“I’m very serious. I told you that I don’t do commitments.” She jerked out of his reach and stared at him. Her chest ached, but she wouldn’t give up her ground now. “It’s not a big deal, Jarik.”
“It’s not the charity. It’s not the weather. It’s not your brother. It’s you,” he whispered.
“What’s me?”
“Your unhappiness. You’re doing such great things, but you won’t let yourself enjoy it. You’ve got a wall around you, Maria.”
“No. I’m not having this conversation. I can’t.” Turning from him, she tried to ignore the pain that washed over her. Jarik’s words hurt, and she wanted it to bloom into anger, but as she stomped from the tent, she only wanted to cry.
The next morning, he was gone.
The car ride back to the airport was miserable in more ways than one. Jarik sat in stony silence as he listened to Halil’s report. Melka and Samir had separated and Melka had yet to return to the palace. He vaguely heard him talking about Kashif but his mind was back in the camp. He knew he’d gone too far arguing with Maria but he was sick of her constantly chastising him for having money. “You need to come back,” Halil said gruffly, interrupting his thoughts.
“I will. As soon as I’m done with Kivi.”
“He is not your responsibility.”
“The hell he isn’t,” Jarik growled. He didn’t even let his security guard respond when he disconnected the call. His fight with Maria had him on edge, and he could feel the anger brewing inside him.
He wanted to hit something. Barring that, he wanted to make sure that Kivi never saw the light of day again. Halil may not understand his desire to seek vengeance on his old friend, but Jarik didn’t care.
His relationship with Maria may be over, but that didn’t mean he was going to turn around and head home. Kivi was going to get what he deserved and he intended to be the man to do it.
12
“Morning, sunshine.”
Maria looked up warily from her table at the familiar voice. Sebastian, dressed in a gorgeous silk shirt and black pants, lifted his designer sunglasses and winked at her. “Look alive. You have company.”
She opened her mouth to yell at him when she noticed the twenty people, armed with cameras and microphones, standing behind him.
The press. Oh, God, he didn’t.
“Sebastian!” she gasped. “What the hell are you doing?”
He flashed her a cocky grin and turned to the press. “This is my sister, Maria Walken. She’s an integral part of the charity,.”
Integral part? The charity was hers! As she stood to refute him, the reporters were already throwing out questions.
“Have you already doled out the gifts?”
“Did you do all of this?”
“Can you comment on the discrepancy in your funds?”
Sebastian put up his hands. “One question at a time. Maria only arrived yesterday, so I’ve done most of the setting up. We’ll be giving out the gifts tonight, and you’re welcome to join us and watch the joy on all the children’s faces.”
Maria’s mouth dropped open when she watched the press practically melt at his words. Grabbing his sleeve, she yanked him down to her level. “Get rid of them. Now.”
Nonplussed, Sebastian eased from her grasp. “Why don’t we take a walk around and get some footage of the camp. I’m going to talk with my sister about tonight, and we’ll get back to you.”
As they dispersed, Sebastian started walking away. Jumping up quickly, she scurried after him. “Where the hell do you think you’re going? Where have you been? What are you doing?”
“Maria,” he said as he slung an arm around her. “You worry too much. I’m late because I thought that rather than provide a press release this year, we’d invite the press to join us. It’s what you want, right? To do whatever possible to help these poor people?”
“So you thought that you’d walk in at the last minute and take credit for everything Tessa did? Everything that I did? Are you out of your mind?”
“Maria, you’ve been the face of Christmas Crates since its inception, but you don’t know the first thing about handling our donors or the press. Since you’ve been gone, I’ve been trying to shake things up, and I think we need to rebrand our image. I’m more approachable than you are, and I think I need to handle the press from here on out. Don’t take offense.”