Shane snorted and cocked his head to the side. Something black stirred inside him. “How the hell are you going to manage that?”
Her eyes flashed and he knew she was annoyed at his tone. “I got nervous. It happens. And I’ll explain all of it to him and he’ll be fine.”
Her blue eyes were shiny, her mouth wet where her tongue had darted out. In that moment the only thing Shane wanted to do was pull her into his arms and taste her. Taste her and rip his T-shirt off along with the sexy black panties he knew was underneath.
Instead, he gave himself a mental smack down.
“You think Dooley will be fine with the fact that you left him at the altar and made a fool out of him on his wedding day?”
She stared at him and said nothing, though she nodded slightly.
“In front of half the town?”
She winced, but damn, she had the audacity to nod again.
Shane snorted. “You’re crazier than I remember.” She opened her mouth but he stopped her cold. “No, not crazy…you’re deluded.”
“Gerald loves me and I’ll make him understand it was just a mistake.”
“You expect him to believe that your decision to not show up was a mistake.”
Her bottom lip trembled and he wasn’t exactly sure why he was pushing her so hard. He didn’t care about Bobbi or Gerald anymore. Bringing her here was a mistake. A lapse in judgment and he was going to blame it on….Fuck he didn’t know what he was going to blame it on, but he sure as hell knew whatever they’d once shared was gone.
It was in the past..
He was done with her. Sure he still found her hot as hell but that was it. It had to be, or he was screwed.
“I expect him to give me a chance and I know he’ll listen to me, I mean he’s a decent guy but first…”
“But first?” he prodded.
“Well,” she exhaled nervously and bit her bottom lip, a sure fire sign she was uncomfortable .
Suddenly he knew where she was headed and that blackness that was stirring sharpened and intensified.
“You want to know if we slept together.”
She swallowed but didn’t answer, her eyes shiny and wide.
“Would it matter?” he continued, as he moved closer and didn’t stop until there was barely a whisper between them. He felt her body heat and that insane smell of summer assaulted him as surely as if she’d laid her hands on his chest.
“What do you mean?”
“If we did,” he leaned down. “If I screwed the hell out of you last night, would you run to Dooley and tell him that you did the nasty with your ex, ex-con? Or would you keep it a secret.” He couldn’t keep the bitterness from his tone. “Because we both know you like keeping secrets.”
He bent low, and moved her hair away from her neck leaving her Gaelic tattoo exposed. He traced the lines with his forefinger, aware the air between that had changed. Her breaths were falling faster, harsher, and that blackness inside of him threatened to spill out.
In that moment he wanted to hurt her in ways that he’d not thought of since that awful night, several years back, when they’d broken up. When they’d trashed each other’s hearts and souls with ugly, dark things—things neither one of them would ever forget.
Suddenly he had enough. He had no desire to do this dance with Bobbi. To revisit a past that would do nothing but hurt them both. If she wanted to spend her life
with someone like Gerald Dooley, who was he to stop her?
Shane stepped back and nodded toward the stairs.
“Don’t worry princess. Nothing happened last night.”
She stared at him for several moments, chest heaving, her pale cheeks now flushed a deep rose color.