Free His to Have: A Billionaire Romance by Piper Hayes Page B

happen.
    “Cat, are you ready for this to be something more?” I ask.  
    “Of course.” She raises her shoulder. “I have the clothes right here. Although if you wanted to sneak off to the bedroom…”  
    “That’s not what I mean. I mean us, our relationship. We’ve been skirting around it for a while now, and I don’t know if I can wait any longer.”
    “Actually, there is something I need to tell you.” Her expression changes. I can see the worry gnawing away at her. She’s going to tell me. She’s going to come clean about whatever’s been going on. She swallows hard and looks into my eyes. This isn’t what I want. Not right now. Right now I just want to tell her how I feel, but I can tell by that look that the moment’s already gone. She clears her throat and takes a slow breath. “I want you to know that you can trust me,” she says “I need you to know that I’d never do anything to hurt you.”    
    “I know,” I say. It’s reflexive, really. I want to hear her tell me everything, I want her to open her heart to me. Instead, she’s telling me my own lines. She’s asking me to risk everything for the promise of something better. It guts me. She doesn’t trust me yet. Not fully. I’m not hers, and she’s not mine. I was wrong. This was too soon to tell her how I feel. I haven’t earned it yet. I need to earn it. She’s inches away, but there’s a wall between us. It’s unspoken and invisible, but it’s real. I’m going to do everything in my power to show her what she means to me.
    I get up and walk to the office. “Blake, what’s going on?” she calls after me. I open the desk and lean under the open drawer, removing the tape that holds the old, scratched-up key in place. Cat’s standing in the doorway as I get back up.
    Everything else can wait. I need to prove to Cat what she means to me. “I want to show you the real me. Do you think you’re ready?”

CHAPTER 12

    CATHERINE

    Blake and I leave early for dinner. It’s probably about seven when the town car arrives. I still don’t know what he has in mind, but I’m wearing a four thousand dollar dinner dress and custom made heels, and he has me carrying a bag with jeans and a sweatshirt. To say he’s piqued my interest would be an understatement. Blake’s wearing Armani like it was designed specifically for him. Wherever we’re going, it will be hard to miss us.
    As we make our way to the car, I decide I need to tell him something about what Ben said to me earlier in the day.   “Is everything alright?” I ask.
    Blake gives me a puzzled stare. “Everything is great. Don’t worry, I promise you’re going to enjoy tonight more than you can imagine.”  
    “Why’s that?” I ask.
    “We’re going to the hottest restaurant in town, and I have a surprise planned for you there.”
    “I need to talk to you about something serious,” I say as we get into the car. “I think you could be in trouble.”  
    “I’m always in trouble,” Blake says as he shuts the door and we head off. “Whatever it is, don’t worry about it. Wait until tomorrow, and if it’s still gnawing at you, I’ll look into it.”  
    “I don’t know if it can wait.”  
    “Just give me tonight. We can go over whatever you want in the morning.”  
    “Assuming I’ll stay the night?”  
    He laughs. “If the past several days are any indication, yeah. But seriously, as much as I think you’ll enjoy tonight, I need you to know that this is very important to me, and that I’m showing you something that I haven’t shown anyone in a long time.”  
    “Do you have a tattoo I haven’t noticed?” I ask.
    “Something like that,” he replies with a laugh. The car pulls up in front of Afton. Blake has high end taste. This place has barely been open for six months, but I’ve heard of it. I didn’t have a chance to go before the world fell apart on me, but I remember it being a serious topic of conversation at one of the last