Pure Seduction by Frank, Ella (first ebook reader .txt) 📕

Laurel looked down in her lap as she fiddled with the edge of her book. “You do? I mean, I know we talked about going to USC together and getting out of here, but—”

“But what? You don’t think I’m going to let you go once we get there, do you?”

She raised her head so we were eye to eye.

“I’m not letting someone else have you. You’re mine, Bonnie. We go together, you and me. Forever.”

Her shy smile made my heart thump. Laurel put her book to the side and moved to her knees next to me. “Give me your keys.”

“What?”

“Your car keys. Give them to me.”

I handed them over and watched as she began to carve something into the trunk of the tree, and when she was finally done, she sat back and grinned.

“There.”

I looked at her handiwork, and when I saw what she’d written, I smiled. Bonnie & Clyde, and under that, Together Forever.

“Come here.”

Laurel nodded and closed her eyes as she moved into my arms and snuggled into me. “I don’t want to read any more.”

“No? I thought you wanted to finish the book.”

She shrugged and tipped her face up to mine. “You were right. We only have to read to chapter twenty. I was being ambitious. Overreaching, as always. I just don’t want to mess this up for us.”

“Stop worrying. You could never mess this up.”

She smiled at me, and with the sun in her hair and her blue eyes twinkling, I knew I was done. Laurel was my forever, and I knew I’d love her—always.

YEAH… FOREVER HADN’T really worked out for us, and it seemed Laurel was content to leave anything we did have well in the past.

In fact, I didn’t think I’d ever seen a woman run away from me so fast in my life. But as Laurel had shoved out the door of Dave’s Coffee House, you could all but see the cloud of dust in her wake.

Not that I could blame her—up until she’d asked about Italy, we’d slipped back into familiar territory as we tried to reacquaint ourselves with one another. There was too much history there, however, too many landmines to dodge. So it wasn’t that much of a surprise when one of them blew up in my face.

I finished off my coffee and headed back to where I’d parked my car behind the courthouse, and when I climbed inside, I pulled out my cell. For a minute I just sat there staring at the screen, trying to come up with a solution to the problem facing me.

I had one of two choices. I could say fuck it and Harry and go back to Italy, and in the process screw over my mom and siblings, giving them every reason in the world to hate me. Or I could call up Sergio, explain to him what had just gone down, and see what kind of options we had.

Honestly, it didn’t feel like I had any. It was like déjà vu: Harry blackmailing me and threatening me with something he knew I would never say no to.

He’d put me in a horrible position, one I’d never actually wanted. CEO of Chamberlin Winery? I didn’t want that. I didn’t want to carry on his legacy. Not to mention that it was so much fucking work running a business that size. Not only were you in charge of making sure the vineyard was a success, you were also in charge of the lives of the people working for you, and unless you were all in, it was a job that would make you truly miserable.

I was no stranger to hard work, so that wasn’t the problem here. The problem was that I’d have to give up my life in exchange for the one Harry had decided for me, and that was the exact same thing he’d done to me all those years ago.

Not seeing any other choice, however, I called my mom and waited for it to connect. I needed to sit down with her and see where her head was about all of this. I also wanted to know where the business was. How it was doing? It wouldn’t surprise me to learn that Harry had left me a sinking ship just to be spiteful. But if that were the case, I would do everything I could to turn it around for Mom, just so he could roll over in his damn grave.

One year. That wasn’t all that long in the scheme of things, right?

“Noah?”

“Yeah, hi, Mom. Are you back at the winery or still here in town?”

“I’m back. Ryan drove me.”

“Good, that’s good,” I said, and gripped the steering wheel as I stared out the windshield. “Do you mind if I head over that way now? I think we need to talk about what happened this morning.”

“Of course. I can’t begin to imagine what you must be thinking…or feeling. I’m still trying to process it all myself.”

“It’s a big ask, Mom. A year?”

“I know. He shouldn’t have done it.”

I closed my eyes and leaned back against the headrest. “Well, what else is new when it comes to Harry?”

There was a pause, and then she said, “There’s a staff meeting scheduled this afternoon at three to talk about how we’ll be moving forward. But we don’t need to tell them anything until you’ve made a decision.”

I sighed and ran a hand through my hair. “Let me come over there and talk to you. Then we can try to work out what to do.”

“Okay.”

I was about to end the call when I heard her say my name.

“Yeah?”

“I really am sorry.”

“I know, Mom. I know.”

BY THE TIME I arrived at the property, the sun was high and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. It was a beautiful spring day, and this time when I pulled into the drive, there were only a handful of the staff’s cars.

I parked in one of the guest spots and made my way