Alpha Billionaire’s Bride, Part Four (BWWM Romance Serial) by Mia Caldwell Page A

why whatever’s between us was over before it began.”
    “Wait a minute.” Ian came up beside her. “Let’s not jump
ahead of ourselves. Let’s talk about this. Tomorrow, after all the excitement
has worn off, I’ll send everyone else home. You and I can be alone, finally,
and have a chance to talk, to get to know each other better.”
    “I’m not going to sleep with you, Ian. Not tonight or
tomorrow or ever.”
    “Dammit! That’s not what I was going for.”
    “You’re right. That was unfair of me.” She seemed to get
sadder with each passing second. “What I should have said was, it’d be too hard
to spend more time with you. We come from two different places that are so far
apart they might was well be two different planets. I can’t understand your
world and you can’t understand mine.”
    “Opposites can and do attract, Jada,” he said.
    “For a little while, maybe. We’re too far apart in too many
ways, though. It can’t work. I’ve been kind of trying to tell you that all
day,” she said. “I’ve been feeling it since this morning. The fantasy’s over,
Ian. And it was great. I loved every minute of it. But now it’s time to go back
to the real world, the one where you run a multi-billion dollar empire and I
work (or don’t work anymore), at a small accounting firm in a small town. It’s
real life, where you and I will never bump into each other in the city at a
glittery gala charity event, or in Springers Glen at my brokedown neighborhood
market. Our paths don’t cross, and they never would have if Sasha knew basic
U.S. geography.”
    He shook his head vehemently. “This is the wrong time to
make decisions. It’s not condescending to say that it’s been an emotional day,
and not only for you. For me, too. I freely admit that you’ve made some points
that I need to think about. I’m asking you to think about them again after a
good night’s sleep, after some of the crazy of this day has worn off. We’ll
talk tomorrow when nerves aren’t so close to the surface.”
    “I won’t change my mind, Ian. I’m sorry,” she said. “I’m
going home tomorrow and we shouldn’t see each other again. It’s too hard ...
because we can never be.”
    Her melancholy smile was painful to see. “Jada, we don’t
know that.”
    She ignored him and glanced out over the grounds. “I’m going
to remember my time with you on this amazing estate as one of the best times of
my life. Fishing in that little boat, our kiss on the dock, the picnic by the
bridge. Mrs. Best and Elly, everyone and everything. Oh, Ian, thank you for
sweeping me away in this fantasy where I got to feel like the most beautiful
girl in the world. I never imagined I’d get anything like it, not even for the
length of a three-day weekend.”
    She put her hands on his shoulders to steady herself, and
raised up on tip-toe, kissing him softly on the cheek. “Thank you,” she
whispered.
    And then she turned and hurried away, into the house, the
front door swinging closed behind her, only her bright floral scent remaining,
the perfume that had haunted his dreams every night since he met her.
    What the hell had happened? He’d been blind-sided. One
minute he was coming outside to make sure she was okay, and the next minute she
was telling him she never wanted to see him again.
    Why did she keep going on about fantasies? She actually was
the most beautiful girl in the world and what did that have to do with a
three-day weekend? It didn’t make any sense.
    He considered going after her, sitting her down and talking
until she saw reason. But no, better to let her get some rest.
    This sudden change in her was because of everything that had
happened that day. And who could blame her for it? He still hadn’t processed
most of it himself. No wonder Jada wasn’t making sense.
    He’d leave her alone, let her get a good meal, a good
night’s rest. Everything would be different in the morning, he was certain of
it.
    Morning. By then