Page 93 of Love Among the Ruins
Eleni’s chest tightened. Hopefully a plate of steel armor was going up around her chest. After her lapse in judgment these last few days, she needed to be strong and never forget. Nice Dominic had vanished, and the asshole was back. “I came to get my laptop.”
“I told you I was going to sort it out.”
“Why are you angry at me?” she cried, not caring that Miranda could hear.
“My brother’s here.” He swiped a hand through his hair.
“Yes.” She wondered what he’d told Dominic. They had obviously spoken.
“In my office, now.”
“Don’t talk to me like that,” she snapped. The pain in her ankle was getting sharp again. Miranda stopped typing, her gaze ping-ponging between Eleni and Dominic.
“In my office, now, Eleni.Please,” Dominic pleaded.
She slowly moved into his office.
“Sit,” he ordered.
“I’m not sitting. I need to go home.”
He pulled out a chair for her. “Your foot. You need to rest it.Sit.”
“I’m not—”
“For fucks’ sake, will you listen to me and sit down? Quit being so stubborn.”
“Do not swear at me.” She sat down in a huff, then regretted her dramatic descent as the pain shot through her ankle again. “If you’re angry with your brother, take it out on him. I amnotyour emotional punching bag.”
“You’re not. I’m sorry. Why did you say you were a maid?” he asked.
Was he mad aboutthat?“I was trying to help you.” This was not going to be easy; his shirt sleeves were already rolled up. Naked forearms on display.
God help her.
She shifted her focus up and surveyed his face slowly.
“Explain.”
“You said your brother was an opinionated jerk. You made him sound not so nice, you said he was checking up on you. How would it have looked if I told him you’d let me stay over?”
Dominic pinched the bridge of his nose for the longest time, as if his fingers were glued to it. “You didn’t have to belittle yourself like that.”
“Who says I was? Working as a maid is good way for some of us to make money.”
He stared at her, his expression hard to read, but the line between his brows softened and slowly disappeared. “You’ve worked as a maid?”
“Most people aren’t born to billionaire parents like you.”
He looked as if he was going to say something, but she beat him to it. “I need to earn money and I do whatever it takes.” This man didn’t need to know why she needed it. What she needed was probably the equivalent of what one of his suits cost. It sickened her, now that she was confronted by it, how vast the void between them was. How different they were, even if she sometimes thought they had so much in common.
Something hot and lava like melted through her insides, running down her belly leaving a painful burning sensation it its wake. She couldn’t believe that this man in front of her, the man at the root of the complications springing up in her life, the man she tried to help, bylying—because he had helped her, was angry at her.
She wasn’t too happy with him either. He’d spent the night with Helen, after making her, Eleni, feel so special. He’d been so good to her, letting her rest at his home, getting his private doctor to see her, then making sure she ate, and just when they’d got talking, he upped and left.
She didn’t know who he was. Sometimes he was nice and kind, and soft, and other times, like now, he looked at her as if he wanted to tear her apart.
“How did you get here?”
