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‘I don’t believe that, Liam.’ Talia shook her head. ‘In all the time we were together you never shared any childhood memories. Not one. You never had any stories.’
‘I’m a surgeon, Talia, not a storyteller.’ His tone was as even and controlled as ever.
She gritted her teeth, deciding she’d never hated it more.
‘And that’s another thing you always did,’ she told him. ‘Whenever I tried to get to know you, you always shut me out.’
‘This conversation is going nowhere,’ he stated flatly.
‘Of course it isn’t, because you would never let that happen. But there has to be more to you than surgeries and your career, Liam.’
‘Talia—’
‘It’s too much, Liam. No wonder I couldn’t bear it that you never shared anything with me. Never.’
‘Because I don’t throw open my life for the whole world to see everything about me?’
‘I’m not talking about throwing anything open, and I’m not the whole world,’ she cried. ‘I just wanted to feel like I was a part of your life, not merely a convenient warm body.’
‘You were never merely a convenient body,’ he exploded suddenly, and what did it say about her that she felt some tiny victory that she’d finally pushed his resolve enough for him to lose that famed control? ‘I’m insulted that you can even accuse me of that.’
‘Well, you hardly wanted to share your life with me—which was all that I ever wanted with you.’
‘So much so that you didn’t even contact me when you found out your mama was ill. You didn’t even leave a note. You just left.’
‘Don’t tell me you’re offended that I didn’t share details of my life?’ The irony of it pulled at her mouth until she felt something of a bitter smile. ‘You? Of all people?’
‘So that’s why you left,’ Liam said scornfully. ‘Because I didn’t tell you all the ins and outs of my life? My past?’
>
‘You’re oversimplifying it.’ She blew out a breath of frustration, as Liam looked as more distant and forbidding than ever.
‘Whilst you’re overdramatising it.’
She didn’t miss the way he had pulled himself harshly back under control. Or was on his way to doing so, anyway. That flash of emotion had been locked away somewhere deep inside him, as he always did.
She began to remark on it but then the words stuck in her throat as a great swell of sadness washed over her. What was the point of them arguing? What did she even think that might achieve opening up old wounds?
‘What is it?’ He frowned.
‘Never mind.’
He eyed her disparagingly.
‘You’ve said plenty already, why stop now?’
‘Because I don’t want to go down this route any more,’ she confessed. ‘Do you?’
He looked a little taken aback but he recovered quickly.
‘No,’ he answered frankly. ‘I do not.’
Talia nodded.
‘So...where do we go from here?’
He didn’t move, but she got the impression he was regrouping. Steadying himself again. And then he smiled. A reserved but genuine expression that seemed to pull at her heart.
