Free The Billionaire's Second Chance by Peyton Reeser

part of his sleeping soul and as undeserving as he was, the universe had somehow given him a second chance to make things right; to fix the madness he had created eight years ago. 
    And then she recoiled in horror, wrenching herself from his grasp as though his touch had made her dirty.  The strangled No! she had screamed in his shocked face reverberated through his brain on a continuous loop of background noise that he was pretty sure was going to haunt him forever. 
    And now here she was, in an expensive private clinic, nursing a serious contusion to her ankle, a nasty wound on her shoulder and an ugly bump on her forehead, all because of him.  Good job , Nick.
    Like he hadn’t done enough to her already he winced as her blank gaze continued to remind him of what a complete ass he had been and still was.  To make him feel like an even bigger prick, there were clearly tears falling like raindrops down her cheeks.  Shit .  Those tears had the effect of Novocain on his reactions.  He just froze.
    When the tears that sprang to her eyes overflowed down her cheeks, Shannon jumped back into the moment and inhaled sharply in an attempt to reign in the primal longing his sudden appearance in her life had revealed.  With a slight shaking of her head she refocused her attention only to find the object of her longing staring deeply at her as though he was attempting to read her mind.
    The room was bursting at the seams with swirling energy; hers, his, bouncing off the other, circling, stopping, careening off the very walls in a heady communion of lost souls impeded by the frailties of human nature, each both longing and yet afraid, each reluctant to take whatever the next step would be. 
    Their future lay in frozen suspension all around them while the past stirred the pot.  In those halted moments, his devastating power and natural authority stalled in the face of her potent allure. He was helpless.  Enchanted.  All the money, power and influence which pervaded his life meant absolutely nothing in this moment.  He was, simply put, at his most vulnerable.  Exposed and emotionally naked. Always having been rather fearless, he was instead completely terrified.  He who had negotiated toe to toe with world leaders and powerful tycoons; wielded influence and power beyond what most people could even imagine, was reduced to a panicked mere mortal of a man with no more power or control over this situation than a human could control the waves of the ocean.  She was turning him inside out and upside down without so much as looking in his direction.
    The silence was deafening or maybe the noise she was hearing was actually that of the hammering of her thoughts in her head.  Not knowing what to do next but realizing from the grim tight lipped expression she was getting from him it was going to be up to her to break the silence, Shannon shifted slightly trying to rearrange her position.  That slight movement brought pain to every part of her body causing her to come up short with a barely suppressed groan of discomfort.
    “Nick, what are you doing here?” Shannon asked in a tight husky little voice which spoke volumes about the fragile state she was in.
    Moving closer but cautiously staying an unthreatening step or two away from overpowering her with his presence Nick answered in short order, “I’m here for Dom’s birthday. He’s my nephew.” 
    The curious expression in her eyes had him following that detail up in quick response with, “Jules is my little sister,” and then with a slight shrug of self-deprecating humor he added, “ And she just happens to have seduced and married my best friend so between Ned, Dom and Jules, my goose is cooked!” 
    Said tinged with lighthearted humor, Nick instinctively tried to lighten the situation aware in his very bones that her outward show of calm hid a vulnerability which caused him wisely to soften his approach.
    The half-smile he attempted with his words showed a brief flash