Page 44 of Hidden Heart

She clenched her eyes shut against the tears. No more crying. No more trusting.

“She’s not hiding—”

“The hell she’s not. I’ll give her time, but we aren’t done.” The proclamation sounded more for Alex’s benefit than for hers. The door creaked on the hinges as it opened, and the echo of it slamming shut broke her.

The floodgates opened, and the tears poured down her face.

Chapter 18

Royce sat staring out the window of his office at the dark clouds rolling by, covering the skyline. He’d promised to give her time, and he had. It was Friday, and she would be going to dinner with her friends. He wondered if she even thought of him, or had she climbed so far behind her walls she didn’t allow herself to feel.

“Hey.” Alex walked into his office, filling the space between them with unspoken anger. Alex hid her. He allowed her to crawl into herself and not face her own demons. Royce knew he did it out of love for her, but that acknowledgment brought an entirely different set of irritations. “Devanaoe went home sick, so the ten o’clock meeting’s canceled.”

Royce met his gaze, jaw clenching in reaction to his presence. The two had been avoiding each other pretty successfully all week. “I know. Janice informed me.” He waved a hand in the direction of his admin sitting at her desk outside his office.

“Right.” Alex cleared his throat after a long pause. “Jessica is a wreck.” Royce’s jaw flexed, and his heart sped up at the sound of her name. “And you don’t look much better. She called in sick this week. She never does that, even when she really is sick.”

Royce studied the man standing in front of him. “She can’t hide from her feelings. You let her hide inside herself and try to forget she even has any.” Royce poked at the truth. It was Alex’s turn to set his jaw.

“She’s been hurt too many times. James wasn’t the first guy. She seems to be a magnet for liars and cheaters. Her heart broke so many times…” Alex shoved a hand through his blond curls. “And I’m always the cleanup guy—”

“But you don’t want to be. You want to betheguy.” Royce stood from his chair but didn’t make a move toward him. Physical confrontation wouldn’t make a difference, even if it would help him relieve the tension in his muscles.

“Jessica and I are just friends,” Alex stated as though he’d said it a thousand times already. A rehearsed statement meant to appease others and hopefully convince himself.

“She doesn’t need coddling,” Royce said after several moments of tense silence.

Alex blew out a loud breath and shook his head. “I know.” He shoved his hands into his pockets and relaxed his stance. “She needs you. I’ve known Jess for years, and I’ve never seen her this wound up about someone. Now she’s completely unraveled. She may notwantto see you, but sheneedsto.” Alex turned to leave the office but stopped at the door. “If you hurt her again—”

“Nothing happened with Melody.” Royce couldn’t suppress the vehemence in his voice.

“I know. Psycho ex-girlfriends are my specialty.” Alex’s lips curled slightly. “But if you do, if you hurt her—”

“I won’t. Ever.”

Alex surveyed him for several long moments. “Like I said. She called in sick today. She’s home.” With that, he walked out.

Royce wasted no time. He grabbed his coat from the rack, informed Janice he would be out for the day, and stalked to the elevators. It would take twenty minutes to get to her apartment—he had twenty minutes to figure out what to say. The only certainty he held onto was that he would not be letting her go. He would not lose her.

* * *

Jessica flippedthe television off and leaned her head back against the couch. She hated TV. She would much rather be reading, but the mood she had been in over the past week left her unable to pick up a book.

Since the resounding slam of her door after Royce left, she’d been unable to concentrate. It had been the least productive week at work. Even Jeremy noticed. Not that he cared about the reason, only that she needed to get her game face back on. Easily said, impossible to do when one’s heart refused to work properly. She switched from hating Royce to hating herself, to missing him with such a ferocity she needed to hide to figure out how to breathe.

Could he have been telling the truth? Having seen Alex’s battle with his crazy girlfriends over the past few years, it wasn’t impossible. Royce never struck her as the dishonest type. Honesty and openness were big on his list. He made those a priority when it came to her—why would he do any less for himself? Why put so much effort into her, if he had something easy on the side.

Melody seems like a wonderful girl. I’m sure she can kneel for you and take all sorts of beatings from you. I’m not interested.The memory of her words, seeing his face after she said them, twisted her agony deeper. Maybe she should have heard him out, listened to what he had to say, instead of reacting out of fear and anger.

No. She made her decision, and she would get through this. Broken hearts were certainly not a foreign concept; she would move on. Starting with the prospect of a new job. She had finally gotten around to returning Marcus’s phone call at the publishing house. An interview was set for Monday during her lunch hour. The weekend would be good to get her head back on straight and put herself in a better place. It wouldn’t do to go to the interview in the zombie state she found herself in. Taking the day off made sense. She needed to relax, let herself grieve and then she would pick herself up, dust herself off and move on with her life.

Right after a glass or four of wine.

Her phone sounded from the end table in the living room—another text from Royce. She ignored it and went to the kitchen to get a bottle of her favorite merlot. Merlot never lied or spent evenings with ex-girlfriends.

The buzzer blared into the apartment, insistent and demanding. Another bleep blared from her cellphone. Out of aggravation, she picked it up, gearing up to tell him to leave her alone, when a pounding on her door stopped her. She looked down at her cell.

I’m not leaving, Jessica. Open the door.

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