Betrayed by Melody Anne Page B

nice young lady. She must be even craftier than he had given her credit for.
    “You certainly won’t be anymore,” Bill said, enunciating each word.
    Byron was silent for several heartbeats, and then he sighed. He didn’t want to give anything of himself away — he never did — but he suddenly felt as if he had zero choice. If he didn’t give Bill something to chew on, this could get really ugly.
    “Look, Bill, it might have started out with me…harassing her, but it’s different now. I…I can’t get this woman off my mind. I can’t sleep, eat right, or even think on most days. I just…I don’t know.” Byron rubbed his hand across his hair. Even knowing everything he knew, he was infatuated to a certain extent.
    “But you’re making her unhappy, so maybe you should back off. Maybe she just doesn’t want to be with you,” Bill said, but his voice was quieter as he observed Byron. That was the last thing Byron wanted, and his defenses popped right up, but with a lot of willpower he pushed them down again.
    “She does,” Byron told him. “Believe me, if I felt she had no interest, I would back off, but there’s something between us, something that can’t be denied. She’s scared — and I don’t know what she’s scared of, but she’s running, and it’s not from me.”
    “How are you so sure it isn’t you she’s trying to run from? You Knight youngsters have always had big egos.”
    “I know when a woman has the hots…ummm…is interested in me,” Byron said. He could be confident about that, above anything else.
    “Is sex worth torturing this woman over?” Bill asked.
    “It’s not just sex…” Byron stopped himself before he said too much. This was going into a territory he refused to go into. “Sex is always worth anything,” he said instead, but it was too late. The only thing that would make this any better for him was if he told Bill he just wanted to screw her brains out until she was washed from him mind and he certainly couldn’t say that.
    The words were too vile to let escape from his mouth, so instead he chose to be silent as Bill sat there and analyzed him. Byron felt as if he were under a microscope and he didn’t like the feeling one little bit.
    “Look, Byron, you got the worst possible example of what love should be like by watching your very messed-up parents. In the end your father was weak, and your mother — well, your mother wasn’t…I shouldn’t speak ill of the dead, but your mother was a cold-stone bitch,” he said, sending Byron into shock. “It’s just that you don’t want to repeat those patterns. If you open up your heart, allow other people in, you can have a good life. Mistreating women isn’t the way to do that.”
    Byron let out a bitter laugh as he looked at the only father…grandfather…uncle –—whatever he wanted to call him, he was the only male figure he’d had worth modeling himself after. “I’m screwed then, because I have no desire to ever feel love. Not after what I witnessed.”
    “I’ve had my own demons a time or two in my life. But while married to my beautiful Vivian, those demons were kept at bay. Every single day since I lost her, I’ve been fighting depression or whatever the shrinks call it. You need to open yourself up before it’s too late, or you’ll find yourself alone and filled with emptiness.”
    Bill’s statement stopped the next words Byron had been about to say. Suddenly, the man who had always been there for him seemed so lonely, so much smaller, so frail. Was that really how Byron wanted to end up — alone, sitting behind a desk with nothing to do?
    “Bill…” He didn’t know what to say now.
    Bill’s shoulders went back as if just realizing what he’d said. “Don’t you even think about offering me comfort, boy. I’m just trying to prove a point.”
    “And what point is that?” Byron asked.
    “Don’t be a fool,” he said gruffly.
    “I won’t be,” Byron said, and he actually meant