Page 93 of Forking the Billionaire

“I’m…um…I didn’t know.” Ziggy hunched his shoulders and headed for the door, a wounded, pathetic puppy with his pouty lip hanging out. “I’ll just….”

As he clicked the door shut behind him, a storm of emotion rolled through me. How dare he say he loved me? Helikedme, and only when he thought it would be easy and fun. He didn’t love me.

Love wasn’t abandonment. The more obstacles life threw at you, the tighter love held. I had Gabe and Oma to thank for my certainty of that. First Mom left us, then Dad died, but my familywas there for me and I’d been there for them, too. That’s what love was supposed to be—suffocating at times, sure, but people who loved you had your back no matter what.

Maybe automatic rejection was my new normal. Maybe pregnancy, and then later having an actual kid relying on me, meant that no one would be romantically interested in me anymore.

Rationally I knew that wasn’t actually true, but in the moment, fresh from rejection, it felt like a possibility.

Ziggy had wanted me until he knew. Once I’d told him, he’d run like I had the plague. That’s what I’d wanted, wasn’t it? I wasn’t remotely interested in dating Ziggy, but watching him flee still stung my pride.

Agitation thrummed through my veins. It made my skin itchy and my legs restless. No way could I just sit here and stew in my thoughts.

I grabbed my keys and skateboard and headed outside. The cool night breeze did wonders to lighten the mess of frustrating stress settling on my shoulders. I breathed it in and let my worries out with it.

Without having set out with a destination in mind, I found myself heading to the resort and into the main building. The reason why I was here didn’t hit me until I was in the elevator jabbing the up button.

I was here for Jasper.

When Jasper found out I was pregnant, he hadn’t run away. He’d sought me out. He’d made sure I was all right, and he’d been there for me in a totally unexpected way.

Each step down the hall felt easier and lighter than the last.

Jasper was exactly what I needed right now. He was like an old blanket—warm and familiar. He accepted me. No matter how messed up I was feeling, he didn’t judge me.

He kept my secret.

He made me feel beautiful, wonderful things. He made me feel safe and heard.

I spotted a pile of luggage in the hall beside his door. A touch of worry prickled my skin. Was he leaving?

He couldn’t leave before the wedding.

I knocked on the door. “Jasper, are you in there?”

It took a few moments before he answered.

He had a glass in his hand, and his hair looked more tousled than usual. Still, he stole my breath with his hotness.

His eyes were a field of brambles, open and earnest and the softest shade of grassy green. Yet in that soft grass were prickly bits of brown vines that caught me when I ventured in and held me still when I wanted to pull away.

His scruff added a roughness to the lines of his jaw that were usually so sharp they could cut glass. He was ruggedly gorgeous, with a dirty mouth that did deliciously dirty things.

And when I looked at him, my heart beat at twice the rate it should. My breath caught and my nipples perked to alertness. Every inch of my skin prickled with awareness.

The very air around him crackled like lightning, and I found myself stepping closer as if tugged forward by a magnetic force.

He wasn’t an old blanket. He was a sparkly diamond I wanted to grab and pull close to my heart and covet like I was a depraved cave hobbit.

“Hey,” he said, making no move to let me in.

Speak, dummy.

I attempted to swallow the lump in my throat. “What’s with the luggage?”

Please don’t let him be leaving me, not yet. I’m not ready to say goodbye.

“Jules isn’t welcome in this room,” he said, finally opening the door all the way and stepping to the side so I could enter.

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