The Billionaire's Wife(48)
“What, Gideon? Do you want to tell me how things will be different this time? How I’m not just another fuck?” I turn around, glaring at him and realizing that we’ve caught the attention of a couple of middle aged men who are heading in to the annex. I share my glare with them and they hurry inside the building.
“I do want things to be different, Melissa.” He lowers his voice as he comes closer. “I have been thinking about what you said last week, about Ricky, about the café, about moving and starting over.” I don’t want to hear him say what I know he’s going to say next. I can’t keep giving myself to him only to be left waiting and pining like a lovesick teenager. “I want to start over with you.” He puts his hands on my bare arm and I feel the sticky warmth of his sweaty palms.
“Gideon that was a stupid fantasy. People don’t just do things like that; it’s just not how the world works. You’ve already made it very clear to me what you want and I just can’t give it anymore. I give up. Just go back to your empire and let me get back to my stupid little life.” I get in the car, I can see the hurt on his face and I know that he wants so badly to say something to stop me but I don’t want to hear it. I want to go home; I want to drink enough to forget what has just happened and most of all I want to forget Gideon Lambert.
I reverse out of my space but as I go to pull forward Gideon stands in front of the car. I flash a blank stare at him, daring him to test me.
“Melissa, just stop!” He doesn’t move knowing full well that I’m not going to run him over no matter how much I might like to. I put the car in park and sit sullenly staring at him. “Please, give me a chance. I’m sorry I was an asshole. I’m sorry I fucked up.” His eyes turn from desperate to pleading. “Please? I was scared. I didn’t want you to leave me too.” He had a funny way of showing how much he wanted me to stay that was for sure. “Please…” The desperation in his voice was strangling him. I reverse the car in to a parking space and get out again. Gideon meets me at the car door.
“Gideon, I want to help, I really do want to help, but being scared is not a good enough reason to treat me the way you have. I need more; I deserve more than a booty call once in a while and not so much as a phone call for a week after. I mean, I know I’m not great prize to be won but I sure as hell deserve better than that.” This time I’m the one whose eyes are doing the pleading, “don’t I?”
“Melissa, I’m sorry. I can’t say enough about how sorry I am. I just… nothing makes sense. I just don’t know how to cut and run. For as long as I can remember, I have been the great Gideon Lambert, billionaire extraordinaire. You asking me to give that up just… I don’t know.”
“Don’t pin that on me, Gideon. You’re the one who plays the role of Ricky; you’re the one who told me you wished you could live a simpler life. I just gave you a solution and it’s hardly my fault if that solution isn’t easy enough for you. Either you want it or you don’t, it really is as simple as that but I’m not going to keep hanging around like a lost puppy while you figure it out.”
“Will you still come with me? Can we still start again?” My heart is begging me to say yes but I can’t. I can’t just run away with a once billionaire and start life over again… can I? I mean, what about Allison? What about my life… What about…
“I don’t know Gideon. This isn’t exactly the whirlwind romance it was supposed to be.”
“But it can still have a happy ending?” He holds out his hand for mine and without thinking I give it to him. His fingers wrap around mine and he gives me a gentle smile before lifting my hand to his lips and kissing my knuckles. “Just give me a chance, one more chance, Melissa.” He starts to tug me back towards the annex. I follow him without putting up a fight, assuming he’s looking to take our more than public disagreement inside to prevent any more onlookers. “I want to show you something.” We breeze in the front door, past the two gentlemen who had watched us briefly and who were now sitting in the waiting room. Past the receptionist who had a look of pure intrigue on her face as she watched us head back in to Gideon’s office. I bet she’s never seen an interview quite like this before and I’m fairly certain that the two men from the parking lot have filled her in on the gossip.
Gideon closes the door to his office and I begin to wonder if he’s not just interested in another quick release and willing to do whatever it takes to get it.