Read Online Imperfect Penelope (Wild Crush) by Sami Lee - Free Book Online

to Greg because there wasn’t anywhere else now that Maleficent was guarding the armchair. She should have thought of that before she’d moved the cat. “I shouldn’t have said that.”
    “Why not? You’re right. I didn’t take your word about anything and I should have.”
    Penny sighed. “Bryan’s your brother. I guess if the situations were reversed I’d have done the same thing.”
    “You have a brother?”
    “Two sisters. Emily and Hope. Both older. Both so gorgeous I could spit.”
    She felt him studying her profile. “It must run in the family.”
    A tingling heat filled her at his implied compliment. Did he think she was gorgeous or was he being polite? She’d sensed him watching her once or twice while they were doing yoga, but she’d never been quite sure if it was simply because he was trying to get the poses right. He did seem kind of fixated on doing things right all the time.
    She didn’t know whether she wanted Greg to find her attractive or not. Either way seemed like bad news. It was all fine to appreciate his physical assets on an objective level and to have the occasional—okay almost nightly—fantasy, but if she wasn’t the only one toying with those thoughts…
    “You say you saw Bryan,” Penny prompted, changing the subject because her heart suddenly beat in a panicked rhythm.
    He didn’t answer right away, instead reaching for his tea and taking a long sip. Then he set his mug back down and rested his elbows on his knees. “I went to the forwarding address he’d given me but he wasn’t there. His flat mate let me in and I waited. It was after two a.m. when he got back.”
    Greg’s head drooped. He rubbed at his eyes with the heels of his hands. When he lifted his head, he looked at her, and his eyes were red rimmed. “He told me he was starting a business. I lent him some money for it, and so did my mother. But he was using it to buy into these high-stakes poker games. He actually thought he was going to make his fortune playing cards. Have you ever heard anything that crazy? He’s lost it, of course, everything my mother and I gave him. Thousands of dollars. Plus whatever he took from you.”
    “Oh my God.” She saw the devastation in Greg’s profile, the disillusionment. It made her want to reach out and put her arms around him. She folded her hands in her lap so she wouldn’t give in to the frighteningly powerful urge. “He told you that?”
    “He admitted to everything.” Greg’s lips twisted. “I suspect he only did because he’s broke. He begged me for help, but I told him I wouldn’t lend him any more money. I’m looking at programs he can do, counseling for gambling addicts. He promised he’d go. He seems genuinely ashamed.”
    “I had no idea,” Penny said. “I never even saw him gamble.”
    Penny thought of the time, about three weeks after they’d started seeing each other, when Bryan had disappeared for a few days. He’d stopped texting her. He didn’t call. She’d thought he was pulling away because of something she’d done to put him off, but when he came back he was more affectionate than ever. He’d wanted to take her out to a fancy place, go clubbing. He’d blown through money like he had it to burn. He’d said a business deal had come through.
    “Oh,” Penny uttered as all the pieces fell into place.
    Greg’s gaze sharpened. “What?”
    “It’s nothing.” Penny shook her head. “I just realized I should have seen it.”
    “You’re not alone there.”
    “He’d run hot and cold, and I assumed that was about me. I’m such an idiot. It was never about me. It was always the money.”
    She felt the warmth of Greg’s hand when it came to rest on her back. “Penny…”
    “He had this talent for making me feel like I’d hung the moon,” Penny went on, fueled by leftover anger at Bryan and recrimination at herself. “He made me feel like I was special. We had fun together at first, and I thought I made him happy. But it