“I let her go.”

“What?”

“I let her go. Fired her. Terminated her employment. Whatever you want to call it.”

“Why?”

“I watched her here, how she behaved around you, and I didn’t like it. She has worked for me for a long time—eight years—and she was good at what she did, but I won’t have any woman snubbing you, not anymore. I won’t look the other way, especially if it’s my employee, or a friend of mine. It’s not acceptable, and you shouldn’t have to endure slights and snubs … not from anyone.”

Morgan heard what he was saying and appreciated everything he was saying, but there was something else happening here. Drakon was upset … angry … but Morgan didn’t understand who he was upset with—Bronwyn, himself, or Morgan.

“You didn’t have to fire her because of me,” Morgan said, choosing her words carefully. “I meant it when I said, I was sticking around. I’m not going to let anyone scare me away. I’m not twenty-two anymore. I’m twenty-seven and I know a lot more about the world now, and a lot more about myself.”

He sipped his cocktail. “I agree you’ve changed, but I’ve also changed, and Bronwyn has, too. There was a time I needed her—and she saved me, I owe her a lot, if not everything—but that was four years ago, and things are different and it’s time for her to move on. It’ll be better for her.”

Morgan’s inside flipped nervously. “How did she save you?”

He took another long drink from his crystal tumbler and then looked over his shoulder at Morgan. “If it weren’t for her, I wouldn’t have a company. I wouldn’t have this villa. I wouldn’t have anything.”

“I don’t understand.”

“I know you don’t.” He sighed, shrugged, took another quick drink before continuing. “I would prefer you didn’t know, and I’d promised Bron years ago I wouldn’t tell you, she didn’t want me to tell you. She said you wouldn’t like it … you wouldn’t respect me … but that’s a risk I’ll have to take.”

Morgan sat down in one of the chairs. “Please tell me.”

He walked the length of the room, and it was a long room, before dropping into a chair not far from hers. “A number of years ago, I made a mistake. Normally it wouldn’t be an issue, but with the situation being what it was, the mistake was serious. It nearly bankrupted me.”

He closed his eyes, shook his head, then opened them again and looked at her. “I was close to losing everything. And I mean everything. The company. The ships. The contracts. Our offices. Our homes. The cars, planes, yachts … everything …” His voice faded and for a moment there was just silence, a heavy, suffocating silence that blanketed the room. “And the worst of it was, I didn’t care.”

Drakon was still looking at her, but he didn’t seem to see her. He seemed to be seeing something else, his expression tortured. “I didn’t care,” he repeated lowly, strangely detached.