The Dom Who Loved Me (Masters and Mercenaries #1)(48)

Grace – Got called back to Chicago. Had a great time. Thanks for everything. Sean.

Fourteen words. No promises to call. He’d been the one to say their relationship could go beyond the week he was here. He’d been the one to point out that he would be back. Why had he done that?

To make it easier to get you in bed, idiot. He wanted you compliant and you were. You were everything he wanted right up to the point when you said you loved him. No guy that hot really wants a forty-year-old girlfriend.

That awful voice filled her head. It whispered to her. It spouted its terrible doubt all the way to the office. She heard it when she sat in on a meeting with Matt. She heard it through her coffee break with Kayla. It roared at her every time she passed a mirror. She skipped lunch, preferring to work at her desk.

“Hey gorgeous, are you going to happy hour with the rest of us losers or are you meeting that hottie of yours?” Adam Miles sat down on the edge of her desk looking young and filled with an energy she couldn’t even comprehend today. She’d been hanging out with too many young people. That was the trouble.

“No, I have some work to do.” Her voice sounded flat to her own ears. She forced a smile on her face. “Some other time.” In the very, very distant future.

Adam’s eyes seemed to bore through her. “What’s wrong?”

“Just a headache. You know we old ladies get those.”

He paled visibly. “You’re not old, Grace.” His hand reached out, grabbed hers, tangling their fingers together. “You’re the loveliest woman I know. Hell, I’m thirty. I’m not that much younger than you. And you know women outlive men by like seven years or something. That makes me practically perfect. And Jake. He’s thirty-one. We’re the perfect age for you.”

It was the first thing she’d found amusing all day. “That’s good to know. If I ever need a gay husband, I’ll be sure to let you know.”

That seemed to startle him for a moment. He looked thoughtful as he stared at their entwined hands. “Doesn’t every girl need a gay husband? And hey, sometimes Prince Charming comes in a strange package. You never know what’s around the corner, Grace. Come out with me. Look, I’m wounded. You can’t deny me.”

Grace took a long look at him. He seemed to have tried to conceal it, but sure enough his eye was slightly swollen, and his nose looked rough, too. Her self-pity took a momentary backseat. She put her hands up to frame his bruised face. “Oh, sweetie, what happened to you?”

“I got mugged. I got mugged by a stupid, overly-possessive *.” His sensual mouth was pouting a little. He really was heartbreakingly attractive. He was leaner than Sean, but there was no doubt Adam Miles was fit.

Someone had gotten him good. “How do you know if your mugger’s overly possessive? The * part is obvious.”

“Well, he seemed awfully possessive to me when he was beating the crap out of me over something that doesn’t really belong to him. Anyway, let’s forget about him, love. Come out with us. If we can tempt you away from that big hunk of man meat, I promise to show you a civilized time. We’ll get a couple of drinks and then go heckle some romantic comedy at the theater. It’ll be fun.”

She shook her head and then stopped. What was she planning on doing anyway? Was she planning on going home and crying her eyes out? Yes. That had pretty much summed up her plans for the evening. She would go home, stare at the television for a while and then try to eat something. After that she would go to her empty bed, if she could stand to sleep there, and cry. Couldn’t she go out with her friends and then go home and cry her eyes out? Maybe, if she spent some time with the boys, she wouldn’t need to cry. Maybe she wouldn’t feel that overwhelmingly oppressive loneliness that threatened to swamp her. Maybe that damn voice would go away.

And why should she cry? It wasn’t like Sean loved her. He’d made that plain last night. No man who really even cared about her would have left without saying goodbye. That stupid note didn’t count.

“Okay.” She was hesitant, but she managed to get the words out. Before Sean, she’d been forming a nice little friendship with Adam and his boyfriend, Jake. It would be comforting to not spend every evening alone. Sure she was the third wheel with Adam and Jake, but at least she wasn’t alone, crying into her wine glass.

Adam’s face lit up, and he looked younger than his thirty years. “Awesome.” He leaned over and kissed her lightly on the cheek. “I’ll go make reservations. I’ll be back here at five, okay?”

Reservations? “I thought we were going to happy hour.”

“We will. Some place nice. Now that we have you all to ourselves, we should celebrate.” A long, slow smile crossed his handsome face. He reached out and touched her nose playfully with his index finger. “It’s all going to be okay, Gracie. It’s for the best, you’ll see.” He winked and strode from the room, already on his cell phone.

What had that been about? What was for the best? Men. She didn’t understand any of them. Gay, straight, vanilla, Dom. She would never be able to get into those odd brains of theirs and come out with any form of logic. Saying I love you wasn’t like asking for a commitment. She hadn’t asked him to marry her. She’d just muttered something affectionate in the middle of some truly filthy, mind-blowing sex. It shouldn’t have sent him scurrying halfway across the country just to escape her.