didn’t handle myself or the situation I found myself in very well.”
Sitting back some in his chair to lessen the intensity of a conversation that had the potential to get fiery, emotional, and out of control if they weren’t both careful, Nick opted for calm sincerity, hoping that right here and right now he could defuse some of her anger and disillusionment. Before he could get another word out in his defense, she erupted in an emotional tirade that shut him up pretty damn quick.
“You want honesty , Nick? Really? That’s what you want? Let me give you a little of my honesty,” she spat out in a blazing blow-by-blow account of how devastated she’d been by his denial of their love affair.
“You were the sun , the moon, and the stars to me, and while I realize that’s a bunch of romantic foolishness, it’s how I felt. I will grant you that I’m responsible for my own feelings, but I have also had to totally own the fact that, while you were my universe I was your…well, I don’t even know what.”
She was mad, that was clear. He had to let her be mad , and he had to allow her to vent on him, because after all, it was his actions that brought all this about. He had decided for her, made conclusions about what was best for her future, when he had shut down their relationship. Nick knew he was an arrogant fool—what guy wasn’t? But at the time what he had done was absolutely necessary. She was right about her romantic notions, but not in a bad way. He loved that she saw him in starry-eyed terms. In his mind, that actually gave them hope for the future.
Unleashing the full measure of her glaring turquoise eyes on him, he marveled for just a second at how fiery that icy scowl actually was. God, she was magnificent when she was worked up. The fringes of those frosty orbs were dancing with deep golden sparks of emotion that accentuated the changing cast and hue of her unusual-colored eyes. They told a story, and as he watched her get ready to lay into him verbally, he also caught and marked each emotion as it played on her face and tucked those impressions away for later. Now was certainly not the time to remind her that he could read her like a book. Those eyes of hers were like a study guide above a mouth so shockingly sensual that even when she tried to appear stern and serious she still just looked lush and begging for his attention.
He also knew from the tone of her voice and the way she pulled herself in so rigidly as to give the word uptight new meaning, that he had just stumbled into the hornet’s nest at the heart of their predicament.
“ And let’s not forget that you had a secret fiancée the entire time you were sleeping in my bed, so don’t talk to me about honesty,” Shannon hurled at him.
There it was. This was the issue he had to face truthfully and completely for her to have the assurance that she could trust him if there was any hope of them moving forward. She’d obviously done her research if she knew about his ill-fated engagement , because it was barely public knowledge at the time of their final encounter.
Getting to his feet, Nick moved away from the sofa towards the windows across from the fireplace. If they were going to get into this , he felt a little distance between them might be in order. Well, it was now or never… Just go for it, he thought. That’s all he could do—stop dancing around and just tell her the truth.
Acknowledging her account of what had happened with a small nod, he went for broke. “What you’re referring to is only the tent poles of the story, Shannon. Truth is, there’s so much more. I never should have allowed the engagement to gather oxygen in the first place. I wasn’t in my right mind. There were literally thousands of people’s lives dependent on the company. The engagement was part of a business deal my grandfather had made with one of his longtime cronies. Neither of us had even known about it until my grandfather’s
Sitting back some in his chair to lessen the intensity of a conversation that had the potential to get fiery, emotional, and out of control if they weren’t both careful, Nick opted for calm sincerity, hoping that right here and right now he could defuse some of her anger and disillusionment. Before he could get another word out in his defense, she erupted in an emotional tirade that shut him up pretty damn quick.
“You want honesty , Nick? Really? That’s what you want? Let me give you a little of my honesty,” she spat out in a blazing blow-by-blow account of how devastated she’d been by his denial of their love affair.
“You were the sun , the moon, and the stars to me, and while I realize that’s a bunch of romantic foolishness, it’s how I felt. I will grant you that I’m responsible for my own feelings, but I have also had to totally own the fact that, while you were my universe I was your…well, I don’t even know what.”
She was mad, that was clear. He had to let her be mad , and he had to allow her to vent on him, because after all, it was his actions that brought all this about. He had decided for her, made conclusions about what was best for her future, when he had shut down their relationship. Nick knew he was an arrogant fool—what guy wasn’t? But at the time what he had done was absolutely necessary. She was right about her romantic notions, but not in a bad way. He loved that she saw him in starry-eyed terms. In his mind, that actually gave them hope for the future.
Unleashing the full measure of her glaring turquoise eyes on him, he marveled for just a second at how fiery that icy scowl actually was. God, she was magnificent when she was worked up. The fringes of those frosty orbs were dancing with deep golden sparks of emotion that accentuated the changing cast and hue of her unusual-colored eyes. They told a story, and as he watched her get ready to lay into him verbally, he also caught and marked each emotion as it played on her face and tucked those impressions away for later. Now was certainly not the time to remind her that he could read her like a book. Those eyes of hers were like a study guide above a mouth so shockingly sensual that even when she tried to appear stern and serious she still just looked lush and begging for his attention.
He also knew from the tone of her voice and the way she pulled herself in so rigidly as to give the word uptight new meaning, that he had just stumbled into the hornet’s nest at the heart of their predicament.
“ And let’s not forget that you had a secret fiancée the entire time you were sleeping in my bed, so don’t talk to me about honesty,” Shannon hurled at him.
There it was. This was the issue he had to face truthfully and completely for her to have the assurance that she could trust him if there was any hope of them moving forward. She’d obviously done her research if she knew about his ill-fated engagement , because it was barely public knowledge at the time of their final encounter.
Getting to his feet, Nick moved away from the sofa towards the windows across from the fireplace. If they were going to get into this , he felt a little distance between them might be in order. Well, it was now or never… Just go for it, he thought. That’s all he could do—stop dancing around and just tell her the truth.
Acknowledging her account of what had happened with a small nod, he went for broke. “What you’re referring to is only the tent poles of the story, Shannon. Truth is, there’s so much more. I never should have allowed the engagement to gather oxygen in the first place. I wasn’t in my right mind. There were literally thousands of people’s lives dependent on the company. The engagement was part of a business deal my grandfather had made with one of his longtime cronies. Neither of us had even known about it until my grandfather’s
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