I step out of his touch, and I see his hand fall. “You will not fucking take the blame for this. You will fucking not,” I say, swearing twice and getting angry. “You don’t get to take her shit and make it your own. She is a grown-ass woman,” I tell him. “A mentally unstable woman, I might add.”
“I know that.” He runs his hands through his hair. “I know that, but . . .” He looks at me, and his hand cups my face just like he did at the arena. But this time, I turn my face in his hand and kiss his palm. “What happened?”
“I’m not going to lie to you,” I say, and he nods. “I will never lie to you.” I need him to know this. “Ever.” He nods again. “She came into the office and was pushy with the receptionist, pretending we were friends.” He scoffs and shakes his head. “Then she came down and saw me, and in the middle of my office, she let them know that I was a home-wrecker.” I try not to shed any tears, but they come anyway.
“Oh my god,” he whispers and brushes away my tears. “I know this is hard, but I need you to tell me everything.”
“There really isn’t much more to say. She said you told her about us,” I whisper, “but I didn’t believe her.”
“I would never.” He steps closer to me. “I would never tell her anything about us. That is ours and only ours. It’s yours, and it’s mine, and I will never ever tell anyone about it.”
“I know,” I say, looking at him and putting my hand on his hand. “I knew she was lying.” I swallow now. “I didn’t show her how much it hurt me, and I was really proud of that.” I smile with the tears coming again. “I walked back to my office with my head high.” I shrug now. “My knees were shaking so much I thought that I would fall and my hands . . .” I look down and then back up again. “I couldn’t get my hands to stop shaking.”
“I wish I could make it go away,” he says as he bends his head and puts his forehead on mine. “I wish I could make it all go away.”
“I know it’s not true,” I say. “Tim came to my office after, and I didn’t tell him anything. He asked if I was okay, and when I just shook my head, he didn’t say anything else. He went back to the office floor and clapped his hands, telling everyone to get back to work. Everyone has signed an NDA, so if anything gets leaked, he is going to sue. My father also made sure to remind everyone of that little fact. I’m not a home-wrecker.”
“You’re not,” he says to me.
“How did you know?” I ask, and he lets go of me now and walks to the couch to sit down.
“I got home, and she was cooking for me.” He tells me what happened. “She said she spoke to you, and you told her everything. I knew she was lying. I can’t get into details right now,” he says. “But there is shit happening. It’s going to hit the roof, and I don’t know how the outcome will be, to be honest, and I’m both petrified and anxious about it.”
He looks as if he’s going to war. His eyes are wide, and his leg is shaking. I walk over to him and sit next to him, taking his hand in mine. “Are you going to be okay?” I ask him, my stomach burning with the thought that he gets hurt in any of this. “Is Jaxon okay?”
“I’m going to be okay,” he says. “We are going to be okay. I have to believe that. I need you to know that I’m going to make this better.”
“You don’t have to worry about me,” I tell him. The last thing he needs is the added pressure of me on his plate. “I’m fine. I’ll be fine.”
“I’m going to fix this for you,” he says softly and then looks down. When he looks up again, he has the biggest tears in his eyes, and one of them escapes before he can blink it away. “I know that I don’t have the right to ask this.”
“Manning.” My heart beats for him at the same time as it breaks for him.
“I have no right to even think of asking you this, but I’m not as noble as I thought I would be.” His voice goes down so low for the next part. “Will you wait for me?” He doesn’t stop. “I want to be the man who deserves you. I want you to be the one holding my hand at the end of this.” He puts his head back. “I’m such a selfish bastard, and I know that, but when it comes to you . . .”