She didn’t want to fight. She was just tired. Tired, and full of hurt. “I can’t believe you, Magnus. It’s hard for me to trust people, and now both you and Bianca have utterly betrayed me. It feels like everyone I trust is out to hurt me. Sometimes I look at Gretchen and I wonder when she’s going to shove a knife in my back, and I know it’s not her. It’s me.” She touched a hand to her breast and looked at him. “I can’t do this.”

“Edie, baby. I do love you. Please believe me.” His green eyes were so full of need, of longing. He practically vibrated with tension. “Come home with me. Let me show you that I love you. That I want you.”

“Prove it,” she told him in a soft voice. “Prove that you love me.” He moved toward her, and she raised a hand again. “Not with touches. Not with words. Prove it with something concrete.”

“How?”

That one despairing word made her eyes fill up with tears. “I don’t know. I don’t know how you prove it.”

“Edie, I love you,” he started again.

“I know, but that’s your problem,” she said quickly. “My problem is believing it.” Edie stood up, brushed off her jacket with clammy hands, and forced herself to stand straight and tall, and not cave at the wounded, hurting look he was giving her. “And until I can believe it, we’re done. I’m sorry.”

And she turned and left the room, even though she wanted to stay. Staying would be easy. She could fling herself into his arms, cover his face with kisses, and let him take her home and make love to her. And over time, the doubts would creep in and bother her. Was he really with her, or was this more playacting? Was he just pretending when he told her he loved her?

She’d had enough people faking shit in her life. This time she wanted something real.

So she left.

Chapter Seventeen

The only thing worse than not being able to win back the woman you wanted?

Catching a fucking cold while trying to unsuccessfully win back the woman you wanted. Magnus sneezed into a tissue and wrapped his blanket tighter around his body. He shivered with a fever, but he remained at the computer, working away on his next round of concepts for The World. Soon, the basics would be nailed down and it’d be ready to present in very basic demo form to the interested bidders. He could sell it for the highest offer, collect his money, and . . . and . . .

And not give a fuck, because he didn’t have Edie.

Magnus buried his head in his hands and gave a low groan of frustration. He was at a dead end. His best ideas came when he bounced them off of other people, as Edie had showed him. By himself? He had a whole lot of nothing.

He’d thought of flowers. He’d sent dozens.

She sent them away.

Jewelry? Nope. Returned.

Cars? Real estate? He’d have bought all of it if it would prove to her that he loved her. But he suspected that they’d be returned as well—or worse, somehow end up in Bianca’s hands, so he held off.

He sent a band to serenade her with love songs. She had Hunter throw them off the grounds.

He thought about buying up all the shelter cats in New York City. That would make Edie sit up and pay attention. But . . . then what would he do with hundreds of homeless cats? She’d hate him even more if he ruined the cats’ lives more than they already were.

So he kept thinking. And working. And sneezing.

The cats were good company, at least. Lady Daredevil was curled up in the chair against his thigh, purring. Since she was blind, she was less playful than Lady Cujo, and tended to find a spot near him and sleep. She was the ultimate cuddler, and he found he . . . kind of appreciated that. He’d never been much of a cat person before, but now he found that the two cats were pleasant to have around and he enjoyed their antics.

Edie had converted him to a cat person. Actually, she’d opened his eyes in a lot of different ways.

Now if he could just open hers to the fact that he was crazy about her.

Because really? He had the new apartment and complete control of his new project and freedom from his brother’s dicking around and a new confidence in his own abilities and . . . it didn’t mean a thing if he didn’t have her.

So he simply had to get her back.

His computer chimed with an incoming message. Magnus’s heart thudded until he saw the Skype message box pop up with Bianca’s name. What the hell? He clicked on it, and a picture of Bianca’s face filled his screen. “What do you want?”

She sniffed, delicately rubbing her nose with a pink tissue. “Magnus, do you have a moment to talk?” Her eyelashes fluttered, as if she were fighting back tears.

“Depends on what we’re going to talk about. If it’s you fucking around behind Edie’s back, I’m all ears.”

Bianca stared at him, hard. For a moment, the sweet, helpless facade pulled away and he got the distinct impression that she was pissed at him. Then she recovered, and gave her nose another touch with the tissue. “I’m not really sure what you want me to say to that—”

“The truth would be nice.”

“The truth is I didn’t do anything!” Bianca swiped at her eyes again, even though they didn’t seem all that wet to him. “It’s all a horrible misunderstanding.”

“Is it?”

“Yes! If Edie would just talk to me—”

“Did you sleep with Edie’s then-boyfriend?”

Again, the lash-fluttering blink. “That’s not—”

“Not what? Not the truth?”

Her lower lip stuck out. “Magnus, you’re judging me without hearing my part of the story.”

He made a grand gesture, then ruined it by sneezing. “Please,” he said, nose stuffed. “Tell me your part of the story and I’ll compare it with the truth.”

Her mouth opened, then shut again. “That’s not fair.”

“You know what’s not fair? Dragging me into your stupid little games and then fucking up the good thing I had with Edie. That’s what isn’t fair.”

“She won’t talk to me,” Bianca started again, and this time the tears seemed genuine. “She doesn’t want to speak to me at all.”

“Can you blame her? She trusted you. She trusted me, too, and look where it got her. A whole fuckton of betrayal.” He was so fucking pissed at Bianca. If he’d known the truth about what she was like, he’d have never agreed to deceive Edie. Never. “And as for people she wants to talk to, I’m not exactly high on that list, either. So you’re going to have to keep looking.”

She gave a fragile little tilt of her head, then sighed. “I’m just trying to bounce ideas off of you.”

Her words reminded him that he needed someone for that very thing, too. “I need help, too. You got a moment?”

Bianca licked her lips and her lashes fluttered. She leaned in, giving him a shot of her cleavage in the camera. “Of course I do. You can trust me.”

He’d sooner trust a fucking tarantula. “I need a big gesture.”

“Gesture like how?” She gave him one of those tiny, coy smiles. “You have big hands. Any gesture you do will be a big one.”

That fucking bitch. Was she flirting with him? Did she think that he was led by his dick like Levi was? “I mean when it comes to Edie. I need a big gesture to prove to her that I’m in love with her.”

“Oh, I’m not sure—”

He turned down the volume on her as she continued speaking and stared at her face for a moment, brainstorming. Then he went on. “Just buying her something won’t really prove to her that I care. Buying something is too easy for a guy like me. So it has to have meaning, and it has to have meaning to someone like Edie.” He rubbed his chin, thinking. “She loves her cats. She loves all cats. I’d love to do something that involved cats on a big scale that would show that I mean what I say, that I understand who she is and I love her. So it has to be big.” He leaned back in his chair and thought for a moment, as Bianca kept silently talking, a puzzled look on her face in the camera. “Finding homes for all of the old elderly cats at shelters was my initial thought, but I keep getting hung up on how to find them homes. It’s almost like I’d need to build another shelter, but getting people to come to it is the problem. I’m just the computer geek . . .” He paused, thoughts spiraling through his head.