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‘Sorry, you’ve lost me.’
‘I walked you to your door last week, then drove straight to the airport. Because something you
said pulled the rug from under me. Made me see what a selfish bastard I’d been to my mother.’
My heart kicked. ‘Something... I... What did I say?’
‘That she was trying to protect me by keeping the painful details of what my father was doing to her from me. I’d secretly blamed her for years for staying, failed to see her choices were limited. It’s easy to stand back and judge. And I’d judged her harshly until you forced me to face the truth. Taking you home with me tonight... I wanted you to see what you’d done for me. Show my gratitude. Instead, I fucked it up.’
The different, enlightening slant to the whole evening shook my world. He’d invited me here to
witness something beautiful. Something wonderfulI’dhelped create.
The haggard sob caught me by surprise. Jensen too, from his stunned expression. Then he cursed.
‘What the fuck did your mother do to you?’
Instantly, a vice tightened around my heart. ‘Jensen...no,’ I warned.
‘No, I really want to know. What did her letter say?’
‘It’s none of your business,’ I bit out through lips gone numb with pain.
‘Oh, but I think it is. Because here you are, on the verge of throwing away something precious
because you can’t or won’t move from the past.’
More icy shivers drenched me. ‘God, you’re really in full flow tonight, aren’t you?’
He dragged desperate fingers through his hair, his eyes spearing into me. ‘I have to. Because I want you, Graciela,min elskerinde.’
My heart shook, as it did every time he called me that. ‘You will not call me that again,’ I said, my voice firm enough to make him freeze.
For a moment, stark bleakness darkened his eyes. ‘You have my word. I won’t address you like that
again until you ask me to. But I meant it when I said I want to know what she said to you.’
With compulsion I couldn’t stop, my gaze darted to the handbag I’d dropped on the sofa when we
arrived.
His gaze followed mine, enlightenment and shock sharpening his eyes. ‘Jesus, you carry it with
you?’
I glared at him. ‘So what if I do? What’s it to you?’
His lips flattened as he strode across the room.
‘Don’t you dare—!’
He grabbed the bag and held it out to me. ‘Show me,’ he growled.
‘No.’
Tense seconds ticked by, then he dropped the bag on the coffee table. ‘Fine, if you won’t show me,
then get rid of it.’