Page 102 of The Rebel Billionaire

Every time I closed my eyes, I saw that fucking look on her face when I told her I'd see heraround.

At the time, I thought I was doing the rightthing.

Idid.

It was harsh, yeah. Breakups were best done fast, like ripping off a bandage. Dragging it out never made it any better. I'd learned that fromexperience.

What I'd never done was break up with a woman and regret itlater.

And I regretted leaving Charlie. It was a fucking ache in my chest, like a rotten tooth, the agony of it blooming with everyheartbeat.

I couldn't escape it, even in sleep. I closed my eyes and I saw Charlie, the shocked pain in her blue eyes whenIleft.

In the brief snatches of sleep I managed, I dreamed of her. Her laugh and the way her skin felt against mine. The silk ofherhair.

We weren't supposed to get attached. But we did. I knew goddamn well she had feelings for me. I thought she might even be in love with me, or thinkshewas.

I knew I was in lovewithher.

It was a fucking disaster. The first time in my life I fall in love, and it's with Charlotte fucking Winters. There was no place for me in her world. That benefit was the nail in the coffin, but Ialreadyknew.

I was a rough guy who grew up in a rusted-out trailer. Yeah, I was smart and I could fake it with the best of them. That was part of my job. But the things I'd done . . . where I came from. I'd neverfitin.

I didn't give a shit what those people thought of me. I don't need the approval of a bunch of rich people to be happy. But I knew what would happen if Charlie and I hooked upforreal.

She'd spend the rest of her life defending me to snobs like Elizabeth, to people who would try to use me to drag her down. And eventually, one day, she'd look at me and all she'd see was aliability.

I couldn't do that to her. I wouldn't. I kept telling myself I wasn't the only guy out there who could make herhappy.

Charlie, my Charlie, was perfect. Smart, and feisty, and fucking gorgeous. There were a ton of men, good men, who would kill for a woman like her. Men who would slide into the fabric of her lifeseamlessly.

That should've been the end of it. I'd walked away, as good as told her it was finished. She'd move on. I'd moveon.Done.

Except that I couldn't sleep, and deep inside, I knew that none of those good men could ever love Charlie likeIdid.

They'd never be able to protect her like I could, to let her fly but always give her somewhere to land safely. She needed the freedom to be herself. To follow herdreams.

What if the next guy was like Harrison, who cheated on her and wanted her to changeforhim?

I needed to let her go, but every day we were apart, I missedhermore.

Her security system was still connected to the app on my phone. I didn't spy on her. I'm not a creeper. I did get proximity alerts, and I knew when the system was activated anddeactivated.

I also had access to the GPS on her panic button, so I knew she'd spent most of the last week at Winters House. The day before, she'dgonehome.

I wished she'd stayed with her brother. I didn't like her being on her own, even with the security system and the panic button. Marissa Archer was safely locked away, but something about her didn't ring true for thestalker.

I had no doubt she was the one who'd been delivering the pictures. That part fit perfectly. And she could've been the stalker. There were some interesting transfers going out of heraccount.

She could easily have paid off the kid who left the note and the one who'd vandalized Charlie's house. She could've paid whoever attacked her, could even have been the attacker herself. She was older, but she was wiry and she had the rightbuild.

The whole thing should've been neatly wrapped up. When I'd left, I'd been ninety-five percent sure Charlie was in the clear. I wouldn't have goneotherwise.

After too many nights of lying in bed, searching for sleep, the whole sequence of events rolled over and over in my mind and with every day that passed, I felt less certain that Charliewassafe.

Maybe I was makingexcuses.

It would be so easy to go back, convince her she needed me to watch over her, and get one more taste of Charlie. Just a little more time when I could pretend that shewasmine.