My brows furrow, and I hold still, waiting for him to continue.
“If anything happened to you…” He stands behind me and places a hand on my shoulder, guiding me to lean back against his chest. “If I lost you, if you died, I’m not sure I would be able to move on.”
I draw in a frayed breath, shivering at the heat of his body against my back. “Relationships don’t always hurt like this. When it’s good, it’s the best feeling in the world. Those are the moments to fight for.”
His mouth lowers, exhaling a warm sigh against my neck, as if my words give him hope for us.
“We’re stuck, Trace. Stuck in a toxic cycle of poisonous mistrust, jealousy, misunderstandings, and closed-off emotions. None of that works in a lasting relationship.”
He wraps his arms around my waist and rests his brow against my temple. “Please, don’t give up on me.”
“I don’t know what I’m going to do, but I won’t give in. We have so much shit to wade through, first of which is your relationship with Marlo.”
He spins me around and cups my face. “I’ve never had sex with her.”
Trust. Broken.
I grip his muscled forearm. “I want to see the video footage from last night.”
“My laptop’s in the car.” He grabs my hand and leads me up the stairs.
My thoughts lump together in a jumbled mess as I follow Trace out of the basement. Maybe he didn’t fuck Marlo. Maybe my feelings for him haven’t been completely demolished. But that doesn’t make him any less of a manipulative bastard.
At the top of the stairs, he closes the door and fidgets with the padlock. “Why did you keep this locked?”
“It leads somewhere that no longer exists.”
He rests his lips against the top of my head for a silent moment. Then his hand catches mine and leads me away.
In the kitchen, he turns on the coffee maker and rummages through my cabinets while making a phone call.
“I’ll do this.” I nudge him to the side and grab the coffee beans.
“Yes,” he says into the phone and walks to the fridge. “Miss Angelo and I won’t be back to work until Friday. Make the appropriate arrangements.”
What? Friday is…four days away. I whirl around, glaring at his back as he digs out packages of eggs and bacon.
“Send someone to Miss Angelo’s house with an overnight bag for the week.” He turns and gives me an uncomfortable smile. “Jeans and t-shirts.”
I lean against the counter and fold my arms. “What are you doing?”
“That’ll be all.” He stares at the floor for a second and pulls in a breath. “Marlo, wait.” His hand goes to the back of his neck. “I’m sorry about last night. I used you. It was wrong and—” He closes his eyes, listening for several seconds. “Understood.”
He disconnects the call and meets my waiting gaze. “Marlo turned in her two-weeks after you left last night.”
I don’t blame her for quitting and can’t help but feel selfish relief. “She could sue you for sexual harassment.”
“She took the severance package, which required her to sign a release that frees me from potential lawsuits.”
“Lucky you.”
I drum my fingers on the counter as unease chews holes inside me. I’m not comfortable with his treatment of her. Maybe I should let it go, but that’s not my style.
“You think it’s okay to treat women like that?” I straighten my spine, meeting his glare head-on. “I mean, she worked for you, and you told her to masturbate for you in some disgusting game that had nothing to do with her. That’s not okay.”
He slides his hands in his pockets, stares at the floor, and releases a breath. “Marlo isn’t what she seems.”
“What do you mean?”
“She didn’t just want to hook up.” He looks up at me, his eyebrows gathering. “She’s infatuated with me to the point of delusion. I came home and found her, not once but three times, naked on the couch in my living room.”
“What? When?”
“It started around the time I hired you. I removed her security access and fired her.”
“Then why was she still working for you?”
“She brought in a team of lawyers, threatening sexual harassment—of which she had absolutely no grounds.”
“With all your money, you couldn’t fight that?”
“I could.” He scratches his jaw. “But I chose to teach her a lesson.”
“By watching her masturbate?”
“By waiting for the right moment to record her touching herself willfully, consensually, in my bedroom.”