Page 54 of Cinderella's Fling with the Off-Limits Billionaire

He narrowed his eyes on the road ahead. “What’s happened?”

“This isn’t about Jay,” she was quick to reassure him. “I haven’t seen him since that day. Apart from a barrage of texts, I think he’s gone from my life for now.”

He was silent, waiting for her to continue.

“This is about me, and Harper.” She cleared her throat. “And what’s best for us.”

His mind was turning too slowly, like a car engine that was decades out of date. “And that’s not seeing me again?”

“I’m sorry.”

“What does that mean?”

“That I can’t see you again.” Her tone was emphatic, angry even.

He met it with silence at first, and then: “May I ask why?”

Silence.

“I think an explanation is in order, don’t you?”

“It’s hard to explain.” Her voice quivered. Was she crying? He felt like an ass. This was obviously difficult for her to do, and he wasn’t making it any easier. But didn’t she get that it was hard for him as well? She was saying things that were the exact opposite of what he wanted to hear.

“I’m in over my head,” she admitted after a beat. “We agreed we’d keep this fun, but it’s never been just fun between us. It’s never been light-hearted and simple. Even that first night was intense, and I’d just met you. I don’t know why it’s this way with us, but it scares the hell out of me. I feel as though I’m being burned alive and I’m terrified.”

He swore silently, checked the mirror then pulled off the side of the road. This wasn’t a conversation he wanted to have whilst driving at speed.

“So we can make it work in a way that suits you. That’s my whole point. We’ll keep it light. We can do that. We have to—surely that’s better than cutting me out of your life altogether?”

A long silence. He held his breath.

“And then what?”

He frowned. It was a question that had been hovering, if he was honest, on the periphery of his own mind too.

“You said we’d end it when it suited us. Right?”

He grabbed onto the logic of that, because it made sense. “Si. When we are both ready, we’ll end it.”

“But that’s my point, Leandro.” Her voice throbbed with emotion. “If I don’t end it now, I don’t think I’ll ever want to. Every time I see you, you become more and more a part of me. My heart wants this to be real. Like the crazy, fairy tale forever kind of real I dreamed about as a girl. But my head knows that doesn’t exist, my head knows I can’t risk it. And my head knows it’s not really what you want, anyway.”

“Don’t do that,” he murmured, shaking his head in frustration. “Don’t make this about what I want.”

Silence throbbed. “What do you want?”

“To keep seeing you,” he replied, as though it were something they’d been discussing for five hours not five minutes. “As we agreed.”

“But not forever?”

There it was. The gauntlet. If he took it up and told her he was willing to try for the fairy tale, then what?

His heart sped up at the very idea, but she was right. His head had to come into play too. This wasn’t just about them. She was a mom. Harper was a part of this picture. Could Leandro really make promises to Skye knowing what the cost would be if he were to break them?

“Is this because I introduced you as a ‘friend’ to Andie and Max?”

“No. Yes. I don’t know. Hearing that, I was offended. I didn’t expect to meet your family, but at the same time, when I did meet them, I thought you might admit what I was to you. And then I realized that you had. That to you, I’m little more than a friend with benefits. It hurt.”

“You know where my life is at,” he said haltingly. “I want you in it, but if you’re asking me for a marriage proposal?—,”

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