Page 206 of Forbidden Billionaires: Vol. 10
"Then how did she know your apartment hadn't been decorated?"
Breathe.All these accusations stung. I thought I trusted Penny. But when she acted like this…I wasn’t sure how I could. I thought about Tyler leaving her building and I crossed my arms over my chest. "Because she's been there before."But it doesn’t matter. It was forever ago. Why the hell are we talking about this? I already told you everything.
"What? Why?"
"She came a few months after I moved here to talk about our relationship. Or lack of one I guess."
"I don't know if I can trust you."
"And I don't know if I can trust you." I didn’t mean to snap, but fuck this. I’d already told her about Isabella. And Penny was the one hiding information from me, not the other way around.
"Why? I haven't done anything wrong."
Breathe."I saw Tyler Stevens coming out of your building when I pulled up."
"He just came to drop off my stuff that I left in class.”
I raised my left eyebrow.
"After I found your wedding ring, I told myself we were over. I was in so much pain. I had never felt so broken before. So I started to think about my relationship with Tyler. I thought maybe it could be more than a friendship. He's always wanted it to be more. It just seemed like the right time."
Fucking hell.I was done with the games. Maybe I was wrong about her. Maybe she wasn’t as mature as I thought. I wasn’t some college kid looking for a good lay. I was falling for her. I had fallen. And I was in a stage of my life where that actually meant something. Our age difference had never felt like a big gap until this moment. My mind was telling me to walk away. I was too old for this bullshit. But I stayed where I was. I didn’t have the strength to walk away. Fuck, all I wanted to do was beg her to forgive me. And I hadn’t even done anything wrong. I took a deep breath and leaned against her bed. "You're dating him?"
"No. I thought I wanted to. But I was still confused about you. I've been a mess if you can't tell. I still don't know how I feel. Things seemed easy with Tyler. You just have so much baggage. I think I was just trying to get over you."
"By getting under someone else?" I gripped the side of her mattress. I remembered walking in on Isabella with another man. I was pissed back then. But this feeling right now? This was worse. Because I was pretty sure I was in love with Penny. And she didn’t feel the same way. Maybe she never had.
"It didn't go that far, Professor Hunter. And it never will. Tyler found out about you and he wants nothing to do with me."
Fuck.I was hoping I’d been wrong about that. That his speech was about some other rich guy he hated.
Her gaze met mine. "Tyler looked at my phone. He saw that I had missed calls from you."
"You had me in your phone as Professor Hunter?"
"I'm sorry. I don't think he'll tell anyone." It looked like she was about to cry again.
God, she was driving me to madness. But I didn’t want to see her cry. I pulled her into my chest. The sweet smell of cherries was everywhere. She’d made a scene in front of the class, did God-knows-what with Tyler, and told him about our relationship. She was a freaking mess. But so was I. And nothing she did could ever be as bad as what I’d done in my early twenties. I continued to hold her in my arms, breathing easier than I had all day. All that mattered was that she was here right now. And I wasn’t strong enough to walk away from her. I didn’t want to. I couldn’t.
"Can I walk you out?" she asked.
What?I pushed her shoulders back slightly and looked down at her. "You want me to leave?"
"No."
"Then I don't want to go."
"But I broke your trust. I had told you Tyler and I were just friends."
"And you were just friends when you told me that. I broke your trust by not telling you about my marriage. Even though I never said I wasn't married."
"So neither of us lied, but we both hurt each other."
I nodded. I was good at hurt. She could hurt me again and again and it wouldn’t really faze me. Hurt was all I knew.
"Then I guess we're even?"
I smiled. "Penny, you're hard to control. And I'm used to being in control."
