Read Online Breathless by Cheryl Douglas - Free Book Online Page A

His ego wouldn’t allow him to
admit it back then, but if they were having their last
conversation, he wanted to say everything.
    “Eli, I did
love you. I just--”
    “Please, let me
finish,” he said, holding up his hand. “I loved you enough to let
you go because I knew that’s what you needed. Now I’m asking you to
love me enough to do the same.” He never thought he’d have the
courage to ask that, but in his heart, he knew the time had
come.
    “You want me
to…” Her voice broke. “Let you go? So you can be with her? That’s
really what you want?”
    No, he didn’t
want her to let him go so he could be with Belinda. He needed her
to let him go because she could never love him the way he loved
her. “Yes, it is.”
    She stood up,
sweeping her hands over her face. “Fine. If that’s what you want, I
won’t bother you again.”
    When she
stepped past him, he grabbed her hand. “Jamie--”
    “I just hope
she’s worth it, Eli.”

 
     
     
     
     

Chapter
Six
     
    “You seem kind of
distracted tonight,” Belinda said, sliding her hand up Eli’s
leg.
    She’d been
touching him all night, and instead of turning him on, it made his
skin crawl. He needed to get out of her house. He’d barely taken
time to breathe after his argument with Jamie. Eli knew he needed
to go home and process what he’d done. He told Jamie he didn’t want
her in his life anymore. He said he didn’t need her friendship.
What the hell had he been thinking? He’d die without Jamie.
    “I’m sorry.” He
tried to focus on the movie, hoping Belinda would assume he was so
interested in it he didn’t want to talk. How could he focus on a
movie when the drama playing out in his own life had the potential
to destroy him?
    “Does this
having something to do with her ?” Belinda asked, crossing
her arms.
    He didn’t have
to ask who she meant. It always came back to Jamie. “We kind of got
into it tonight.”
    Her eyes lit
up. “Really? What happened?”
    “She showed up
at my house asking about you and us.” He pressed his thumb and
forefinger into his closed eyes. “I kind of lost it.”
    “Maybe it was
time you put that woman in her place. It sounds like she’s been
trying to control your life for too long.”
    Eli had always
been fiercely protective of Jamie, and that would never change.
“Jamie isn’t like that.”
    “Please, she
keeps you dangling just in case she doesn’t get a better offer. How
long will you let her do that?”
    “You don’t
understand--”
    “I understand
perfectly. My ex is the same way. He wants me when it’s convenient
for him. When he’s busy with his friends, he expects me to give him
space and sit at home waiting for him.”
    Eli didn’t care
to hear about Belinda’s problems with her ex. “I should get
going.”
    She reached for
his hand when he tried to get up. “What she’s doing isn’t fair. She
doesn’t love you. If she did, she’d see what this is doing to
you.”
    He hadn’t laid
his cards on the table since Jamie came home. He’d been too afraid
she would retreat or cut him out of her life entirely. So he’d
remained silent and tried to be a good friend, hoping she would
eventually realize he was everything she needed.
    “I can’t talk
about Jamie with you, Belinda. I’m sorry.” He withdrew his hand and
leaned forward.
    “What kind of
hold does this woman have over you?” When he didn’t respond,
Belinda said, “You could have any woman you want. Why the hell have
you wasted so many years on this one?”
    He couldn’t
explain it. No other woman made him feel the way Jamie did. She
filled his heart with love, made him laugh, held him when he needed
a shoulder, and encouraged him to dream bigger. She was everything:
the best lover he’d ever had, the face he saw in the delivery room
when he imagined his babies being born, the hand he was holding
when he took his last breath…
    “I have to go.”
He felt as if he couldn’t