Page 126 of End Game

“They will have to deal,” he says firmly. “I’m in love with you and that’s not about to change because of family duty. They don’t get to control my life.”

“No, but they control your trust fund.”

“Okay, so worst case scenario, we wait until I turn twenty-five to get married,” he says, like it’s that simple. “That’s only three years, and we’ll need most of that time to be ready.”

I blink at him.

“I’ve put thought into this,” he reminds me. “It’s been on my mind, in one way or another, since we were fourteen. I’m not afraid of a future with you. If we wait to take that step, I want it to be because we want to wait, not because of money.”

“Twenty-five million dollars is nothing to walk away from.”

He shrugs. “I don’t think they’ll disinherit me, but I’m willing to take that chance. You’re worth it to me.”

“Barrett. That’s insane.” Does he realize how insane that is? No, he doesn’t, or he wouldn’t be nearly so callous about it.

“I’m a good son. I’ve never done anything to make them unhappy. If they’re not happy with my being with you, I would cut them out of my life with no reservations,” he says. “Money isn’t everything. I will have a good job after graduation, more than enough to support the two of us, and it doesn’t matter whether I stay with the family company or if I join another firm. This is worth it. You are worth it.”

Tears well in my eyes.

Barrett squeezes my hand. “I’m not crying over it, so you shouldn’t, either.”

I swallow. “This is all just… a lot.”

“If you need time, you can have all the time you need,” he says softly. “I’m ready. I can wait for you to be ready, too.”

Chapter 38

Barrett

“I need to take a shower,” Diana announces.

“Okay.” Is she asking permission? She doesn’t need to ask to use my shower.

“Do you…” She swallows and meets my gaze head on. “Would you like to watch?”

Yes. Hell yes. A million times yes.

Still, I have to be cautious here. Maybe I’m misunderstanding her… “You want me to watch you take a shower?”

“Well, I would offer for you to join me, but you just got out of one yourself,” she reasons. “We have to get comfortable being naked with each other.”

“Okay, I follow you so far…”

“So if you wanted to stand there while I was in the shower, we could talk and we could… figure this out.”

What is there to figure out? I love her, she likes me, and we’re going to try for a relationship.

She springs out of bed. “Oh! I forgot.”

“Hm?”

Pulling her weekend bag onto the bed, she digs inside. When she finds what she’s looking for, she takes a deep breath and lifts her eyes to mine once more.

“You said I could keep some things here.”

“Yeah, of course. You should feel comfortable here,” I tell her readily.

From her bag she pulls a pair of jeans and a set of leggings, a black lace bra, a handful of underwear—I don’t look too closely at the mess of cotton and satin and lace—and a sleep scarf.