Page 168 of Love Among the Ruins
“What is it? What do you need to show me?” His voice was brittle, thin. Full of contempt.
This wasn’t how she’d expected a lover to be. “It’s nothing important ... it can wait...”
Another step back.
“It must have been important for you to march in here, despite Miranda telling you I didn’t want to see anyone.”
Anyone?
Up until this moment, she hadn’t thought of herself as justanyone, especially to Dominic. They hadhadsomething together. But she couldn’t reconcile the hard, cold businessman before her to the tender man she’d shared her bed with.
Her eyes prickled with tears, and she looked away, blinking and trying to staunch them. “It’s nothing, really.” She forced herself to look at him so that she would not forget how little she was in his eyes, in his estimation. How she was so insignificant.
He stood up slowly. “You’ve wasted my time with your interruption. So, go on, what the hell is it?”
His words hit her like physical punches but hurt for much longer because, unlike punches, the words sliced into her heart and splintered inside her.
This horrible, moody man. Why had she ever thought that he had changed?
“This is nothing. Empty sheets.” She flicked through the pages to show him. “I wanted a reason to come and see you.” Her voice sounded hollow, like it belonged to a victim.
But she wasn’t a victim.
She wasn’t hurting because of the sex. He hadn’t used her. She’d used him, she’d wanted the fantasy, had wanted to believe that there could be something between them. Had wanted to know that he wanted her as much as he’d wanted Helen or Demi, or the other socialites.
She wanted to know that he desired her.
And he had, for that one night. But now, he was filled with contempt. If she didn’t understand that he had dismissed her, that she didn’t count, and didn’t matter, she was just plain stupid.
“Why?”
Why?
“I missed you.” There. She had said it, because she could no longer keep it to herself. “I thought ... I thought it meant something … what happened between us.”
His lips were firmly pressed together. She searched desperately for some emotion in that cruel hard face of it, but found none. He simply stared at her as if she were a statue.
Her heart lurched violently inside her ribcage. Everything she’d wanted to believe, was not how it actually was. She’d made a terrible mistake.
Dominic didn’t even bat an eyelid. In the stretched out silence, the way he looked at her, made her feel like one of those desperate women who probably threw themselves at him, while he gazed at them with pity.
Well, she was not one of those women. She had no interest in his money, or his status, and she didn’t care for his wealth.
She’d found a connection, a heart that fit with hers, and while she might have backed away too soon, she’d come to him now to say she was sorry.
Only, she’d seen his true colors.
“I made a mistake.”
She needed to run as far away from him as possible.
