Page 35 of His Perfect Woman

“It doesn’t matter now,” I insisted, wiping my eyes and turning my shoulder to him. “I want to call the whole thing off. You got over your scandal—with my help. You gave me a baby. You did your job, and I did mine. Now it’s time to stop.”

“It’s not so simple,” he protested softly. “And it doesn’t have to be like this. Vic, please.” He came over and placed his palms on top of my arms. “If you didn’t want things to end or change, then it means you were feeling something for me, too.”

“Is that what you were hoping? That you’d trick me into falling for you?”

“Of course not. I never wanted to hurt you or lie or trick anyone.”

I wanted to believe him. I wanted more than anything to melt into his arms and hope that we could somehow drift off into a perfect fairy-tale ending. That we could make the lie we were selling come true. But I couldn’t look at him the same now.

“I would always wonder if you did all of this on purpose,” I explained, my voice cracking. It felt like my heart was being split in two. “I’d constantly be asking myself if this was your plan all along—to manipulate me into getting what you wanted.”

“All I want is you,” he promised.

“You used me.” I stiffened up, pushing his arms away and retreating to the other side of the room where it was safe. Putting distance between us was the only thing that seemed to help me think clearly.

“I’ve already planned it all out,” I told him. “I’ll hold a press conference explaining why we broke up. I’ll paint myself as a heartbreaker who got pregnant by some other man. Everyone will feel sorry for you and give you a pass on being single. And people may hate me for a while, but it will only help my reputation as a cutthroat PR agent. Maybe then people will finally stop worrying so much about my own disaster of a love life and focus on my actual work, which is all I ever really wanted.”

He hung his head, wiping his hand across his mouth...those gorgeous lips that I still longed to kiss so badly. If only they hadn’t managed to spew so many manipulative lies.

“This is what you want?” he asked finally.

I sucked in a deep breath, burying all my emotions down somewhere not even I could reach them. “This is how it has to be.” I looked him dead in the eye, letting him know just how determined and serious I was. “I think you should go.”

He looked around for a moment, like he was lost, then moved down the hallway. He stopped in front of the open doorway to the nursery and looked back at me, eyeing my stomach. I thought he might cry or beg. But he sucked it up instead, apparently burying his feelings down just as deep as I had. He was a master at that, too.

With a submissive nod, he marched for the door. Just before opening it, he paused, his hand on the knob. He lingered there for mere seconds, but it felt like an eternity. I couldn’t tell what I was hoping for more. For him to turn around and say whatever magical words it would take to chase this all way, or for him to just go...and let this whole disaster go up in the flames it was always destined to erupt into, one way or another.

His wrist turned, the door opened. And he was gone.

A big breath gushed from my chest, leaving me empty and limp. All I could do was collapse onto the couch and sob. Was I mourning the loss of my best friend? The loss of the image I had of him as this perfect, big, strong man who could do no wrong? Or...was it something else entirely? Like my inability to just let go and let it all happen? To let myself admit that I loved him, too.

All at once, the door flew back open. Lucas rushed back in, panting. I shot up from the couch and stared at him, in that moment hating him more than ever. He could have just let it be!

“I’m not going to let it end like this,” he declared. “I want to give you time to cool off, but I’ve wasted enough time already. I’m not going to waste another second! Not with you.”

“I don’t need time to cool off. I’ve made up my mind.”

“That’s not how it works,” he objected. “Take it from me—I’ve spent all this time trying to talk myself out of how I felt about you, hoping it would all just go away. I learned the hard way that you don’t get to decide how you feel about some things...about some people.”

I laughed resentfully. “Fake it until you make it.” My mouth turned to a bitter scowl. “This is everything I’ve always tried to avoid. It’s too hard and too complicated—it’s why I don’t bother with love and relationships. And now I don’t even have my best friend to laugh about it with anymore. I thought we were on the same page!”

“I think we are. More than you want to admit.” He pulled up the chair across from me and sat down. “I’m not going anywhere, Victoria. Not yet. Not until you hear what I have to say.”

20

Lucas

All of my worst fears were coming true. I didn’t tell Victoria I was in love with her before because I was afraid she would overreact and push me away—which was exactly what she was doing now. But I wasn’t about to give up without a fight.

I sat in the chair across from her, staring her down as she curled into a defensive coil on the couch. Her brown eyes narrowed at me, preparing all her defenses before I had even said a word. Her mind was racing a mile a minute.

I could tell by the look on her face that she wasn’t going down without a fight either. But that was just another reason we were such a perfect match. No one else could handle her when she was like this, and she was the only one who could do the same for me in return.

“I think you love me, too,” I started. “But you’re too controlling, and you’re afraid to let yourself fall in love. Admit it.”

“That’s not what this is about,” she insisted.

“Like hell it isn’t. You know what I think? You liked this arrangement because it gave you a chance to feel like you were in a relationship without having to deal with all the things you couldn’t predict. There were rules and boundaries...and you never had to admit how you really felt.”

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