Man of the House: A Dark Bad Boy Romance(49)

“I’m not going to let you go,” he said simply.

“Why would you have to?”

“I met with Bruce today.”

I blinked, surprise. “What happened?”

“He gave me an ultimatum, like we thought he would. He wants me to step down from the company and leave the country or else he’ll destroy it all and release everything he has.”

“Wouldn’t that hurt him?”

“He doesn’t seem to care about that. Thinks he can still make a profit from some insider trading scheme.” He shook his head, his face lined with concern. “He’s insane, Emily. Or at least he’s much more reckless than I ever dreamed.”

“What are you going to do?”

“I have a plan. It’s a long shot and won’t be comfortable. But I need you to know that no matter what happens, I want you with me.”

“I’m with you,” I said softly.

“Things could get bad for a while.”

“Are you going to give in to them?”

He pause then shook his head. “Not exactly.”

“Carter.”

“Just trust me. I need to speak with your mother and explain things to her.”

“She trusts you, you know. She always speaks very highly of you.”

He grinned. “She warned me to stay away from you.”

“I bet she did. She said the same thing to me about you.”

“I’m sure.”

“We didn’t listen.”

“No. Looks like we didn’t.”

“This is crazy. How can we have a relationship?”

“I’ll divorce your mother.”

“Even still. It’ll be a scandal.”

“It won’t matter.”

“We’ll be all over the news.”

“I don’t care.”

“I’m worried, Carter.”

“I’ll protect you. I promise. I’ll shield you from it all.”

“How?”

“I’m a very resourceful man, Emily.” He kissed me softly with a smile.

I sighed. “I don’t like the sound of that.”

“I’m sure you don’t. But what choice do you have? You’re head over heels for me.”

“I didn’t say that,” I said. “Just a general love. You know, a normal one.”

“Oh right, sure. I think you’re over the moon with love for me.”

“No, more like over a bridge. At best. Maybe a small mountain.”

He laughed and kissed me. “I’m crazy about you and I won’t let anything happen to you. Get it?”

“Got it.”

He kissed me again then slowly stood up. I groaned, frowning. “Just stay here,” I said. “For a little longer.”

“I can’t,” he said, smiling. “I need to find your mom and talk to her about this.”

“She’s still at the office.”

“Well, I’ll call her and get her to come home. This will be over soon enough and your mom can find a man that deserves her.”

I blinked and stared at him for a second then laughed. “Are you serious?”

“What?”

“My mom’s gay. You know that, right?”

“Wait . . . what?”

“Yeah, Carter. She’s gay.”

He stared at me then laughed. “You’re kidding? I had no clue.”

“You two never talked about it?”

“Never. I just never thought to ask, and she never brought anyone around . . . “He shrugged. “I guess it explains a lot.”

“Like what?”

“Like how she’s not deeply attracted to me.”

I groaned and rolled my eyes. “Get out of here, idiot.”

“Gay. Huh.” He laughed, shaking his head. “You’re all full of surprises.”

I laughed as he got dressed. He smiled and kissed me again before heading out, shutting the door behind him.

I got dressed slowly, lazily. I put on another Bowie record, this time dropping the needle right on the song Heroes. I listen to it as I put on my clothes then sat at the bar while the track finished.

I didn’t know what Carter was going to do, but I had to trust him. I had no other choice, really, but I truly did believe he would do what he thought was best. Maybe he’d step down, but I doubted that was all he’d do.

I loved him, and he loved me. That revelation was still fresh in my mind, and I felt like I was reeling from it. The feeling inside of me had happened so fast, came out of nowhere and turned into something unstoppable. At first I thought it was just lust, but I knew what it really was as time went by.

It was love, pure and simple. I hated being away from him and only felt truly good when he was around. Maybe it happened quickly, but it was based on something deep, something more than just lust.

Maybe that was the attraction at first, the forbidden aspect of our relationship. But quickly things changed and although we still both clearly loved that very forbidden and taboo dark aspect of what we had, that wasn’t everything anymore. I loved the person he showed me slowly as he opened up over the days.

The intense crisis surrounding us made that unfolding much more intense and fast. What might have taken months under normal circumstances took only weeks in our situation. There was still a lot of growing and bonding to do, but I knew that I couldn’t do it with anyone but him. Carter was the man for me, and there was no questioning that.