He took one last look at her face, one last long glance into her pretty green eyes, and walked away.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
THE REST OF the reception was a whirlwind for Kristen. Though she’d told Dean she didn’t want to make a nuisance of herself with potential benefactors, everybody seemed interested in her cause. Everybody had advice. Start a blog. Do a Kickstarter campaign. Get on Facebook.
By the time she was free enough to look for Dean, he had gone.
She didn’t understand what had happened. One minute everything between them was perfect. Warm. Romantic. But also casual, like two people so in tune they didn’t have to work at getting along. And the next he was running away from her.
Telling herself not to make a big deal of it, she went home that night, took off her pretty pink gown and fell into a restless sleep. The next morning, she went to the hotel to see him, but he was already working. When she stopped by the meeting room, he had Jason tell her that he was too busy to be interrupted.
“We’re at a pivotal moment,” he said, smiling patiently. “I finally got him working with staff. He told me that there were to be no interruptions.” He peered at her over his glasses. “From anyone.” He smiled benignly. “It’s best that you don’t come back. He’s a busy man, who really doesn’t date. Now that he’s made up with the royal family, he’ll be dealing with them.”
Her heart about pounded itself out of her chest. If it hadn’t been for their dance the night before, she might—might—have wondered if he hadn’t used her to pave the way to make up with Prince Alex.
But that was absurd.
Wasn’t it?
She hadn’t done anything to facilitate him talking to Eva and Alex—
Except bring him to Grennady.
And tell the princess he was in Grennady two days before they returned home so that Eva had time to get Alex acclimated...
So that by the time they did meet, both Alex and Dean were in a good enough frame of mind to make amends rather than sling accusations.
The truth of it settled in on her, made her breath shiver and her heart hurt.
Once again, she’d been taken in by somebody who used her.
And like an idiot, she’d fallen in love with him.
Except all she had was Jason’s word that he didn’t want her around.
So that night, she waited until she knew Dean had gone back to his suite. Standing in a quiet corner of the hotel lobby, she watched as he stepped into the elevator for the penthouse. Then she used the house phone to call him. He answered on the second ring.
“Hello?”
“Hey, it’s me, Kristen. I stopped by to see you before but Jason said you were busy.”
“We’re on the verge of being ready to ship the games to beta testers.”
“That’s great.”
“So you can understand why we don’t want any interruptions. I appreciate everything you did for me with Alex and Princess Eva, but we have work to do now.”
He hung up the phone and Kristen just stared at the receiver in her hand shell-shocked.
He really had used her.
* * *
It had physically hurt Dean to disconnect the call. But he knew this was for her own good. He deliberately led her down a path where she’d draw some wrong conclusions about him and his intentions, to prevent her from trying to get back into his life.
She was a good person and he was a bad bet.
But every day it hurt a little more. Christmas decorations once again looked tarnished. Taunting. He didn’t want to hear Christmas music. Didn’t want to eat Christmas cookies. Didn’t want to see even one Christmas tree. He might be busy, but he was also alone, empty. And he felt the way he had when he was six or eight or even ten. The world around him was celebrating, happy. And he was alone.
Within a few days the bugs in the games were nearly gone. They tested and retested, found new bugs and fixed them, and by Christmas Eve morning, they were done.
He gave the staff the option of going home for Christmas but everyone unanimously said no. They wanted to spend Christmas in the winter paradise they’d grown to love.
Dean almost took the plane back to New York, but the smart businessman in him couldn’t miss the Christmas Eve ball being thrown by the royal family. Grennady had brought his staff back to life. Grennady had saved his company. As a thank-you, he’d made an informal agreement with Princess Eva to bring his staff to Grennady two times a year for corporate retreats. Though it wasn’t the commitment she had hoped for, it had given her the idea to entice other tech companies to do the same. He would not be so rude as to walk out on celebrating with the royal family who—in spite of all odds—had become an asset to him.