Page 82 of How to Train Your Billionaire

“I need to forget about him,” I tell Tessa.

“Good luck with that.”

After we hang up, I stay on the deck until the stars come out. The yacht rocks gently beneath me, and for the first time since I took this job, I feel truly alone.

Charles finds me there an hour later.

“Can’t sleep?”

“Something like that.”

He settles into the chair beside me with a soft grunt. We sit in comfortable silence for a while, watching the lights of distant boats twinkle on the water.

“You know,” he says eventually, “when I met Betsey, I nearly didn’t ask her out.”

“Why not?”

“I was scared she was too good for me. Too smart, too beautiful, too everything. I figured she’d realize what a mess I was and run.”

“But she didn’t run.”

“No. She saw through all my bullshit to something worth keeping.” He pauses. “Sometimes the best things in life come disguised as the scariest.”

I know what he’s trying to do. And I love him for it.

But I’m not sure I believe in fairy tales anymore.

Chapter Thirty-Two

Distance Makes the Heart Grow Stupid

Hayes

I threw my clothes into the suitcase like the yacht was on fire. Which, metaphorically, it was.

Last night was ... Damn it. I still can’t think about it without my chest doing this weird tight thing. The way she looked at me afterward, all soft and trusting. Like I was someone worth keeping.

That was the problem.

Charles knocked on my door right as I was zipping up my bag. His face when he walked in—disappointed but not surprised. Like he was expecting me to run.

“Running away?” he asked.

“I have work.”

“Bullshit.”

And when I finally admitted the truth—that I let it mean something—he gave me that look. The one that said I was breaking his heart along with my own.

But I couldn’t stay there, not now. Not after ...

“Hayes.” His voice carried that authoritative tone that made him a billionaire. “I’m old, not stupid.”

I sank onto the bed, defeated. “I messed up.”

“How?”

“I let it mean something.”