Dating Mr. Darcy - Kate O'Keeffe Page 0,84

total fool who believed it all.

I let out a defeated puff of air, my head spinning at a hundred miles per hour. Even if I’ve got to go, even if I’m not The One for him, I deserve the truth.

I lift my chin. “You need to tell me why.” My voice is edged with steel.

His jaw tightens. “There are things out of my control here. Please understand.”

“How can I understand when you won’t explain it to me?”

His eyes find mine once more, and I see naked pain where once there was resolve. “I’m so sorry. For all of it. I never meant for this to happen.”

“What the heck, Seb?” I blurt out. I don’t care who hears me, I don’t care if we get found out. He’s ending this with me, and I deserve an explanation. “You have feelings for me, just like I do for you. You told your sister all about me. Who does that if they’re only in it for a quick fling? You asked me to stay for you, remember? The night we first kissed. You asked me to stay here for you. And I did.”

His eyes glide away from mine. “Emma, you deserve someone who can give you their heart completely.”

I throw my hands onto my hips and glare at him. I might be dressed like a pre-feminist lady, but I’m not taking this lying down. No siree. “That’s bull crap, Seb, and you know it.”

“If I could turn back the clock, I would.”

His words cut deep.

His face is drawn when his gaze locks with mine. “I only hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me.”

I blink at him in utter shock. I cannot believe he’s doing this to me. To us.

With my stomach in knots, I reach out to touch him. “Seb, please.”

He whips his arm away, and I know that he means what he’s said. It’s over, and I’ve got no choice but to accept it. Because even though it takes two to make a relationship, it only takes one to pull it apart.

“We need to get back to the ballroom.” He strides away from me toward the door, and I watch him as though in a daze.

I open my mouth to reply and then clamp it shut. What am I going to say? We’ve fallen for each other? He feels the same way as I do?

My worst fears bubble to the surface.

He doesn’t feel the same way. All of it—his sister, the woods, the time together here in the library—has been a fantasy. My fantasy.

None of it has been real.

I’ve been nothing more than a brief diversion for him to fill the time while he makes his money to save his precious house. I’m the easy girl from the wrong side of the tracks. The girl he knew would never fit into his real world.

I’m not going to chase after him. I might not have much, but I have my pride.

He reaches the door. With his hand on the handle, he pauses before he looks back across the room at me. “I’ll be sending you home at the card ceremony tonight.”

I nod dumbly at him.

His mouth twists, his features drawn. “I’m ... I’m sorry, Emma.” He pulls the door open and slips out of the room.

I’m left standing alone, trying to make sense of what’s just happened, my heart in pieces on Martinston’s grand library floor.

Chapter 28

“I cannot believe these numbers. Will you look at them?” Penny thrusts her tablet in front of me for about the seventeenth time this morning. And it’s only ten o’clock.

“I know, they’re totally great, Penn,” I reply.

She spreads her arms out wide. “Come on, bring it in.”

I push myself up from my desk and allow her to collect me in a hug. “Do we have to do this every time we get a new order? ‘Cause it’s totally creasing my shirt,” I ask, half smothered by her mass of auburn curls.

“Since when have you cared about shirt creases?” She hugs me tighter. “You deserve every hug and every ounce of my gratitude for what you put yourself through for our label. I hate what he did to you.” She pulls back and fixes me with her gaze. “You doing okay, Em?”

“I’m fine,” I reply with a shrug that’s convincing absolutely no one.

“I don’t believe you.”

“How about if I say I will be fine given a little more time?”

“And a few thousand more amazing orders like this one?” She holds her tablet up again