Dirty Sexy Alphas (Twenty Book Box Set) - Hannah Ford Page 0,95

to be folded. But this had so many strings, it was tangled up in them. His company was gone.

I walked past him, sitting on the edge of the bed, overwhelmed. “But you built it yourself. Brick by brick. Why should she have it all?”

“Because I want my life back,” he said. “And that means being free of her, no strings attached, so I can be with you completely and without anything hanging over our heads.”

He walked to me, pulled me to my feet, and tipped my chin back so that I was looking up into his eyes.

“And the life I want has you standing beside me. Not her. She can take my company, but she won’t keep us apart. My company can be replaced. But there’s no one else like you.”

I shut my eyes and let his words wash over me—words I thought I’d never hear from him. Words I was afraid to let myself dream of, for fear of being broken-hearted all over again.

“You know me, Taryn,” he said. ‘Better than anyone. And you know I don’t do things I don’t want to do. I’ve spent years fighting her, and I don’t want that anymore. She’s a dark shadow over everything I’ve built, and I want to be free of it.”

I opened my eyes. “But what will you do now? You’ll have to sell your house. Oh god, you were going to buy your mom--”

“Whoa,” he said. “I’m not broke—the deal still compensated me for my stock with the company. And I have plenty of money not wrapped up in Prestige. I’ve invested in other companies; I’ve built a pretty healthy bank account. I’ll be fine.”

Relief made me want to slump to the ground. “But what if you regret this? What if you--”

“Hey.” He took my face in his hands, his expression softening. “You didn’t make this decision for me. And I won’t regret it. I wish I had done it sooner.”

The simplicity of his statement—the truth in his voice, the sincerity to his words—couldn’t quite set in. I was too scared this was a rash decision, that it felt like it was a smart move in the moment but he would wake up in a few weeks or a few months and regret it, and in turn blame me.

“Okay then,” I said, dazed. “Okay.” I sat on the edge of the bed, trying to figure out how I was supposed to react to this. “So what happens next?”

He grinned, pulling me back to my feet. “Now we get you out of this hellhole.”

“My internship’s not done.”

“I know, but no reason we need to stay here in this dump.”

We. He’d said we.

“You mean you’re staying in town for awhile?”

He shrugged. “My calendar has been abruptly cleared. Nowhere else to go.”

My internship had several weeks left. What the hell was he going to do in Texas?

“I’ll stay in Dallas,” he said, as if reading my mind. “You can complete the internship while I… hang out.” He gave me a toothy grin then, raising his eyebrow slightly to suggest just how much hanging out he wanted to do. “I’m not leaving you here, so grab your stuff. You’re staying with me.”

“Okay,” I said accepting that arguments were futile. “And where exactly are you staying?”

“My PA was researching it for me on the flight. She sent me the details via email. It’s downtown somewhere, so we can GPS it.”

“Alrighty.”

I still felt a little light headed as I walked away, overwhelmed. By his arrival, by the fact that Alexa was dealt with and he’d made the biggest sacrifice of his life—bigger than I’d ever have asked for or wanted him to make--by the fact that I would spend the next four weeks rooming with him. I hesitated, eyeing him over my shoulder as I gathered my stuff out of the dresser. “You know this internship lasts another month, right?”

His lip curled. “Reckon I’ll work on my Texas accent.”

I rolled my eyes and stuffed my clothes back into my suit case, then scooped up everything from the vanity and dropped it on top. “Okay, that’s it.”

“Your chariot awaits,” he said, leading me to the door.

I let my eyes sweep over the room one last time, just to be sure I hadn’t forgotten anything, and then hesitated.

The glass dildo was in the nightstand. Thinking of my fantasies—of Landon using it on me—had me striding to the bedside and discreetly slipping it into my purse, my cheeks burning.

If he saw it, he gave no indication.

I locked