Dane took a step toward her, then another, until they stood toe-to-toe. “You could’ve ripped up the letter and ignored me,” he told her, reaching to brush a strand of hair from her cheek. He let his fingertips feather across her jaw as he continued. “You could’ve texted or even called. Yet here you are.”
“I needed to—”
“See me?” he asked, sliding his other hand up to frame her face. “Damn, I’ve missed you.”
Stella closed her eyes. “Don’t say that. We are nothing, Dane.”
He remained silent, waiting for her to finish the silent war no doubt waging in her head. After a moment, her lids fluttered and she focused on him.
“You don’t want to marry me, you want to sleep with me,” she told him.
Dane couldn’t suppress the smile. “Why can’t I do both?”
On a groan, Stella backed away and shook her head. “Because this is reality and the reality is I can’t be with someone who lied to and deceived me.”
Dane pulled in a shaky breath. He deserved that, but the words still hurt. He reminded himself that she was here, in his office, so not all hope was lost.
“You came to my house and slept with me,” he started. “I know you claimed you were using me and it was just physical, but that’s not the Stella I know. You love me.”
Her eyes widened, her mouth opened, but nothing came out. She quickly snapped her lips shut and set her jaw.
“Even after you realized who I was,” he went on, “you still wanted me. That’s not ego, that’s facts.”
Stella shrugged. “So what? Yes, I fell in love with you, but that’s not real. I fell in love with the person I thought you were. I don’t even know the real you.”
“You know me more than anyone else in my life. I’ve told you things, opened up about my past. I wouldn’t do that with someone I didn’t care about or someone I was just casually sleeping with.”
When she didn’t snap back with an answer, Dane hoped there was some part of her that believed him. He couldn’t stop this momentum now.
“I fully admit I sought you out as part of my strategy to retake ownership of this place,” Dane admitted. “I didn’t set out to purposely hurt you and once I got to know you...”
“What?” she demanded. “You magically grew a soul?”
Dane couldn’t hide his emotions and quickly realized Stella didn’t want him to. She deserved to know exactly how he felt, his every thought on this matter.
“Once I got to know you, I realized deceiving you wasn’t how my mom would want me to go about getting the resort back,” he explained.
Unable to stand still or to look at that hurt in Stella’s dark eyes, Dane started walking around the spacious office. He went to the wall of windows that overlooked the snowy mountain peaks.
“My mom wanted this place to be mine. There was no doubt about that. When I lost it, I knew that one day when I had the money and the power, I’d get it all back. This has been my goal since I was eighteen.”
Dane turned back around and leaned against the cool glass. “Now that it’s mine, I’m not near as happy as I thought I’d be. Everything is empty without you—the resort, my life. My heart.”
Unshed tears swam in her eyes and he couldn’t keep this distance between them another second. Dane crossed to her and took her by the shoulders.
“If you believe nothing else, you have to believe that I love you.”
Stella reached up and swiped at his cheek and Dane realized he’d let his emotions show a little too well. He hadn’t even noticed the tear. His only concern had been getting her to see that he hadn’t lied about everything.
“I’ll give the entire place to you,” he told her. “If you still want it, it’s yours.”
Stella gasped and jerked back. “What?”
Dane’s hands dropped to his sides. He couldn’t believe after all of these years, all of this work, he was saying this, but he meant it.
“My mother was proud of this place, she had a goal of passing it to me.” Dane raked a hand over the back of his neck and sighed. “But she wouldn’t want me ruining lives in order to reclaim it.”
“Dane.”