The Billionaire's Fantasy - Part 3 by Kate Hewitt

Author:Kate Hewitt
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781460390030
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2015-05-14T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

BY THE TIME the dinner with Alex and Chelsea wound down, Jaiven was feeling both tense and dispirited. He couldn’t stand much more of sitting across from Louise without being able to touch her, much less even admit he’d known her before tonight. Slept with—quite a few times—before tonight.

And no matter how coolly rational he tried to be, it soured his gut and hurt his heart that he had to play this charade yet again. Memories of showing up at Emily’s front door, facing her father’s stern stare and then, worst of all, her blank look as she gazed right through him, churned through him.

I don’t know him, Dad. Isn’t he just the delivery boy?

This time he’d been the one to choose to pretend. Better him than Louise looking right through when she’d walked through that door, blank-faced and cold-eyed. And even though it had been his decision, it still hurt.

The whole damn evening hurt. Sitting across from Louise. Making ridiculous chitchat. Not being able to touch her. Knowing she’d walk away at the end of evening—again.

Accepting that was how it had to be.

Yet as it turned out, Jaiven ended up offering to walk her home. Alex and Chelsea had orchestrated it not-so-subtly, insisting it was a nice night and Louise shouldn’t bother with a cab—but neither should she walk the fifteen blocks uptown alone.

Louise rolled her eyes at them both and gave in with some grace. “Fine, fine,” she said, and they both stepped into the elevator of Chelsea’s building as Alex and Chelsea smiled benevolently—and hopefully—from their front door. As soon as the doors closed, the tension ratcheted.

He shoved his hands in the pockets of his jeans, rolled his shoulders in a useless attempt to ease the muscles knotted there. He hated how awkward the silence was; a few weeks ago he would have teased Louise about fantasizing about sex in an elevator. It was actually something he’d never done. A few weeks ago, he mused, he would have made it a reality with Louise.

The current reality was a far cry from that. They both stood taut and still, staring straight ahead as the elevator plunged from the penthouse to the lobby. Jaiven finally broke the silence.

“Well, that was fun.”

Louise slid him a sideways glance, her mouth quirking slightly. “A laugh a minute.”

“Do you think they knew how obvious they were being?”

“I think they’ve got the rose-tinted glasses of lurve on.”

Jaiven felt his mouth kick up in an answering smile. “You mean rose-tinted blinders.”

“Exactly.”

The doors pinged open and they walked into the building’s lobby, all chrome and marble and modern sculpture. The doormen murmured good-night and the automatic doors swished open; they stepped out into a sultry spring night.

“You don’t have to walk me home,” Louise said. She was fiddling with the strap of her purse and not quite looking at him.

“I don’t mind.”

“Really, I can manage.”

“That can of pepper spray again? I’m heading uptown anyway. I’ll walk you.” Belatedly, with an icy jolt of realization, he wondered if she didn’t want him to walk her because she was afraid.

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