Beauty and the Billionaire (Billionaire Boys Club #2)(61)

His loneliness seemed to be slowly ebbing away, replaced with a new, different kind of agony—fear of abandonment. Hunter shook his head to clear it, trying to will away the bad dreams. He had Gretchen in his arms. She cared for him. She wasn’t going anywhere. After a visit to his greenhouse, he selected a white rose and set off in search of her, determined to deliver the rose himself.

Hunter found Gretchen curled up on one of the library couches, clutching her laptop and sobbing as if her heart had broken.

His own heart clenched at the sight. “Gretchen?”

She looked up, startled, and wiped the backs of her hands against her cheeks. “Oh. Hi. Sorry. I was just, um . . . working.” Her face crumpled and she began to cry again.

Something was wrong. He’d f**ked this up somehow and he was going to lose her. That gut-clenching feeling wouldn’t leave. “Tell me what’s wrong,” he managed hoarsely, moving to her side.

She sniffed and set the computer down, moving into his arms when he reached for her. At that, he relaxed a little. If she was angry at him, she surely wouldn’t be going to his arms, would she?

“My book,” she choked out between sniffles. “It’s gone.”

Recognition dawned, and a queasy feeling hit his gut. Was that . . . shame? “Gone?” he asked, feigning ignorance. “What happened?”

“Igor must have knocked over the vase,” she said, burying her face in his shirt. “The laptop is soaked. It’s ruined.”

Her sorrow was tearing him apart. Hunter stroked her back. “We’ll fix it. I’ll call someone to come take a look at it.”

She shook her head against his chest, as if denying his words. “It’s my fault. I left Igor in here all night. I’m so stupid.”

“You are not,” he said, his tone vehement enough to make her look up in surprise. He reached out and brushed the tears from her cheek. “You’re not stupid, Gretchen. Not by far.”

“I should have emailed my backups to Kat,” she said mournfully. “I just . . .” She shrugged.

“You just what?”

She gave him a tiny smile. “The more I work, the less I seem to enjoy it. That’s all. I guess I’ve been avoiding Kat. Talking with her just feels like too much pressure.”

It was on the tip of his tongue to offer her money or work or whatever would take that miserable look off her face. But Gretchen wouldn’t want a handout. She was strong and capable. He’d have to handle this carefully.

His fingers touched under her chin and he tilted her face toward him. “We’ll fix this,” he told her in a firm voice. “Give me your laptop. I’ll send it off with Eldon.”

“O-okay,” she said in a wavery voice that made him ache with the need to comfort her.

He took it from her and then leaned into kiss her lightly. “I’m going to send this off with him and instruct the technicians to not come back until they’ve recovered your files. But for the rest of the day, we’re going to relax and enjoy ourselves.”

“I don’t think I can.”

“Oh, you can. And we’re not going to think about work. We’re just going to enjoy each other.”

She gave him a miserable look. “What if I have to start over, Hunter?”

He quelled the part of him that rejoiced at the thought of another month of her in his house. Her sadness was making his soul ache.

He’d asked Eldon to fix this, but he hadn’t anticipated the destruction of her computer. It was brilliant—and a bit evil. But the worst of it was that Gretchen somehow seemed . . . defeated. His brilliant, vibrant Gretchen had been replaced by a sad woman weighed down by the world.

And that wasn’t what he’d wanted at all.

Hunter caressed her cheek. “I’ll be back.”

“I’ll be here,” she told him with a wobbly smile, sniffing loudly.

He tucked the laptop under his arm, noting that it still dripped when he picked it up. It was definitely soaked. He didn’t know if it could be fixed. He hoped—for Gretchen’s sake—that it could. Either way, Eldon had bought him time with her, just as he’d asked.

Hunter headed back to his office and shut the door, then buzzed Eldon.

Eldon arrived a few minutes later, his eyebrows going up at the sight of the laptop dripping on Hunter’s coat.

Hunter held it out to Eldon. “Your work, I assume?”

He said nothing, simply took the laptop and gave him a meaningful look.

“She’s crying,” Hunter said raggedly. He began to pace. “I didn’t want her upset.”

“You said to fix it,” Eldon said, deadpan as ever. “You didn’t say how. You needed her work to continue to keep her here.” He gestured at the laptop. “I have ensured that, just as you asked.”

Yes, but now Hunter felt like a heartless bastard. The thought of Gretchen’s tearstained face still drove him wild with anger and self-loathing. He’d made her cry, and he couldn’t even apologize.

“Take the laptop to a technician. See if they can fix it.” He glanced at Eldon, and then hated himself for saying, “Not too soon, though.”

“I shall escort it in myself,” Eldon said in a toneless voice. “I am sure that no one will get to it for at least a week, no matter how much I ask.”