Chapter Two
Miranda looked completelydifferent from the last time Nik had seen her. She was on her feet, for one thing, and gone was the desperate hope in her eyes.
Today, she was the Miranda he had first met – beautiful, confident, and composed. Only this time he knew she was as human as the rest of them.
“Thank you for coming to meet me at such late notice.” Miranda handed the keys of her office to him. “And I will keep my promise, no hysterics today.”
He acknowledged her quip with a brief smile, but his voice was serious as he said, “You know it doesn’t have to be this way.”
Miranda shook her head. An ironic smile curved on her lips as she said candidly, “You know, I think that’s the whole problem with you. You’re too nice without meaning to. You can’t be so nice and not expect a woman to fall in love with you, Nik.”
Nik didn’t answer, simply because he didn’t know what to say. He had never thought himself nice and he hadn’t ever gone out of his way to make a girl fall for him.
She sighed. “I don’t know if I envy or pity Daria, honestly.” When she saw his shuttered expression, she released a small tinkling laugh. “Relax, Nik. I told you. No hysterics. I know when I’m beaten, and I didn’t survive this long without knowing how to read the writing on the wall.” She raised her hand, and that was when he saw his engagement ring on her finger. She had chosen it, but he had paid for it. “Is it okay if I keep this? It’s worth a fortune.”
“You can order the matching set for it, if you wish. Consider it a parting gift.”
“I’ll take you up on it,” she accepted readily enough.
He smiled. This was the Miranda he knew and had appreciated as a friend.
“Danny will be coming with me to France,” she told him as they walked out of her office. While he locked the doors for her, she shared with him, “I’m thinking I’ll try to seduce him.”
Nik raised a brow. “He’s gay.”
Miranda shrugged that off. “I can make him bisexual.” Her gaze turned serious. “But anyway, that’s not why I called you to come.” And this, she thought, was the hard part.
“When I tried to kill myself, I knew...Danny would come in time.”
Nik didn’t say a word, but she had known him too long not to be able to read what his silence meant.
“Given enough time, I think you’d probably have realized the truth for yourself. I know I paint myself as cold and unemotional, but I’m as human as the rest of them.”
Nik said finally, “Thank you for telling me the truth.”
“I’m not finished. And it’s about to get worse.” She forced herself to meet his gaze. “I’m also sorry that what I did will probably make you distrust women even more. I’m sincerely sorry for that,” she said heavily. “I don’t want that for you because...you’re a good man, Nik. I want to think you’re a good man because I’d like to think I’m good, too, despite all the mistakes I made. We both keep pushing people away, but I think it’s time we both stop and just...let ourselves feel and be hurt.”
“I see.” Nik’s voice was polite, and Miranda knew that was also his polite way of telling her he didn’t want to hear the rest.
Too bad for him, Miranda thought, but she was no longer on his payroll.
“Shall we go now? Perhaps my driver—-”
“Nik,” she cut him off. “Danny lied.”
He froze.
“He told me about what he said, and he lied.” Miranda’s voice was urgent. “Danny lied, Nik. I never got to talk to Daria. I never got to tell her that I was depressed, and she never told me that she had you following her like a dog.”
A dull ache emerged in his chest as Miranda’s words sank in, but Nik forced himself to ignore it. “It doesn’t matter,” he heard himself say. “It doesn’t change a thing—-”
“Doesn’t it?” Miranda demanded. “Nik, other people—-”
His head jerked up at what she was implying. “Other people could what?” he grated out. “Are you fucking saying that you think all those men lied about her? Can you hear yourself, Miranda? Are you saying that all twenty-eight men fucking lied—-”
“Yes!” As soon as she said it, she suddenly knew she did believe that. “I’m saying yes, even if it sounds completely unbelievable and unrealistic, I’m saying yes, I believe that. I’m going to bank on the fact that I know you’re not the type of person to fall for someone just because she was good in bed – if you were, you would have fallen for me.” Her smile was self-mocking. “But you didn’t. So yes, I think you must have seen something special in Daria and so yes, I think they all lied. I think she’s it for you.”
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