His Forbidden Love (Manhattan Billionaires #2) - Ava Ryan Page 0,50

by the way. The right-side nightstand is empty, whenever you need to leave anything here.”

A nightstand. He’s offering me a nightstand. It took three months for Bruce to authorize me to leave my toothbrush on his counter.

“Okay,” I say, my head spinning. “Thanks.”

“Mia brought you a dress and some panties. So you won’t have to wear my robe home when you—” He takes a good look at my face for the first time, his expression falling. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” I say, largely because I don’t know how to characterize it myself. I peer into the bag and discover a pretty maxi dress that matches my eyes before setting the bag on the bench at the end of the bed. Mia’s got good taste. “You’re so thoughtful. Thank Mia for me.”

He goes very still, reminding me of the forbidding man I met on the first day of my internship. The man I didn’t know at all. Which makes me wonder how well I think I know this man. But I recognize reproach when I see it.

“Ally. Don’t do that.”

I hesitate, thrown off-kilter by his use of my first name, then plunge ahead with my thoughts only partially formed. A practice that usually ends badly for me.

“I just… I’m not quite sure how we got here.”

“Neither am I,” he says, his expression softening.

“I’m a little shell-shocked.”

“So am I. But it’s all good.”

I start to smile, feeling reassured. But then I remember what I overheard. “I caught part of your conversation with Mia.”

“Okay…?”

“She knows about me. I mean, she knew about me before tonight. She knew about me when I met her.”

“She did,” he says, watching me closely. “She figured out you were the woman I’d told her about.”

“So you’d mentioned me to her before.”

“I had.”

I nod, trying not to sound too overblown about the whole thing. “I kind of feel like she knows more about our relationship than I do.”

A tinge of amusement from Michael. “I seriously doubt that.”

“I always thought that you liked me. I could never shake the feeling.”

“You were right.”

“I’d catch you looking at me. Or, I don’t know, lingering. Always in my line of sight. Always close. Always so many vibes from you. You always seemed like you had something you wanted to tell me.”

“Because I did, Ally,” he says.

The tenderness in his tone fires me up. “Yeah, but you acted like you didn’t. You pretended it was all in my head. I was obsessed with you. I was falling in love with you. That was the most miserable year of my life, working so closely with you and never saying anything about it. I didn’t want to have feelings for a married man, but I couldn’t help it. And I kept thinking that I wasn’t crazy. That I wasn’t imagining things. Then when I finally worked up the nerve to tell you about it that night in the bar, you pushed me away. You were brutal about it. You gaslit me.” I bark out a laugh that’s shaky and humorless. “And you were really good at it.”

“That was the hardest thing I’ve ever done.”

“Which?” I ask bitterly. “There were so many layers to your brilliant performance.”

He hesitates, a muscle pulsing in his temple. I notice, for the first time, the tightness of his jaw and the flash of turbulence in his eyes. “All of it.”

“Yeah, well, thanks to you, I don’t know whether I can trust you or myself.”

“I had to, Ally,” he says gruffly.

“That’s my point.” I can’t stop my voice from rising. “You didn’t.”

“Well, what did you want me to do?” he shouts, his mouth twisting. “Cheat on my wife and fuck up your life in the process? I’m not that guy. You should be glad I’m not.”

“Of course I didn’t want you to cheat on your wife,” I say, but that’s not entirely true. There were points along the way during that tortured year when I would’ve happily helped him break his marriage vows. When I lived for the opportunity. Prayed for it. If he’d given me the slightest opening, I would’ve dived through it. I was that far gone. “I just wanted you to be honest about your feelings. Like I was.”

“That would’ve been cheating on my wife,” he roars. “Don’t pretend you don’t understand that. I resisted temptation, which is what any spouse deserves. I gave my marriage everything I had to give. I gave until it hurt. When it didn’t work out, that had nothing to do with you. Now I have