Shopping for a Billionaire 3 Read Online Free PDF

found someone like you. And that you see something in me that makes you want to be with me.” He swallows, and I can feel the movement on my shoulder. “I’ve spent years just chasing arm candy and bedmates.” He’s confessing to me, baring his soul.  
    I freeze, taken out of the comfort zone and into wishful-thinking territory.
    “I’m not arm candy?” I try to sound lighthearted but instead I just feel raw.
    “You’re a chocolate-covered strawberry. A dozen of them. On top of a chocolate mousse cake.” He nuzzles my neck, his smile imprinted under my ear.
    “Do you really mean it?” I try not to sound as pathetic as I feel. Hope rises inside my chest, crawling out of a cave near my heart, shielding its face against the first shaft of sunlight it’s seen in a long time.
    He gets what I’m really saying. “Do you ?”
    “Do I feel the same way?” I break free from our spooning and very carefully turn over to face him. He’s vulnerable and wanting, his eyes open and watching me carefully. No pretense. No shields. No walls.
    “Yes.” He’s inventorying me.
    “I can’t believe you want to be with me. I’m…nobody.”
    “You’re everybody,” he says with a firm passion. His hand slides along my jaw and under the nape of my neck. “And watching you today, after that bee…I can’t lose you.”
    “You won’t.” I reach forward, the IV pulling on my arm, a sharp, needling pain making me wince. He pulls the tangle d tube away from its knot with such care I want to cry from the joy of being treated like this.
    “How about we both just stop right here.”
    M y heart seizes. “What do you mean?”
    “This is what we both feel. It’s real. It’s real ,” he says with urgency. His lips press against mine and the kiss is so sweet that tears spring to my eyes. His body moves toward me and stop s . H e pulls back and closes his eyes. “And it’s so real that we need to let down our walls and let reality guide whatever comes next.”
    “ I have always lived in Realityland. I’m the mayor of it. It’s the rest of the world that doesn’t cooperate.”  
    H e smiles.
    “No, seriously. Have you met my mother?”
    Now he just shakes his head with amusement . W e both yawn at the same time, slow, lion-like sounds. I turn back around and he snuggles up.
    “Are you allowed to nap with me?” I ask. I think half the words disappear as I fade off to sleep.
    “It’s better to ask forgiveness than permission,” he say s, the vibration of his words against my neck a cozy feeling . A feeling I could get used to experiencing every day of my life. “Besides, the nurses take pity on me. They’re also a little jealous of you.”  
    “Jealous?”
    “When I had to strip down to show them the E pi P en puncture, they got an eyeful.”
    M y laughter is quieter than I want it to be. I’m so tired.
    “ Is this the weirdest date you’ve ever been on?” I mumble as sleep overtakes me.  
    “Probably.” A long pause, and then he adds, “The E pi P en was definitely the most inventive sex toy a woman has ever used with me.”
    I’m in a state of exhausted bliss, and as I float off, a thought occurs to me.
    “Declan?”
    “Mmm?” He’s breathing slowly, his voice muted in the tiny roo m . I almost feel bad interrupting him, but I have to know. The thought won’t go away.  
    “How did your mother die?”
    His breathing halts, the warm muscles behind me solid and tense like granite. Then he relaxes, as if by will. The monitors ping on.  
    “It’s not important. Go to sleep, honey.”
    “You called me ‘honey,’” I whisper, my eyes filling with tears. He can’t see me, and that’s good.
    “I’m just so, so grateful you’re going to be okay.” His hand rests on my hip with a possession and a familiarity I like. I like it very much, but I’m so, so tired.  
    “Thanks to you,” I mumble, and then that’s all there is.

Chapter Four
    The first date I have after I get out of the hospital