He stepped up next to her and stared at her. “Why?”
She shrugged. “I was just checking.”
“Are you telling me you were worried about me? Why would that be, Delaney?” He advanced on her, crowding her, but still she wouldn’t look at him. “Could it be that you gave a bullshit reason for walking away from everyone who cared about you, including me? About how you gave a reason you left everyone in that room except me? I thought your MO was to cut and run, instead of facing the hard questions.”
She whirled, eyes pleading. “Ethan, I don’t want to fight about this. Please. Besides, if my reason was bullshit and I wanted to avoid this discussion, would I have followed you out here?”
She went up on her tiptoes and wound her arms around his neck, pressing her lips to his. Her body fit perfectly to his, her soft curves wrapping around his firm frame. Desire stirred low in his stomach and even lower, pressing against the fly of his pants. He kept his hands in his pockets, counting sheep, types of grapes, anything to try to not react, to not give in. But she knew him, knew the right buttons to push.
Her hands drifted down and under his shirt to trace the sides of his abdomen. His stomach muscles twitched and his cock hardened painfully, lengthening, begging for release. She slid her hands up his shirt and over his nipples. He gasped, and she chuckled against his lips, her tongue sweeping in to tease and torture him further. He groaned and gave in. He pulled his hands out of his pockets and cupped her buttocks, lifting her more firmly against him, rubbing against the vee in her shorts. She moaned into his mouth and flexed against him, lifting a leg and wrapping it around him, bringing herself more fully against him.
He pulled his lips from hers, reason fighting against the desire drugging his system. There was a question he had to ask. He had to keep his wits about him. “Wait, Delaney.”
She slipped a hand under the waistband of his pants and grasped him firmly in her hand. He moaned and threw back his head at the caress.
“You still want to stop?” she whispered against his lips.
Her words broke the spell holding him captive. He grasped her hand and pulled it out of his pants, then stepped away. “Sex is not the answer.”
“It never bothered you before.” She planted her fists on her hips and cocked her head at him, a faint challenge in her demeanor.
“There are a lot of things that never bothered me before. Maybe I’ve grown up.”
She threw her hands up. “What do you want from me, Ethan? You want an explanation? Fine.” She balled her hands into fists and held them to her face, like a prayer. “Five years ago, life was perfect. I loved you, I truly did. I was going to marry you, and I was happy. Then it all went to hell. Fast.”
She turned and walked a few steps away to stand on the hard-packed sand and gaze out over the ocean. Her words took on a dreamy quality, as if reliving the past. “I wasn’t home when they arrested my father. I was in class. All my classmates knew about it before I did. The age of technology. Nothing is hidden, sacred. And they couldn’t wait to tell me. One minute I was a carefree college student, planning a wedding. The next minute, I had reporters hounding me everywhere I went, cameras blinding me, microphones shoved in my face. Everyone asking how I felt, what I thought, how could I live with myself.”
She turned. The wetness on her face glistened in the moonlight. It was like a sucker punch to his stomach. He buried his hands in his pockets to resist the urge to comfort her. He needed to hear this. She needed to say this. Then they could decide where to go from here. Her arms wrapped the blanket around her upper arms, hugging herself.
“I was there. I stood by you. We all did.” He whispered, not wanting to break the spell of the night.
“I know you were. But you had your own issues. Did you know some people were so angry they attacked my mother outside our house? They grabbed her, surrounded her, and screamed at her. She was terrified. I barely got her free. She had bruises from their grips. The police were of no use. They looked the other way, if they were even there. Everyone abandoned us. No one gave a damn.”
He advanced a few steps. “That’s not true. I was there.”
She laughed, a harsh bitter sound choked with tears. “Really? You were working eighteen-hour days, or more, and your father was certainly not letting you too close to me. He kept you on a short leash, using the business and your family’s reputation as his weapon.”
He jerked as if physically slapped. His eyes narrowed. “You forget we had our own issues. We were one of the investors, along with several of our clients. We had the SEC and FBI to deal with, to prove we weren’t in collusion with your sainted father.”
“I never said he was a saint.” Her voice was quiet. “I know he was guilty, and I know I share in the blame.”
He laughed. “You’re not a criminal mastermind, no matter what you think. Don’t take on his crimes.”
She smiled. “I spent the money, Ethan. I took the expensive vacations, bought so much stuff. Did you know when they cleared out the town house, we couldn’t even keep most of our clothes? There was a reporter who took pictures of my clothes, many of them with the tags still on them. He was thrilled to add up the totals for his readers, proving what a selfish bitch I was. Maybe I didn’t coordinate the theft, but I profited from it, and my spending forced my father to find ways to support our lifestyle.”
He grabbed her shoulders and gave her a small shake. “That’s ridiculous. Do you even hear yourself? That was your father’s choice, not yours.”
“Why do I need to hear myself when the reporters said it for years? They’re the voice in my head now, echoing accusations and recriminations.”
He bent his head to peer into her eyes. “Well, screw them. You’re not a bad person.”
She pulled back. “I know. It was just so hard.”
His hands dropped to his side. “Why didn’t you tell me any of this?”
“You said it yourself. You and your family were dealing with a lot of fallout too. You had enough to deal with. It was just easier to deal with it myself. Besides, I had to grow up sometime.”
“I’m so sorry, Delaney. I guess I was being selfish.” Guilt twisted in his stomach. He cocked his head. “If you had told me this, I would have stood by you. You rejected me, my protection.”