“Don’t be.”
“I should’ve kept my mouth shut. I tried, but then she went on and on about how you were just a playboy living off the citizen’s dime, and it wasn’t true.”
He leaned down and pressed his forehead to hers. “I don’t care what they say about me. I only care what you think about me.”
“I don’t believe any of it. I mean, I did. But that was before I got to know you, the real you.”
She sighed and the morning strawberry sweetness still lingered on her breath. Alex realized he had never gotten his taste test.
“But now I’ve ruined everything,” she said, bitterness lacing her tongue. “When Lila Drake prints that story, the investors will find out. They’ll think we scammed them. They’ll pull out.”
That caught Alex’s attention. He hadn’t considered that bit of fall out.
“I think I should just leave,” she said.
Jan gave a tug, but Alex wouldn’t relinquish his hold on her.
“I think it’s for the best,” she continued. “The press will forget about me. You can still open the restaurant. Alex and Esme will invest if you don’t want to use the inheritance. You can hire another chef and—”
“No.” His voice was firm. “I won’t hear of it. This place is nothing without you. I am nothing without you.”
“But I’ve crushed your dream.”
She hadn’t. Not even slightly. He would run a food cart so long as she was beside him. For now, he laced their fingers together, down to the webbing until it felt like they were one.
“I’ve dreamed of opening a place like this all my life,” he said. “But I never thought I could do it until I met you. We do this together or not at all.”
“You want me to stay?” she asked. “As your business partner?”
“I want you …” He swallowed a huge lump in his throat.
The rest of the words were right on the tip of his lips, but they wouldn’t come out. She’d been so ready to walk away from him. Could she feel the same way about him as he did about her if she were so ready to give him up?
“I want you,” he tried again, “however I can keep you.”
Jan gasped at his words. Ever the opportunist, Alex took advantage. He pulled her to him. His lips brushed lightly over hers before he broke away and led them out the front door.
The light kiss wasn’t enough, but it would do. They had work to do. There still was a chance they could save the restaurant and their dream. But they’d have to move fast.
Chapter Twenty-Four
The King of Cordoba slammed the morning paper down on his desk. The edges of the thin parchment trembled under his fingers. Though the paper was lightweight, its words fired heavy artillery.
Jan flinched at the sound of Leo’s palm on the wood, and at the angry, belligerent picture they’d captured of her.
Her lips were pulled from her teeth in a snarl as she faced off against that awful reporter. One hand was raised, a finger raised in the woman’s face as though she were telling her off. Well, that part at least, they’d gotten right.
Jan had told Lila Drake off. She’d tried to make the woman see reason, see the truth. But like every other story the scandal pusher published, this story twisted and contorted the facts until it wasn’t even reality.
“This is an unmitigated disaster,” said Leo. “It’s the worst jam you’ve gotten yourself into.”
Those comments were directed at Alex. Just as Jan wouldn’t stand by and let the reporter paint Alex in a negative light, she wouldn’t allow his brother to do it either.
“Alex didn’t do this,” said Jan. “It was that horrible reporter. I told her the truth about him. She knew the truth and still all she wanted to do was print lies.”
“But this isn’t a lie.” Leo held up the paper.
The headline read Flambé Fiancée. The story went on to detail how Jan was the mastermind behind a plan to swindle Alex out of his inheritance. Lila was cruel characterizing Jan as a brain with no beauty. The words had hurt, not because they were true, but because they would be so easy for others to believe.