“Whitney—”
“Go away.” I bit out the words as humiliation burned my skin. I wasn’t ashamed of cleaning. It was honest work, and I needed all the money I could save if I was ever going to get out of this town. But I hated having him standing over me like he was better than me.
“Give me a goddamned chance, Blue. You did when you didn’t know my name.”
“I’m working. Leave me alone.” I scrubbed harder, digging the toothbrush between the edges of the expensive tile.
“Just look at me. I’m not giving up. I’ll stand here all day, if that’s what it takes.”
My lips screwed together in an angry moue and I bolted to my feet, one hand on my hip and the other jabbing the toothbrush into his chest.
“You can stand wherever you want. That’s what Riscoffs do, right? Whatever the hell they want. Guess what? Not everyone has that privilege. Some of us have work to do, and you’re in my way.”
Something flashed across his hazel gaze, and it softened.
“I can’t stop thinking about you.” His roughened words sounded completely honest.
It was such a simple thing to say, but it was beyond effective. When was the last time someonethoughtabout me? I’d always been the afterthought.
I squeezed my eyes shut. It would be so easy to fall under Lincoln’s spell, especially because I hadn’t been able to stop thinking about him or how he made me feel.
Until I found out his name.
“Why can’t you be someone else,” I whispered, wanting to take the words back as soon as they escaped my lips.
When his hand closed over mine, the toothbrush fell to the tile, and the boot landed beside it.
“Why can’t you see me the way you did before you knew who I was?”
I looked away, down toward the corner of the room. “It’s not that easy. You don’t understand. You won. We lost.”
Lincoln’s fingers curved under my chin and redirected my gaze to his. “I wouldn’t say I’m winning right now. I’m looking at the only thing I want, and you’re telling me it’s impossible because of our last names. I don’t buy that. I willneverbuy that. Just give me a goddamned chance. That’s all you have to do.”
“Whitney? You done up there yet?”
My aunt’s voice cut between us more effectively than a freshly sharpened ax. She was downstairs cleaning with my mom and cousin. After Jackie saw us together last time, she spared me the lecture, but her harsh stare said more than enough. Basically,what the hell are you thinking?If my mom were to come up ...
“I need ten more minutes!”
“And I need ten more years,” Lincoln said, his voice rougher as it turned deeper and more desperate. “Maybe that would be enough to get you out of my system, but I doubt it.”
His words hit me hard and my blood heated. I wanted him more than I’d ever wanted anyone.
“We can’t do this. If my family found out ... they’d disown me.”
“No one has to know but us. Not until we want them to know.”
“They couldneverknow.”
Victory flashed in his gaze, making me want to snatch back the words, because it sounded like I’d made a decision.
Have I?
As soon as his knuckles brushed along the skin of my bicep, my entire body trembled, telling me I had decided.
I was going to go against everything I’d been taught my entire life—that Riscoffs were evil, money-grubbing, dishonest, no-good cheats—and I was going to have an affair with the heir to the empire.
“Meet me tonight at the cabin. Eleven o’clock.”