The Billionaire's Paradise (Sexy Billionaires)(30)
“A handful. Or two.”
She frowned, leaning closer. “Then you were with her a while.”
He reached for his wine. “Five years.”
Avery blinked. That was no small amount of time. Her head spun, unable to reconcile this new information. Her womanizing boss had once had a stable, long term relationship? He’d spent years with someone he must have cared deeply for.
Even loved.
Hayden watched her with knowing eyes. “I’ve surprised you.”
“Let’s just say I didn’t think you were the type.”
“Because you don’t know me.”
“Apparently not.” She shook her head. “But you said you didn’t do long term.”
“I don’t,” he replied. “Anymore.”
She knew full well how a past love could bring about such a decision. The hedonistic, ever-smiling Hayden Wexton had had his heart broken.
A deep, burning curiosity erupted within her. Who had gotten close enough to deliver such a blow? What sort of woman was Sophia that she’d somehow gotten Hayden to love her?
What would it be like to be the center of a man like Hayden’s world?
A shiver ran through her body, one that she refused to acknowledge as longing.
He’d been clear about just how far he’d allow her to get with him. But it didn’t stop her from wishing some nameless woman hadn’t stolen his ability to be the man she wanted.
…
He watched Avery trying to decide what to say, how to process the information he’d offered. Reaching for his wine, he swallowed a large mouthful. Sophia was a topic he’d never meant to bring up with her. Hell, it’d been years since he’d even said the name aloud. He wasn’t sure why he’d done it now except hearing about Avery’s past had made him want to meet her halfway. He’d wanted to honor her confidences with ones of his own.
And now he was exposed in a way he hadn’t been since his teen years.
“When did you meet her?” Avery asked, her lyrical voice soft.
Here came the tricky part.
“I was eighteen.”
She blinked. “But you said…”
That his parents had died before they ever saw him graduate.
“Yes.”
Sympathy flooded her expression, and he couldn’t decide if it soothed something inside him or rankled his pride.
“So, you were grieving when you met her.”
He gazed out toward the setting sun. “Yes.”
“Was she a classmate? A friend?”
A grim smile twisted his lips. “Sophia is ten years older than I am.”
She hissed in a breath. “That is barely legal.”
“I stopped being a child the day I stood in a deserted hallway that smelled of antiseptic and listened to a doctor explain I was now alone in the world.”
Avery reached for her wineglass, and he watched her cradle it against her chest as if it offered comfort.
“I’m sorry,” she said.
He shrugged. “It was a long time ago.”
So long that he no longer missed his mother’s carefree smile or his father’s laugh as he pulled his family into his arms. He’d grown up. Moved on. Walled off the painful memories until they no longer had the power to incapacitate him.
Hadn’t he?
“What were they—” Avery broke off when he tensed. She appeared to think over her question before starting again. “Where did you meet Sophia?”
He ran a hand over his jaw. “Their funeral.”
His companion’s shocked expression mirrored that of many of his acquaintances back in the years when he’d been discovering what it meant to be the heir to a fortune. Few had understood his relationship, but he’d never cared. Not as long as he’d had Sophia in his arms.
“Why was she there?” she asked quietly.
“She’d been a friend of the family. At the funeral, she’d offered to help me escape. We got in her car and just drove for hours.”
From that moment, he’d been hooked. She’d been his salvation when his world had been hell. And it had taken him far too long to realize devils could smile just as convincingly as angels.
“What happened after the drive?” she asked.
Dark shame twisted in his stomach. “I moved her into my home by the week’s end.”
Though his lawyers had advised against the relationship so soon after a trauma, he’d had no living relatives to act as his guardian. Not that he’d needed one, legally speaking, at eighteen. But he’d been too young to take the reins of the company.
Sophia, however, had not.
He closed his eyes, remembering what a fool he’d been, handing over the organization his parents had built, just because a pretty blonde had shown an interest in him. Thank God for the provisions his legal team had put in place to ensure she couldn’t completely take it from him.