Page 37 of A Billionaire Gentleman

“The other night, after Sofi and I went to Absinthe, we went back to her place.” I couldn’t look at him, couldn’t bear to see the disappointment when I told him what I’d done. “We didn’t have sex…well, we did. Sort of. I mean…” I pressed the heels of my hands over my eyes. “You know what, it doesn’t matter. It was more than should have happened. She kissed me the first day we were out together, and I should’ve shut things down then, but I didn’t. I should’ve told her about Aurelia then.”

“But you didn’t.”

I shook my head. “I didn’t. And I didn’t say no when she invited me into her apartment. I had more than one chance to stop it, and I didn’t. The only reason we didn’t go all the way was we fell asleep.”

“It was that boring?”

He sounded amused, and I wanted to snap at him that it wasn’t funny, but honestly, that was the least I deserved. “It was…no, it wasn’t boring. We’d both been drinking.”

“So, you both got drunk, and one thing led to another.”

I raised my head then, annoyed that he thought I could take advantage of someone like that. “We were both sober enough to know what we were doing.”

“Seems to me that I’m not the one you should be talking to about this. It took two of you to do whatever it was you did.”

“No,” I said firmly. “This is all on me. Sofi didn’t know about Aurelia until this morning.”

“How did she take it? Sofi, I mean. I’m guessing you haven’t talked to Aurelia yet.”

“Better than Aurelia will, I suppose,” I said.

“You do plan on telling her then? Aurelia?”

“Of course.”

Grandad sighed. “You’re a good man, Deklin.”

“No, I’m not.” I put my elbows on my knees and leaned forward. “I was supposed to take care of Aurelia, not fool around with your assistant.”

“Did you do it because you don’t care about Aurelia?”

At least that was an easy question to answer. “No. I care about her. I’m marrying her.”

His face tightened for a moment, the muscle popping in his jaw. “Caring about someone isn’t the same as loving them. Especially when you’re talking about a marriage kind of love.”

I was getting tired of people telling me that I shouldn’t marry Aurelia because I didn’t love her the way they believed I should. Even as the thought came into my head, though, another thought followed it.

Maybe the reason it bothered me was because it was true, and I just didn’t want to admit it. The first thing my dad had asked me to do for the family, and I was going to fail.

“Did you go to Sofi because she was available or was there another reason?” he asked. “Is ither,or is it just because she’s not Aurelia?”

Shit. That was the real question I needed to answer, wasn’t it?

“If I’ve learned one thing in my life, Deklin, it’s that real connection doesn’t happen every day. I’ve had it once in my entire life. I’ve loved other women, but it was never the same.” He paused, a faraway look in his eyes for half a minute before he gave himself a mental shake. “If you think there’s even a chance that you could have that with someone other than Aurelia, you need to take it.”

“I made a promise,” I protested.

“Yes, you did. But this is a better promise to break than if you say your wedding vows and then realize down the line that you’re missing something vital. I’m not saying this only for you. Would it be fair to Aurelia if you married her when your heart belonged to someone else?”

I’d heard somewhere that if life is trying to tell you something, you’ll hear it over and over until it gets through. Since Grandad wasn’t the first person to bring up that Aurelia deserved better, I figured I’d better pay attention.

“Dad’s going to be pissed,” I muttered.

“Your father could learn a thing or two about meddling,” Grandad said. “Now, go talk to Sofi before she decides she wants to go back to Vegas before we even touch down in Houston.”

“Right.”

The distance between where I’d been sitting and the cabin where Sofi was lying down wasn’t far in terms of feet, but it felt like miles as I walked it. I didn’t know what to say or how to ask if she even wanted me to say anything. For all I knew, finding out I was engaged had closed her off to any possibility of more. She’d said she wasn’t mad, but she could’ve just been being polite. It wasn’t like she could’ve left whenever she wanted to.

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