The Billionaire's Fantasy - Part 2 by Kate Hewitt

Author:Kate Hewitt
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781460390023
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2015-11-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seven

THAT NIGHT LOUISE went to have dinner with Chelsea. In the past few months they’d started meeting more regularly, and their conversation had become both easier and more intimate. Louise was incredibly grateful for the restored relationship with her sister, the forgiveness Chelsea had offered her for leaving her after their mother had died.

Louise was just starting to believe she could forgive herself. But that, she knew from experience, was a long process.

“I’m ordering something fattening and delicious,” Chelsea said as they settled into a booth at an upscale bistro on the Upper West Side. “Now that I’m no longer on TV I can afford to gain a few pounds.”

“I could afford to lose a few,” Louise said with a wry grimace. She flicked to the salad page of the menu and grimaced again.

“You don’t need to lose any weight, Lou,” Chelsea protested. “You’re beautiful.”

Louise looked up from the menu. “I know you’re wearing the rose-tinted glasses of new love, Chelsea, but that’s still spreading it pretty thick.”

Chelsea frowned. “Why do you put yourself down?”

Louise frowned back at her sister. Why was she putting herself down so much? She was usually a little wryly self-deprecating, but not quite this negative. This raw.

It was Jaiven, she acknowledged afresh with something that felt like hopelessness. It was what she had going on with Jaiven, but mainly it was really her. Her problem. Her issue. It didn’t matter who the man was, she was still the same, still needy and afraid when it came to a relationship, still unbearably conscious of her own hang-ups and shortcomings.

But you don’t even have a relationship with Jaiven.

And maybe what she did have needed to end. She couldn’t handle even that much.

“You okay, Lou?” Chelsea asked quietly, reaching over to place her hand over Louise’s.

Louise realized she’d been just staring into space for a few minutes. She shook her head, more to bring herself out of her unhappy little trance than as a response to her sister. “I’m okay. Just…” She blew out a breath. “I’ve been sort of…into a guy, and I’m not sure where it’s going.”

“Into a guy?” Chelsea squeezed her hand. “That’s new. The last time we talked you were bemoaning your lack of love life. Who is this guy?”

“No one you know,” Louise said, which wasn’t quite true. Jaiven had introduced himself, after all, as a friend of Alex’s. It stood to reason that Chelsea had met him. Yet Louise didn’t want to admit just who it was she was obsessing over.

“So tell me about him.”

“We’ve been having a fling and I think I’m starting to care too much.” She looked down, horrifyingly near tears, and took a shuddering breath. Somehow she found a smile, a light tone. “I have to say, though, I’ll miss the sex.”

She’d miss the sex, hell, yes, but Louise knew she would miss more than that if she ended it. She’d miss Jaiven, his teasing banter, his wicked smile, the way he actually seemed to know and understand her.

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