Free Sleeping with the Billionaire (Rendezvous with the Billionaire Book 3) by Eve Adrian

to me shortly after my discharge from the hospital and had advised me to keep quiet about the details. A consult with my attorney, Carmen, informed me that I didn’t need to, but it wouldn’t hurt.
    On the Friday of my first week back, Evan and I were the only two people in the elevator headed down. It was the end of the day and the first time I had been alone with him since before the abduction.
    “My father hired Carmen.” He said with no preamble. “Apparently I was not as discreet in my interest as I thought.”
    “Oh.” So his dad knew about us too. Wonderful. “Thanks. It looks like I won’t need her anymore.”
    The elevator stopped on the sixteenth floor and people got on, cutting off our conversation. But when I stepped out of the elevator on the ground floor, before I could get too far, he said, “Wait!” And took a few jogging steps to catch up to me.
    I waited for him to say anything, but he didn’t. We walked silently through the lobby and out onto the busy street. After two blocks I looked over at him. “Are you escorting me to the subway?”
    A dash of pink appeared on his cheeks. He was embarrassed to be caught out. “I was hoping to be more subtle.”
    “I don’t need a protector, Evan.”
    “You were abducted because of me, beaten because of me, and now—“
    I held up a hand. “Whatever you’re doing here, just don’t. I survived Dylan. I can walk a few blocks alone. If I couldn’t, I’d figure something out. Just…don’t do this to me, okay?”
    I left him there on the street and walked the rest of the way to the subway alone.
    When I was at home the next day he called and asked me to go downstairs. I wanted to leave him alone. He wasn’t taking this well and I wasn’t going to coddle him about it. But if we were going to have it out, better sooner rather than later.
    He was standing outside my building wearing faded jeans and a green t-shirt. He looked casual, young, relaxed. Just downright good. If I wasn’t a bit mad at him my mouth would have watered. Okay, it did water but I ignored it.
    We walked down the street to a little park. Somewhere along the way our hands sort of glided together and ended up fingers entwined. I didn’t pull away. We sat on a bench together in silence for a few moments, the only sound was the chirping of the birds and the faint sound of the street.
    “My parents split when I was really young.” He was still holding my hand, his thumb idly tracing along the skin. “My grandparents all lived in separate houses. I can think of maybe one couple that I knew personally that was happy together.”
    “Evan…” I didn’t need to hear his whole sob story.
    He squeezed my hand lightly, “I know, not exactly unique. And it wasn’t like I was sad. My parents loved me . But I never realized that you could love your spouse. That you could want to be around a person all the time and not resent them. That you could just be happy.”
    My heart skipped a little and a part of me wanted to run. The rest of me was planted in place, desperate to hear the next words.
    “It’s over between me and Amanda. Officially now. In light of Dylan…” He didn’t elaborate, thankfully. “She needs a friend, and I want to be that friend. But nothing more.”
    “Of course, you’ve known each other forever.” I didn’t have the right to give him approval, but it felt like I should say it. And he smiled which made me grin.
    “So here’s what I’m saying.” He took a deep breath, and this time looked straight at me. “I probably make a horrible boyfriend. I have no idea what I’m doing and I’m going to make you so mad that you want to pull your hair out.” To emphasize his point he tucked a lose strand of my own hair behind my ear. “But I’m a quick learner. And according to some people, very sexy.”
    I wanted to close my eyes and hide in shame at the memory of that text message. It felt like it had been ages since I sent it.
    “And most importantly, I love