Page 62 of Billion-Dollar Dating Game

‘You think I suppressed my needs aroundyou?’ he mocked harshly.

‘I’m not talking about sex.’ She breathed hard. ‘At least, notonlysex.’

He stared at her.

‘You ended this with me before you needed to because what, you actually opened up for five minutes? You got uncomfortable with that?’ She shook her head. ‘The thing is, you’ve got more to offer a woman than you think.’

‘Skylar—’

‘I get that you don’t wantme.I get that.’ She stretched up as tall as she could and spoke furiously, right in his ear. ‘I thought you were totally cold beneath that playboy exterior. That superficial charm masked an empty shell. That you took things apart because you’re not whole and you can’t stand to see other things complete.’

His nostrils flared.

‘But you’re not,’ she said huskily. ‘You brought me my favourite food, remembered the things I like to do. You supported me in my one hobby...that wasn’t all part of the game. That wasyou. You’re a caring, kind guy. You have more than great sex to offer someone, you know? You should have a person in your life.’

Shereallywanted to be that person, and while she could accept his decision that she wasn’t, she desperately hoped he might change his mind. That he might be hiding so much more—same as she.

But he just stared down at her. ‘I thought you said I was an arrogant prat,’ he said roughly.

She rocked back onto her heels. ‘The fact is you know me better than anyone else, but I knowyoutoo. I know how you can hide hurt, Zane. You eventoldme how good you are at it. I think you’re afraid, and I don’t blame you because you took some rough blows when we were young. But you can’t hide it for ever. It’ll rise,’ she said, her voice catching. ‘Eventually it’ll become impossible to ignore. And all the partying in the world, all the money you can make, won’t be distraction enough. And when you finally realise that maybe youdohave the courage to face it, and let someone in, it might just be too late.’

He still didn’t move. The man was ice. He wanted to stay that way. And it was too late forheralready. Her shredded heart broke right in two. She blinked, furious with her loss of emotional control in the face of his rigidity. But that’s where they were different now, right? Sheletherself feel. He still didn’t.

‘You should go home,’ he said gruffly.

‘Screw that.’ She lifted her chin with a defiant sniff, determined to mask up again. ‘I’m going dancing.’

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

JEALOUSYSTORMEDTHROUGHZane at the thought of her on a dance floor with someone else. He made himself walk. Away. Not go caveman and scoop her up and storm out of there with her hanging upside down and screaming over his shoulder. Much as he wanted to.

This possessiveness was intolerable. He instructed his driver to floor it and keep driving. He didn’t want to go back to his penthouse. It was tainted with memories of her. As was the beach house. But he needed to go somewhere. A momentary stop at a liquor store helped...eventually. Hours later, he was where he needed to be. Alone and by the ocean and more than halfway through a bottle of whisky.

Not that he felt any better for it.

He tossed the bottle off the balcony, irritated. He didn’t do this. He never drank alone. Never tried to numb pain with substance abuse. He endured—and he could handle this too, right? This was nothing.

But it wasn’t nothing. It was agony. And it was awful.

Thiswas the thing he couldn’t do.Relationships. Fun, yes. For sure. But that had become a hollow satisfaction, whereas his satisfaction with Skylar was anything but hollow. It was everything.

But she didn’t want a relationship either. She didn’t want to make thateffort. Sex was ‘easy’ with him and all she’d wanted was the experience he could offer. The ‘learning’ she’d not had for years for whatever unfathomable reason. And he was a safe choice because he didn’t want relationships either—he was a one-date wonder after all...

Except maybe now he wasn’t.

And the bitter irony was he meant little more than nothing to her. It was only Helberg she held in her heart. For her father. That was why she’d come looking for him. And he’d used it, hadn’t he, to manipulate her into his little game. Because having sex with her the once hadn’t been enough.

Heaven knew he would never have enough.

Groaning, he stumbled downstairs to the cabinet and abandoned his noble attempts to endure pain. He couldn’t do it any more. He needed an anaesthetic and whisky was the only available option.

Hours later, his head was absolutely killing him. So was his heart. Every damn beat reverberated the pain around his body. Itsucked.

He stood beneath the shower and flicked it to cold. He leaned against the wall and closed his eyes and endured the freezing temperatures. Regretting everything.

Pure self-inflicted punishment. His relentless thoughts of Skylar only made it worse. They’d tumbled into lust the second they’d had the chance. Both back when they were both teens and again when he’d found her in his garden. Both times they’d barely spoken before the chemistry between them had instantly exploded—out of control and unstoppable.

Her father had broken them apart and torn strips off him.

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