He crouched on the floor in front of her, tilting her jaw forward with his hand so they were eye to eye. “I’m not going to let you bear the brunt of this,” he said. “If there’s a scandal, we’ll deal with it together. And maybe we can forestall one.”

“You’re not listening to me,” she said. “This is my business, not yours.”

“That’s not—”

“No. You need to hear me. I told you this because I trust you, because you deserved to know. That’s where it ends. You’ve helped me see I’m worth fighting for, and I’m going to do just that, but I need to do it myself. Alone.”

Sam sat back on his heels, his eyebrows coming together. “You’re right,” he said, his words coming slowly. “I haven’t been listening.”

“I was wrong to think I could offer you anything,” Alva said, and the words sank into him like so many icy pins. “I’m sorry.”

“You’re ending this,” he said. “I thought we were talking about blackmail, and you were talking about us.”

She shrugged tightly, her eyes glued to her hands, knitted together in her lap. “It’s the same thing,” she said.

“It’s really not.”

“My life is like this, Sam. Scandal and blackmail and dirty fights. There’s no room in that for another person.”

He stood, moving away from her so he wouldn’t give in to the temptation to grab her and hold her so tightly she wouldn’t ever leave him. “You’ve been talking a lot about trust lately, Alva, but I don’t think you really know what trust means.”

“It isn’t about not trusting you,” she said, standing and taking a step forward. Her gaze finally lifting to meet his. “Please don’t think that. I couldn’t—I couldn’t think higher of you if I tried. But this kind of life isn’t for you.”

“You mean you aren’t willing to share it.”

“No,” she said, sitting down again suddenly. “I’m not willing to share my problems with you, if that’s what you call dragging you into the middle of a national scandal. They’re my problems to deal with.”

“So you’ll let me in on the good times, but not the bad.”

She sighed, deflating slightly in her chair. “These last few days—they were wonderful, Sam. I couldn’t have dreamed them better. But it wasn’t real life—it was a hotel room and a snow-covered city and a magical restaurant on a block I’ve never seen. But we’re back.”