Nice Girls Finish Last by Natalie Anderson Page B

hottie.’
    Her eyes narrowed; he half hoped the green was glowing deeper from jealousy.
    â€˜But then I started the pizza thing. I’d designed the tee shirts for the delivery guys to wear and they turned out to be as popular as the pizzas. I knew I had a chance at something, so I dropped out to pursue it full-time. According to her I was going to be a loser like my dad—who incidentally was a total loser.’ For a second his mood darkened.
    â€˜And her attitude only motivated you all the more?’
    He managed a smile. ‘Of course.’ She’d laughed, then grown scornful. There’d been no attempt to understand, no belief in him. No, he very quickly learned that belief had to come from your self, success from your self, happiness from your self. Dependence on others didn’t get you anywhere. Dependence on others got you hurt—check out Exhibit A, his mother. She’d relied on having a husband and kids to be happy. But her husband had left and she only had the one kid. He hadn’t been enough. Still couldn’t do enough. He hadn’t been enough for the girlfriend, either—not once he’d lost the status of being the top student in his med class.
    â€˜No doubt she lived to regret her decision?’ Lena batted her lashes, still sarcasm personified.
    Yeah, she wasn’t taking his confidences terribly seriously. But what had happened had really sucked and stupidly still bothered him—well, to a degree. ‘She started dating my arch rival in med. Until I dropped out, he andI had been competing for class honours. He won both the first-year prize and her. But when the marriage faltered she looked me up.’
    By then he was a multimillionaire and had more status and success than any general practitioner. It was only the status and success that had attracted her.
    â€˜Did you have an affair?’ Lena was looking at the floor now.
    Seth had been angry at the invitation. His ex had no problem with infidelity, but he did. ‘No, and even when she was divorced I still said no. I don’t repeat my mistakes.’ He’d known what it was she’d wanted—the money and status, not actually him.
    â€˜And since then you’ve done the dumping, right?’
    He’d ended every fling—all except for Lena Kelly.
    â€˜Is that why you’re here now?’ she asked sharply. ‘Because I said no?’
    â€˜No.’ He should have seen she’d leap to that conclusion. ‘I’m here because I’m honest enough to admit I want to be with you again.’
    â€˜It’s just sex.’
    â€˜Not just sex, fantastic sex.’ And he had the sinking feeling that wasn’t all it was. The desire to be near her, to know her, was more than sexual. He studied her blank expression. ‘So has my sob story scored your sympathy?’
    â€˜This all happened, what, a decade or so ago and you’re still not over it?’
    Ouch. He chuckled. ‘You know how it is, the first cut’s deep.’ And you were landed with the parent dramas for life. He might be able to forget his father now, but his mother still frustrated the hell out of him. He still couldn’t help her the way he wanted to be able to.
    Lena was really trying to diminish the effect of his opening up to her. It wasn’t that much of a sob story, right? Loadsof people had parental issues and ex issues. She had them herself. ‘You really want my sympathy?’
    â€˜Right now I’ll take whatever I can get. Are you going to try to save my scarred heart?’
    â€˜I have enough awareness of my limitations to know that’s not possible,’ she said with heartfelt honesty. ‘Besides, I’m not convinced you actually have a heart. I think what you have is an overblown need to win. You don’t like me calling time ahead of you.’
    â€˜Well, you have to agree you did it prematurely.’ He grinned. ‘Why did you?