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She blinked up at him without answering. Watching her, he was appalled to see her eyes fill with tears. She nodded her head in answer to his question but then began shaking it instead.
Her tears upset him, but her refusal to conform to his wishes was fucking him up beyond comprehension. “No? You’ve scared the shit out of me, worried Marisol and disrupted my men from their work and you dare to say ‘no’ to me?”
Her cheeks bloomed with color as she bit her lip and looked away from him.
The rain came down harder; he could hear it beating down around them. He wanted to strip her naked and make sure every inch of her was really all right. He wanted her safe and at the house when he said the things he needed to say to her, but it wasn’t safe to leave the shelter yet, and above all else, he wouldn’t risk Erin’s safety by taking her out into the weather again. Taking her hand in his, he walked to the back of what was left of the building, pulling her along beside him.
He knew she’d said she was okay, but he needed to make sure she was telling the truth, he needed to see her naked skin for himself, needed to sink inside her warmth so he could calm the fuck down. With his mission in mind, he reached for her shirt and began to strip it over her head.
Her arms came up immediately in a defensive move that stalled him—and it enraged him.
Holding her shirt down, her eyes flashed up at his, even as her arms shook. “I can’t take this anymore.” Her eyes filled with new tears—and determination. “Seriously, Max, I can’t continue living like this.”
At her tone, at the look in her eyes, his anger took second place to the sudden panic that wrapped around his throat. “You don’t have a choice—”
“I have a choice,” she volleyed back. “I’m not stupid. You’re not thinking straight. How can you possibly justify keeping me here because of something my grandfather did?”
How could she not understand? It was so fucking simple. “I’m keeping you here because I want you here.”
She stared at him for a long moment before her face crumpled. “That’s not good enough—and it’s not true,” she muttered. “I could only stay here for only one reason—because I want to stay. Not because I’m being forced into it.”
He felt his muscles cord as his stress levels skyrocketed. “We’ve been over this too many times, Erin. The two issues are separate—”
“That’s crap,” she said on a sigh. “I deserve more—I deserve the fairytale. And I’m not going to settle for anything less.”
At that word—fairytale—Max took notice. The word pissed him off because he knew he was failing her—it also made him determined to find out exactly what she needed. “Explain this to me. What does this ‘fairytale’ contain that you’re not getting from me already?”
She let out a breath of air that sounded like pure misery . . . and hurt. “I want a love story—not a revenge blackmailing. The two things aren’t the same—can’t you see that?”
How could she be so blind? Did she truly not know? Could she not see through all his flimsy excuses? “You’re kidding me, right?”
“No,” she said with hesitation.
Well, son-of-a-bitch. He was going to actually have to say the words he’d been trying so hard to avoid—even to himself. His feelings were raw, and now, damn it—they’d be exposed. But if he didn’t tell her the truth, would she ever be happy here? She looked devastated, as if she couldn’t handle anything more—and he couldn’t have that, just the thought was causing panic to infiltrate his entire system.
What did it matter if he came across as vulnerable? Who was he kidding? He was vulnerable—but maybe showing his vulnerability would allow her to see how deep-seated his feelings really were. His muscles tensed up, readying himself to put it all on the line for her. “You can’t see that the revenge scenario was just an excuse? That it’s been a damn excuse for a while now—a piss poor excuse that I’ve been using because I’ve been afraid you’ll leave?”
She looked confused as her brows came down into a frown. “No—”
He let out a harsh bark of laughter—surely the entire world could see how he felt about her? “Are you kidding me?”
When she shook her head with a dumbstruck look on her face, he drew in a breath and continued more gently, “Erin—sweetheart—it’s been about you from the first moment I saw you. Looking back, I don’t know who I was trying harder to convince otherwise—you or me.”
She continued shaking her head, but the movement slowed, her eyes narrowing as if perplexed. “No, it hasn’t been,” she argued. “You set out to find me in Las Vegas for revenge. You seduced me for revenge. You married me and brought me to Argentina for revenge. It was all for revenge.”
