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“It’s okay. I don’t mind talking about him. I had twelve unforgettable years with him.”
“Sounds like he was a great dad.”
She nodded. “The best. He made living with my mom bearable. I miss him every day.”
Noah popped a square cold cut into his mouth and chewed. “What’s it like living with your mom now?”
She dropped the last bite of her bagel and brushed her fingers in a no-nonsense way. But he wasn’t fooled. The very air vibrated with white-hot anguish.
When she looked up, the shadows and ghosts she’d promised wouldn’t come between them loomed large in her eyes. “My mom’s dead too. She shot my stepfather when I was seventeen. Then she shot herself.”
14
His slack-jawed shock unequivocally rammed home to her that she’d said the words. Invited the ghosts to lunch. A shiver slammed through her, followed closely by several more.
She pushed away from the counter and strode quickly from the kitchen.
What the hell was wrong with her? She’d had the makings of what promised to be a weeklong relief from remembering everything that was fucked up in her life. Instead, she’d dragged her past kicking and screaming into the present.
Seeing the crackling fire, the rug and the champagne just waiting to launch the scenes she’d been dreaming of since she met Noah King, she froze in the middle of the room.
“Leia.” His voice was steady, strong, betraying none of the horror he must surely feel. “Sweetheart, I’m sorry.”
Enough time had passed and the world had long since moved on from the gruesome events, which had occurred the summer of her seventeenth birthday, but she still recalled the whispers and the looks of horror on people’s faces like the images were branded on her brain.
“I’m guessing you want to call the driver?”
Firm hands gripped her arm and turned her around. His gorgeous, heart-stopping face held irritated surprise. “Why the hell would I want to do that?”
“I promised you I wouldn’t let in the ghosts. I’m sorry, I don’t… I’ve never voluntarily told anyone about this.” She shook her head. “I don’t know what came over me. I’ll understand if you want to end this before it gets too?—”
“So your past isn’t a goddamn fairy tale. Trust me, sweetheart, mine isn’t a bundle of laughs either. But I’m damned if I’ll let you walk away because you assume I can’t handle what you just said.”
“This wasn’t what you signed up for. I didn’t plan on spilling my guts.”
“I got that impression when you ran from the room. Why did you run?”
The sound that left her throat couldn’t have been deemed as laughter. “Are you serious?”
His mouth twisted. “Sure, I guess as small talk goes that was a hell of a doozy, but need I remind you again that I don’t do light?”
She looked up into his face and realized he meant it. “Sothisis what you wanted to know about me?”
“I want to know as much of you as you’re willing to share, sweetheart. Nothing you say to me will make me walk away.”
“Don’t to be too sure about that.”
His intense gaze probed until her skin tingled. The hands on her arms moved up, cupping her shoulders before they caressed higher to her neck. Both hands circled her neck in a bold and possessive hold that fractured her breathing. One thumb tilted her chin up, and he stepped closer until his nose almost touched hers.
“Nothing,” he breathed. “Do you hear me?”
This close, the blue of his eyes was so mesmerizing, she couldn’t look away. And she didn’t want to, despite the real fear that Noah King could unravel her with minimum effort. “Yes.”
“Good.” He didn’t move away or release her. “So, now we’ve dealt with the small talk and thrown in a dash of heavy. Tell me what you want to do.”
The heat from his body was warming hers, burning away the cold that had invaded when she’d blurted out words she needed to keep locked away.
“I don’t want to talk anymore.”