Page 98 of Her Billionaire Boss

He didn’t have to add the last part; I already knew that was the direction he’d been headed in with his argument.

“I don’t know why, but your brother, with his terrible taste, loves my sister.And I love your brother, so I want him to be happy.”He balked.“Oh my god.I realized that if we reversed it—”

“You’re describing how he felt about you?”I snorted.“Okay, I guess I can see where maybe I’m being unfair.But dude.Shecheated.”

“And if you’d heard her reasoning for cheating, you would understand.”

“I doubt it.”

“She was scared.”

The sentence jolted me.

“She was afraid of leaving her husband, potentially losing her children, her home, all of it.She slept with someone else because she was trying to convince herself that what she had with Scott was meaningless.And it wasn’t.”Matt reached across the table and took my hand.“Your brother forgives her.And I would forgive you, too, if you’d done that to me.I’d forgive anything if it meant you’d come back.”

That was true.He’d forgiven me when I’d chosen plane tickets instead of communication.If he could handle that kind of dramatic overreaction hitting him out of nowhere…

“I wouldn’t do that to you.”I wanted that to be totally clear.“But I believe that you’d forgive me.”

“And what about me?Would you forgive me?”he asked.

“Why, are you about to confess to something?”I countered.

“Of course not.”

“I would forgive you.”I would be devastated, but I would forgive him.Without hesitation.

“Then you understand Scott’s position.And since you were coming in here ready to change your identity and flee to another country because you thought I might ask you to marry me, I think you can understand Catherine’s, too.”He tried to make it sound like a joke.He failed, big time.

I watched his thumb stroking back and forth over my knuckles.I could imagine a ring there on my finger.I waited for my brain to transform it into a tiny pair of handcuffs.To my surprise, it didn’t.

“I wouldn’t have run away,” I said quietly.

“I’m glad to hear that.”He offered me a tremulous smile.“Because someday, I’m going to ask you to marry me.”

“Someday,” I echoed, “I’m going to say yes.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

(Matt)

Charlotte wanted to marry me.

That was something I’d never seen coming.

Charlotte, who’d jumped on a plane to geographically flee the concept of being loved by another person, had been disappointed by the fact that I hadn’t proposed at that dinner.Weeks later, that night still stunned me.

Neither of us had brought it up again, but now that the seal had been broken on our mutual agreement to someday, in the far-off future, apply legally binding commitment to our love, it loomed over us.I felt it in the tension of looking for new his-and-her sinks for the apartment—the ones we currently had were “too splashy” when she washed her face—and in every invitation to a social function addressed to “Mr.Matthew Ashe and Guest.”We both knew where we were headed.Now, it felt like we were delaying the journey.

On the other hand, my reunion with my sister had resulted in some unexpected business that I wanted to tend to before leaping into anything as time consuming as wedding planning.And this was a delicate operation that required a little bit of sneaking around on my part; not the opportune moment to propose to someone.

I didn’t like withholding things from Charlotte.I wanted to be totally open and honest about everything.And I would be.

Just not yet.

I sifted through the papers on my sister’s huge desk.My eyes nearly crossed.“There’s really this much red tape?”

“No, Matthew.I enjoy overcomplicating things as much as possible.I detest directness or ease of any kind.”Catherine stood with her arms crossed, looking down at me the way she would some kind of disgusting insect.