Chapter 71
“Let me finish. You’ll have lots of time to insist on your pure intentions and sweet demeanor later.” He grinned when Gerry gave him a look meant to wither him where he sat.
“After I realized how much of an idiot I was to let you walk away, I told Phil I was going for you. I told him he’d been wrong to come between us—though my words might have been just a touch choicer—and that nothing was going to do it again. I swear I did. He flat-out told me he wouldn’t give me his permission to leave the tour.”
Mark shook his head, and his jaw tightened. “His permission, if you can imagine. Like I was some kind of child or servant. The conversation that followed was…tense, to say the least. But there were contracts, Gerry. Legal obligations. I’ve never felt so small as I did sitting there and listening to men in suits—lawyers, executives, people I didn’t even know—tell me how unimportant my life was to their plans.