Secrets Of The A-List Box Set, Volume 2. Cat Schield

he echoed, realizing he’d made a mess of things...again. “I didn’t mean that. I meant the opposite. I meant that you deserve more—you deserve better. You deserve to be showered in jewelry and clothes and made to feel like a princess.”

      “In an ivory tower?” She shook her head. “No, thanks. I’m not the princess type. Now, can we forget we’ve had this conversation? I didn’t ask you here to rehash the same old issue about you and me. There is no you and me...you got that?”

      “If I promise to stop being such an arrogant asshole, will you change your mind?”

      She shook her head. “No. And don’t ask me why. Just accept that it’s better this way.”

      “I can’t,” he said and moved a few steps closer. “Is there someone else?”

      For a moment he longed for her to say that there was. At least he would have an answer. A real reason. She shook her head. “Please, Luc. It’s never going to happen.”

      “Because you’re scared,” he said and saw her tremble and then ached inside because all he wanted to do was hold her close. “I know you’re scared. So am I. I know I’m meant to marry a politician’s daughter and have a bunch of kids. But it’s not what I want, Vanessa. I want you. Only you.”

      “No,” she said and took a deep breath.

      “I don’t care what people think, or what’s expected of me,” he said, sensing she was hurting and knowing there wasn’t a damned thing he could do about it. “I had to fight my father’s wishes to become a doctor because it was expected that I’d join the family business. I nearly broke my neck playing polo a dozen times in high school because it’s what my family wanted. I learned to sail even though I hate the damned water because it’s what my family wanted, and I’m with someone who isn’t the love of my life but she’s the kind of woman who will fit in with my family’s expectations. And unless I’m saved from myself, I’ll marry her and only dream of what could have been.” He stepped closer and grabbed her hands, holding them firm within his own. “So, save me, Vanessa. Save me from myself. Please.”

      She trembled and faltered on her feet, and for a microsecond Luc thought he would finally have her in his arms, that he would finally be allowed to kiss her beautiful mouth and feel her lovely curves pressed against him. But she didn’t. She swayed a little more, took a short, sharp breath and then wrenched her hands free, stepping back, putting space between them.

      He watched as she walked toward the long window, her hair pulled back in a bun low on her nape, her arms wrapped around her waist. Was something seriously wrong? Was she having troubles working at Casa Cat? Was she being mistreated? Not by his mother, surely? And the rest of the staff all seemed respectable and hardworking. Even Eli, the groundskeeper, who could be a little temperamental, had always appeared to show Vanessa respect. But if something had changed—if she was in trouble—he wanted to know. He’d demand to know!

      “Vanessa...what is it? What can I do to help?”

      When she turned back, there was an odd coldness in her expression. And then she whispered words he had never imagined he would hear.

      “I think your mother is having an affair with Joe Reynolds.”