Total pages in book: 63
Estimated words: 57407 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 287(@200wpm)___ 230(@250wpm)___ 191(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 57407 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 287(@200wpm)___ 230(@250wpm)___ 191(@300wpm)
His response came shortly after: Yes. I’ll be home by seven. I need to talk to you, as well.
And there it was, she thought with a sinking feeling in her stomach. The dreaded talk. The beginning of the end. There was no other reason she could think of that he’d need to speak with her. Not after how withdrawn and distant he’d been when he’d left her Saturday night.
His behavior had been a warning, and as much as she wanted to fight for their relationship, she couldn’t do that if it was all one-sided. But she intended to give it her best shot.
Chapter Fifteen
Drew paced the living room of his apartment as he waited for Georgia to arrive, his own anxiety and dread over their upcoming conversation eating away at him…along with the guilt he’d been carrying since leaving her place Saturday night.
If he were honest with himself, this difficult discussion should have happened then, but telling Georgia they were over felt like a shitty thing to do after the special evening they’d shared. She’d given him one of the most memorable nights of his adult life and walking away from it and her was so fucking hard.
But he owed her the truth before tomorrow morning when he would agree to manage the EuroQuest Industries contract. He couldn’t keep stringing her along with the hope that one day he would have time for them. It wasn’t fair to expect her to be a part-time girlfriend, available on his schedule. He couldn’t guarantee any kind of consistency. Couldn’t make any promises and would probably, in fact, break more than he kept. That kind of unpredictability wasn’t fair. His ex-girlfriend could fill Georgia in on the kind of life she’d have with him and he already knew the loneliness wouldn’t make her happy. Georgia deserved better.
But all those valid reasons did nothing to alleviate the ache in his chest. Or soothe his heart that already felt like it was breaking in two at the thought of letting go of the one woman who’d given him so much, and who made him feel so whole and complete. Georgia had seen sides to him he’d never been comfortable sharing with any other woman, and imagining his life without her in it was excruciatingly painful.
She arrived a short while later, and he let her into his apartment. Normally, he’d pull her into his arms and kiss her, and he had to physically resist the instinctive urge to do so now. To hug her would only send mixed signals and messages. Besides, her own tense body language told him in no uncertain terms, don’t touch.
He wasn’t used to her being aloof, and no matter how much he deserved this cool attitude after how he’d left last time, it stung.
“Hey,” he said, forcing a smile. “Come on in. Can I get you something to drink?” he asked, feeling fucking awkward. Something else he’d never experienced around Georgia.
“No, thank you.” Her tone and demeanor were guarded.
With nothing left to do, he led the way into the living room, where she settled in a single armchair. He chose the sofa across from her. Distance that hurt.
“You said you needed to talk to me about something, so you can go first,” he offered, telling himself he was acting like a gentleman when he was just being a goddamn coward and delaying the inevitable.
She blew out a soft breath. “Okay, so first, I wanted to talk to you about Elliott.”
He was thrown off by her choice of subject matter. “What about him?” he asked.
She crossed one leg over the other, and since she was wearing a skirt and high heels, he was momentarily distracted by those long, toned, sexy limbs. Until she spoke, redirecting his attention back up to her face—that at the moment, wasn’t giving much of her feelings away.
“I went to my father’s office earlier today. He and I needed to settle things after the whole Elliott and my mother situation. As I walked out, Elliott confronted me in the hallway.”
Drew’s entire body tensed. “Confronted you…how?”
She drew a deep breath. “He made a snide remark about how you’re just using me to get back at him,” she said, and before he could refute that claim in any way, she held up a hand to stop him. “I don’t believe that for a second, but it’s been clear since the beginning that there is some kind of rivalry between you two.”
“Jesus Christ,” he muttered in annoyance. “Any rivalry is all one-sided because Elliott is an insecure little weasel.”
She smirked. “I would agree with that assessment,” she said, but her expression quickly turned serious. “He then went on to say some very derogatory, threatening things.”
Drew gripped the edge of the sofa tighter in one hand. “Such as?”
An embarrassed flush stained her cheeks, and he knew he wouldn’t like what she said next. “Like he was going about things with me the wrong way and that maybe he needed to treat me like a whore instead.”