Free Unhinged by Pamela Ann Page B

won’t allow yourself to commit to one woman? Is it because your lifestyle is too good to give up? What? Make me understand.”
    He gave me a face that stated he wasn’t going to budge with my request. “It’s not open for discussion, Isobel, and as for my life, what man wouldn’t want any of this? I mean, it’s any man’s dream, isn’t it? I could settle with this life.”
    “ But it’s a shallow life!”
    “ It’s the only one I can afford.”
    For the love of everything that was holy, this wasn’t the time to talk in riddles!
    “ So that’s it, then?” I choked up as I tried to comprehend the situation. He basically gave me a glimpse of something fruitful and immediately withdrew it. It was the worst kind of teasing, a piece of a future one could never attain. “You and me, this is all it’s going to be, what will be, whatever that means anymore.”
    “ You deserve so much more, Isobel.”
    I did. I knew deep in my heart I did, but my heart craved him, and my body yearned for him. Not any other man b ut him —Hugo Xavier—and he wasn’t going to allow anything to blossom between us.
    The urge to cry was high, but at the same time, I knew he was trying to tell me something, something I couldn’t truly see, because I was basked in the haze of wanting, hankering for the one thing I couldn’t have.
    “ My heart is in pure agony. Do you know what that feels like? To have something that could be yours, but circumstances simply won’t allow it? How do I go on from here? Where do I pick up the pieces and begin my life again?”
    It was torment, but through the years, I had learned how to portray strength even though I was fragile and broken inside. My father’s abuse had made me this way, and in some way, it was a good thing I had learned this method of survival. After all, this was the only way I could be in this room with Hugo without letting him see me truly fall apart.
    Appearing as if he was having a hard time forming the words, he looked away before strolling towards the other side of the bed and taking a seat at the edge of the mattress with his head bent over.
    “ The only thing I can do is protect you, Isobel. You grew up in a volatile environment. You deserve happiness for the rest of your life.”
    That wasn’t even considered breaking up, but it sure felt like it. I knew he wanted me, too. I knew, deep down, he was fighting this magnetic pull between us, that he, too, was experiencing this explosive chemistry each time we looked into each other’s eyes. Still, my love for him would be for nothing. No one would reap it, because he chose to protect us from it, from the kind of backlash it would cause.
    He wished me happiness, which was great, but he didn’t want to be the man to make me happy. It was a bloody sick joke, really.
    “ Will the next few hours until you take me home be all I have of you?” I shakily asked.
    “ It’s all I can afford, ma belle.”
    I nodded, understanding his stance, though I simply couldn’t wrap my mind around it. Maybe someday I could look back and truly see the bigger picture. For the meantime, if these next hours would be my last with him, then I would take them for what they were—my last moments with him.
    “ Just hold me, then. Hold me until it’s time for you to drive me home.”
    Without another word, he pulled me into his arms, placing me in the crook of his neck, and held me like I was the most precious thing in his life. I might not truly know the truth behind his reasoning, but I knew somehow that his decision had come from a good place, that he was hurting, as well.
    Hugo Xavier was an enigma. A man of so many means, yet he had secrets in his past that prevented him from having a future.
    Whatever lay in our futures, to me, this wasn’t the end of it. For now, it should suffice, but it wasn’t over yet…

Chapter 14
    Hugo
     
    Sometimes there came a time in a man’s life when he had to make the grandest of sacrifices. It was an