“I would love that. Maybe we can do dinner…”
“Definitely,” he said. “Well, I’ll let you go.”
“Do you want to talk to Con again?”
I held out my hand to take the phone.
“Nope.” He hung up.
She couldn’t hide her grin as she dropped the phone into my hand. “Must be busy…”
I stuffed the phone into my pocket, knowing my father was just resentful toward me after our last conversation. “I told him the truth about us.”
“The truth?” She raised an eyebrow. “What does that mean?”
“The whole truth. He knows how we met. He knows I bought you from the Underground. He knows everything.”
“Oh…it seems like he took it well.”
“He didn’t give me too much shit about it. I thought he was going to smash the bottle of scotch over my head and knock me out, but he didn’t. He probably thought it was pointless since I was already so miserable. Not much he could do to make me feel worse.”
She moved her hand to my thigh.
“But the truth is out.”
“I guess it’s nice we don’t have to pretend anymore. It’s easy to live under the light of the truth instead of the shadow of a lie.”
Andrew’s assistant approached us then guided us into his office. “Mr. Lexington is ready to see you now.”
The second I looked at Andrew’s face, I knew he was pissed. And he knew exactly why I was there. Like the last time we met, we didn’t shake hands. I sat in one of the chairs facing him, giving him a silent greeting.
Muse spoke to him with the same warmth she spoke to everyone. “Hello, Andrew. Thanks for meeting with us.”
He was cold to her, but not nearly as cold as he was to me. “Sure. I think I know why you’re here.” He turned to me. “Sapphire is under contract, as I’m sure you know. The only way to break that is with cash—so I hope you brought your checkbook.”
“Of course,” I said. “Sapphire will be returning with me to Italy. So your arrangement ends today.”
He turned his gaze back to her. “I hope you’re sure about this. Because if there’s another bump in the road, there won’t be a home for you here.” It was a subtle threat, but a threat nonetheless. He couldn’t persuade her to stick around, not while I was in the room. That was all he had at his disposal.
But Muse didn’t flinch. “I understand, Andrew. Thank you for everything you’ve done for me. I appreciate it. I know Conway is a bit quiet, but I know he appreciates how well you treated me.”
“Because he didn’t treat you right himself,” Andrew said coldly.
My hand tightened into a fist, but I didn’t rise to the challenge. I couldn’t combat his comment when it was absolutely true. When I threw Muse off my property, it was the dumbest decision I had ever made.
I wouldn’t fuck up like that again.
I’d do everything I could to keep her around.
“Let’s crunch those numbers now.” I pulled my checkbook out of my pocket along with a pen. “And we’ll be on our way.”
10
Sapphire
Italy wasn’t the same as it was when I left.
Now it was cold, cloudy, and wet. The sun was blocked by thick clouds, so the fields didn’t shine with the same splashes of green and gold. The heat that I adored had disappeared, and I wondered how long it would be before it returned.
We got into the SUV at the airport, and his men drove us back to his place in Verona.
Conway sat beside me, holding my hand on his thigh. He’d hung up his suit during the flight and put it back on once the plane landed on the runway. Dressed for anything and everything, Conway projected the same intense confidence whether he was traveling or not.
He turned his face toward me, watching me examine the surroundings through the window. “There’s just a storm passing through. October is a beautiful month here. Once we hit November, the temperature will drop, and we’ll start to get snow.”
“So the sun will come back?” I asked hopefully.
“Yeah. It’ll be here for a few more weeks. Then we’ll have to move the horses and everything in the barn.”
“Good idea.”
We drove for another twenty minutes before we approached the gates to his mansion. Three stories and beautiful, it was still stunning just like I remembered. I stared as it came closer into view, seeing the ivy along the walls and the fountain still pouring water. Joy filled my heart the second I looked at it. I never felt this way when I returned to New York. I’d lived there my whole life, but I didn’t have this same kind of affection for it.
But this place was different.
He leaned into me and brushed his lips against my forehead. “Welcome home.”
My clothes were organized in the closet. All the things I was forced to leave behind were still there. My hair and makeup supplies were in the bathroom drawer, and the top drawer in the dresser was filled with my panties and lingerie.