get along with.

“Have you spoken to Carolyn?”

Made sense that was how Roxie found her office.

“Long enough to know you and Bastian are over.”Oh, good news traveled fast.“That’s amazing.Being over with a guy you were never with.”

“Yep, pretty special.”

“So…” Roxie continued, “do you want to go home and change or will I have someone meet us?”

And she was lost.“Meet us for…?”