“Because,” he said, and she knew by how flat and matter-of-fact his voice was when he said that word, that she was not going to like any of the words that came out of his mouth next. “I’ve never seen you with your tits out quite like that. Or on display to that degree. You normally dress like you’re trying to flatter a snowman shape.”
“What exactly are you saying?”
He gritted his teeth. “You looked different. You don’t normally dress hot.”
“Well, I was trying to dress to get a man. And you’re all basic assholes, so there’s only one way to do that. Anyway. Like I said. You’ve been gone. You don’t know.”
“You hadn’t done that before.”
“Sure I had. Do you honestly think that I went out and had my first time in a broom closet with a stranger?”
You did, though. You did. And even worse, it turned out it wasn’t a stranger. It’s just Damien. And you have to deal with the consequences.
“What the hell game are you playing?”
“What were you playing? Don’t pretend that you weren’t there to have sex.”
“I wasn’t,” he said, his voice flat. “I was there because I sponsored the event with my wine. I’m trying to expand business. That’s it.”
Everything in her went hot. “But you knew right where to go to the storage closet. And you sure weren’t hesitant.”
“Fine. No. I wasn’t going to question a beautiful woman setting her sights on me. Okay?”
Beautiful. He thought she was beautiful. That, she knew, was beside the point, but she kind of enjoyed the moment.
“Well, why is my moral character being called into question when you got into the exact same thing?”
“You said you didn’t want to leave alone.”
“All right. Maybe I thought... I just thought that...” She didn’t want to tell him that she had seen him and had immediately wanted him so badly that all her inhibitions went out the window.
He walked closer to the foot of the stairs, went over to the doorway and picked up her shoe. “I have the other one.”
“I know,” she said. Then she shook her head. “I mean. I don’t know. I... I did see you with it.”
“Did I hurt you last night?”
“No. You didn’t hurt me. I wasn’t hurt. I... I was embarrassed. Because of this. Look how you’re reacting. But I have just as much right to question your behavior as you do mine. It’s either that or neither of us have a right, because we were both there.”
“You didn’t know it was me.”
“Why do you care?”
“Because I said no to you, Jessie. You know that.”
That hurt. And it made her feel guilty, even though she shouldn’t. It hurt her, even if she shouldn’t let it.
“Because you didn’t want me?” she asked, pushing through the jagged pain that had risen up in her chest.
He looked away, and if it wasn’t for the never-ending, abiding horror roiling in her stomach, she might’ve felt satisfied. Maybe that wasn’t why he’d said no. Maybe it wasn’t.
Just imagining that night two years ago hurt.
She’d really thought...
Damien was her favorite person in the world, and she’d been in love with him since she was knee high to a grasshopper.
She could remember when she’d thought he might feel the same.