Start With Me - Kara Isaac Page 0,84

…” She let the possible repercussion hang.

Victor studied her for a second. “I don’t believe you.”

“I’m sorry, what?”

“I don’t believe you lost your chance. Or, if you did, it was your choice, not theirs.”

Lacey blinked and tried to keep her surprise off her face. How did he know that? “Okay, that’s true. But still.”

Victor turned his body toward her, leaning on the step above. “But still, it must have been something pretty major for you not to pursue it. Not if you think getting it would have helped you get promoted.”

“That’s the thing. It wasn’t. Well, it wasn’t anything I hadn’t handled before. I didn’t want to play that game anymore.” The words were out before she could filter them.

Something flickered in Victor’s eyes, and she could tell he knew exactly what she hadn’t said. “Do I need to fly to New York and put someone into a wall?” His fist clenched, and he looked like he meant it.

“No. He’s not worth it. And if having to work with people like him is the cost of a promotion, then I don’t want it.” She shaded her eyes against the glare of the sun. She needed to get back to her room and pack. Get on a plane. Put some distance between the man next to her who made her wish they had more time. At least until this restructure played out a bit more.

“Okay, then.” Victor stood and held out his hand. She took it, allowing him to pull her up off the step.

“Okay, then?”

He brushed a piece of hair away from her face. “Okay, then we need to get you on a plane back to New York. Lace, at the end of the day, even with the promotion, thousands of people could do my job. But this new company needs you at its highest levels. I think you’re already a shoo-in, but you obviously don’t, so you need to go and do whatever you need to do to make it so.”

“Thank you.” For most of her career, people had treated her job like a joke. Like it was the kind of thing a woman did when she wasn’t smart enough to be a lawyer or a real professional. It took all of her willpower not to kiss him.

Instead, she wrapped her arms around his neck and tilted her body toward his. After a second, Victor moved forward, wrapping his arms around her and folding her into the safest harbor she’d ever known.

Her elevated position placed them at almost equal height. And, as she felt the thud of her own heartbeat, she could feel his as well. His cologne was cinnamon and spice. His breath wafted across her hair and down her neck, sending spirals of electricity down her body.

Lacey forced herself to pull away, avoiding his gaze. Knowing that if she allowed herself the luxury of surrender, she wouldn’t be leaving any time soon.

Victor’s question still hung in the air, but she couldn’t answer it. He’d as much as said he was taking his promotion, and she couldn’t walk away now. She had fought too hard, worked too much, to risk throwing it all away because a man who saw her like no one else ever had asked for a second chance at who knew what.

For the first time, she noticed that the corner of the eye closest to his scar was slightly longer than the other, the skin pulling toward where the stitching must have been. Her finger ran the length of the raised pink scar, from his upper cheekbone to his jawline, memorizing its puckered ridges.

Plastic surgery could work wonders these days. He could have had it fixed, or at least made less obvious. Why hadn’t he?

“It’s the only thing on Peter’s list.”

“I’m sorry.”

Victor stepped back. “This scar is the only thing on Peter’s side of the ledger. I stole the girls he fancied. Rubbed his sporting dreams in his face. Went after everything that was important to him. Kicked him whenever he was down. Basically made his life as awful as possible from the time he was born. I was a terrible brother to him for thirty years. The least I can do is keep the scar he gave me.”

And people thought sisters were complicated.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

“I’m not cut out for this part of motherhood.” Anna made the gloomy proclamation as she surveyed Libby’s birthday cake. Or, more accurately, what was intended to be Libby’s birthday cake.

Lacey looked up from the email she was typing and caught

readonlinefreenovel.com Copyright 2016 - 2024