I extracted myself from the barrage of handshakes and back slaps the moment I saw Kaley tear through the crowd. The two women who had spoken to her directly were nowhere to be found, which worried me all the more.

People parted for me the way they always had, and I reached the stairs just as the door above slammed shut. An image of her climbing up on the edge of the terrace like some tragic heroine struck my brain, making my blood run cold. I was through the door before I even realized that I had taken another step, heart racing, adrenaline throbbing through my veins.

Then, I saw her. Not on the ledge, but near enough to it to hasten my feet, she was staring out over the city lights.

“You must be freezing,” I said, taking off my suit jacket.

I placed it over her shoulders, but didn’t touch her. The very air around her was prickly with her tension, and I didn’t want to risk making her snap.

I leaned against the ledge beside her to see her face. Tears glittered like starlight on her cheeks, and her full lips blew out with every sobbing breath, sending my heart plummeting into my stomach.

“Hey,” I murmured, tentatively tucking a curl behind her ear. “What’s wrong?”

“Everything,” she hissed, gritting her teeth. “Everything is wrong. I’m wrong, you’re wrong, this baby…oh, God.” She buried her face in her hands then, her shoulders shaking with the power of her sobs.

I wanted to hold her; I wanted to shake her; but, most of all, I wanted to hear what was really going on inside her pretty head. Everything was going according to plan—the plan she negotiated for and agreed to—but for the last few months, she had grown increasingly cold. I had chalked it up to the frantic production schedule, but now, I wasn’t so certain.

Her sobs gradually slowed, and she struck the tears from her face with hard, frustrated hands.

“We can’t go back on this now,” she said, her voice trembling. “I know what we agreed, and I know you won’t let your kid grow up in my hovel. God knows I don’t want a baby growing up in there either. If I could take it all back…”

She shook her head and sucked in a shuddering sigh.

“I was insane to let you talk me into this, insane to think that you would magically start feeling something when you’ve never had a spontaneous emotion in your whole gilded life. I don’t want this—not like this; I can’t bear it. Everyone downstairs is right. They saw right through us, and the rest of the world will, too. This baby’s a sham, and they’re going to grow up knowing that and feeling like a discarded piece of trash just because I couldn’t see past my own wanting.”

She was shaking, gripping the handrail until her knuckles turned white as she stabbed her verbal knife into my heart.

“You think I don’t feel anything?” It came out sounding angry, and I bit my tongue.

“Well, do you?” she demanded, whirling to face me with blazing eyes.

“All this time we’ve spent together, and the only thing you have ever been concerned about is your precious PR baby. Who even does that, Jonathan? Who the hell brings a whole new person into the world as a damn marketing campaign?”

She turned away again, slamming the heel of her hand against the wall. “And I was the idiot who went along with it. Nobody else would have—no sane person, anyway. So what does that make me?”

She turned away and softly answered herself. “The crazy damn fool in love with the ice prince.”

At her words, my wounded, dying heart leapt to life.

Impulsively grabbing her arm, I turned her to face me. Ignoring the disgust and despair I saw there, I cupped her head in my hands and crushed her mouth with a kiss, a kiss which held every emotion I had been fighting since the first morning I woke up with her lying in my arms.

She stiffened under my touch for a moment; then, her arms flew around me, fingers digging into my shoulder like claws. Our kiss deepened as she clung to me, trembling and still crying, breaking my heart even as she stitched it back together. Reluctantly, I withdrew from her mouth but kept my hands where they were so I could gaze into her eyes.

“You’re wrong,” I told her, my voice hoarse. “I’m no ice prince. I’m no prince at all; I’m a jackass. I have…” The word stuck in my throat, so I coated it carefully. “I have had feelings for you, strong feelings, for a very long time. I was fascinated by you the moment I met you, and I’ve only grown more attached since then. I think about you every day, Kaley. You’re always there, perched in my mind. Your laugh is the music that’s stuck in my head.”

Her eyes went soft and starry for a moment, but quickly turned to steel.

“You would say that,” she spat, pushing my hands away. “You would say anything right now to avoid a dramatic breakup. You need this to work, now, more than ever, or the PR stunt flops.”

“To hell with the PR stunt,” I exploded. “I had options, did you know that? There were other ways to recreate myself, more direct ways, less risky ways, but I chose this one. Do you want to know why?”

“Why?” she demanded.

“Because I think I love you, dammit!”

Her eyes flew wide as a ringing silence fell over the terrace. I was breathing hard, and she was barely breathing at all. I waited a beat, then two, but she didn’t respond. I had imagined her flying into my arms when I said those words, like a scene in a movie, but she simply stood and stared.

“I can’t believe you would do that,” she gasped, finally. “Using those words to manipulate me is cold, even for you. I’m going home.”

She turned away but I grabbed her hand, which she yanked out of my grasp furiously.

“Look,” I said, as calmly as I could. “I know how this looks. I do. Come home with me and let me explain. I swear I’ll tell you everything.”

She narrowed her eyes at me, and I could see that she was ready to bolt. I couldn’t let her run, not now. I reached out to her, and she snapped her hand away from me, turning on her heel to leave.

“Please,” I whispered.

She stopped in her tracks. Turning around slowly, she locked her eyes on my face.

“Say it again,” she said, drawing out each syllable with disbelief in her tone.

“I’ll tell you everything,” I swore.

“Not that part,” she said impatiently. “What did you say when I walked away?”

“Please,” I repeated. “Please come home with me.”

I sounded pitiful in my own ears, but I was beyond caring. I needed her with me. I needed her to see through my eyes, for just a moment, just long enough to change her perspective.

“Okay,” she said after a long moment. “I’ll come home with you.”

Relieved, I walked beside her to the stairs. My jacket on her shoulders was as close as I wanted to get to touching her for the moment; whatever it was that had made her say yes was as fragile as a soap bubble, and I knew when to stop pressing my luck.

She tucked close beside me and dropped her head as we moved through the crowd, and after a moment, I realized why. Nearly every woman we passed was scoffing in her direction, while the men were running their eyes over her appraisingly as if she were some trophy.

Belatedly, I understood the consequences of my actions as they pertained to Kaley. These consequences had never even occurred to me. I was socially untouchable, and the public was quick to indulge my various tastes as long as they weren’t too criminal. A man in my position was to be congratulated. A woman in hers was to be shamed.

It didn’t make a whole lot of sense to me, but it was a fact of life that I had intellectually understood for a long time. I should have recognized this possibility before ever broaching the subject with her.

Kaley visibly relaxed as we stepped through the doors onto the street. She began walking toward the office, but I held her elbow and pointed across the street.

“James always picks me up from these things,” I explained as I guided her toward the waiting car. “Drunk driving is bad, and all that.”

I tried to offer a playful grin, but even if it had materialized in full, it wouldn’t have hit its target. She was looking straight ahead, fully focused on the car. I opened the door for her and received a barely-audible thanks, which was only slightly better than nothing at all.

As I closed her door and walked around to my own side, I felt her and the baby and every imagined future moment of bliss begin to slip through my fingers. This was going to be the negotiation of a lifetime. Everything was on the line, and there was no room for half-truths or manipulations. I was going to have to play it straight and still win.

If I hadn’t been so terrified, I might have been excited at the challenge.