Free The Prince's Bride (Modern Fairytales) by Diane Alberts Page B

instead, how about we eat, and you tell me more about Baker.”
    She pointed a finger at him. “Don’t try to distract me from this mess with offers of a contract once this is over. It won’t work.”
    “I didn’t offer a contract of any sort,” he said immediately. “I told you, I won’t lie to you. Don’t think my agreement to discuss your company, or my guilt over detaining you, will make me agree to a business deal. I don’t let business and pleasure interfere with one another like that.”
    “So you mean, you don’t have sex in nightclubs with all the women who come to your country to present cases to you?”
    Flexing his jaw, he rested a hand on her knee possessively. “You know I don’t. That was just because it was you.”
    She trembled at the feel of his hand on her. It was too much. “Please don’t think—”
    “And you have every right to be angry, but I can’t be upset or regretful over something that brought you back into my life. Clearly, someone intercepted your letters—”
    She snorted.
    “And despite your inability to believe that, I’ve thought about you a lot over the years, and you’ve always been special to me. I would like to take this time to get to know you, to see if maybe we can be friends again. Perhaps we could let the past go?”
    So many things ran through her mind in that moment. The way they’d met, and how handsome he’d looked at the skating rink in Rockefeller Center on that long ago night. How he’d made her laugh back then, and how she’d done the same for him, and how sad it made her that he’d forgotten how to laugh in her absence. How happy and safe she’d been when he held her close and kissed her sweetly, and how she hadn’t felt safe like that ever since. She’d been so sure he was her soul mate, no matter how young they’d been at the time, that he was the love of her life…
    And she’d been devastated to find out she was wrong.
    She’d sworn after Brian died to never let someone in her heart again, to never love someone enough that losing him would destroy her, and Leo was a threat to that promise. If anyone could make her forget the pain, the reasons she kept to herself and never let anyone in, it would be him . And she couldn’t afford to let that happen.
    Not again.
    “No.” She pushed his hand off her leg, even though her heart screamed at her for rejecting him, for refusing to give him a second chance. Even though every fiber in her body begged for him to do more than comfort her. “I don’t want to be your friend, Leo. I just want to go home and forget this ever happened.”
    Liar .
    His touch was burned in her memory for all time. The way he’d made her feel as he caressed her skin, and how full she’d been with him inside her. How perfectly his lips had fit over hers as he made her come alive in his arms.
    She’d never forget any of that.
    Not in a million years.
    He stiffened and then stood. “Well, then, by all means, I’ll leave. I’ve already forced my home upon you, so I won’t force myself any longer. Good night, Alicia.”
    No. Don’t go. Stay. She lifted a hand, not meeting his eyes. She stared at the fireplace instead. It was safer. “Night.”
    Without another word, he headed for the door. With his hand on the knob, he hesitated and then turned back to her. “Alicia?”
    Reluctantly, she gave him her full attention. The pain she saw in his eyes, the emptiness, struck her like a punch to the gut, and damn him, she ached to stand up, pull him into her arms, and make it all go away. It was like he was silently calling to her, and she couldn’t ignore it any more than she could stop breathing. “Yeah?”
    “I am sorry that someone ruined what we had. What we shared together was— is —very special to me. So are you. And you can rest assured I will get to the bottom of this and find out who hurt you with those letters, one way or another.”
    She swallowed, not saying anything.
    And he left her alone in her