Page 378 of Tormented Billionaire Romance Series

My sister found my day hilarious. On our video chat that evening, she cracked up, making me happy in a perverse way that I could provide her with such entertainment. It was more entertaining for her than it was for me.

Between peals of laughter, she choked out, “Youactuallytold him not to interrupt you?Oh myGod!”

“That was pretty much my own reaction,” I said with either a frown that was really a smile, or a smile that was really a frown. “It’s a good thing he was such a good sport about it.”

“I know!” Leanna said, having to slap her hands down on her desk from laughing so hard. “Just think, you could have gotten an introduction and a pink slip on the same day!”

That put a sick look on my face, which only made her crack up more. My sister and I loved and supported each other, but we found each other’s embarrassments amusing in that way that only siblings can.

“And after only a few days in this apartment, too,” I murmured, shuddering inside at what a complete disaster the whole thing could have been.

I gave Leanna a chance to calm down. I also told her about the funny coincidence of meeting the boss’s personal trainer before I actually met the boss.

“Well, that’s interesting,” she said. “In such a big city, it turns out to be a small world, huh?”

“Really,” I said. “What are the odds?” I sighed and brushed a hand through my hair, slightly relieved that she was calmer now, though I would probably never hear the end of the “telling my boss not to interrupt me” story from her. She’d probably find inopportune times to bring it up in the future.

“So, except for putting your foot in your mouth today, you really like the job?”

“I really do,” I replied. “I really like the job, and I really feel like I’ve done the right thing and I’m in the right place.”

“Oh, Addie, I’m glad,” said Leanna. “As upset and depressed as I was about you moving away, I’m happy for you that it’s working out.”

“Thanks, Sis,” I said. Knowing she was happy for me made me miss home a little less.

CHAPTER11

Elijah. Sunday

I didn’t know what it was about my past, but lately, it seemed as if it was always with me. When it wasn’t intruding on me, I was tripping over it.

Piatt Park, the oldest park in the city, was one of my favorite places to jog. Running under the archways with the trees reaching over from either side like green awnings, it was like being on a movie location. I should have had my phone in my sweatshirt pocket and my headphones on, piping some appropriate music for the moment into my head. But, if I’d been running and listening to music, I might not have spotted her sitting at one of the tables along the paved pathway that made the scene complete.

There she was, looking like a fashion model as always, but not one of those runway models who was just skin and bones. She had curves up and down her body to match the curves of her hair. She was nibbling away at a Cobb salad with chicken, pretending she didn’t see me.

The pretense stung a bit.As sadly as we’d parted, did Kathleenreallyhave to ignore me when she saw me?There was a time when she would have looked at me in my sweatshirt, shorts, and sneakers and had a look in her eyes as if I were the only man in the world. It would have put a look in Kathleen’s eyes that said,Fuck me now.And, I would have done it.

I would have had her back in my penthouse in nothing flat. Since I wouldn’t really want to bang a woman when all sweaty from jogging, but since her need for my cock wouldn’t wait, I would have invited Kathleen into my shower with me, where there was more than enough room for two. After letting her lather me up and rinse me off, she would have dropped to her knees, where I’d let her make a snack of the meat between my legs that she’d enjoy a lot more than the lean chicken in her salad.

Then, on the wet tiles of my shower, I’d have her down on her back with legs up in the air. I’d get down on all-fours between those thighs and slip into her pussy what she’d just had in her mouth, harder than the tiles I was fucking her on. We’d move from there to a toweling-off in my bedroom and from there to my bed, where I’d give her some more urgent humping.

But, those days were over. They’d been over for a while because while my body and my boner made Kathleen happy enough, she couldn’t live with my past. It was just something I’d had to reluctantly accept.

Still, the fact that she would let me run by and not even want to acknowledge my presence was painful. I couldn’t ignore the pang of hurt. So, in mid-stride, I stopped and faced her, keeping myself right there in front of her where she couldn’t look through me without it being obvious.

Showing her what she’d given up, reminding her of what she used to enjoy so much, I said, “Kathleen. Don’t I even get a hello?”

She looked up from her salad as if I were a casual acquaintance, not the man who used to fuck her into the middle of next week and said, without enthusiasm, “Elijah. Hello.”

I dared to take a couple of steps closer, to see what she would do. She didn’t move. But, she also didn’t act any happier to see me. “Look,” I said, “can’t we be civil, at least? Just because we’re not together any more, do you have to act like I don’t even exist?”

She didn’t answer me in words. She just sort of tilted her head, slumped her shoulders, and sighed in the way that meant that even though there was something we needed to talk about, she didn’t want to be bothered with it.

Frustrated, I put one hand on my hip and brushed through my hair with the other. “Okay, let me put the words in here. This is where you bring up how worried you are that someone from my past, who I’ve told you I’ve cut loose, is going to come out of the bushes and attack us. I know that conversation by heart, Kathleen. It’s no more true now than it was then. I’m not that person any more. I was working hard on not being that guy when we were together. I’m never going to be that guy again.”

“Elijah, you know how I feel about all that. The past doesn’t just go away. You might think it’s gone, but it can always come back. When I brought up marriage and you decided then to tell me about your old life, which you’d never brought up before-”

Holding up my hands to stop her, I finished, “I know, I know. You felt misled and deceived, like you’d never really known me, like I’d gone into our relationship under false pretenses and I would have never mentioned it if you hadn’t mentioned marriage, yada yada yada…”

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