Page 76 of No More Billionaires

“Kenley. I’ve been waiting all night for a chance to talk to you alone. Can we?”

My gaze darted from Mark’s anxious expression back to the party behind him again. I could see the back of Larson’s body now as he’d turned almost a full circle in his search of the room.

I lifted my chin and drew my shoulders back. “I don’t know. I’m not sure there’s anything you have to say that would interest me.”

The anxious expression turned stricken, his eyes going wide and desperate.

“Please, Kenley. Give me just a few minutes. Then if you want to tell me to butt out of your life forever, I will. I promise.”

After a pause during which I got a satisfying mental picture of pushing past him without a word, I relented.

“Okay—just a minute.”

Mark opened one of the courtyard doors, and we stepped into the night air. Tall outdoor heaters kept the space from being truly cold, but there was still an appreciable difference from the warmth of the party. I headed for a corner of the courtyard then turned around to face Mark.

Folding my arms across my chest, I stared up at his face, waiting.

He cleared his throat and shifted nervously as he spoke. “So, um… thank you for listening. And for letting me apologize. I… well there’s no other way to say it—I screwed up. I made a huge mistake. I can’t even tell you how much I regret letting you go.”

So there it was. The apology I’d wanted. Somehow it did nothing for me. I didn’t feel better.

In fact, I actually felt a little worse.

“You didn’t ‘let me go.’ You cheated on me and immediately became coupled up with the girl you cheated on me with. I don’t think an apology quite covers it.”

Mark nodded in agreement. The tone of his voice rose along with the volume. “I know. You’re right. When I look back on the past few months, I don’t even recognize myself. I don’t know what happened—I loved you Kenley. I still do.”

When I reacted with an increduloushmmph, Mark’s hands reached for me and wrapped around my forearms.

“I do. I never stopped loving you. I just got scared, I think, about making the commitment for a lifetime. I wasn’t all the way sure I could be with just one girl forever. That’s what Trina was about. It had nothing to do with you. It was all me.”

I smirked at him. “What about God? You saidGodtold you not to marry me.”

He had the nerve to give me a sheepish grin. “That was an excuse to keep you from, like, making a scene or whatever. God had nothing to do with it because—”

“I think He did.”

“What?”

“I think He intervened, because He knew you’d be a terrible husband who ‘wasn’t all the way sure’ he could be faithful to me and would leave me when my looks eventually faded and a younger, prettier opportunity came along—which they always do for guys like you. Because there will always be girls willing to marry a guy for his money. Trust me, I know.”

I twisted my body toward the door to the club, trying to pull free from his grasp, but Mark tightened his grip on my wrists.

“Kenley, don’t. I love you. If you won’t take me back, I don’t know what I’m going to do—how I’m going to live.”

Someone else must have walked out onto the patio because there was a brief pop of party noise from inside and then it was quiet again. This was probably the smoking area.

I twisted my wrists in Mark’s tight fingers and lowered my voice to an angry whisper.

“How you live is no longer my business.” I yanked and finally his grip loosened.

“Everything all right here?”

The smooth voice sent shivers plummeting from the top of my scalp down the back of my body to my heels.

“Kenley?” Larson stepped up beside me and looked down at my fingers rubbing my wrists then up at Mark’s surprised face.

Larson straightened to his full height, making him nearly a head taller than Mark. “Is there a problem?”

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