Page 2 of Her Billionaire Boss
“Oof, so we’re doing this first.I was kind of hoping I could convince you to take me back by exploitingmy sexuality.”She laughed, but I knew her too well.It wasn’t a joke.
“I don’t need to take you back.I didn’t break up with you,” I reminded her.“You’re the one who ran from me.”
When she sat, she seemed to fold in on herself.
I thought back to Scott’s primer:The tiniest bit of criticism feels like full-blown rejection to her.And if she thinks you’re rejecting her, she’ll shut down and start planning the next escape.
“I love you.”I sat beside her and leaned my cane against the arm of the couch.“Let’s get that out of the way right now.I want to be with you.But I can’t live in constant fear that if I say the wrong thing, you’ll run off again.”
“I know.”Her head dipped down.“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t.”I tilted her face up and held her chin so she couldn’t look away.“You came back.I assume that means you want to be with me.”
She closed her eyes, and a tear skated down her cheek.“Of course I do.I thought you didn’t want to be with me.”
DO NOT tell her she’s being irrational or crazy, Scott had said.Her reality is that no one can love her and we’re all lying when we say that we do.
“I want to be with you.I need you to believe that.”There was no way to force her to believe it.That’s where my problem was.“Can you give me the benefit of the doubt?When you’re thinking there’s no way I could possibly love you, or that I’m lying to you, can you stop and remind yourself that I have no reason to lie to you?”
“Trust you.Those are the words, I think, you’re looking for.”She wiped her tear away on the back of her hand.“The last thing I want is for you to think I don’t trust you.I wouldn’t have come back if I didn’t.I wouldn’t have gotten on a plane to your sex island.I mean, you realize how bad that story could end, right?”
“I do.”One of my biggest fears was that something would happen to someone at one of my Ascend properties.“And I appreciate that you trusted me that much.But it’s not enough.I can’t be with you if you’re going to constantly accuse me of lying in your head.”
She grabbed my hands.“I swear, that’s not what’s happening.It’s never about you.”
“I know.It’s about you.But it affects me.And I can’t change that.But you can.”I squeezed her hands.“That’s why one of my conditions for you being here, with me, is that you have to go to therapy, princess.”
Her eyes widened.
“Yeah, you’ve been to therapy.”Scott had told me all about it.Years upon years of family therapy to try to convince Charlotte that she was wanted and not a failure for not having the correct spare parts.“I knew that before I even met you.But have you been to see a therapist as an adult?”
“No,” she admitted, almost like she was ashamed.
“Well, you’re going to go, now.I can afford to get you whatever treatment you need.I want you to be able to love yourself as much as I love you.”That could be impossible; I doubted anyone could love Charlotte as much as I loved her.
She took a deep breath.“Okay.Therapy.I can do that.”
“For thirty billion, you can do that?”I teased.
She pulled her hands back to give me a push.“No.Obviously.You were really going to give my brother all of your money?”
“Full disclosure?I’m not sure that’s all of my money.But yeah.He said I had to give him all of my money or else I couldn’t date you.”I was still puzzled as to whether or not he would have cashed the check.It seemed like someone would have called me to confirm that the transaction was legitimate.
It would have been.“I would give up the world for you, Charlotte.”
There was apparently a waterbed mattress worth of held-back tears in her head, and it chose that moment to rupture.She fell against me, her chest heaving with sobs.I held her, stroking the copper honey of her hair, barely believing that we’d gotten to this point.It had seemed so final, so impossible a day ago, that I would ever see her again.
“Are you mad at me?”she asked, her voice muffled against my shoulder.“If you’re mad at me, I’ll understand.”
“I’m not mad.I’m—”
She sat up.“Don’t say disappointed.That’s worse.”
“Hurt,” I finished.
She flinched.“That’ssomuch worse.”
“I can’t help what I feel.”
