The Billionaire Playboy(44)

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The traffic light turned red and Charlie brought the car to a stop. Grocery shopping was not how she wanted to spend her evening. Yet she'd promised she would do it while her mom went to the doctor's office. Her mom had felt lousy all week, but that afternoon she'd come down with a high fever. She'd only agreed to see the doctor after Charlie promised to get the groceries.

When the light turned green she turned left down Maple Street and noticed that things looked even better today than they had the day before. In fact it seemed like every day things in town got a little closer to normal. Last week most of the town had still been without electricity but today everyone had power. The majority of the fallen trees and other random pieces of debris had been removed so that the streets were again accessible. It seemed almost impossible that only weeks before a hurricane had swept through knocking out the dam and turning the town upside down. Sure, work still remained, especially on the dam and the homes that had been flooded, but for the most part people were now able to go about their everyday lives again. Even the schools were open again.

Most of it wouldn't have happened if not for Jake and his foundation. At the thought of him her heart rate increased and her body quivered in anticipation. He was due back in town on Friday and she couldn't wait to pick up right where they'd left off Monday night. On his last night in town they'd stayed up late exploring every inch of each other’s bodies before falling asleep wrapped around each other. Not wanting her mother to know how she'd spent the evening, she woke up before dawn on Tuesday morning and returned to her own bedroom. If her mom or brother suspected anything sexual existed between them neither said anything to her. The only indication her mom gave that she suspected something was a brief questioning look when Charlie told her Jake was returning and would need a room. She'd used the excuse that his return was to check on progress but she didn't know if her mom believed her or not.#p#分页标题#e#

Not that it mattered. She didn't have to explain her actions to her family. If she chose to be involved with Jake it was her business and hers alone. It didn't concern anyone. Besides, she didn't plan on marrying the guy. They were just having some fun together. There wasn't anything wrong with that. They were both consenting adults, free to be with whomever they wished. Even now he might be with someone. The words “committed relationship” had never been spoken. Neither of them had expressed the desire to be solely with each other.

Before she could stop it from happening, a vision of Jake with his arms wrapped around another woman popped into her head. Anger and jealousy doused the previous anticipation she'd felt. Charlie gripped the steering wheel until her knuckles turned white and tried to purge the image from her mind, but it stubbornly stayed. The traffic light ahead turned red and she brought the car to a stop.

Pull yourself together, she thought. What did it matter what he did on his own time? They weren't in an actual committed relationship. There were no emotions involved. Theirs was a strictly physical relationship.

“The type I prefer,” Charlie said as a reminder to herself. Once you let emotions enter the arena, relationships become too dangerous. They leave you exposed. Physical ones are safer and easier to control.

When the light turned green, she hit the accelerator while repeating her thoughts over in her head. Yet the jealousy remained, churning in her stomach and making her wish she'd skipped lunch.

Gradually her jealousy dissipated and by the time she walked into the supermarket, she had her emotions back under control. The green-eyed monster was defeated.

With a shopping cart full of groceries, Charlie headed to the front of the store eager to check out.

The magazine rack at the checkout was loaded with the usual tabloid magazines as well as copies of Time and National Geographic. She had no interest in the tabloids. Charlie knew that magazines like them would print anything to increase sales even if it meant making up stories. How else could you justify how two magazines could report completely opposite stories about the same people at the same time. So as she stood in line she didn't even glance at the tabloids, instead she reached for the most recent edition of National Geographic. Charlie opened the cover prepared to flip through the pages when another cover caught her eye. Behind the magazine she'd picked up sat a copy of Today.

Jake's intense blue eyes stared back at her from the magazine's cover. It wasn't the first time she'd seen his picture on a magazine cover and she knew it wouldn't be the last. Unable to stop herself, Charlie reached for the magazine, her curiosity too great to do anything else. Instantly she wished she hadn't. The headline below his picture read, Prince Charming, Jake Sherbrooke soon to be a father. The words sent her heart plummeting to her feet. Charlie stared at them. Maybe if she looked long enough they would change or disappear altogether. They didn't.