The Carrero Effect - Falling for the Boss (Billionaire CEO) novel Chapter 311

“Oh, do you have company and can’t talk? Sorry, I just missed your voice, it’s beyond sexy, and I am so excited about seeing you.” She purred irritatingly, and Jake had to steel the urge to tell her to forget all of this.

“Yeah, I missed you too, bambino,” he said flatly, still feeling Emma’s presence burning into him like rays from the sun, he wanted to just curl up and die about now.

“Okay, well my flight gets in around four, so I may hang around at the airfield for you if that’s okay?”

“I’ll meet you there,” Jake said quickly and didn’t wait for her reply just hung up quickly to stop the way his throat was trying to strangle him to death with guilt. He slid his phone back into his pocket and couldn’t look at her at all, every part of him felt like a complete shithead as though he was openly cheating on her. In his own head, he was, and it had the ability to stop it all if he let it.

Fuck.

“Who?” Emma blurted out and caused another slice to his heart. He couldn’t tell her it was the girl he used to replace her so many times when she first started working for him. Brianne was small, blonde and could have been Emma’s sister to look at, but she didn’t need to know that.

“No one you know. Old flame.” He closed his case, throwing her a fiery look, willing her to back off and not pursue this agony.

“If that will be all, Mr. Carrero, I’ll leave you to it,” Emma said icily and threw him a look that translated to nothing at all, completely deadpan. She was stiff and devoid of emotion. Sad that he had made it happen this way, pushed her to this version of her that she hadn’t been since the first week he had known her, but this is who he needed to see from now on.

“Tell the others, after I’m gone, I had to go away for a couple of days.” He was picking up his case, his body stiff with tension and he just had to get out, he couldn’t breathe now it was getting closer to leaving her. He was slowly suffocating and on the verge of some sort of anxiety attack.

“What reason shall I give?” She was painfully polite and factual. Another nail in the coffin of his heart.

“I don’t give a shit, Emma … the truth for all I care.” He flexed his eyebrows sardonically at her, really completely done.

Jake lifted his bags and strolled out purposely past her, not looking her way again and determined to just go and be done with it. The sooner he put distance between them the sooner he would be able to think straight and start rationalizing all of this. He could start to move on and no longer initiate anything non-business related with her.

He felt her follow him down the hall and willed her not to … to stay back and give his heart a chance at letting go of her, he was weakening with every step toward the back of the boat, doubts flooding in and that inner part of him that eternally wanted to protect her clawing him back. To stop, to go back and just get on his knees and beg her to forgive him for being an asshole, but he couldn’t.

He knew all it would take was her following him here and one sad look, one sad fucking set of baby blues his way and he would bail on all of this because, like it or not, he fucking loved her, and the last thing he wanted to be doing right now was leaving her for anything in the world. It took all of his strength to walk the last steps and hand his bag to the waiting crewman he had told to get the boat ready. If she came out now he was done for, he knew how weak he was when it came to her, but she didn’t.

She had retreated before he hit the open air and had probably gone back on deck. She had let him go because she had never loved him and as much as he hated himself for doing this it had never been so fucking right. She had made it clear, and he loved her enough to let her fucking go.

He needed to find his own sanity again, and if he could do that between the legs of Brianne it would be a goddamn start.