Read Online Uncorked by Rebecca Rohman - Free Book Online

obviously knows where you work now.”
    “I can put measures in place to
make sure that doesn’t happen.”
    “You can’t always plan for what
you don’t expect. Right now, that man is a ticking time bomb. Nobody knows
when, where, or how he’ll strike next.”
    “Running away isn’t going to
solve anything. What if he follows you?”
    “Then at least he’ll be away from
the people I care about. Right now that’s more important to me than anything
else.”
    “Including your own safety?”
    “Yes.”
    They arrived at the hotel.
    “I’m going to park the vehicle
and come with you to make sure your room is safe.”
    “Okay,” she said. She was
deflated. On the elevator ride up to her room, neither said anything, despite
the fact that they were alone.
     
    “Give me your card key,” Mitch said as they
arrived at her suite.
    She handed it to him, and he
opened the door. “Wait here.”
    He thoroughly checked the suite,
including the bathroom and closets. When he was done he told her to come in.
    “Double-check that these are your
bags and nothing was slipped into your room.”
    She glanced around. “Everything
appears to be fine.”
    He’d become so worried about her
as they drove home. The adamant, stubborn woman at his penthouse a few hours
earlier was completely gone, replaced by a completely dejected woman.
    “Chella, I’m worried about you.”
     
    Chella pulled something from her drawer and headed into
the bathroom, “Yeah, I’m worried about me too, and about all the people in my
life. Mitch, just forget about me. Go home, get up tomorrow morning and pretend
you never met me.”
    She returned to the living room
wearing a black tank dress. She had kicked off her heels and was fiddling with
a few things on the desk as Mitch spoke to her.
    “You’re being silly.”
    “Am I, really? Do you have any
idea what it feels to sleep with one eye open all the time? Or to constantly
look over your shoulder or move somewhere and—just when you start trusting the
people around you a little—you leave without so much as a goodbye? You have no
clue how dangerous this man is or how much he’s taken from me. When he hurts
someone I care about, it hurts ten times more than if he did it to me. Mitch,
I’m tired. I don’t know what to do anymore.”
    “What did he do to you?”
    “He’s taken everything away from
me, everything. My sanity, my peace of mind, my friends, even my parents to a
certain extent. Just a normal life, all the little things everyone else takes
for granted. The only thing he’s managed not to ruin for me is my job. That’s
it!”
    “You underestimate your friends.
They’d all support you. I support you. I want to be there for you so badly, but
you seem hell-bent on pushing me away.”
    “And that’s for your own good.”
    “I can take care of myself, and
if you’d let me, I could take care of you.”
    “No. Sooner or later you’d just
end up resenting me for it.”
    “That’s not true,” he said,
walking toward her.
    “What happened tonight is
one-tenth of how nasty that man can get, and I’m not going to stay in your life
and let you see the other nine-tenths. I can’t handle that right now.”
    “You’re letting him win.”
    “You think this is about winning?
This is about my friends going to lunch and not having to worry about being
followed. Or you going out for cocktails and not having to worry about your
office manager calling to tell you your business has been vandalized. Or
ordering take out and not worrying about whether your food has been tainted.”
    “What about you? What about your
wants and your needs? How about meeting a man you like, falling in love, having
a family? What about that? What about you?”
    She burst into tears, “He’s
already taken all that away from me. Because of him, I can never have my own
family. Because of him I can’t have children.”
    Mitch looked at her, holding her
by her shoulders, “What did he do to you?”
    “When I