Summer Love_ A Steamy Small Town Romance Anthology - Piper Rayne Page 0,100

wouldn’t look at me.

He was rejecting me, again.

“No.” Confusion, hurt, and rejection welled up in me. Still, he didn’t turn around. “I mean, yes. I am sorry. But I…I just don’t know why I’m here, Phillip, and I…” I blinked hard. I would not cry. Not now that I’d just thrown myself at him and he’d pushed me away.

There was only so much one woman could take.

“Do you know why I’m here?” I lowered my voice, unsure whether I could even say what I was thinking. It was easier that he wasn’t looking at me. I took a deep breath. “Not because you made me a deal, or I did something I shouldn’t have, or I was scared to lose my job.” I swallowed hard.

“I’m here because it was you, Phillip. Because it’s always been…”

I couldn’t believe what I was saying. All these years, and I’d never even allowed myself to think such things, let alone say them aloud.

When he turned to look at me, I saw the pain and hurt in his eyes for the first time. The confusion and the…what?

“It’s always been what?” He didn’t wait for an answer. He scrubbed a hand over his face and shook his head. “I don’t blame you if you want to leave. And as I said before, the deal is off. You can go whenever you want. I don’t want you to ever…I can’t bear you thinking less of me…”

He turned again and walked to the window, his back to me.

I’d been dismissed. Or discarded. Or…I just didn’t know.

Confused and more hurt than I cared to admit, I did the only thing I could think of to do.

I left.

Chapter Five

I could have walked away. And maybe I should have. But I didn’t.

After I ran out of Phillip’s office, humiliated and confused, hurt and pissed off and…all the things, and I got back to my room, I hate to admit it, but I saw the shower that had at least two giant shower heads in it and a steam function, and I just couldn’t pass it up.

Just a shower, I told myself. Then I’d leave.

But after spending almost an hour under the hot water, I was feeling better. Well, not better better, but not quite so hurt. And when I came out of the bathroom, wrapped in only a towel, I could see Mrs. Mclean had been there.

A tray with meats and cheeses, fresh fruit, and a bottle of wine was laid out on the table by the window.

I looked for a note, disappointed there wasn’t one. So I popped a grape in my mouth and picked up my phone to check the group chat I had with the girls.

There were at least ten messages, looking for details.

I poured myself a glass of wine, sat, and filled them in.

Fifteen minutes later, I’d finished the glass and caught the girls up on my humiliation.

If you couldn’t be honest with your best friends, who could you be honest with?

What I didn’t tell them was that the whole thing had started with just having a little fun and getting him out of my system, but I’d been terribly wrong. Because the moment my lips were on his, every single feeling I’d ever had that I thought I’d buried deep all those years ago came flooding back.

I couldn’t admit it out loud yet, but I was one hundred percent sure I still had feelings for Phillip. Which was also why I’d decided to stay.

Never mind that the wine and snacks were delicious and I was feeling very tired and that four-poster bed looked so much more inviting than my old single mattress in my crappy apartment. A good night’s sleep would help me see clearly.

I slept in almost to noon the next day. The bed was magic!

In the morning, with no note or message, I went in search of answers and found them with Mrs. Mclean in the kitchen.

As if she’d expected me, she slid a plate of eggs Benedict in front of me and handed me a cup of coffee.

“Mr. Conrad is out for the day. He had something to take care of at the office.”

I picked up the mug of coffee that had been poured for me and hoped my disappointment didn’t show on my face. One cream, one sugar. Just the way I liked it.

“He requested you make yourself at home and enjoy the pool if it suited you. He also asked me to tell you that he would still very much like