was a man now. He had responsibilities, and I saw them on his shoulders, like they were literal weights. A visible burden.
Even as I wondered why he hadn’t taken the easy route, why he hadn’t gone to college when he’d been given a scholarship to Yale, why he hadn’t waited until he was twenty-five to gain access to a bigger trust fund, I had to admit that I respected him all the more for it.
He hadn’t taken the easy way out, and neither had I.
“I can feel you watching me.”
I didn’t bother blushing. I felt no shame for what I was doing.
If anything, I just sighed in appreciation as he stretched, his tee pulling taut against his belly, revealing a hard stomach I wanted to lick.
There was only one man who could make me feel this with only a goddamn stretch, and he was lying beside me.
“You’ve no shame, Theodosia Kinkade.”
My lips twitched at his teasing. “You say my full name too much.”
“It suits the occasion.”
“It does?” I queried, my brows high.
“Yep.” He yawned, dragged over the menu, and rang the bell for the steward once he’d made his selection. “You want anything?”
“Breakfast tea.” Then, I thought about how I didn’t have to train for a good two weeks, and though it felt so wicked, I cleared my throat and mumbled, “A stack of pancakes.”
He snickered, but in his eyes, I saw the glint of understanding—he knew what it was like in the run-up to a meet. And the Olympics was just that on a massive scale.
I hadn’t eaten anything fun in months. Egg whites, brown rice, and bland poached chicken.
Yum.
Not.
The steward arrived, giving me a warm glance that I’d been ignoring ever since I boarded. Adam grunted at the sight, glared at the man, and I smiled at him because it amused me.
When Adam, glaring all the while, put in our order, I laughed the second the guy disappeared.
“Why are you jealous?” I inquired with a soft smile. “You have to know it isn’t necessary.”
“Just like it wasn’t necessary for you to be jealous of Maria, but you were.”
My smile didn’t falter. “I’ve never lied about how I feel for you. Never tried to convince you otherwise. I’ve always stayed true to you.”
He closed his eyes, and though the words should probably have made him happy, I was glad they caused him pain.
Yeah, I knew I was no saint, but still, I’d accepted that a long time ago. Just as I’d accepted that I couldn’t hold Adam to me, and that I couldn’t be an integral part of his life.
“Do you know what that does to me?”
“Racks you with guilt?” I replied lightly. “Makes you wonder why you couldn’t stay true to me when I stayed true to you?” I hummed. “I can imagine.”
“Yeah, I’ll bet you can.” His mouth tightened. “You ignored me.”
“For your own sake.” I saw he was getting angry, and because I was curious, I changed the subject. Not because I didn’t discount his anger, because he could get angry—I’d prefer that to the polite platitudes we usually shared with one another in his parents’ presence. “Do your folks know you’re with me?”
“No. Of course not.”
His derision had me snorting. But I still said, “I thought Robert wouldn’t have minded...”
“Dad wouldn’t. Mom would. She knows about the divorce.”
Huh. So Anna’s visit had been, what? Reconnaissance? She’d wanted to know if I was the reason behind the divorce?
And who the fuck was Maria’s baby’s father if, for the past eight months, Adam had pretty much been living full time in London or, when he was back home, Anna had been the one chauffeuring Freddie around for visits with his dad?
I said none of that out loud. Anna wasn’t important. She never had been.
His jaw was tight as he muttered, “I used the family firm, which was foolish in hindsight.”
Reading between the lines, I questioned, “Doesn’t that breach attorney-client privilege? If your attorney told her, I mean?”
“Yeah, it does. I won’t be using him again, and he’s lucky that I won’t say shit to the bar association.”
“Why won’t you?”
He shrugged. “She’d have found out anyway, and I like to know who’s loyal to me.”
I thought about that. “So, now you know he can’t be trusted, and he’s proven that to you, you know for a fact to move your business elsewhere?”
“Exactly. He showed me early on, before I could trust him with anything too sensitive, that his loyalty went to my parents above me.”