The Scotch Series: The Complete Series (Scotch #1-3) - Penelope Sky Page 0,182

to begin with.”

I’d never apologize for that. I drank from my glass, dismissing her comment.

“My point is, neither one of us is innocent. But we love each other. Whatever we have is special, real. I know it is. I can see it in your eyes right now.”

Why did I have to give myself away so easily? Why did she have to read me like a goddamn book? “It doesn’t matter how we feel about each other. It’s over. So go back to New York and leave me the hell alone.” I pushed her away harder, trying to get her off my mind forever.

She didn’t flinch. “Crewe, when I leave next week, I’m not coming back. When I land in New York, I’m going to push you from my thoughts and move on with my life. I’m gonna find someone else to spend my life with. I’m not going to mope around and miss you. If you want me, now is the time to say something.”

My fingers gripped the glass tighter.

“I’m not bluffing, Crewe. Drop your pride and work with me on this.”

Now that there was a timer set, I felt the weight of the situation. If I ever found out she got married and had kids, even if it were years down the road, I’d be devastated. Even when knew she tricked me, I couldn’t let Ariel hurt her. I didn’t know why I loved this woman after the way she deceived me.

But I did.

“This is the only offer I’m gonna make.”

She stilled at my words, anxious for me to finish.

“And these conditions are nonnegotiable.”

“I’m listening,” she whispered.

“You come back with me—as my prisoner. You forsake your previous life completely. I’ll fuck you when I feel like it, spend time with you if I’m in the mood, but I don’t owe you anything else. I’m free to do what I want, when I want.” I was offering her the life I offered her in the beginning—one without promises. If she wanted to be with me again, she’d be the one to make all the sacrifices.

Her eyes narrowed in disappointment. “You’re asking me to be your slave?”

I nodded.

“To have no voice? To have no rights?”

I nodded again. “Take it or leave it.”

She crossed her arms over her chest and gave me a loathing look, the same kind she used to give me when we first met—when she hated me. “You’re being serious?”

“Dead serious.”

“Then I’ll leave it. No man in the world is worth it—certainly not you.” She left the table and carried her dishes to the sink, dismissing the meal even though our plates were still full. Her back was turned to me, so I couldn’t see her face.

I waited for her to say something else, to tell me what she was thinking. But nothing else came.

She walked back to the table, looking indifferent as she grabbed my plate. “You can go, Crewe. We have nothing more to say to each other.”

I’d successfully pushed her away. I’d successfully made her give up. “You don’t have any of your own demands?”

“You said it was nonnegotiable.”

I could just walk out, but my ass didn’t leave the chair. “Everything is negotiable.”

She threw my plate in the sink, where it shattered loudly. She turned back around, all her love and affection gone. “I thought things were different, Crewe. I thought you actually loved me, and when someone loves someone, they treat them like a human being. The fact that you want to keep me under your thumb, to boss me around like you own me, tells me that nothing was ever real between us. I’m not a thing, a possession, a pawn in your world. Your constant need to own and control everything is despicable, especially when you think you can apply it to me. Now I know this never would have worked, that I should have left when I had the chance. I don’t feel bad for leaving—because there was never a reason to stay.”

I put on a good face for my weekend in London, talking to old friends, acquaintances, and people with astute business minds. When I was surrounded by like-minded people familiar with noble aristocracy, I was in my element.

But all I thought about was her.

I pushed her buttons—hard. Freedom was a hard limit for her, a topic she wouldn’t negotiate, and I disrespected it.

But she disrespected me when she lied to me.

I shouldn’t feel bad about what I did because I’d accomplished what I set out to do. I pushed her