Total pages in book: 85
Estimated words: 79938 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 400(@200wpm)___ 320(@250wpm)___ 266(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79938 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 400(@200wpm)___ 320(@250wpm)___ 266(@300wpm)
“I’d like to take you out for dinner. Or a drink.”
His ability to steamroll right over what she’d just said was a neat trick, but not one she planned on indulging. “Goodbye, Theo.”
“Wait. Fuck, Meg, just … wait.” He scrubbed a hand over his face and, for the first time since he appeared, she noticed the dark circles under his eyes. As if maybe he hadn’t slept much since she’d seen him last. Doesn’t matter. It can’t matter. He let his hand drop and pinned her with a look. “Shit got complicated after we left New York, and we had to jump through some hoops until things calmed down. I wasn’t going to come back here or risk contacting you until I knew it was safe.”
She splashed water onto the floor and got back to scrubbing. “Theo, I had fun that night. So much fun. But that’s all it was—fun. Your life is complicated. My life is complicated. There is such a disconnect between the two, it’s absurd.”
“Who the fuck cares about the disconnect? We connected. You and me and Galen.”
She couldn’t argue that, so she didn’t try. This Theo was hard to deny, but she remembered all too well how he got when those blue eyes went calculating. He’d been raised the Crown Prince of Thalania, which meant he’d been raised to lie from birth. He wanted her, and he’d say whatever it took to claim her like some kind of trophy. She was a girl who grew up in a trailer, and he was a guy who’d grown up in a palace. There was no way he could see her as anything other than a trophy.
He sure as hell didn’t see her as an equal.
What could she say to get through to him? “Theo, what does that apartment cost you a month?”
His gaze went shuttered. “I don’t see how that matters.”
“That answers my question.” She laughed a little, the sound as broken and sad as the room they currently stood in. “I’m a year away from getting my master’s degree and I can’t even pay my tuition no matter how hard I hustle. I have no doubt that your problems are real and present and more than valid, but it’s like worrying about how to fly a rocket to the moon when I can’t even afford a car. We live in two different worlds.”
“Princess—”
“No.” Meg held up a hand, forestalling whatever argument he’d prepared. “I’m not a princess any more than you’re a pauper. And that’s okay, but let’s be honest right now. You’re standing there wearing designer right down to your skin and I’m cleaning up someone else’s puke for barely more than minimum wage. We’re too different, Theo. No matter how good the sex is, it would fall apart at some point, and it would fall apart ugly. I’m choosing to keep the memory of that night a happy one without all the emotional baggage three people would bring to any relationship.” She shook her head, barely believing the words out of her mouth. Three people. Hot as hell in the bedroom for a single night, but in a relationship?
A recipe for disaster.
Theo sighed. “You’re not going to get anywhere the way you’re doing it.”
She blinked. “Actually—”
He was already moving. He snagged the mop from her hands and nudged her out of the way. He curled those perfect lips at the mess on the floor and muttered something about idiot drunks, but before she could say anything, he started scrubbing the floor with a vigor she hadn’t been able to muster.
Meg should stop him.
Any moment now, she’d step in, demand the mop back, and finish the job she started.
But the strange sight of Theo doing manual labor kept her rooted in place. What was he playing at? Meg didn’t know, and the not knowing twisted something up inside her. No matter what his goal in coming here, she was being reasonable, damn it.
Reason always prevailed.
He finished in half the time it would have taken her. Neither of them spoke as he carried the bucket to the utility sink and washed it out. What was there to say? No matter what plans Theo held when he showed up, this was goodbye. It had to be.
He dried his hands and turned to face her. “What else do you have to do before you lock up?”
“I’m nearly done.” She’d saved the worst task for last, which was just as well. The last thing Meg needed was him hovering while she tried to count out the till or something that required actual concentration. She cleared her throat. “You should leave.”
“I’ll walk you out.”
It wasn’t quite a denial of her command to get out, but it was clear he wouldn’t be going anywhere until he did exactly as he intended. Meg set her jaw and went through the motions of closing up. Theo’s presence shadowed her every step despite the fact he never moved from his spot near the back door. It didn’t matter. She could feel him taking up more than his fair share of space, his energy too much for this dingy bar.