Page 119 of The Billionaire's Fake Fiancée

“No. Also, I wouldn’t say I’ve sworn off relationships,” she says. “Friends with benefits is a relationship. Vacation fling, that’s a relationship.”

“Meaningless only?”

“Why are you acting surprised?” she asks. “Guys can do that and women can’t? I have deep and meaningful relationships with my friends. Beyond that…asking for anything more…I’ve seen too much.”

I want to say something that begins withnot all men,but manage to stop myself. “Your fiancé left you when you were in the hospital with serious injuries. I can only imagine how awful that must have been.”

She turns her gaze to the horizon. “I was half conscious when Jacob broke it off, so I suppose it’s relative. It’s possible being drugged up made it better.”

“In the fucking hospital,” I say.

“Well, it would’ve been worse if he’d wheeled me out just to break up with me.”

“How about sticking by you?” I try to keep my anger at bay. I don’t want to scare her.

She widens her eyes. “Right? Jerk.”

I frown. She can make light of it—it’s how she gets through things, I suppose, but I won’t. “What the hell kind of man does that?”

She smiles as the waiter appears with a plate of calamari.

“I should tell you all my woes so you can do that growling-on-my-behalf thing,” she says as soon as he leaves. “Because it’s really working for me.”

“He left you lying in a hospital bed.”

“Okay, more growly feeling on that last one,” she jokes, but it’s too late—I’m a bloodhound on the scent, and I’m putting it all together. “What he did to you, it’s the same thing your worthless dad did to your mother.”

“Somebody’s been paying attention,” she says.

How could I not?I think. I’d give anything for that questionnaire now. I’d read a five-hundred-question questionnaire from her and never get bored.

She gazes out at the water. “It’s not the same thing. Actually, it’s the opposite. My worthless dad destroyed my mom; Jacob made me stronger. Dad and Jacob, the pair of them together, taught me an important lesson. They made me practically bulletproof. When the universe tells you two times that you have a tail, you’d better turn around and look.”

“By which you might mean, men have a tail.”

“I haven’t officially checked you for a tail…” She props her foot on my knee, shoves at it playfully. “But the night is young.”

“And that birthday. At the TipTop.”

She tilts her head, impressed. “Yes, the tragic tale of the twelve-year-old girl crying at the TipTop, waiting alone for her dad, crushed party hat hidden in her lap. Nothing gets past you.”

“And that’s why you don’t celebrate them. Another lesson learned?”

“Birthdays only suck if you build up expectations.”

I cover her shin with my hands. “Expect the worst from guys? I don’t call that bulletproof; I call it tragic.”

“This from the man who famously won’t date the same woman twice?” She grabs a piece of calamari.

“It’s tragic. It’s not right.”

“Well, that’s how I feel. Are you gonna kill the messenger?” she says. “Though I hear that’s allowed.”

My pulse thunders in my ears. “I don’t want us to end, dammit.”

Chapter 20

Tabitha

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