Page 65 of Seduced by Her Billionaire Fake Fiancé

Andie flinched. “Are you—,”dismissing me?

She stared at him, unable to ask the question, because the answer was so obvious.

She’d poured her heart out to him, and he didn’t even care.

She loved him, she really did, and she hated him, and there were times she just didn’t understand him, but right now, what she needed was to get the hell away and breathe some clear air.

It was all a mess.

“You don’t love me,” he said, quietly. “You think you do, because we had sex, and the sex was good. It was great. But you hit the nail on the head before, when you said you don’t have any experience. So maybe that’s why you went to a bar, to hook up with some other guys—,”

“I didnotgo to the bar to hook up with anyone,” she interrupted. “I went to catch up with my best friend. The guy thing was just…organic.”

“Maybe it’s what you need,” he said, pressing his fingertips into the desk. “Go. Get experience. See that you can feel lots of things for people you sleep with, and it is not necessarily love.”

Andie’s heart was being punctured with every word he spoke. “I don’t need to sleep with anyone else to know that what we had was special and unique.”

“I’m not saying it wasn’t either of those things,” he clarified. “But nor am I saying great sex equates to love.”

Andie nodded slowly, because she had the answers she’d come for, and she’d said her piece, even though he clearly refused to hear it. “Okay,” she said, dropping her hand from the necklace to her side, trying to smile but realizing her lips wouldn’t cooperate. “I’m going to go now. That’s really all I came here to say.”

She waited for him to object. To tell her to wait a moment. To take a seat while he at least gave this some thought. But Max was very still, and very silent and as Andie’s eyes began to fill with tears that she knew she wouldn’t be able to control, she recognized an urgent requirement to get the hell out of there. And so she turned and moved quickly through his door, and then she began to run to the bank of lifts, her heart broken in a way she doubted would ever heal.

There were toomany thoughts and memories spinning inside of Max to make sense of any one of them. Memories of his time with Andie, sure, but also memories of his life before Andie. Of women he’d slept with, dated, enjoyed spending time with. He filtered through those memories, seeking reassurance. Because unlike Andie, he was experienced. He’d been with more than enough women to know that great sex could make you feel on top of the world.

But it had never made him feel as though he’d fallen in love.

It had never felt with any other woman like it had with Andie.

With Andie, it had gone way beyond the physical.

It had been…

But every time he had this realization, and he had approached it before, something, some sense of self-preservation, walked him back from the brink.

He closed his eyes and saw Antonio dying.

Antonio’s life fading.

Antonio in pain.

He felt that loss cut through him, and instantly pushed away any thought of Andie, of life with her, of happiness, of what he might feel beyond the superficial, because why did he deserve any kind of lasting happiness when Antonio didn’t have that?

But what about Andie?

Did she deserve to be hurt because Max refused to move on with his life? Because his guilt had made him commit to a solitary existence without even realizing that was what he was doing? Looking back, it all made perfect sense. He’d sought out only the most superficial relationships, short-term, temporary, with women who weren’t suited to him at all, because he hadn’t wanted to live his life. Not when Antonio couldn’t.

And then he’d met Andie, and her suggestion had been so simple, the clearly delineated boundaries created by their fake engagement making it a safe enough proposal.

He just hadn’t counted on…Andie being…Andie.

He hadn’t expected tofeelanything for her.

He dropped his chin to his chest, his heart thumping, as he finally let the floodgates open, allowing himself to understand what he’d been too stupid to see, even when Andie was in his office a moment ago spelling it all out to him.

Why had he wanted to strip off his skin when she’d told him she’d been kissed by another man?

Because she was his.

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