Page 85 of Modern Romance January 2025 5-8

“Your point?”

She lifted a shoulder. “What would people think if you looked at me differently. If you held onto me differently?”

“Why aren’t you a publicist?”

“I don’t want to be a wholesale minder of thoughtless billionaires.”

“And yet you’re so very good at it,” he said dryly.

“I’m embroiled. I am at the center of this. Whether I want to be or not. That means I have to take some responsibility for it. I accept that. I intend to do that. I intend to come out of this like a damned Phoenix. I will rise from the ashes of your father. Not from yours.”

She picked up her coffee mug, and took a sip.

“You are ruthless,” he said.

“I can be. I don’t come from anything. I don’t come from wealth or status. I come from a small town in Oregon. I never thought that I would see the world. I spent my life working to survive. Navigating complicated government systems and the flawed American medical system. I’ve been a caregiver. I’m not doing it again. What I do, I do for myself.”

If he had been another man he might have asked for details. But he wasn’t a man who knew people. He didn’t need to know Augusta.

Still, it was impossible to ignore her fierceness here. Her conviction.

“All right. Romantic. I can do that.”

He wouldn’t sleep with her. Sex was what had gotten him into this situation, and he felt the need to reevaluate some things. That was the problem. He had committed to this one hundred percent. He gave no quarter. He had to become what the media saw in many ways. He didn’t pause to reflect. Because the character that he played would never engage in self-reflection. But also because the predator within knew the steps.

He wondered how long it had been since he had engaged in any kind of reckoning.

Perhaps because the last one had been so painful, he had simply decided not to have them anymore.

Because breaking the connection between his heart and the world, his soul and himself, often seemed the most expedient way forward.

“I will require you to be available on demand.”

“For a period of time,” she said.

“Two months, and we reevaluate at that point.”

“All right.”

“But if I don’t feel that the job is done, then the job is not done,” he said.

“You must promise when all of this is done you’ll speak highly of me. You’ll make sure that my character is not besmirched, and you will recommend me, and my business to all of your billionaire friends.”

He chuckled. “Done.” He lifted a shoulder. “I am notorious for keeping things beyond cordial with women that I’ve associated with in the past. Thus ending our engagement will never reflect poorly on you.”

“It can’t reflect poorly on you either.”

“No,” he said. “If it does, then the whole thing will be for nothing.”

“We’ll evaluate that narrative at the end of the two months as well,” she said. “We’ll see how the wind is blowing in regard to the headlines.”

“How soon can you collect your things from your hotel?”

“I only brought one bag.”

“We are going to fly to London.”

“London?”