Page 56 of A Fortunes of Texas Christmas (Fortunes of Texas)

Chapter Eleven

Amersen picked up his cell phone at least half a dozen times the following morning before he summoned the courage to call Robin and apologize for his appalling behavior the night before. He’d asked her to leave, and she had. Without hysterics or recriminations or complaint. And he felt like the biggest heel of all time, because he knew he’d hurt her. He didn’t have to see the wounded look in her eyes as she’d dressed. He’d used her to get all thoughts of the Fortunes out of his mind—and it felt wrong.

She answered on the third ring. “Hello, Amersen.”

The fact she recognized his number made him feel worse. She knew him. Because somehow, in a matter of weeks, that was what they had become. An item. A couple. A relationship. The idea rocked him through to the very blood in his bones. He remembered what his mother had advised before he’d returned to Texas, some platitude about signing on or breaking it off. The truth was, he didn’t know what to do. The thought of not seeing Robin again caused a physical ache in his chest. But if they continued as they were—disaster. He wasn’t stupid; he knew what he saw in her eyes when they were together. And he...he had so many conflicting feelings churning through his head and his heart, he didn’t know what the hell to do.

“I’m sorry about last night.”

She sucked in a short breath. “Okay.”

“I was...angry,” he explained, an inexplicable heat burning his eyes. “Not with you. With myself. With the whole...situation.”

“I understand.”

“Are you sure?” he asked.

“Of course.”

“Can I make it up to you?”

“Sure.”

Her staccato responses unnerved him, and he hated that she could do that. He didn’t feel anything like his usual self when he was around Robin. His overconfidence had often been described as arrogance and cockiness, and he’d never bothered to waste time altering those opinions. It was good for business, and in the past, business was all that mattered. But not anymore. Robin had an uncanny ability to strip down his defenses.

“Shall I pick you up so we can spend the rest of the day together?”

“I’m working. But perhaps we could meet later.” She hesitated for a moment and then asked a question. “How long are you staying in town?”

“I’m not sure,” he said and then realized she would be looking for assurances. “Perhaps a few days. It is Christmas soon and I need to get home to my...to everything there.”

“Okay,” she said after a moment. “I’ll come to the hotel after lunch. I need to pick up my things that I left there. Give me a couple of hours.”

When she hung up, Amersen felt uneasy and couldn?

?t define why. She hadn’t sounded right. Not angry, which was what he’d expected. Not confused, which he’d figured she was probably feeling. But agreeable. Too agreeable. Which meant one thing. She was ending it.

Good. It saved him the bother. She could come to his hotel, collect her things, maybe they’d spend the night together in one final goodbye. They could have hot, mind-blowing sex, and then they would be done. If that was what she wanted, he’d accommodate her.

It was after twelve when he was alerted by the concierge that she was on her way up. And barely a couple of minutes later he heard a sharp tap on the door. He pulled the door back, and as soon as he saw her, every ounce of blood in his veins heated. She wore jeans, a soft purple sweater, a scarf, boots and a jacket, and her beautiful hair was loose. His heart skipped a crazy beat. And then every thought he had about ending things with her disappeared. He didn’t want to end things. He wanted to start things. He wanted to haul her into his arms and kiss her beautiful mouth and do it every day for the rest of his life.

“What took you so long?” he said, dying to drag her to bed for the rest of the day. “Come in.”

She hesitated, her gaze shifting to the right. Amersen peered around the door and froze.

“Hello, Amersen.”

Olivia Fortune Mendoza was at his door. He immediately glared at Robin, seeing assurance in her expression as rage percolated quickly in his gut and then churned throughout his entire body.

“What is this?” he demanded.

Robin squared her shoulders and walked past him, inviting the other woman into the suite.

By the time he was in the lounge area, both women were seated on the sofa. Robin looked pensive. Olivia looked nervous. And Amersen was so angry he could barely get his legs to move.

“I called Olivia and asked her to come here because I thought the two of you should talk.”

It was Robin’s voice, but he hardly heard it above the rage gathering momentum and screeching through his ears every time he took a breath. “You did.” He scratched the words out and knew he sounded like he was chewing sandpaper. “Did you?”

---