AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Except she’d stayed in New York longer than I’d anticipated. Beau should’ve been back in London by now. Hopefully whatever business deal had brought her here would be done soon. I couldn’t keep this up.
It wasn’t just because it was a no-strings hookup necessarily, because what man wouldn’t want that? Beau was hot. A goddess in bed. It was how cold she was afterward . . . how much distance she obviously wanted between us. As if she despised me. That stung. People didn’t hate me. Except Beau Hollingsworth.
I swiped my keys off the nightstand.I have to get out of here.
Her scent still lingered. She was gone, but I could feel her nails digging into my back like she’d never left. The rumpled sheets hanging halfway off the mattress were a further reminder of just what a mistake it was.
But I wouldn’t delude myself.
I’d keep this up until she went back across the ocean. I could make it that long.
You should put a stop to this. Now.
A gold earring glinting against the white sheets caught my eye. I grabbed it and stared at it in my palm. I wasn’t stopping anything.
I checked my reflection before I left the room.
You’re an idiot. You think you can do this and go back to life as usual?
Didn’t matter what I thought. I had to. Because a woman like Beau didn’t belong to men like me.
I slid the key across the front desk.
The clerk tapped on her computer and frowned. “Mr. Calhoun, I’m sorry but this form of payment isn’t going through.”
Shit. I was maxed out again.
“Someone stole my account, and I’m still getting it straightened out.” The lie rolled off my tongue so easily because I’d said it a thousand times before. I pulled my wallet from my back pocket. The only cash was the twenty Vigiano had given me.
I gave her my debit card and prayed that there was enough in the account to cover the bill as she swiped it through the machine.
After a few seconds, she smiled and returned the card. “You’re all set. See you soon.”
I didn’t get paid until next week. This twenty was all I had to hold me over until then.
Damn it. Again. Get it together, Cal.
If Beau wanted me again on Thursday, I’d have to do something I swore I wouldn’t when this whole thing started.
Take her to my house.
Chapter Seven
Beau
“I’mglad to see you’ve warmed to this union.”
Father sauntered into my office and made himself at home in a chair across from my desk.
“Della Davenport said you had the loveliest lunch.”
I’d tried to politely decline, and then not so politely, but she’d been like a bulldog with a bone, insisting we had so little time.
So I’d sat through two hours of her planning a wedding that wasn’t going to happen. What had possessed me to pretend to care was beyond me. Maybe it was self-preservation kicking in.
I hadn’t figured out how I was going to get out of marrying Alex, but my instincts were to play along as if all were well. My head wanted to tell my instincts to take a hike.
“She’s quite enthusiastic about it,” I said, setting the pen in my hand on the desk.
