Page 29 of Recruited By the Billionaire

When she walked into his office after him, he closed the door behind her. Then he just stood there, toe to toe with her, and they stared at each other.

Frankie was scared she was going to start crying like some idiot. But she knew it wouldn’t be just because of what he did. It would be because of what every guy she’d ever been with had done. It would be because of what she allowed them all to do. And she was fed up.

Robert felt like the asshole he was when he saw the pain in her eyes. “I didn’t make love to you to hurt you,” he found himself blurting out when he saw her pain.

“And you didn’t ignore me to hurt me either,” said Frankie. “But that’s how it turned out.” Then she scrunched up her face. Why was she giving this guy her emotions? “But that has nothing to do with anything,” she said. “What is it that you want, Mr. Marris?”

Robert could just feel her pain. And it touched him deeply. He thought about her the entire two weeks he was away from her. Separation didn’t make him forget as he had hoped it would. It only made his heart grow fonder. And seeing her like this, so torn up, tore him up. And before Frankie could say another word, he pulled her into his arms.

Frankie was so shocked by his reaction that she at first resisted his pull. But when he didn’t let go of her, she gave in and stopped resisting. She couldn’t say why. Maybe it was just his big arms around her that felt so good. Or maybe any man’s arms would have felt good at that particular moment in her life.

But that was the issue, wasn’t it? It always felt good. Until the pain came! She pulled away from him. “What do you want, Mr. Marris?” she asked again.

Robert felt a void as soon as she left the warmth of his arms. But he understood it. He had hurt her. “I’m having a get-together tonight on my yacht. I want you to be my guest.”

Frankie could not believe it. That was what he wanted? After how he treated her on that plane? Was this man for real? “No thank you,” she said, and moved to leave.

He pulled her back in front of him. “Have dinner with me then.”

He said it in a voice that bordered on desperation to such a degree that it confounded Frankie. What was his deal, she wondered. Why wouldn’t he just leave her alone? “Why would you want to have dinner with me?” she asked him with a genuine look of puzzlement on her face.

Robert exhaled. No answer was a good answer. So he just told the truth. “I don’t know,” he said. “But that’s what I want.”

“But I thought you were having a get-together on your yacht.”

“I’d rather have dinner with you.”

Frankie stared at him. “Why?” she asked again, trying with all she had to figure him out. Why was he bothering her like this? Was he this obsessive with all his women? Or was he rubbing it in?

“I see your confusion,” Robert said to her. “Hell, I’m confused too! And as to why I would rather have dinner with you than hang out on my yacht?” He lifted his shoulders and showed the palm of his hands. “Hell if I know,” he said.

Frankie felt he was telling the truth, even though she was not the best person to judge anybody’s truthfulness given her track record. But at least he wasn’t giving any bullshit answers like he really liked her or he didn’t want to be with anybody else. Bull like that.

And, remarkably, she found herself giving in again. But she knew why she gave in. It was mainly because she couldn’t stop thinking about him! And because the way he held her reminded her of their wonderful rendezvous on that plane, despite the aftermath. And because she still saw some decency in Robert she didn’t see in any other man around. “Okay,” she said.

Robert, at first, thought she was needling him. But when he realized she wasn’t kidding, his heart soared. And he actually smiled like some simpering teenage boy. “I’ll pick you up at seven.”

Frankie almost said he didn’t have to do that and that she could meet him at the restaurant. But she bit her tongue. No more allowances for these men. No more compromises that always had her holding the bag alone. Those days were over. “Okay,” she said.

But as she was leaving, he called her name. “Francesca?”

She turned back around.

“Call me Robert.”

She got his point. They slept together, you didn’t get any more intimate than that, and she was still calling himMr. Marris. “Yes, sir,” she said.

He smiled. “And sir isn’t necessary either.”

She couldn’t help but smile. “Yes, sir,” she found herself saying before she realized it, and they both laughed at that one.

Robert was still smiling after she left, but then he thought about the consequences of all of this playfulness he felt around her. He thought about how she might take it for more than what it was. Orhemight take it that way, which, he was beginning to realize, was probably more likely. And that fear, of getting his heart involved only to have it broken, gripped him again.

CHAPTER TWENTY

“That looks good.”

Frankie put down one and picked up another one.

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