The Billionaire's Matchmaker(71)

Instead, he would have continued to see himself as a repulsive monster. “It wouldn’t have been fair to you.”

“Who says life’s fair?”

His words were eerily similar to ones he’d said the first time they met. Was that really only yesterday? It felt like they’d known each other so much longer. “You’re right, life’s not fair.” She knew that as well as anyone. “All the more reason to right the wrongs we can. I know what it’s like to feel unwanted. I couldn’t allow another person to feel that way when it’s not true.”

“I can’t imagine anyone not wanting you,” he said softly.

“I’ve got a long list that would prove you wrong.” Too long a list.

Jenny’s eyes burned. Throughout the entire conversation, she kept her tears in check, refusing to embarrass herself further by crying as she confessed her past. She had the situation under control; By God she would act like it.

At least she had it under control until Nick chose to cup her cheek with his hand. “Thank you.”

She raised her eyes to look at him. Even with the burns and scars, he remained one of the most handsome men she’d ever seen. What could he ever want with someone as broken and used as her anyway? A tear slipped out and made its way down her cheek. Nick swiped it away with his thumb. The gesture was simple yet so comforting. She could feel her body melting toward him. “I should go,” she said, forcing herself to break the contact.

“Do you have to?”

Did he have to speak with such a sultry whisper? “Yes.” If she stayed, she’d only compound last night’s mistake. From the way her heart raced, she was already in danger of falling too deeply.

That is, if she hadn’t fallen already.





Chapter Six



Nick wished she would stay, but walked Jenny to her car without protest. As he watched her car disappear down his drive, he mentally replayed her confession. Frankly, her story left him unsettled. Shouldn’t he feel relieved that he hadn’t been the cause of her running? Why then did his chest still feel like there was a hole in the middle of it? Certainly, her story answered some of the questions he’d had. He now understood the reason behind the baggy clothes and purposeful plainness. She was hiding herself, same as he was. She was as damaged as he was too, just in a different way.

Perhaps that was the reason for the aching sensation—his heart recognized a fellow sufferer. It humbled him that she shared her history with him. Filled him with shame as well. He didn’t deserve her kindness. Jenny believed him to be a wounded soul. She had no way of knowing his wounds were punishment for the vain, arrogant bastard he used to be. Maybe even still was, because after everything Jenny told him, one thought kept coming back again and again: she’d wanted him.

Jesus, was he any better than the men from her past?

Someone was sniffing around his feet. “Stuck close to home, did you?”

Charlie didn’t answer other than to look at up at him expectantly before trotting toward the back yard.

Nick followed. “What do I do now?” he asked. The decent thing was to shove his own ego aside and pretend he never heard her admit her attraction. That, of course, meant ignoring the damn kiss. Pretty near impossible. Even the most passing memory had him hard as a rock. What kinds of idiots were those men who had treated her so poorly? Didn’t they realize they’d been given a goddamn gift? A woman worth savoring? Worth holding on to? Imagining a naked Jenny sprawled across his bed, her lips puffed and eyes glazed, he groaned. God, he wanted her so badly, one fantastical image had him ready to come.

Making him no different than the other men she’d met in her life. Jenny was right to walk away.

The hole in his chest grew larger. A strange desperate sensation nagged at him, as if there was a thought he couldn’t quite form or an object he couldn’t quite hold on to. Like sand slipping through his fingers. She wanted you, the voice whispered in his head. And he wanted her. Worse, he had the sneaking suspicion that beneath the wanting lay the potential for more. For a great deal more.

Puh-lease, who could love you? Megan’s ghost taunted.

Who indeed?

“Jenny deserves a lot better than a guy who lives in the shadows, that’s for sure,” he said to Charlie. Not to mention a man so insensitive, he continued to contemplate sleeping with her after hearing her confession. “Right, Charlie?”

The terrier barked. Nick pretended they were in agreement.

…

Lulu didn’t like her whelping bed. Jenny followed the recommendations to the letter. She found a quiet, warm corner and filled the space soft blankets. Still, Lulu wanted nothing to do with the thing.

“Lots of dogs ignore the bed until they actually go into labor,” Gideon said when she called him Friday night. “I wouldn’t worry too much. “

“I suppose,” Jenny replied. “Just that’s she’s been listless all week as well.”

“You’d be, too, if you had a bunch of near-term babies in your stomach. Lulu will be fine. Dogs have been having puppies on their own for centuries.”

He had a point, although Jenny couldn’t shake the feeling Lulu’s malaise involved more than pregnancy. The spaniel’s lethargy seemed to increase the longer she was separated from Charlie.

Or maybe she was simply projecting her own misery onto the canine. Lord knows, she’d been in a funk since saying good-bye to Nick a week ago.