Crushed (Crystal Brook Billionaires) Read Online Free PDF Page B

probably did an awful job at it. “Is everything all right?”
    “Yeah, she’s just not feeling well.” She set her phone face down on the table. “Sorry we made you go in for drinks.”
    “You didn’t make me. And it’s fine. I’m a raging alcoholic anyway. I’ll be able to down all this in no time at all.”
    She looked at me with slight apprehension.
    “Don’t worry,” I assured her. “I was just kidding.”
    She chuckled. “Good.”
    I itched to talk about Claire. To ask any and every question under the sun, but I bit my tongue and held myself back.
    “It’s so different around here at night,” Gwen commented.
    “You usually come during the day?”
    “Yeah, sometimes I stop in for lunch if I’m just getting off the morning shift.” She shifted in her seat, looking uncomfortable. I got the sense that she wanted to say something else, and so I waited, not making a move to speak.
    A long minute passed and then she looked at me. “Claire didn’t leave because she’s not feeling well. Actually, that’s kind of it. But also not. She’s not sick.”
    “Oh. All right.” I didn’t know what else to say to that. Was I the reason she left?
    “Her, uh, boyfriend just died. Like a couple weeks ago.”
    I stared at Gwen. “Oh my God. Really?”
    She nodded. “Yeah.”
    “Shit.” I ran my palm over my face, letting it all sink in. “That’s awful.”
    “Yeah, so she came here for a while just to, you know, relax.”
    “I wish I’d known. I would have…” Not gotten so pumped up about asking her out.
    “It’s okay. I don’t think she even wants people to know. She doesn’t want anyone feeling sorry for her.”
    “How long will she be here?”
    Gwen shook her head. “I don’t know. That wasn’t really determined. But she tried to go back to work right after it happened, and it didn’t go so well. She had trouble.”
    “I can imagine so.” A half a dozen curse words filled my mouth, but none of them seemed good enough to let fly. I couldn’t even begin to imagine just what Claire was going through.
    So that was the reason behind the sadness I’d picked up on. Thank God I hadn’t skipped ahead and asked her out to dinner. Who knew what that could have done to her, no doubt, fragile psyche.
    Gwen looked thoughtfully at the glass in front of her. “She’s doing okay, I think… considering.”
    “I feel like I should apologize.”
    “For what?”
    I shrugged. “For… not knowing, I guess. For going on and shooting the shit like her whole life hadn’t just been shaken up.”
    Gwen smiled sadly. “You’re really nice.”
    I ducked my head. “Thank you.”
    “I’m sorry she had to go. But maybe there’ll be another time. You never know.”
    “Yeah,” I agreed. “You never know.”
    She raised her glass. “Cheers to that?”
    “Cheers.”
    One drink later and Gwen was gone too, leaving me to nurse one more.
    “Fuck it,” I said, gulping the last of the beer and tossing a few bills onto the table. Walking outside was like walking into a wall of sweat. It pissed me off more, so the first thing I did when I got home was run a cold shower.
    The water was a jolt to my system, but did nothing to cool the heat burning inside of me. Claire. Dammit. I’d fucked up, hitting on a woman in mourning. How stupid could one man possibly be? Or was I just lonely? Hell, or just horny.
    It had been a couple months since I fucked a woman. Especially a woman who caught my attention the way Claire did. Her eyes, filled with sadness and secrets. Her long fingers. I could imagine them wrapped around my cock. Lips. Where do I begin with those lips? Pillow soft. Within the first thirty seconds of her opening that door, I’d wanted to know exactly how soft they were. Wanted to feel them under mine. Wanted them to kiss their way down my torso. Wanted…
    Fuck.
    I lifted my face to the water, hoping to wash thoughts of her away. But they wouldn’t go, my traitorous mind making the visions of her