“No. I am done with him.”
Bubbles of panic popped inside her. “But if you sever ties with Mario now, he’ll know I told you what happened.”
“Who cares what he thinks?” he asked.
“I do and so should you. Think what he will do if you break your contract with him,” she said. “There are legalities to face, and what about the ensuing publicity?”
“Mario won’t be so foolish as to engage in a legal battle with me,” he said.
She hugged herself but still couldn’t stop her trembling. “What if you’re wrong? What if he retaliates and spreads vicious lies about me? I can’t have that black mark attached to my name or my program.”
“I respect your decision to keep silent about this, but your way of dealing with it is to live in denial—and whilst that is your choice, I intend to take the direct and final approach.” He snagged the phone off his desk. “Get legal on the phone now.”
Panic clawed at her throat. “If you go through with this now, I’ll be the one who’ll end up with the tainted reputation.”
“I won’t allow that to happen.” He slashed the air with his hand, features hard and cold. He spoke into the receiver. “Begin proceedings today to cancel all contracts with Mario Godolphin in all industries and business.” He paused, listening for a response. “Yes, every single one of them, and see that he’s barred from setting foot at this lodge.”
He soundlessly laid the receiver in the cradle, but a black silence roared in the room.
She pressed her palms to her temples, chest heaving, her control close to snapping like a mighty pine under the force of an avalanche. “I’ve worked hard all of my life to ensure I had a clean name. Divulging the past now will ruin that. They’ll believe every lie he tells.”
He chewed out a curse, muscle thrumming madly in his lean cheek, eyes narrowed to angry slits. “And what if letting him get away with this leads him to force himself on another woman?”
She covered her face with her palms, feeling sick inside. Trapped. “I would never want this to happen to any woman.”
“Neither do I,” he said. “Severing all ties with Godolphin is the right thing for me to do. You must choose what you feel is the right thing to do for yourself. But, bella, Mario is the guilty party in this. He should be held accountable for harming you.”
She sighed, so very tired of running, hiding, of closeting her emotions so they wouldn’t leave her vulnerable to making the same mistake again. “Okay,” she said at last. “I’ll consider it, after my contract is completed.”
“Good.”
He crossed to an elaborate liquor cabinet, but instead of fixing a drink, he stood there like a statue. She wondered what to do. If there was anything she could or should do.
Hesitantly, she crossed to him and wrapped her arms around his stiff frame, desperate to feel his strength. To hide from reality if just a little while longer.
He remained cold and hard as steel for less than a heartbeat in her embrace. Then he heaved a sigh, grasped her wrists to stay her and turned to embrace her so tightly she feared she might break. She grabbed a breath, then another and held it tightly as his arms enveloped her, holding her close, his head finding a place on her shoulder to rest, his face millimeters from her neck with his breath so intensely hot that her chills finally, finally eased.