normal and natural, but now his words brought doubt creeping back in. She reached for the sheet. “I should go take a shower.”
He sighed. “I did not marry you just to have children.”
“No, you married me because I can save your company and your house, too. A house you claim you only want because it’s your mother’s.” He had the weight of the world, but it seemed like he wouldn’t even consider shifting an ounce of it.
He stood, his hands on lean hips, the candlelight illuminating how stunning his body was. “Sylvie, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have reacted the way I did, but I’ve honestly never thought of my mother dating at her age. Much less the man who helped raise me, who is still my right-hand man. He’s like family to me. How am I supposed to process that?”
She felt her eyes widen. “Probably the same way my brother will have to.”
His jaw tightened. “It’s not the same. Dre’s always known how I felt about you.”
That was news to her. She’d been close to her brother growing up. “You told him? Because he’s never mentioned it to me.”
“Who do you think convinced me to let you get through college before I tried to date you? The problem was you didn’t come back to Papillon after you graduated.”
She was still reeling from the thought that he’d talked to her brother. But not to her. Oh, he’d talked to her, but only to let her know he’d decided not to move forward with the relationship. “Is this how it’s going to be with you?”
“What does that mean?” Rene asked.
“If I stay with you, will I spend my life waiting to be told what you’ve decided?”
“Decided?” His face went blank for a moment. “Are you still upset about college? I explained that.”
His explanation was the problem. “You should have explained it to me then. You apparently explained it to my brother. Will you please get dressed? It’s hard to have this fight with your . . . with you swinging around like that.”
He didn’t seem even slightly self-conscious, but then she likely wouldn’t, either, if she looked like a Greek god. Rene’s body was lean and sculpted, and even his scars were sexy. It was incredibly distracting.
He simply stared at her. “Well, as I don’t want to have a fight at all, I think I will stay as I am.”
If he didn’t want to even talk about the problem, she wasn’t sure what she was doing. Her heart had softened seeing him get emotional, and for a moment she’d thought maybe they had a chance. What she had to remember was that Rene was excellent at casting a spell, as her momma would say. “I’m going to take a shower. I know it’s going to be cold as hell, but maybe that’s what I need.”
She stood, dragging the sheet with her, but he caught her arm, pulling her close.
“I’m sorry. I’m screwing up again, and I don’t know what I did wrong. I thought back then I was making the right decision for you.”
Yes, he obviously had no idea what he was doing wrong, and that was a problem. She wasn’t sure if it was her place to fix it. She wasn’t sure she wanted to have to be the one to fix it, but she still found herself talking. “You shouldn’t have made a decision for me at all. You should have trusted me to know my heart and my mind. You shouldn’t have plotted and planned behind my back. And you pretend you wanted me so desperately, but you didn’t come after me when I graduated.”
“I didn’t have a chance because you didn’t come back,” he argued. “I thought you would come back to Papillon after you graduated. Most everyone does while they’re looking for a job. You had a job waiting for you in DC. The first time you did come home, you brought Brad with you. Do you remember when you broke up with Brad and I showed up in DC three weeks later? That’s how long it took me to clear my calendar so I could pop up in your part of the country. And you were already dating Chad. You had a thing for preppy douchebags.”
“I had a thing for guys in suits, and you told me you had a conference you were attending.”
“Yes, it was the ‘romance Sylvie Martine’ conference, and I spent the whole time wanting to punch Chad in the face.”