Page 374 of Forbidden Billionaires: Vol. 10

And in the weirdest way, it felt like everything reset as soon as Dr. Clark hung up the phone. I’d promised myself that I’d be abetter man for Penny. And…I was. Even Dr. Clark saw it. And now that I’d come clean about everything, I could be even better.

I pressed my lips together as I stared at the camera in the corner of my study. Okay, maybe I hadn’t come clean about everything. There was still the issue of the cameras. But I’d tell her about those too. I’d get everything out in the open. We’d be on equal footing. And we’d make a decision together, weighing all the options before we did anything.

I stood up and walked out of my office. I knew it was past midnight. But Penny would want to have this conversation. I walked into the bedroom and smiled at the smell of cherries.

My eyes slowly adjusted to the light. I sat down on the edge of the bed and pushed a strand of red hair out of her face. I don’t think I’d ever seen her look so beautiful. She looked ethereal in the moonlight peeking through the windows. And I felt it again. That she was healing me. Even touching her warm skin made it feel like the darkness was being chased out of me.

“I love you,” I whispered as I traced her freckles with my thumb.

My lawyer didn’t believe in us. But Dr. Clark did. Ian did. Ellen did.

And most importantly…I did.

Penny and I were a team. And we were going to get through this together. If I had to quit my job, she wouldn’t let me slip. Maybe we’d move to New York. Maybe we’d stay here. All that mattered was that we were together. And that we decided our future together.

I put my hand on her shoulder.

She moaned in her sleep and I smiled.

“Penny,” I whispered.

She moaned again and moved her head about, but she didn’t open her eyes.

I wondered what she was dreaming about.

She moaned again and I smiled. I had a feeling she might be dreaming about me. I couldn’t even count the times that she’d made appearances in my dreams. Ever since the first time she fell into my arms.

“Penny,” I whispered again. I was just about to nudge her awake when my phone buzzed. My hand fell from her shoulder. I grabbed my phone and stared down at a text from Ian.

“James, can you head back to your office for a minute so I can call you? Something’s come up.”

I frowned. I stared back at Penny still sleeping peacefully. Whatever Ian needed, it could wait. Penny and I wanted to come clean to the dean in the morning. We needed to discuss this. I texted Ian back, telling him I’d call him in the morning.

But he immediately texted back: “It can’t wait until morning.”

I frowned and stood up. Ian wouldn’t keep texting me if it wasn’t important. I glanced once more at Penny peacefully sleeping in my bed and walked back out into the hall.

I hit Ian’s name on my phone as I walked into my office.

“James,” he said. “I’m really sorry.”

“What’s going on?”

“I already tried everything I could.” There was a long pause. “It’s bad.”

My heart started racing. “Just tell me.”

“It’s Isabella.”

For fuck’s sake. Would this woman ever just let me be?

“She’s…she’s done something. And you’re not going to like it.”

I shook my head. “What could she have possibly done? The papers are signed. It’s done. It’s over,” I added, as if that would make it true. But my stomach was already twisting into knots. All I could think about was Penny sleeping back in my bed. I just wanted to ignore whatever Isabella had done, climb into bed, and pull Penny into my arms.

“Ah, fuck,” Ian said, delaying whatever horrible thing he was about to tell me. But then I heard him typing. And I realized that maybe something else had just come up. Like a string of bad events. Each one worse than the last.

For some reason my eyes landed on the invitation on my desk. It was the key to my fresh start with my friends. Hopefully a clean slate. But neither Matt nor Mason had signed it. And honestly, itdidn’t look like something they’d send. They wouldn’t have sent anything at all. They would have just texted me or something.