Love & Conditions (New York Billionaires Book 2)

43| Love

┏━━━✦❘༻༺❘✦━━━┓

Love

┗━━━✦❘༻༺❘✦━━━┛

Chapter 43: Love (Christian's POV)

Nothing has ever torn my heart out the way watching Jules crying that night did. She asked me to give her five minutes by herself but I lingered by the staircase. The last thing I wanted was for her to hurt but it all happened so quickly and in the end, I got what I wanted just not the way I wanted it. 

"Maybe you should be sober for this conversation," I said to her. 

"I'm sober enough," she replied, "enough to try to understand you. Everything fell apart so quickly, I don't even know why." 

"I never wanted to hurt you," I sighed, "if I didn't do what I had to, I could have lost you forever." 

She shook her head softly. "I don't understand." 

"I don't want you to think that I was with you for some type of ulterior motive. I never planned to fall in love with you when I met you and you being Josh's sister and Luke's daughter while your Dad's company and mine were clashing just made that even more certain. As it is, my father hated that you were Audrey's friend. I had to stay away from you. I was practically ordered to." I held her gaze, taking in the tiny frown on her face. "But I couldn't." 

Her brows twitched up. 

"It didn't matter that I was supposed to hate you. Once I met you, I couldn't get enough. Staying away from you is the hardest thing I've ever had to do, every single time. I always said that I would never cross that line with you, to me, you were just Audrey's friend. But then you showed up to work for me. You didn't care about whatever competition was between our parents, you wanted to work with me." 

"Because you were and still are amazing at your job. I've always respected that, regardless of everything else." 

"And sometimes, I think you're the only one who does," I chuckled softly. "Once you started working with me, we were always together, and hating you became impossible. I couldn't keep hiding how I felt about you and I was tired of lying to myself about it. I wanted you, I've always wanted you. Telling you that and kissing you that night is the best thing I've ever done. Everything was great, you know it was." 

She nodded softly in agreement. 

"Until my father found out when I took you to meet them for dinner." 

"Your parents weren't exactly fond of me, I know," she shrugged. 

"The difference was, he kept those opinions to himself until we were engaged. After that, I don't know what happened, but he was determined to pull us apart. He said he wouldn't let you work with me anymore." 

"But that's not so bad, Christian. We were engaged and even if that was allowed on paper, people would question all my accomplishments." 

"I don't care what people say, Jules. He does. When I told you that, you understood it, just how you're understanding it now, so you agreed to work somewhere else. We moved in together, and we were happy. I was happy with you and he hated it."