Page 43 of The Prince Who Loved Me

Her muscles let loose of the tension she didn’t know she carried. Seeing him with another woman had started a battle inside her. She’d seen it many times before, in magazines or red carpet events. But not like this.

But, crumbs, now what was she going to say? He had hurt her when he didn’t support her idea for Belle’s. Was that the reason she was holding back now?

Talking about it was scary as hell. What if he got mad?

No. No no no. These were her feelings, and she needed to find out now if he could handle them. She was through hidingthings to make a man happy. But it wasn’t a conversation for the phone. “Later is fine. Really. When we’re face to face.”

Her phone went silent, and she thought she lost the connection. But then her video chat started pinging.

“Here we are,” Sebastien said when she answered. “Face to face.”

Damn, he looked good. Lying on his bed, propped up by his pillows. His day-old stubble shone red in the bright hotel room light. She was filled with a need to stroke that scruff.

She sat on her free hand, and he gave her a half smile.

“What?” she asked.

“You look exactly how I pictured you when you called. Relaxed, on your bed. Looking as lively as always.” His blue eyes pierced the space between them. “So what’s going on?” he repeated.

She gave him her wattage smile, the one she used when sizing up a man to take care of her, and brushed her hair away from her face.

He frowned and shook his head. “Stop that.”

Right. Her stomach sank down to her feet. Distracting him like that wouldn’t work. He’d seen it all before, had watched it and called her out on it.

Sebastien turned from the phone and said something to Massimo, then faced her again. “You can tell me anything, you know. And if you don’t want to, you don’t have to. There’s no reason to do your dumb blonde routine.”

“I wasn’t—” But she was. She licked her suddenly dry lips. “I’ve been thinking about what you said. About Belle’s.” She added the last part quickly to make sure he didn’t think she was talking about them.

Did she want there to be a them?

He paused, longer than what should have been natural. She was about to say something else when he spoke. “You’veflourished these past few months running it. I’m sorry for what I said. This is your heart, Brandi. I’m behind you one hundred percent.”

She rubbed her finger with her thumb, warmed by his support. “It’s been family run for four generations. I don’t want to be the one to make it fail.”

“Or you could be the one to make it rise above.” He shifted his position, sitting up. “Remember anything from your business classes in college?”

“No.” She twisted her lips in an exaggerated grimace. “I did the minimum to maintain a high enough GPA to stay on the softball team. Once I took an exam, I emptied out my brain and filled it with more important things, like my boyfriend’s favorite soup. Priorities, you know.”

“Yeah, I remember.” His voice held a shade of humor. “I got you something, but I don’t think it’s been delivered yet.”

Ooh, she liked presents. “What?”

“You’ll have to wait,” he teased.

“You’re mean.” She stuck out her tongue.

His lips tightened, and she imagined stroking his tongue with hers. This was going to drive her insane. And bringing up Belle’s was forcing her to talk about it when she had no plan. “Here’s my problem. I can do what my family has done for the past one hundred plus years. Even implement new technologies and research new techniques. But to go out on my own?” It was futile. She had no business even thinking it.

“Brandi—”

“And I sort of miss you not being here.” She felt her face heating up and hoped Sebastien couldn’t tell. She ran a finger down the image of his jaw. This was the closest she could admit that she’d been thinking about him. Way too much.

“We’ll talk about all of this when I get back home.”

It was more of a command than a comment, and thewords made her blood simmer. He wasn’t just referring to Belle’s.

“Good night, Sebastien.”