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‘Maybe I won’t let you have me. Maybe I’m just going to make you watch me come.’
Harsh, razor-sharp need twisted his features. ‘If—’
‘You’re not allowed to sayif that’s what you wish. You’re so big on being real, then tell me what you truly feel. Not what you think I want to hear.’
His Adam’s apple bobbed. ‘Fine. I want to be the one to make you come,min elskerinde.’
‘Why?’
Stark need darkened his eyes, transformed his beautiful face into a mask of pure masculine arousal.
‘Because you can’t hide from me then.’
Another rivet yanked free, a slither of hope flaring high before despair doused the flame. ‘Did you stop to think that maybe I’m protecting you, Jensen?’
His nostrils flared. ‘What from?’
‘From me!’ I released him, started to step back.
He yanked me close. ‘Why the hell would I need protection from you?’
‘Because I’m not enough! You think you want the whole, sordid truth? I haven’t sustained a single
relationship in my life. Not a single one. Everything I touch turns to fucking dust. I may be successful in business but I’m a mess in private.’ The unfettered confession snagged several emotions inside me, twisting up into a knot of need so acute I feared the power of it. ‘You think I’m hiding? Maybe I am.
But I’m hiding for a reason. You judged your mother for living in denial. Did you stop to think she may have been protecting you? That she didn’t want you to witness every single sorry detail of her
trying to hold it together?’
His face tightened into a taut, angry mask, his skin losing a trace of colour. ‘We’re not talking about me. Or my mother—’
‘Why not? Because you feelexposedwhen we do? Maybe even a little unsure about that high horse you’re perched on?’
Anger slowly dissipated, leaving behind a poleaxed look I’d never seen before. He dragged a hand
over his mouth and jaw, and his gaze shifted from mine as he processed. Frowned as he turned his
back on me and strode a few paces away. A different sort of tension rode him as the minutes ticked by in silence.
‘Could you have got her wrong, Jensen?’ I pressed softly.
He whirled back, traces of alarm and uncertainty in his eyes. ‘Whether I have or not, that’s for me to deal with,’ he gritted out. ‘Right now, we’re talking about you, Graciela—’
‘No. I don’t want to reason this out. I’ve lived with this for years, Jensen. The promise of my
mother’s love and her abandonment wrecked me for any relationship. I’ve tried. Believe me, I’ve
tried everything. Nothing works.’
And the end result had turned me inside out, raw with anguish and guilt because not only had I
brought pain on myself, I’d dragged my brothers into that dark hellhole. I’d ended up ruining not just my childhood, but theirs.
Silence stretched, tight and fraught. ‘Fine. So what now?’ Jensen demanded, eyes narrowed.
I shrugged, surprised my shoulders could move beneath the heaviness weighing me down. ‘I’m
more than done with this crazy emotional roller coaster you seem determined to make me ride. So we