Page 15 of Pretend
After that…
He’d resigned himself to the fact that she would never be his. It took time, but he eventually learned to accept that they would never be anything more and forced himself to move on. He focused on women that were nothing like her, praying that it would be enough and that he could fall in love with one of them and have all those things that he would never have with Morgan, but it never worked out that way. The fucking guilt he felt whenever he touched or kissed them nearly fucking destroyed him, forcing him to take the next step, hoping that finally settling down would be enough to destroy the hold Morgan had over him only to realize that nothing ever would.
He never got over Morgan, probably never would, but that was his problem. Morgan was his best friend and as much as it hurt knowing that there would never be anything more between them than this, he couldn’t force himself to walk away even if it meant finally putting himself out of his fucking misery.
He would always love her, always want more, and when the day came when she finally fell in love with another man, Eric would wish her the best because he loved her and wanted her happy even if it wasn’t with him.
CHAPTER10
“Why are you trying to push me away during my time of need?” the man that weighed a ton demanded as she continued trying to shove him off the bed so that she could finally pass out.
“Because we’re not doing this,” Morgan informed him as she gave up trying to shove him off the bed and focused her attention on tearing that pillow away from him so that she could beat the shit out of him with it.
“Doing what?” Eric asked, not really sounding all that concerned that she was attempting to get her hands on a weapon to end this once and for all.
“This!” Morgan snapped, giving up trying to steal the pillow and went back to trying to shove him off the bed.
“Why are you being so violent?” Eric demanded as he ignored her ineffectual shoves and rolled over onto his back with a heartfelt sigh.
“Because I’m not in the mood to do this again?” Morgan asked as her gaze shot back to that pillow. “Didn’t we just have this talk on the plane?”
“Probably,” Eric mumbled, shrugging it off as he shifted to get more comfortable. “Are you going to finally tell me what ‘this’ is or are you going to continue jostling me?”
She opened her mouth, closed it, and shook her head as she muttered, “Forget it,” as she gave up on trying to shove the large jerk off the bed and dropped back down on the bed, closed her eyes, and settled in, in absolutely no mood to do this tonight.
Every time Eric came to his senses and ended things with whatever woman was currently making his life a living hell, it ended with Eric bitching, pouting, grumbling, and swearing up and down that he was done. She just…
She didn’t want to spend the last week that she had with him arguing.
“Well?” Eric asked as the pillow behind her head was suddenly snatched away.
“You don’t want to have this conversation,” Morgan muttered, opening her eyes so that she could glare at the large bastard as she reached over to steal her pillow back.
“I really do, though,” Eric drawled, ignoring her as she struggled to steal her pillow back and pissing her off enough to make her decide that it was finally time to have this out.
“Are you sure?” Morgan asked with a look that told him that this wasn’t going to end well for him.
Ignoring the only warning that he was going to get, Eric shrugged it off as he settled in more comfortably and closed his eyes as he raised his hand, lazily gesturing for her to get on with it as he murmured, “Mmmhmmm.”
Slowly nodding, Morgan said, “You never learn.”
“Meaning…” Eric said, letting the word trail off.
“You do this every time,” Morgan said, shaking her head in disgust as she turned onto her side to face him. “For whatever reason that I still don’t understand, you date the most self-centered, obnoxious women that you can find and have absolutely nothing in common with and when it doesn’t work out, you mope and bitch, wondering why it didn’t work out and how you keep screwing up your life only to do it all over again.”
“Why are you being so mean to me?” Eric demanded as he rolled over onto his side so that he could glare at her.
“Because you need to hear it,” Morgan muttered as she reached down to pull the comforter over her, only to have Eric beat her to it as he admitted, “I’m done.”
“You say that every time,” she pointed out as his eyes narrowed dangerously on her.
“And this time, I mean it,” Eric said firmly before adding, “I’ve wasted enough time on this bullshit. It’s time to accept that it’s never going to happen and move on with my life and focus on Bradford Remodeling.”
“Which you also say every time this happens,” Morgan said, nodding solemnly.
“No, I don’t,” Eric bit out with a glare that dared her to argue.
“You really do, and then, you’ll meet someone even more annoying, fall all over yourself to make her happy, turn a blind eye to the fact that you have absolutely nothing in common with her and end up right back where you are now,” Morgan said with a satisfied sigh as she snuggled beneath the comforter, unable to help but notice just how good the silk nightgown felt against her skin.
