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But he didn’t do any of that. He just regarded me with a cold gaze and nodded his head. As he turned and walked back to the barn, my heart shattered.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Brendan
“If you ask me, I—”
“No one is asking you,” I interrupted Gordon sourly as I tipped up the bottle of the beer and finished it. That cold numbness that I knew so well was spreading throughout my body.
“You’re being an idiot,” he continued as though I hadn’t said anything. “She has a point about you lying to her, and now you’re just going to let her walk away?”
“I was deluding myself into thinking that this could work.” Shuffling the papers I’d just signed, I straightened them and handed them back to Gordon. “Have you set up the appointment with Harry’s lawyers?”
“You can’t keep ignoring the situation,” he said quietly. “You can’t just bury it under work. It’s already eating at you, Brendan.”
“I’m not going to fall apart like last time.” God knows that I wanted to. I wanted to rage and howl and destroy everything in my sight, but I was older and wiser. I could hold my temper. I wouldn’t let her affect me again. “Besides, this is probably for the best. Jillian has her whole career in front of her, and we probably wouldn’t have made it work.”
“But how do you know if you don’t try?”
“Because in the course of trying, she’ll just grow to resent me. The man who held her back.”
“That’s a lame excuse.” Gordon sighed as he slipped the paperwork in his briefcase. “If I were you, I’d crawl on my hands and knees to get her back.”
“Wouldn’t do a bit of good,” I said as I clenched my fists. “When Jillian’s mind is made up, there’s no changing it. Groveling would just fall on deaf ears and embarrass us both. She made her choice, and I’m going to accept it. Hell, I probably never stood a chance anyway. Just because I wanted it enough for the both of us didn’t mean it was going to be enough.”
“Want me to start drawing up the divorce papers?”
Pain bled through the numbness. I hadn’t even thought about that. “No. Not yet. Let’s just give it some time to settle.”
“Give her time to cool off, Brendan. Once she gets back to the city, she might change her mind. Don’t give up just yet.”
He walked away, and I blew out my breath. Was it even possible for me to give up hope? Jillian was the only woman I’d ever loved, and I just couldn’t get it right, but that didn’t mean that I wouldn’t one day.
The tension in my body eased. I’d let her head back to the city, and maybe she’d forgive me.
First, I’d have to ask her for it.
I worked through dinner. I needed something to keep my mind off the fact that she was probably packing, plus, I could see a summer storm brewing in the skies. I wanted to make sure the horses were settled. Storms had a way of making them skittish.
Her aroma still lingered in my room, but her bags were gone. From the closed door to the guest room, I could only surmise that she was planning on spending the night there. As I ate the leftovers that had been left out for me, I considered knocking on her door and demanding that she hear me out, but demands had never worked for Jillian. If she wouldn’t listen to me, then I wasn’t going to talk to her.
I crawled into bed just as the first flash of lightning struck. Thunder rumbled only seconds behind, and I looked out the window. I had a feeling it was going to be a quick storm. One that raged angrily for an hour and then dissipated.
I didn’t mind. Tonight I needed the wrath of the weather since I couldn’t rage on my own.
A few minutes into the storm, and the door to my bedroom creaked open. Even before the flash of lightening illuminated her face, I knew that it was her. I could feel her. The anger. The hurt. It rolled off her in waves. The ice princess couldn’t control her emotions, and now she was here to make sure that I felt her pain.
Her gorgeous blonde hair tumbled down her shoulders. She was dressed in a simple white tank top and matching cotton panties. She was hardly dressed for seduction, but I was hard as a rock before she’d made it five steps in the room.
“Brendan.” Her desire shimmered in her voice. I didn’t know if the storm had heated up her passion or if it was the realization that it was her last night here, but she was here for me, and I wasn’t about to turn her away.
“Come here,” I demanded hoarsely. I slept naked, so the only thing that stood in the way of me sliding inside her were the sheets and those panties.
