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.I ended it.It was getting too complicated.”“If you ended it, why don’t you just tell him you changed your mind?”“I can’t.It needed to end.Even if this particular complication could be resolved, there’s no way I could go back to meaningless sex with him now.” Victoria rubbed her forehead with her finger and thumb, trying to rub away the faint headache she’d had for the last few weeks.“It wouldn’t be meaningless anymore?”Victoria groaned and lowered her head into her hands.“No.I’m such an idiot.I thought I was being mature and realistic—taking a risk but still keeping everything under control.We had it all worked out from the beginning.Just sex and nothing else.How the hell did this happen?”Jeanie was quiet for a moment.Then she murmured, “You’ve got it bad.”“Tell me about it.” Victoria indulged in pure despair for a minute—feeling a wave of deep emotion overwhelming her at the thought of Greg.At what she wanted from him.At what she could never have.He was out of her reach in so many ways, and she would be a fool to hold out any hope for a miraculous fairytale ending.Life didn’t work that way.Her life never did, anyway.Then she shook herself off.Things didn’t always happen the way she wanted them to, but she wasn’t going to sink into real depression.She needed to get on with her life.She would get over Greg.It would just take longer than she’d expected.“Maybe he’s been moping all this time too.”Victoria snorted.“Right.That’s likely.”“Well,” Jeanie insisted, getting up and moving toward the door.“You also wouldn’t have thought it likely that he would want a wild, hot fling with you in the first place.He did.And you wouldn’t have thought it likely that it would last three months.It did.Why shouldn’t it be just as likely that the feelings you developed might be returned by him?”Victoria had no answer to that question, but she couldn’t let herself hope.There would be no moving on if she did.Greg had a successful, complex, full life.A life she’d never been a part of.He might miss the willing sex partner, but if he wanted more he wouldn’t have accepted the end of their relationship the way he had.Victoria wasn’t going to pretend anything else was even possible.“Thanks for the pep talk,” she said, smiling at Jeanie.“I’m determined not to mope for much longer.”Jeanie laughed.“All right.Give me a call this weekend if you need a distraction.My cats can only provide so much entertainment for me.”Victoria agreed and actually felt better when Jeanie left.Her world wasn’t decimated just because she’d lost the man of her dreams.The truth was—she’d never really had him.***Victoria was walking back from the bathroom that afternoon when she saw Greg.He was there.Standing right in the middle of the lobby of the university library.He was facing the opposite direction, but she recognized him easily.Even from the back.His broad shoulders, lean hips, tight ass, and long legs were distinctive in the well-tailored dark business suit.And his thick hair was slightly ruffled—probably from the wind—the gray flecks just faintly visible in the dark brown.Victoria’s heart froze in her chest at the sight of him.Then it began to hammer frantically as she made herself keep moving toward her office.He hadn’t seen her yet, and she cowardly hoped she could get away before he knew she was there.She was wearing a new pair of designer heels—a far too expensive extravagance she’d allowed herself last week to help pull her out of her slump.The heels clicked on the polished floor of the lobby despite her attempt to remain discreet.Greg turned around, just as she’d passed him.“Victoria.”She froze, staring straight ahead and trying to focus her fuzzy mind on something intelligent to say.“Hi,” she said stupidly.His mouth twitched very slightly.“Hi.I thought I recognized the sound of your footsteps.”Frowning, she demanded, “What do my footsteps sound like? I walk just like everyone else.”“No, you don’t.”“Yes, I do.What do they sound like?” It was a ridiculous conversation, but she felt compelled to find out how her footsteps differed from everyone else’s.She tended to walk fairly quickly, but surely that wasn’t enough to make her stride recognizable.“I don’t think I’ll tell you.” His smile was easy, warm but just slightly poignant.And it crinkled the corners of his mouth and his eyes.She didn’t understand his expression at all.Victoria experienced a sudden wave of annoyance.What was he doing here, anyway? She had just determined to get over him, and he showed up out of the blue, being obnoxiously smug and smiling at her like that.Kind of possessive.Kind of tender.The implications terrified her, and her reaction to fear was always resentment.She hated being afraid.So she scowled at him.“What are you doing here?”“I’m here to see you.I thought that should have been obvious.Believe it or not, I don’t hang out at university libraries just for fun.”His glibness irritated her even more, and her scowl tightened into a cold glare.“Why did you want to see me?”She wished she looked better.She hadn’t spent much time on her appearance lately.Her hair was pulled back in a chignon that was more severe than she usually wore, with no loose strands to soften the look.She was wearing her glasses, and she had on a dark blue suit.The jacket was fitted and the skirt reached mid-calf but it wasn’t as distinctive or flattering as most of her other outfits.She must look like the spinster librarian everyone tried to stereotype her as.Everyone but Greg.“I thought maybe we could talk,” he said, his forehead wrinkling as if he were confused.“Is there somewhere we could go?”They could go to her office, but she didn’t want him there
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