Determined: To Love: (Part 2 of the Determined Trilogy) by Elizabeth Brown Read Free Book Online

session. I chewed on a stuffed grape leaf, marveling at my life. I was so lucky to have found someone who desired me so completely. All my life I’d thought I was only worth as much as my report card. But here was a man who was able to make me feel valued and cherished in a completely different way. I had dated a few people casually in the past, and never had I felt so… desired. It made me feel complete.
    “What are you thinking about?” David put his fork down and turned his body toward mine. His face had a relaxed, lazy countenance. Clearly the hallway had done him good.
    “What? Oh. Nothing.”
    “You looked lost in thought. Tell me, what does Samantha Sharp think about while she eats dolmas?”
    I paused and tried to formulate a response. “I was just thinking about you.” It was true. I was thinking about him.
    He looked pleased. “What about me, exactly?”
    “Just how you make me feel.”
    “Which is what? Sore?” he joked.
    “Well, there’s that, yes.” I smiled at him. “But also… complete.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “Just that, well…” I searched for the words. “I’ve never felt measured in any way other than my academic or work achievements. But with you, you manage to make me feel like…” I trailed off.
    “Like what?”
    “Like I’m enough. Just myself.”
    David leaned in and pulled my chair towards him. Then he took my hands in his.
    “You are more than enough, Samantha. You are everything.”
    “Thank you.”
    “I am serious, Samantha.”
    “I know.”
    “Why do I feel like you don’t believe me, then?” he cocked his head to the side.
    “It’s not that I don’t believe you.” I took a deep breath, “It’s just that I’m not used to it.”
    He nodded and then spoke. “Samantha, don’t you see? I understand you. I get it. Really. I don’t think you realize how similar we are.”
    “What do you mean?” I was genuinely puzzled how someone like David-fucking-Keith could understand what I didn’t yet understand about myself.
    “You and I - we’ve both overdeveloped one side of our lives, to the detriment of all others. You feel this unending push to succeed. So do I. Why do you think I’ve worked so hard, Samantha? For money? For this?” he gestured around at his multi-million dollar penthouse.
    I looked at him. We hadn’t ever really talked about what motivated him in business. I had figured it just came with the alpha-male territory. And how did that relate to me? But I’d learned by now that if he was in the mood to share, it was best to let him talk. I shut my mouth and let him continue.
    “I worked hard out of fear. I saw my mom go to work at the factory every day when I was little. She worked hard. Long hours. I remember seeing her go through that pain, and I resolved that I would never be put in that position. So I worked hard. Because I’ve never been able to forget that look of struggle in her eyes.”
    He must have sensed that I was getting lost, so he came back to his point.
    “I know what it’s like to prioritize one thing above everything else in your life,” he said.
    And I understood, finally. It was true. I had always prioritized my achievements, and never myself, my feelings, or others—if I was being honest. And now, here I was, holding hands with a man who understood that completely. A man that had finally allowed me to open up to parts of myself that I hadn’t known existed.
    “Somehow with you though, I have managed to reshuffle my priorities,” he whispered.
    It was like he had read my mind. I nodded and let him pull me closer into him. How had this man managed to know me more intimately than I even knew myself? I brushed the question away and allowed myself the luxury of not answering.

3
    I was a bundle of nerves as Elliot drove me to SFO on Friday. Flying with David meant taking one of his private jets, a Gulfstream emblazoned with Keith Ventures . The in-flight crew welcomed me back and Lucinda, the head of cabin