Page 68 of Billionaire's Sins
"Ed," I swallow, "don’t go, please."
"I have to, Eve."
"I can’t live without you."
"You can."
"No," I whine, "I’ll die if you go."
"You'll regret it if I stay."
"It’s not true," I insist. "You know it isn’t."
"So far, I’ve done what was best for me, but from now on, everything I do, I do for you."
"That sounds like a bad Bryan Adams song."
He chuckles, the sound without humor. "That’s me, one bad pun after the other, baby."
"I love it when you call me baby." I yawn so widely that my jaw cracks.
"Sleep, baby." He presses his lips to the top of my head. This time sleep envelops me.
I come awake with a start, knowing something is wrong. I turn on my back to find I am alone in bed. Pale light filters in through the crack between the curtains. I spring up, throw off the cover, swing my legs over the bed, and race into the living room to find his backpack gone. I run back into the ensuite bathroom and his clothes are gone. Shit, shit shit. I knew I shouldn’t have slept. Knew he’d leave. Knew he’d take off, and now I’ll never see him again.No, don’t even go there. You’re going to find him, wherever he is.
I am not going to let him walk away from me like this. I round the bed, stare at the nightstand next to where he’d slept. Nothing. What had I been expecting? A note? What would he say? “Thank you for offering me your arse and your pussy and your mouth, but no thank you. It isn’t enough."
What had last night been all about, anyway? He’d walked in, filled with purpose, then seemed to lose himself somewhere in between. He’d shown he could be caring and tender, only to do an about-face and be nasty to me, then seemed to turn passionate again. Shit. Something had been wrong. All those hidden messages in what he’d told me… I’d almost grasped them, then put them aside because I’d been too focused on what he’d been doing to my body. Oh, he’d made sure to distract me alright, and I’d fallen for it. If he had known I was a virgin, he wouldn’t even have come to me, right? So, I should be grateful he had…but then he had left me. Bloody hell, what am I going to do now?
The sound of a bike revving reaches me. What the—? Has he been outside all this time? Has he been waiting for me to go out to him? Have I missed my chance to stop him? I race to my closet, pull on a dress, then run into the living room. I grab my house keys from the table near the entrance, then shove open the front door, run down the steps, over the short garden path and onto the road, just in time to see him round the corner on the bike.
"Edward," I scream and give chase. My bare feet thud against the sidewalk. The impact of each step ricochets through me as I race forward. I reach the bend, turn, my feet stumble over a crack in the pavement. The ground comes up to meet me. I close my eyes, brace for impact, only to be hauled up and against something hard.
"Watch where you are going," a rough voice rumbles. The vibrations shiver over the planes of the chest against which I am pressed.
My heart leaps in my chest and my belly trembles. "Edward." My lips widen in a smile. "You didn’t leave. Oh, Edward! I knew you wouldn’t go." I tilt my head up. "I knew you wouldn’t—" My gaze clashes with unfamiliar blue eyes. So cold, so chilling. Eyes so dead that, surely, the soul behind them belongs to someone who's seen too much, who has no humanity left in him. Eyes which are the exact opposite of Edward's smoldering golden ones.
"Y... you?" I stutter. "Who’re you?"
"Baron." His jaw tics. "I’m Baron, and you’re in my way."
To find out what happens next read Billionaire’s Promise HERE
Read an Excerpt
Ava
Baron? I blink, why is that name so familiar? "Do I know you?" I scowl, "And what do you mean that I am in your way? I almost fell—"
"Until you didn’t," he points out. "I saved you from hurting yourself."
"I thought you were someone else." I take in his harsh features, the dark blonde hair that falls over his forehead, the rich tan of his skin which hints at a life spent outdoors, the dark eyelashes that fringe a pair of brilliant blue eyes. The kind of eyes you could drown in, get lost in. So deep that they hide secrets. Secrets which I have had enough of. I no longer want to be drawn into something I can’t fathom. I yank at his grasp and he releases me so suddenly that I stumble back. He grips my shoulder, holds me long enough to ensure that I’ve found my balance, then releases me.
"You’re better off without him." His lips twist.
"How do you know that?" A chill runs up my spine and I wrap my arms around myself.
"Anyone who has you running barefoot on the sidewalk at," he glances at the watch on his thick wrist, "six in the morning, clearly doesn’t deserve you."
