Page 63 of Escorting the CEO
When the wedding planner had asked about our vows, I’d blurted out a vote for writing my own. Why? Because I was a sentimental fool, that’s why! I was allowing myself to get wrapped up in my fake relationship, in a family that would never truly be mine. I was letting myself feel things I was only going to pay for later. Only I wasn’t supposed to be paying. I was supposed to be getting paid!
What was the matter with me?
Sighing, I rolled away from Rhodes. I knew the answer, of course. Having an erratic childhood made me a prime candidate for latching onto anything that looked like love or approval, even when that was clearly not the case. I had a broken emotional compass. I could think that things were going great when they were actually going directly to hell. Which was why I avoided relationships at all costs: I knew better than to trust myself.
On top of that, I hadn’t told Rhodes about the conversation I’d had with Miranda. I needed to tell him about her threats,but I was scared to. What if he fired me on the spot? What if he called off the wedding and then demanded I repay my debts?
What if he sent me away?
What if I had to… leave him?
Restless, I rolled onto my back and stared at the ceiling. It was almost morning. The board meeting was today, and then the wedding.
If we got that far.
I closed my eyes,willing my brain to quiet down. It refused, of course. It spun through scenarios of the board meeting, the seating chart, the flowers Genevieve had shown me in her color-coded binders. I pictured Miranda’s face in the library, cool and certain. Then Luke askingwill you stayand Rhodes staring down at me last night, telling me he didn’t want to go back to the party.
I imagined the vows I wasn’t going to write.
I pressed my face into the pillow and made a decision: I was going to tell Rhodes about Miranda today. After the board meeting. He needed to know she was having me investigated, and he needed to hear it from me, not from her. I’d been keeping it to myself for exactly one night, and it was already eating at me.
I would tell him.
I would tell him, and whatever happened next, at least it would be honest.
With that settled, or at least filed away in thesettledcategory, the noise in my head quieted by a degree. The morning light behind the curtains was still gray and soft. Rhodes’s breathing was deep and even beside me. I let the warmth of the room, theexpensive weight of the comforter, the distant sound of birds somewhere beyond the tall windows, pull me back under.
I fell asleep thinking about teaching Luke to dive.
UNFORTUNATE
RHODES
Even though Ilonged to stay in bed with Rory, I disentangled myself when my alarm went off the next morning. I had to work out, then prep for the board meeting. The workout was my sanity, my way of clearing my head before my final chance to prove to the board that I was worthy of taking the helm at Barrington Enterprises.
Rory was asleep as I slipped out of the room. The house was quiet as I headed downstairs to the gym. Scenes from the night before flooded me—Rory beneath me, begging me not to stop; her cries as pleasure overrode her; the way she clung to me afterward, shivering and shaking.
I loaded weights onto the bar and straightened the bench. But the movements were muscle memory, perfunctory. All I could think about washer. I had the biggest presentation of my life in front of me this morning, but I couldn’t focus on it. Rory dominated every thought.
I got on the bench and raised the bar, beginning my set. I focused on my breathing, on counting, on… Rory.
Fuck.
Was I falling for this girl?
I finished the set, secured the bar, and sat up on the bench. My reflection in the mirror stared back at me. I looked the same—same dark hair, same chin, same slightly pissed-off expression. But there was a light in my eyes I hadn’t seen in a long time. Maybe not since my mother died.
It’s like I was back in there. I sawmyself, probably for the first time in years.
Of course you’re falling for her, you fucking idiot.
It’s already done.
Rory was the first person I’d had in my life who was real. She simply was who she was. The irony was not lost on me that she was at Barrington Manor to play a part. To act. To lie. But she’d somehow taken a starring role in myactuallife, which is to say my interior life, or more specifically, my heart.
Rory was a real person who had a genuine heart. She cared about me. She cared about Luke. She cared about her family. Hell, she’d sold herself to a stranger in order to keep her little brother and sister safe. Her loyalty, selflessness, and bravery were admirable. She was so young and innocent, and yet, she was remarkable.
She made me laugh, she made my pulse race, and she made me want to protect her like a caveman. When Cousin Andrew had looked at her ass, I’d almost found a dinosaur bone and beat him over the head with it. When she’d called me ‘Sir’ again last night, I died inside. It was killing me to wait to take her until our wedding night, but I was doing it out of respect for her and also out of respect for our relationship.
