Page 63 of Seduced by Her Billionaire Fake Fiancé

The strength of his emotions, even the way they argued was as if they were both being driven by a passion that was super-human.

What if he had feelings for her too? Not necessary love, not yet, but maybe something more than Andie had presumed?

She toyed with her necklace while a resolution formed: she had to know. Andie had been through a lot and she knew she was tough. If she was wrong, and he didn’t feel anything for her, then it would hurt like hell, but she’d be okay, because she knew she could weather just about any storm. At least, she hoped she could.

* * *

Max wasno stranger to early starts, but even for him, sitting at his desk before five in the morning was a little extreme. And he knew why. He was trying to wipe the weekend from his mind.

Or more precisely, he was trying to wipe from his mind the conversation he hadn’t had.

Lunch with his family should have been the perfect time to break the news about Andie. It should have been a simple, curt explanation.It didn’t work out. Our engagement is on hold.But instead, they’d all talked about Andie, and he’d liked hearing it. He’d found himself smiling, talking about her too, and suddenly the fiction had been given fresh life, so he’d known there was no way he could announce the engagement was over just yet.

Next time, he’d promised himself.

But afterwards, on the flight home, Max had berated himself for his weakness and stupidity.

While it promised not to be an easy conversation, Max was no coward. He’d never run from adversity or difficulty. Quite the contrary. He’d always stormed towards fire, danger, problems, determined to fix everything. And that was what bothered him.

That was why he was here, in his office, the sky black beyond his windows, his computer blinking at him expectantly, his brain not cooperating.

And yet he sat there, determined to work, to push Andie and his family and the whole faux engagement mess from his mind. It had been a chapter of his life but now that was over: he had to concentrate on whatever would come next. Onwards and upwards, one foot after the other.

Andie’s stomachwas in pieces but outwardly she’d taken great care with her appearance, and nothing about her physically revealed the toll the weekend of angst-ing had taken.

“Do you have a minute?”

She’d waited as long as she could, but now, in the late afternoon, she couldn’t put it off a moment longer. It was a conversation she had to have.

Max looked up from his desk, frowning, as though she was the last person he expected to see, then he stood, those ingrained good manners slamming into her chest.

Not her chest, she berated soundly. Herheart.Her heart which had been jumping up and down, screaming at her from the beginning, trying to force her to understand what was going on.

“Sure. Have a seat.”

“That’s okay. This won’t take long.”

Max was quiet, watching, so handsome in a button up shirt that was tucked into his tailored trousers.

“How was Italy?” She asked, stalling, needing time to warm up to this.

“Good.”

Well, that didn’t buy her much time.

“Were your family okay with everything?”

Something in his eyes shifted. Andie moved a step closer, breath held.

“Of course. These things happen.” His voice was flat. Unemotional. Andie wasn’t sure she could do this.

But she lifted a hand and played with her necklace, and the ring of her mother’s she’d slipped back into place there, drawing strength from it, remembering her mother’s bravery and heroism. Andie tried to channel some of that now.

“I wanted to talk to you about something,” she said, pulling the ring from side to side then stopping abruptly when Max’s gaze dropped to her hand.

“Sure,” he said again. Nonchalant. Unconcerned.

This was going to be a huge mistake.

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