“I have a hotel suite here in town,” he said. “I use it for working and meetings and that sort of thing. We can go there and talk.”
“Fine.”
But in her mind, she added another lie to the list. This was worse than she’d realized. He had been living an entire life away from her and she’d never cottoned on to it. She knew her friends would say it was because she saved her trust for those people who earned it. How had she let Sean earn it when he’d been lying? Probably his hotter-than-summer kisses and that rock-hard body of his. Something that obviously had bitten her in the ass.
“I’m sorry.”
“I know. You said it a few times already.” She lifted her chin. “These lies may have been orchestrated to protect your privacy, but I never saw any of the signs. So I’m standing here feeling dumber and dumber with each knew revelation. And I’m just one lie away from totally losing it.”
He stepped forward, put his hands on her shoulders and looked her square in the eye. “I understand. But please believe me when I say I’m not hiding anything else. And from this moment forward, I won’t lie to you, even if it would serve me better to keep quiet. Ask me anything.”
She wanted to believe him as a shiver of sensual awareness went through her. Did that make her the most pitiful woman alive? She hoped not. But honestly, it didn’t matter if it did. She needed to believe him. Sean was the father of her unborn child. He was a stranger and yet his face was so endearingly familiar. He’d been a man she’d thought she was falling for.
Now she wasn’t as sure. She wanted answers and she was going to have to take him at his word, or send him on his way. Those were her two options.
Could she keep him around her if she didn’t trust him? And how long was it going to take for her to trust him again...if ever?
She stepped back, forcing him to release his grip on her. “Were you living in the hotel when we met?”
“Yes, I was.”
“Then why did you move in with me?” she asked.
“You asked,” he said simply.
“If I hadn’t?”
“I would have kept seeing you but stayed at the hotel at night,” he replied. “But I like your place and I really got a chance to see the real Paisley there. Not just that cute girl who smiled at me in the coffee line. I liked the quirky way you look at the world and how you created a home for us.”
“Butdidyou? I mean you weren’t really Jack. And that home was mine, not ours,” she said.
His jaw tightened. “You are completely justified to keep taking jabs at me, but I am only human. I made a mistake and I’ve apologized.”
She sighed.
He was right. “Fine. I’ll try to be fair. But it’s hard because while I know we need to talk, I’m still really pissed at you and at myself. I feel stupid, Sean. You’re really famous. Even with the disguise and the colored contacts, I should have recognized you.”
“You’re not stupid. You didn’t see it because you have a good heart and believed I was who I said.”
A good heart.
Sean couldn’t know that her father had once said the exact same thing to her. His praise had been something that he’d used to manipulate her. Was that what Sean was doing? She swallowed. But the man standing before her wasn’t her father. This situation wasn’t the same. He wasn’t asking her to hide something from the rest of her family.
“I’ll try to hold my tongue,” she said as her phone pinged. She glanced down to see that Delaney’s driver had arrived. “Lyle is here. He can take us to your hotel.”
He gestured for her to lead the way and they stepped outside into the inky December darkness. She moved cautiously, not wanting to slip again. Lyle waited by the car, holding open the door for her. He quirked one eyebrow as he noticed Sean behind her.
“Will you be accompanied?”
“I will. We are going to a hotel that Mr. O’Neill will give you the address for.”
She got into the back seat of the car, slid over and looked out the window, realizing that the snow from earlier had turned to a slushy rain.
Fitting.
She’d seen only the fairy-tale ending she’d wanted for herself, but now that she’d shaken off the pixie dust, she took in the real world around her. Not the beginning of something special, but just another cold, dark winter night.
Sean got into the car beside her and Lyle closed the door firmly. Sean looked as if he was going to talk to her and she turned her body so she could stare out the window. How could she still want him after all he’d done to her? But she did. She wanted to crawl across the seat, climb on his lap and kiss him until she forgot the truth he’d dropped on her tonight. Wrong or right, she wanted to use his body and somehow convince herself that she had really known the man whose baby she was having.