Page 102 of Forbidden Billionaires: Vol. 3

She laughed. “I feel like I’m a normal house guest. There is no such thing as a good house guest. That’s why you usually put everyone up in hotels, right?”

“It's more of a privacy thing.”

“I see. Tell me more about that.”

“I’m not going to talk to you about my issues.”

“Why not?”

“Because you’ll tell Penny everything I say.”

“I can keep a secret, James. If you recall, it wasn’t my fault your affair with a student leaked. I feel like I’ve earned your trust. And right now, you need to vent. I mean…you look like hell. Have you even been sleeping?”

“Melissa…”

“If you’re not going to talk to me, you should talk to someone. I’m pretty sure Penny fell in love with the sweeter side of you. Not whatever this is.” She gestured to me.

It was hard not to be a little offended.

“I mean, you do want her to fall in love with you again, right? New memories of you might kind of outweigh the old ones.” She glanced back at the manuscript pages. “Huh. You might already be scaring her away. She wasn’t even reading about you.” She lifted up one of the pages and started reading out loud:

We slowly swayed back and forth. This was probably the sweetest thing a guy had ever done for me. I moved closer to him so that our bodies were touching.

"So you like it nice and slow?" Tyler said gently.

"If you are referring to dancing? Yes, isn't this nice?"

He leaned down to kiss me. I wanted to forget about Austin and I needed to forget about Professor Hunter. I grabbed the back of his head and pulled him closer as he kissed me deeply. His hands slid down from my waist and grabbed my ass.

“Stop,” I said. “I don’t need to hear about Tyler’s hands on my wife’s ass, I’ve already read it.” Hearing about Tyler right this second wasn’t helping. I was already a little pissed off about Penny’s favorite movie revolving around him.

“See. You’re angry.”

“Because you’re reminding me that she used to have her hands all over someone else.”

“Everyone has exes, James.”

“Not ones that they don’t remember passing on.”

“Aha. The root of the problem. What, are you scared that she’s going to go back to him? He’s married, remember?”

“It wouldn’t be the first time someone cheated on someone else. It happens all the time.”

“Aha! So this goes back to your first wife cheating on you.”

“Would you stop saying ‘aha’ like this is actually a breakthrough?”

“Then just talk to me…”

“And say what? That I’m scared Penny will never remember? That I’m scared I’ll have to go through the rest of my life in this fucking terrible numb state? That I’m worried I’m going to lose my son too? That when I think about everything I can’t breathe?”

She stood up and hugged me.

I hadn’t expected her to do that. For a moment, I stayed still, hoping she’d just let go. But when I finally forced myself to hug her back, I felt a sense of relief. When was the last time someone had tried to comfort me? That wasn’t fair. Tons of people had tried to comfort me when Penny was unconscious. But I hadpushed them all away. Because that’s what I did. I couldn’t lie though, it felt really nice to be hugged.

“That’s a good start,” Melissa said and smiled up at me. “Tell her those things. Be real instead of suave.”

“Trust me, I haven’t been suave.”