Her Guardian Billionaire (Forbidden First Time Romance) by Belle Chastain Page A

his eyes and ground his teeth together as he looked at her. “Good. Because I wouldn’t want you to embarrass yourself.”
    A tear spilled onto her cheek, and he could see the hurt blossom in her chest like a gunshot wound. She gasped and ran past him, not caring about her naked body, him or anything. He’d finally broken her—but instead of her body, bound and blissed out beneath him, he’d crushed her heart. And she’d deserved it.

    Anna ran, blinded by tears and anger into her room. She knew he could be heartless. But she never knew he could be so cruel.
    If he’d only listened, he’d have understood. She would never use him—not in the way he was thinking. Sure, she explained about him and her past in the application. But if she hadn’t, what would they have thought?
    Everyone knew who she was. The whole city watched when he took her in, expecting a little orphan Annie in the flesh. If she’d ignored him in her application, she’d have looked like an idiot. Going on and on about her mom, how her death at the hands of a Daven security guard changed her life, but never once mentioning him? Impossible.
    If he knew her need to understand grief and heartache, how she wanted to help people and not exploit him, he couldn’t hate her.
    Oh, James! She fell in front of a suitcase and tugged it open. Why did she have to fall for James? The sexy, handsome, unavailable man she’d lusted after for years. The man she’d watched from behind her sunglasses, longing for him to see her as a woman and not just an obligation.
    Damn him! For the second time in her life, he’d turned her world upside down in a single day and this time she’d fallen. Hard. She wiped the tears and snot from her face and pulled out some clothes. If he wanted her to leave, she’d leave. And she’d never come back. Fuck him and his problems.
    Tugging on a pair of jeans and a t-shirt, she looked around the room. The room she’d come home to every summer for the past eight years. The room she’d never see again. Goodbye fantasy land, hello reality . Grabbing her purse, she dug for her phone when her hand brushed black velvet. The diamond .
    Pulling the box out of her purse, she opened it up and shook her head. It still glittered and sparkled like the expensive bauble it was, but all she saw was empty glass. He thought she was a liar? Someone hell-bent on ruining his life? Fine. She’d ruin something all right.
    Slinging her purse over her shoulder, she walked out of her room and down the hall to the front entry—a grand marble affair with curving staircases and an oversized mirror on the wall. Walking up to the mirror, she took stock. Hair a mess, eyes bloodshot and puffy—a disaster. Only fair that he had a mess to clean up, too.
    “This is for you, Mr. Davenport. You deserve it.” She pulled back and with all the force she could muster, hurled the diamond straight at the mirror. It hit with a sickening crunch and the mirror shattered—shards of glass spraying in all directions—destroying the image of a wounded girl surrounded by riches.
    Turning around, she headed for the front door when a voice called out. “Miss Anna? Please wait.”
    Anna spun on her heel and Malcolm rushed up to her. “I’m so sorry, Anna. I’ll talk to him. He’ll come around.”
    She smiled and patted Malcolm on the arm. “No he won’t, Malcolm.”
    “Give him some time. In the meantime, I’ll arrange for your things to be shipped to your apartment. They’ll be there in the morning.”
    “Thank you. I’m going outside to call a cab.”
    “No. Go to the garage, pick a car. It’s yours.”
    “What?”
    “James’s request.”
    She looked down and blinked. “I don’t want anything from him.”
    “Then don’t think of it as from him. Think of it as from me. A going away present. He did say to pick any car he had.”
    Anna raised an eyebrow. “Any car?”
    “Yes, miss. Any car.”
    She shook her head and reached out, wrapping Malcolm in a huge hug.