Page 99 of Tormented Billionaire Romance Series

“They've always been my favorite.”

“Plain black coffee suits me right now.”

He raised his eyebrows. “Wow, that's new.”

“Yeah, it was a recent development.”

“How did that happen?”

I shrugged. “I was late to work enough to not mind adding anything else. I think I've acquired the taste at this point.”

“You used to put almond milk and sugar in your coffee.”

“I still do that,” I admitted. “As a treat.”

“Well, I'm glad that didn't change.”

I stared at him and he chuckled nervously.

I shook my head. “You're such a strange man.”

“I do my best.”

I wandered to a nearby table and plopped down in a chair, watching him sit down in front of me. I stared at him for a while. I studied the way his eyes encompassed me as if they were attempting to absorb every part of my image. It was a way he had looked at me before, a way I had missed, and I must have been doing the same thing because he cracked a smile.

“So,” he said. “Shall we get started?”

I sighed. “Yeah, let's get started.”

CHAPTER27

Levon

“Which one of us should start?”

I rested my hands on the table between us. I was shaking a bit, most likely because my nerves were shot from that weird argument we had in the middle of the airport. We were due for a disagreement.

It just happened to be more public than usual.

“Well, you were telling me that you thought I went back to Gabe,” she replied. “So, why don't you start from there?”

I nodded. “I ran into Gabe last week. I hadn't heard from you in a couple of days and I was caught sort of off guard. He mentioned he was happy because he had seen you the previous night. I just assumed when he said that you two talked, it meant you had gone back to him.”

“I guess I could see how that might look. He didn't mention we were staying friends?”

“No, he just said that everything was fine. I got . . . Well, I got mad.”

She sighed. “Yeah, I bet.”

“That coupled with the fact that you hadn't called sent me into a bit of a spin. I left Gabe in the deli and went to the park to cool off. That's where I decided I was going to leave again.”

“As you typically do when things get bad: you run away.”

Her words blasted my heart apart. I sat with my hands hooked together, unable to pry them apart even when our names were called to collect our orders. She went to retrieve them and slid mine across the table. As I accepted it, our fingers brushed together and I was immediately jolted.

I even shook my head to shake away the charge. “Yeah, I tend to do that. I'm trying to resist that this time.”

“I mean, sitting with me and talking is certainly a start.”

---