us. I have four hundred dollars to my name and zero formal education. I’ll never be a vegan or a shaman or a yoga instructor or some charming, witty guy you can take to functions filled with rich assholes. We don’t look right.”
“Who cares what we look like?” she shot back.
“You do,” I said.
She took a step back, a deep hurt in her eyes. It felt like I was being carved out, gutted. Georgie’s words wouldn’t stop, I was helpless to resist them. You think your girlfriend will ever see you as more than just motorcycle trash?
This was a fantasy and I’d known it all along.
“Beck,” Luna begged—and she was crying now. “Please don’t do this. Whatever it is you’re about to do.”
“I don’t think we should see each other anymore,” I said, every word dragging from my throat like a heavy stone. “We’ve had a lot of… fun. But you and I both know it’s time.”
Silence hung between us—punctured by people laughing, shouting, the ocean waves. Luna looked completely shocked.
“Well, that sucks,” she said finally. “Because I’m like totally and completely, madly in love with you, Beck Mason.”
Who showed you love, Beck?
Luna. Luna does. Or did. It was too tempting to cast off my doubts. Run off into the sunset with the rainbow billionaire.
But we’d only be having this argument a month from now. I knew it.
“Okay,” I said. Like a coward.
Which pissed her the hell off. Which was fine by me—I preferred her anger to her tears.
“Walls back up, huh?” she said. She lifted her chin, wiped her cheeks. I didn’t reply. “I know it’s scary. I know we have to trust each other. But guess what? I trust you, Beck. I trust you and I’m in love with you.”
“I don’t trust you,” I said, the truth of that startling me. There’d always been a grain of it left in there—the differences in our power, our status, our wealth were so shockingly high, how could I not?
She went still as a stone. Fury gone. Tears gone. Energy zapped back in. She looked silently devastated.
“That’s that, then,” she said. “If you don’t trust me, we can’t be together.”
“Right,” I said.
Her lip trembled. “Right,” she repeated. “I guess we’re over.”
“I guess.”
Without another word, Luna da Rosa walked away from me, head held high. And I watched her, watched her until she blended into Miami’s nightlife crowd. Watched the love of my life take my heart with her.
I wasn’t ever going to get it back.
But it was for the best.
57
Luna
Nights like these were the reason why the enclave had been built. Why Emily, Cameron, Daisy and I insisted on building mansions next door to each other. Because I couldn’t, wouldn’t, was physically unable to crawl through the front door of my house.
Instead, as I waited for my driver, I sent a single text to our group chat: Beck broke up with me.
Immediately, Cameron texted: We’ll be here when you’re dropped off.
I’d stashed my phone in my purse and pasted a fake smile on for Alissa. After I’d left Beck Mason, the love of my life, I’d calmly walked back to the event and proceeded to network like the CEO that I was. There were a number of businesswomen committed to making future, substantial gifts to the Wild Heart Foundation.
I would have been over the moon—finally feeling like me again—if my heart hadn’t been ripped out.
That truth sat like a heavy stone in my stomach, weighing me down all night. A night I barely got through. I’d just told a man that I loved him and he’d responded with I don’t trust you.
I couldn’t blame him.
The billionaire devil on my shoulder had claimed another victim. Wasn’t I probably to blame? From the moment we’d met, Beck had suspected I was using Lucky Dog for my own reputation. And I was. Or I had been. That wasn’t exactly the right way to start off a relationship with someone.
As I waited for my driver, feet aching, head aching, heart numb, Alissa waited with me. She leveled a cool gaze my way—like she could see all of my secrets.
“I believe in what you said tonight. The way money affects us, changes us. I’m awake most nights, terrified I’ll lose everything. When the truth is, I don’t need any more cash, that’s for sure.”
My jaw clenched. “Yeah. That’s me all the time now.”
I raised my arm when I saw my driver, hailing him over.
“Is it true Wild Heart lost its contract with Fischer Home Goods?”
“It is,”