we were feeling the same thing.”
“When did I ever give you the impression that I’d be willing to sell my business to be part of your world?” She wasn’t part of his world. Angie and Daisy had tried to tell her that yesterday. All these weeks she’d not only been part of a fake engagement, she’d been living a fake life. A life she’d never imagined for herself because it wasn’t who she was or who she wanted to be.
“This isn’t just about business, Nina. It’s so much more than that, and I dare you to stand there and truthfully tell me it’s different.”
She couldn’t and he knew it. Damn him, he knew how she felt about him. Just as Lynn had known how much Jacoby had loved her and yet she’d still walked out.
“My business is not for sale. I am not for sale!”
“Is that what you think this is?” he asked her quietly. “You think I’m so desperate for a fiancée that I’d try to buy your love in a mutually beneficial business deal?”
“You obtained a fake fiancée in a mutually beneficial business deal,” she snapped back.
His brow furrowed and, for the first time, she thought he looked as angry as she felt. Good, he could be angry. She didn’t care. He wasn’t going to run over her and take what he wanted just because he was one of the fabulous Golds! His money and prestige in the fashion industry wasn’t enough to take the life she’d worked so hard for away from her without a fight.
She was just about to say that and tell him exactly what he could do with his business deal and any other collaboration between her and RGF, when her phone rang. It was tucked into the back pocket of the pants she wore because she’d left her purse in her office.
“Please,” Major said solemnly. “Can we just sit down and talk about this like levelheaded adults? I could be wrong—this may not work. We should just talk it over and see how we can fix this.”
Her cell rang again and she yanked it out of her pocket, staring down at the screen. It was Angie. Nina turned her back to him and answered the phone.
“What is it?”
“It’s Dad,” Angie replied. “He fell. It’s bad, Nina. You’ve gotta come now.”
Her heart dropped and the room seemed to spin around her. Nina held tight to the phone as if that could ground her and keep her from falling. She took a deep breath and released it as slowly and as evenly as she could. “Okay. I’ll be right there.”
Disconnecting the call, she turned back to see Major staring at her. He looked so good in his gray suit pants and white dress shirt. The tie was a deep purple; she’d seen it hanging in his closet on the tie rack full of over one hundred others in different colors and patterns. He looked stricken, but maybe that was just because she was feeling that way. Maybe he’d looked so good and appealed to her so quickly because a part of her had wanted to see him that way. Perhaps everything she’d wanted to see and believe about this man and the situation he’d offered her was just a fantasy, a dream she hadn’t known she wanted to live, even if temporarily.
None of that mattered now.
“I have to go.”
“Nina—” he started to say.
“No!” Now it was time for her tone to be strong, for her to take the control her father had lost the day her mother walked out on them. “I’m leaving now, Major, and you need to let me go.”
“Please, just... Okay, let me take you wherever you need to go. If it’s back to your apartment, I’m okay with that, just don’t walk out of here without... I don’t know, Nina, just don’t.”
He couldn’t get his words out and she thought that was strange. Major always knew what to say. Well, that was fine. She knew what needed to be said.
“I have to go and Claude will drive me.” She didn’t wait for another response as she started for the door. This time when he reached for her, Nina didn’t pull away, she couldn’t find the strength to do so.
He touched her elbow lightly at first and then let his fingers trail to her wrist and finally lace with hers. “I messed this up,” he said quietly. “Let me fix it.”
She looked over her shoulder at him.
“There’s nothing for you to fix