The Billionaire's Wife: The Complete Collection(47)

“Well what a pleasant surprise Miss. Gainsborough.” I can tell from the look on his face that he’d been expecting me. He, unlike me, had known exactly who was walking in the door and I hated him for not giving me any chance to prepare like he had had the opportunity to do. “Please sit” he gestures to a chair in front of his desk but I don’t sit down, I can’t sit down. I can’t even begin to formulate the words that my mouth wants me to throw at him. “Please?”



“No, thank you. I think I should go.” I turn and head for the door again but his voice stops me in my tracks.



“Melissa.” I want so badly to walk away, to close this chapter and move on, that’s what I’d been trying to do with this damn interview but here he was again, trampling through my life like an elephant in a patch of daisies.



“What, Gideon? What? What do you want from me? You tell me that I’m more than just a fuck to you, you open up to me and then I don’t hear from you for a week. You can’t have it both ways, you can’t be the handsome billionaire who fucks the pretty girls and then walks away, no strings attached while telling me that I’m more than just a fuck.” I can feel the tears welling in my eyes and all I can think of is the hours of time that Allison put in to my makeup. I wipe at my eye liner in a fruitless effort to stop it from streaming down my face when the tears spill over.



“Melissa…” I interrupt him, my tired tirade not quite complete.



“This was supposed to be something big for me, Gideon. This was supposed to be a change, something to help me forget what an asshole you’ve been and then… poof! Here you are again! I’m sick of you trampling all over my life, Gideon. I just can’t do this anymore.” With these final words I leave his office, breeze past the receptionist and head out to my car.



“For fuck’s sake, Melissa! Would you just listen to me?” Gideon comes storming out of the building as I fumble for my keys.



“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.”