Page 46 of Falling for the Wrong Billionaire
"Lucy," he says quietly, his voice low and serious. "Will you be my girlfriend?"
The words hit me like a wave, and for a moment, I can’t breathe. I freeze, unsure of what to say, unsure of what to feel.
I thought I had prepared myself for this, but I hadn’t.
I open my mouth, but the words don’t come.
Liam doesn’t push, though. He just watches me carefully, his voice soft when he speaks again. “You don’t have to answer right now. I just… I like you, Lucy. A lot. And I want to spend more time with you.”
I feel my heart skip a beat. The tension in my chest is suffocating, and all I want to do is tell him the truth. That I can’t be with him. That this isn’t real.
But instead, I sit there, silent.
Before I can say anything, the waiter arrives with the final course — a dessert of chocolate mousse. The interruption is a relief, but it doesn’t erase the tension between us.
We finish our meal in silence, and I feel the weight of everything pressing down on me. The joy of the evening is gone, replaced by a heavy uncertainty that I can’t shake.
Chapter seventeen
Liam
It’s been a week since I asked her to be my girlfriend, and she still hasn’t given me an answer.
Not a yes. Not a no. Just… silence.
And yet, she hasn’t pushed me away either.
I can’t tell you how many times in the last seven days I’ve played that moment over in my mind, the way her eyes widened, the way her breath caught, the way sheer horror flashed across her face like I’d just asked her to walk off a cliff instead of into my life.
That look… it stays with me.
And I keep asking myself the same question: who hurt her so badly? Who made her believe love is something to fear?
I don’t press her, though. As much as I want to know, as much as it kills me not to reach in and pull the answer out of her, I hold back.
One day.
One day she’ll trust me enough to tell me. And until then, I’ll keep showing up.
That’s why I planned this little surprise for her tonight. Nothing big. Nothing flashy. Just… us. Just something quiet.
I glance at her as she sits in the passenger seat of my car, her hair catching the last rays of the setting sun streaming through the window. She’s wearing this light blue sundress that makes her look like she belongs in the middle of a painting — soft and delicate, and somehow untouchable all at once.
She catches me watching her and quirks an eyebrow. “What?” she asks, a little smirk tugging at her lips.
I grin. “Nothing.”
She rolls her eyes, but there’s the faintest blush on her cheeks as she turns her gaze back out the window.
We’re driving toward Emma and Bryan’s house — though Lucy has no idea why.
She crosses her arms and leans back in her seat, her eyes narrowing playfully. “Alright, West, are you ever going to tell me where you’re taking me, or are you just enjoying making me squirm?”
I chuckle under my breath. “Little of both.”
She huffs and shakes her head, though there’s a smile playing at her lips. “You’re impossible.”
“You’ll thank me later,” I say confidently, reaching over to brush my fingers over the back of her hand.
