Page 45 of Battle with a Billionaire

Grant ended the call, gripping the phone with white knuckles. He hated being painted into a corner, being forced to make a decision he didn’t want to make.

He glanced in the mirror, searching his face for answers. Was he really a changed man? The past year had been unlike any other, but was he really different?

His drive to win still defined him, didn’t it?

But he had changed. Where once a hardened, impulsive gaze met him, he now saw a reflection tempered with a thoughtfulness he’d not had before–an unexpected gift of his time with Julia.

With a heavy sigh, he forced himself to leave his bedroom behind and navigated through the halls to Julia’s door. He knocked softly against it. She called out a second later, then after another minute, pulled the door open, still fiddling with an earring.

“Good morning. Not that it’s not nice to see you, but you appearing at my door this morning doesn’t bode well, does it?” She stepped inside and motioned for him to follow.

He slid inside, easing the door shut behind him. “No, it doesn’t. Sorry.”

“You don’t need to apologize,” she answered as she slipped into her shoes. “Photos made it into the world?”

He nodded his head, unable to say the words aloud. He hated that this had happened and how it would affect Julia and their relationship.

She offered him a consoling glance as she lifted a shoulder. “We figured that, right?”

“Yep, but not this fast.”

“Have you made your decision about how you want to handle it?” She fiddled with a bracelet, unable to latch it.

He stepped forward and grabbed the jewelry. “I haven’t. That’s what I came to talk to you about. Kathryn wants an answer in twenty minutes.”

“Thanks,” she said with a grin as he hooked the bracelet around her wrist. “Do you have a leaning?”

He made a mental note to buy her something nice soon. “I don’t know,” he said with a shake of his head.

She raised her eyebrows at him. “Really? You don’t know or you don’t want to face what your gut says?”

She really was perceptive. That was exactly the problem. He did have a gut reaction. Had Kathryn demanded an answer earlier, he knew what he would say. But he wasn’t sure he wanted to face it. “I know what I would have said if Kathryn made me answer earlier.”

“But?”

“But I’m not sure it’s the right decision.”

She furrowed her brow. “Grant, I’m not sure there’s a right and wrong here. Just what can you live with.”

Wasn’t there? What if his decision tore them apart? “What can you live with?”

“Whatever you decide,” she answered. She waited for a breath before she narrowed her eyes at him. “What’s holding you back?”

“The ripples this could send for the both of us.” He left out his concern over the problems it could create for the relationship he hoped to have with her.

She sucked in a breath as she slipped her arm around his and led him to the chair. He collapsed into it as she eased into the chair opposite him. “What’s your gut say?”

“I’m not admitting to an affair I didn’t have, but I don’t want to quit.”

Julia’s hand found his, offering silent reassurance and a steady anchor in the midst of his tumultuous thoughts. “Then don’t.”

“That’s the path of most resistance,” he answered. “Kathryn says admitting the affair is the easiest if we want to stay in the race. Or I could drop out.”

“If you drop out, people will assume the accusations are true.”

“But we wouldn’t have to deal with it.”

“No, but no one would hear your side of it either.”

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