Home For The Holidays - Jordan Silver Page 0,44

lying to me, something I never really doubted, it was time to discuss this Lisa person that he was dumb enough to believe didn’t want more from him than their weekly fuck sessions. I threatened to leave if he didn’t tell me everything I wanted to know, and after he got through making some threats of his own about what would happen if I went against him on that, he told me the whole sordid tale.

I won’t say it did much to quell my jealousy, but the tone in his voice when he talked about her was nothing like I’d expect from a man in love with his lover. I tried not to let it get to me too much, the fact that he’d been in a relationship of sorts with her when we met, but I can’t hold that against him either.

The same way I didn’t go looking for him for anything more than a means of getting rid of Tessa, he too could’ve had no idea that we’d click the way we did at first sight. It’s like he’s fond of saying that I fell into his lap out of nowhere and knocked him for six. Whatever that means.

It did help a little that he let me read the messages he’d sent her since we met, and true to his word, he’d only had one correspondence with her where he told her that they needed to talk. Her response read like a fishing expedition, but I’m sure she probably had a pretty good idea what he wanted to talk to her about.

I’d sat alone in the penthouse the night he went to break things off with her, too wound up to do anything but pace the floor and bite my nails. When he came back a little more than an hour after he left, I studied him for any signs of a broken heart, but he looked fine, his only interest in whether or not I’d eaten without him.

“You didn’t eat with her?” I tried to keep the sharp bite of jealousy from my tone, but I think I failed miserably. He didn’t say anything, just walked over and hugged me close, which for some stupid reason eased some of the worry in my heart and mind. “Of course, I didn’t eat with her. The last thing you said before I walked out the door was not to do anything I wouldn’t want you to do with an ex if you had one.”

“I wouldn’t have appreciated you having dinner with an ex no matter the reason, so therefore I didn’t do it with her.”

“What about the other stuff we talked about?” Like the fact that I didn’t want her living in an apartment, he was paying for. According to him, she makes more than enough to take care of herself, and since their arrangement was at an end, I don’t see why he should continue. It’s all kinds of petty, but I can’t find it in me to care.

“She’ll start looking for a place this week. I didn’t just kick her out on the street like you suggested, so I gave her a month, then I’m putting the place on the market. Satisfied?”

“Somewhat yes! I’ll let her keep the gifts you gave her since it would be tacky to ask for them back.”

“I don’t give her gifts; I told you we didn’t have that kind of relationship.”

“So it’s done, all the way done? No loose ends to tie up?” I bet she’ll find about a thousand.

“No, everything’s done. We don’t have any more business dealings either, so there should be no reason for me to see her again except in passing since our paths might cross professionally.”

“If you see her, you’d better turn and go in the opposite direction, don’t even speak.”

“That’s reasonable and very mature.”

“We’ll talk about reasonable and mature when you stop losing your shit every time someone of your species even looks in my direction. Let’s eat. I’m starving.” I wasn’t really, but I knew the guilt he’d feel from hearing it, and I was feeling just a little snippy.

We were still in our getting to know you phase, and he’s been bending over backward to make me feel comfortable living with him, so any little schism sent him into a flurry. Once he gets to know me better, he’d realize that it takes a hell of a lot more to piss me off, and by then, I’ll have to fight to keep the little