Page 72 of Close to the Edge

“Well, eat anyway. You’ll need—”

“I’m not a child. I’m capable of feeding myself when I need to, thanks.”

I opened my mouth. My phone beeped. I read the message and my heart sank.

Me, the man of action who abhorred drawn-out goodbyes, was reeling that his time was up with Lily Gracen. “Your security team is here.”

She nodded stiffly as I introduced her to her three minders. Two disappeared to take up positions around the perimeter. The one tasked to stay inside with her at all times retreated to a respectful distance.

“Was there anything else?” she asked coldly.

There were a thousand things. But everything started and ended with the fact that I’d failed her. So not a single word emerged.

Slowly her eyes grew colder, her face a mask of disappointment as she strutted to the door and pointedly threw it open.

“Goodbye, Caleb.” The echoing finality behind her words stayed with me long after my plane soared into the sky, racing me away from her.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Lily

HEWASGONE.

Forty-eight hours later I still couldn’t believe how quickly everything had turned to ash. When Maggie called last night to ask if I needed anything, I had to bite my tongue hard to stop myself from asking about Caleb.

What good would it have done? He blamed me for pushing him into territory he’d never wanted to revisit. And he was right. I’d taken advantage of our insane chemistry just so I could prove I was in control. And I was the one bleeding with no end of the ravaging pain in sight.

The truth wasn’t hard to accept. The pain that came with it was.

I’d allowed myself to hope. To care.

If only I hadn’t let the moments of gentleness and protectiveness weave into my heart. If only he hadn’t opened up at the drive-in...

If only the phenomenal sex hadn’t left me raw and reeling and craving the impossible.

From the start he’d made it clear sex was off the table as long as I was his client. And I’d seen that as a challenge.

Misery clawed through me. My heart shuddered and I blinked to stop the fierce prickling that preceded tears.

God, was it even possible to fall in love in seven short days?

My inability to catch my breath, the endless turmoil in my mind and the anguish coursing through my body, screamedyes. Butting heads with him at the start had been my mating dance. Giving him my body had gone hand in hand with giving him my heart. A heart left battered even before it’d had a chance to soar.

If I had to pinpoint when it was well and truly doomed, it was the moment he confirmed why he became a fixer.

I couldn’t even hate him for that. He’d never hidden himself from me.

Maybe it was better this way. Having happiness snatched from me before I truly tasted it would be a blessing somewhere down the road.

I stared at the horizon, watching the fingers of dawn trail the inky blue sky. Down by the water I spotted Kurt, the minder who’d pulled lake duty. I didn’t sleep a wink last night. Surprise. But I managed to snatch moments of lucidity, long enough to confirm that it was Sanjeet’s code that sabotaged the beta test.

Further anguish weighted my heart, but I was thankful I didn’t have to deal with him just yet. I would repair the code on my own and test it vigorously before the next meeting.

Because now more than ever, I needed total control of my life. I had a feeling I’d need it because this ravaging pain wasn’t done with me by a long stretch.

Caleb

I jerked awake from a sleep filled with alternating images of losing my mother, then Lily. As I watched, screaming, their images blended, then drifted farther and farther out of reach.

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