Page 66 of Billionaire's Promise

"I do," she replies, "but uh... I thought I could cancel?"

"Don’t." Shit, that…didn’t come out right. I turn around to find her staring at me, a hurt look in her eyes, and my heart, my stupid heart breaks. Bloody hell, since when have I become so tuned into her? I sit down on the edge of the bed and pull her close. "Hey, hey, come on." I rub her back. "I only meant, don’t change your plans for me."

"Don’t do that," she snarls. "Seriously, Baron, don’t pull away from me."

"I…" I rake my gaze across her features, "I’m not."

"You are."

"It’s your imagination."

"Oh, please." She tosses her hair over her shoulder, "You jump out of bed like you can’t bear to be with me a minute more, when—"

"The truth is exactly the opposite."

She frowns. "What do you mean?"

I release her, then stand up again… Only to put distance between us, because if I continue to hold her in my arms, there’s no way I’ll be able to focus long enough to get my thoughts together. And right now, that’s important. I need to get my shit together long enough to establish boundaries. It’s the only way I can get through this—whatever this is between us—intact.

"I am way too attracted to you. I am developing feelings for you, Eve, and that’s a problem."

"You don’t say?" she mutters.

"You don’t understand."

"Then explain it to me." She slides out of bed and stands in front of me, fully, gloriously naked.Fuck."Explain why it is that we can’t be together."

"You are Edward’s—"

"He left me."

"He’ll be back."

"You don’t know that," she protests.

"You don’t know Edward."

"And you do?"

"Better than you do."

"Somehow, I doubt that." She plants her hands on her hips, "You may’ve known the boy he once was, but I know the man he is now. The man who walked away from his calling because he—" Her voice fades. Her lips turn down.

"Exactly," I fold my arms across my chest, "he walked away from the Church for you. Do you really think he’s not going to come back to you?"

"If he felt that much, why did he leave me in the first place?" She tips up her chin. "If he was that…into me, as you say, if he really felt something for me, why didn’t he tell me so? Why didn’t he stay and give me a chance to support him? To be with him? To help him work through things?" She throws up her hands. "Hell, why didn’t he just come out and tell me how he felt about me?"

"Because love isn’t that simple."

She firms her lips. "You’re telling me?"

I stare at her flushed features, the stubborn set to her jaw, the resolve in her eyes, and blow out a sigh. "This was a mistake."

"What?" Her jaw drops.

"This." I point at the bed. "This should have never happened."

"Are you fucking kidding me?" she yells and I stiffen.