The Devoted Winter: BWWM Billionaire Romance Novel (Her Winter Love Series Book 1) by Jamila Jasper

deal.
     
    “Nadiyya, I’m sorry that I didn’t tell you about Martine. Can I ask your forgiveness?” Lucian began. He stroked her hair, twirling her curls around his finger.
     
    “Yes, I forgive you. But I don’t want there to be more secrets between us,” Nadiyya said, looking up into Lucian’s eyes. She looked so innocent from that angle. Her deep brown eyes always drew him in.
     
    “Do you really think you could promise me that,” Lucian asked.
     
    “No. I guess you’re right...” Nadiyya said with a sigh.
     
    “People have secrets. That’s just the way life is. But we can try our best,” Lucian said before kissing her forehead.
     
    Silence settled over the room. Nadiyya looked up at Lucian and before he could control himself he blurted out, “I think I love you, Nadiyya.”
     
    Lucian felt his face go bright red. He hadn’t meant to say these words but they’d spilled out of his mouth before he could stop himself. These words weren’t to be taken lightly. Nadiyya wanted to say “I love you” back and give Lucian the response that he wanted but she found herself unable to say the words.
     
    “Thank you Lucian. I really really care about you,” Nadiyya replied. She kissed him on the lips but Lucian was reluctant to receive her displays of affection. Nadiyya could see that Lucian was upset. Obviously he’d wanted her to say that she loved him but Nadiyya just couldn’t do it.
     
    “I think we should go to bed. Long day tomorrow,” Lucian said. Nadiyya shut off the lights and then tried her hardest to go to sleep. Knowing that Lucian might be pissed off at her troubled Nadiyya. It wasn’t that she didn’t love him. Things were just… complicated. Nadiyya couldn’t shake the feeling that somehow things were going to get a lot worse.
     
    **********
     
    Chapter 9
     
    Lucian awoke three times during the night in cold sweats. He rarely ever put himself out on the line like that. He had never been the one to say I love you first. Nadiyya seemed to have some kind of effect on him that caused him to question everything he thought he knew about women and love.
     
    She was enigmatic and ethereal in so many ways. Nadiyya was the most beautiful woman Lucian had ever encountered. He’d known that when she first pitched the idea of her company to him. He’s watched her soft black curls frame her face and listened closely to her smoky voice. Now Nadiyya was more than a distant woman he longed to get close to. Once he actually slept with her, things began to change.
     
    He’d never felt this way about a woman before, not even Martine. Nadiyya wouldn’t allow him to possess her and as time went on he wanted to possess her less and less. Nadiyya’s drive and her tenacity towards her goals caused Lucian to realize that he had come to develop an extremely warped view of women. Part of his view had been developed by Martine, but he saw the various ways he was to blame too. At some point, Lucian had stopped thinking that women were people. But they were people, and no less than men. Women were not either torturous harpies or damsels in distress waiting for a man.
     
    Nadiyya had inspired change in Lucian and he realized this. But why couldn’t she say that she loved him? Lucian was starting to think that perhaps Nadiyya was too much of a free spirit to ever want to be with him. He could offer her everything in the world but it was all meaningless if that wasn’t what she wanted. Nadiyya wanted her own success and to make a life for herself. She didn’t care about Lucian’s wealth at all. And of course, that was a big part of her appeal.
     
    Lucian noticed Nadiyya waking up slowly and kissed her cheek.
     
    Nadiyya kept her eyes closed. She was lost and thought and didn’t want Lucian to pull her out of it, especially when his very presence seemed to complicate things so much for her. Nadiyya couldn’t figure out what was stopping her from just telling Lucian she loved him. Perhaps it was