His chest burned in response to her words. Wasn’t love supposed to be more loyal than that? How could she just up and change her mind? “Fine. What did I lie to you about?”
Her cheeks were flushed, her voice glacial. “My apartment.”
That stopped him. “What?”
“I know about my apartment. I know you lied to me and you made Jerry lie too. Lorelei found a package tracking receipt.”
He snorted. “Is that what you’re all bent about?”
“Yes.” She ground out.
“Fine. You got me. I’m guilty.” He threw up his hands. But he didn’t feel bad. His lie didn’t even come close to comparing to the whopper she’d told him. And here he’d been starting to think that Leslie being in love with him might not be such a bad thing. In fact, he was sort of starting to depend on it.
Her lips pressed into a tight line. Seeing the strain on her face took some of the fury out of him. He couldn’t stand to see her cry.
“How could you do that to me?” Her eyes were bright with unshed tears.
“You know why, Leslie.”
She shook her head vigorously. “I don’t. I don’t know why.”
He could tell she was being sincere. His hands dropped from his hair and fell to his sides, his heart squeezing painfully. What was the use in evading?
He didn’t. “Because I was desperate to have you.”
A smile he’d never seen before twisted her beautiful lips. It was more like a snarl and filled with self- loathing. “It wasn’t that hard. You got me. Congratulations.”
It broke his heart.
LESLIE PUSHED AWAY from the refrigerator, her heart pounding and bitterness making her eyes tear. She was so mad at Peter for manipulating her. And she was so fucking mad at herself for sleeping with him, for throwing away her convictions so easily.
She rounded on him, shouting, “You set me up to fail!” There was so much anger, so much bitterness. All she wanted was someone to blame.
“How’s that?” He crossed his arms and leaned back into the counter, looking at her with one brow arched.
“You knew I couldn’t resist you.” There, she’d admitted the truth.
“How is that my fault?” He replied flatly.
It was a knife in the heart. She sucked in air, stunned. “How could you say that to me?”
“How can you take back loving me?” He crossed his ankles, too, looking oh-so-cool-and-casual. It was so misleading.
The question fell, raw and unfiltered—just like the man who’d spoken it. And it took her knees out from under her. Her shoulders slumped from the weight of her lie. “Because.”
He uncrossed his ankles. “That’s it? Just because?” His lips twitched.
“Yes.”
Slowly he untangled himself and walked toward her. The expression is his eyes began to change, began to heat. “Then how about you fall back in love with me—just because?”
About halfway across the kitchen he stopped and muttered, “What the hell?” looking down, confused.
Leslie leaned around him to see Missy attached to the back of his pant leg, chewing at the frayed strings. “Your fan girl missed you.”
Peter reached down and scooped the kitten up with one hand. She was so small and his hand was so large that he cradled her like a baseball. His eyes softened. “Hey, furball.” She was on her back purring like her life depended on it, boneless in complete bliss. Her guy was back.
It was adorable. Without thinking Leslie said, smiling. “She loves you, too.”
Like she’d thrown a bucket of ice on him, Peter went rigid and cold in one breath. He stared at her, his gaze suddenly watchful as he stroked Missy. “That seems to be a theme lately. Is she going to change her mind about it, too?”
The way he said it had irritation welling up in her. “Is that such a terrible thing? I thought you didn’t want to be loved?”
He smiled slightly, cradling the kitten to his chest. She wondered if he even realized what he was doing. “It can be damn inconvenient,” he agreed. The way he looked at her through his lashes made it clear he was baiting her.
It worked, because she didn’t like the thought of her love being an inconvenience to him, regardless of whether she actually did or not.
Her irritation grew teeth. Leslie smacked her forehead, suddenly fuming. “Oh that’s right!” Her voice dripped molasses and sarcasm. “I forgot about Mr. Commitment-Phobe. Can’t handle anything that might require something of you in return.”
Feelings she didn’t even know she had started spewing from somewhere deep inside. “But that’s the funny thing about love. It doesn’t require anything in return. So what’s the deal?”
“Why do you care?” The look he gave her was chilling.
She snapped. “I don’t!”
He didn’t want her love. The truth of it made her a little crazy. She yelled, “
Pain flashed briefly in Peter’s eyes before he could hide it. But she still saw it and her heart squeezed. “Good. Because I’m not in love with you either.”
The words fell heavy on her ears and she pushed past him hard on her way out of the kitchen. “Get away from me.” Her voice was flat. Whether he’d just said it in retribution or not, it didn’t matter. The words hurt bad.
He let her go. As she walked away he said, “So it’s okay for you to say it, but not me? Why is that, Leslie?”
She spun around, heart weeping, and shouted, “
But he damn well better leave Missy.
PETER HAD A pre-op appointment the next day for his eye surgery. Though he didn’t want to see or speak to anybody and was in a foul disposition, he crawled out of bed and took himself to the early morning meeting. The whole time he was there, while he was supposed to be listening to them go over the steps of the procedure, all he could think about was Leslie. The way she’d looked at him when she’d screamed at him to leave. Never before had he seen such emotion come from one single person.
Because of her, he hadn’t slept a wink.
All night he’d tossed and turned, replaying their fight in his mind, wondering if or where he’d gone wrong. And he couldn’t figure it out. She was the one who’d decided to end things.
Christ, love was messy.
It grabbed a hold of a person. Maybe it was better that they’d split. He and Leslie were too independent, too autonomous to let love happen to them. It would kill their sparks. What would the two of them do with something like love?
Parking his FJ Cruiser, he climbed out and went through the garage door into the house. Peter kicked the door closed forcefully behind him. Who the hell was he trying to kid?
The whole ugly frigging truth was that he didn’t want Leslie to be in love with him because he wasn’t worth it. If she loved him he wouldn’t be able to hide his bad side forever and eventually the truth of who he was would eat away at their relationship until nothing remained of something that used to be good.
