Page 39 of The Runaway Bride and the Billionaire

“I was keeping him company until you got here,” she said. She stepped aside but just before she left she whispered, “Better me than Gwen.”

I couldn’t help laughing at that. Then I turned to Oliver. “Hi.”

“You look beautiful,” he said.

He’d said the exact words Matteo had said but somehow his held less weight. When Matteo told me I looked beautiful, I felt like the most beautiful woman in the world. His words lifted me in a way no one else could.

In that moment I realized what I was doing to Oliver was wrong. He deserved to know the truth even though it wasn’t pretty. “There’s something I need to tell you.”

“Things never go well when a sentence begins like that,” he said, jokingly.

I laughed at his joke but it came out forced. I tried to brace myself for his anger. He would no doubt be upset about what I did.

“The truth is that I only asked you to be my date because… because I wanted to make my ex jealous.” I recoiled when the words were finally out. I waited but Oliver didn’t react. He just stared ahead at something behind me. His brows scrunched together and he turned to face me again.

Finally, he said, “It’s okay, Amelia. I’m not upset.”

“You’re not?”

“I wasn’t sure, but it did seem a bit strange to me when the woman who wasn’t interested in me suddenly asked me to be her date to her company’s gala. I didn’t know what it was, but I knew something was up.” He made a small gesture with his hand, andI turned to see Matteo standing in the distance. “I also noticed the man glaring at me from across the room. His disdain for me was pretty hard to miss so it was easy to assume there was something between you two.”

I looked at Matteo and I saw Oliver was right. Matteo was glaring at him. Ivy stood beside Matteo, prattling on about something I couldn’t hear. I was pretty sure Matteo couldn’t hear her either. He seemed fixated on Oliver.

I turned back to my date. “Sorry about him.”

“You’re always apologizing. What’s up with that?” he asked.

“I guess it’s a side effect of growing up with parents who expect perfection.”

Oliver nodded. We spent the next few minutes talking about my relationship with my parents. Oliver’s sister was a psychologist, and he fancied himself a ‘psychologist by association’. I couldn’t help laughing when he said that. It was nice talking to him. I found it easy to say all the things that had been bothering me for a while now.

As the night wound down, I found myself growing to like Oliver’s company and we became good friends. At some point, I had to excuse myself to freshen up in the restroom. Oliver was talking to Cleo so it was easy to dip out.

“I’ll be right back,” I said as I stood and walked away.

I was a few steps from the restroom when I felt someone grab my arm. Strangely, I didn’t feel frightened. And when I turned, I saw Matteo towering above me. His chest rose and fell at an unnatural speed. His jaw was clenched tight and his nostrils flared.

He was clearly angry but I couldn’t understand why. What could I have done to him to make him so angry?

I thought back to the glares he was giving Oliver. Was he jealous?

I had to fight against the part of me that felt giddy at that possibility. This whole situation was ridiculous. Matteo had made it clear that he didn’t care about me that way. He had no right to be jealous.

No right at all.

Chapter 20

Matteo

Isaw Amelia walk out of the room and I knew I had to follow her. I’d been watching her talk and laugh with Oliver all evening and I couldn’t stand it anymore. I hated seeing her with another man. I hated seeing them whisper in each other’s ears. The level of intimacy between them irked me.

I walked into the hallway and grabbed Amelia by the arm. She turned to face me and her eyes widened slightly. She didn’t seem entirely surprised to see me. It was as though she’d recognized me from the moment I touched her.

“What the hell was that back there?” I asked.

Amelia pulled out of my grip and folded her arms. The movement exposed more of her cleavage. “What the hell was what?”

“Why have you been inseparable from that guy all evening?”

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