The doorbell rang, pulling her from her reverie. She walked through the empty condo to answer it. She’d refused to accompany Drake to work all week, too busy feeling sorry for herself and not willing to play his games.
As soon as she opened the door, she was bombarded by more flowers than she’d ever seen in her life. Mira knew there was a delivery man behind the massive bouquet, but the dozens and dozens of rainbow roses hid him from view.
She struggled to take the load of flowers from him, bringing them inside and setting them on the kitchen island before returning to the door.
“Sorry about that,” she said.
“No problem. Sign here, please.”
After she signed his delivery form, he handed her a card with a gold seal.
She closed the door and immediately started to open the envelope, half in a daze. The card was from Drake Eastwood. He apologized again for what had happened and swore on his life it wasn’t what she thought. God, she wanted to believe him more than anything. But she wouldn’t turn a blind eye just because she was falling for her bully.
Unlike his past women, she couldn’t be bought. Not with money, sweet words, or these beautiful, beautiful roses. Even if she had to return to her shitty apartment and tedious job, it would be better than being trapped in a fake, loveless marriage. She wanted all or nothing when it came to love. Only their arrangement wasn’t so simple.
If she had to stay forever because of the contract and Nigel’s best interest, she’d do it but refused to put her heart into anything. She’d exist, nothing more.
As she set down the card, she couldn’t stop staring at the flowers. The entire room was perfumed with their sweet scent. She sighed, wishing she could have the fairytale ending. When a set of arms wrapped around her from behind, she squealed so loud she scared herself.
“You like your flowers?” Drake’s voice whispered next to her ear, dark and delicious.
She whirled around in his strong arms. “What are you doing here? You scared me. I didn’t even hear you come in.” Her heart was still racing.
“I wanted to see your reaction.”
“Well, they’re beautiful, obviously.” She tried to move away, but he had her pinned between his arms against the island. “You’re trying to buy my forgiveness. But flowers can’t change what happened.”
“Nothing happened.”
“So you keep saying.”
Why was he lying? He could get any woman he wanted. The man was rich, powerful, sexy, and addicting. It didn’t make sense to sneak around when plenty of other women would accept him and his roving.
“Do I have to prove it to you, Mira? What will get you back on my side?”
She exhaled. “We’ve been through this a thousand times. You can’t change the facts, Drake. I saw what I saw.”
He reached into his suit jacket and handed her his cell phone, the one he was never without. “I have no secrets from you, Mira. Check the messages from Katherine.”
She hesitantly took the phone. If this were all hearsay, she’d try to trust him, but she’d seen the incident herself. “What am I looking for?”
He didn’t answer, waiting for her to check for herself. There were a ton of messages from Katherine, minute after minute, and none of them had responses from Drake except the last one. Mira narrowed her eyes as she read the messages on the day she’d caught them together. She’d apologized to Drake for what she’d done, telling him she was desperate for him to take her back. She saw Mira as the enemy and wanted her out of the picture. The messages confirmed everything Drake had said. Mira continued to scroll through the messages before reading Drake’s final response.
“You told her to leave town?”
“I won’t have some crazy bitch threatening my woman. You’re all that matters to me now.” He cupped her face, making eye contact with her. “I’ll do anything to protect you. I’ve never had anyone, Mira. I want to make a family with you.”
She swallowed hard. It was like a beautiful dream, and she was afraid to believe it.
“Thank you for the flowers.” Her voice was barely above a whisper.
“There are no other women. None. The day you signed that contract was my last day as a single man, in my opinion.”
“Promise?”
He nodded before kissing her lips. It felt like a lifetime since they’d had a physical or emotional moment. Their time on the yacht had been like a dream, and then everything came crashing down.
“I’ve been thinking of ways to prove my innocence all week. If I had a camera inside my office, you’d see for yourself. But I need you to trust me, Mira. I have a lot of enemies and a tainted past. But you have to believe that my feelings for you, my loyalty for you, is solid.”