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He touched her cheek. “I don’t want you to think of it that way. Yeah, the condom broke, but that wasn’t your fault or mine.”
She sniffed. “You tried to make it my fault.”
“I was a fool. I’m sorry. Can you forgive me?”
“I don’t know, Chad. Are there any more secrets? Anything more I need to know about? I know you haven’t lived like monk.”
“No, I haven’t, but I’m willing to from now on.”
“What?”
“I mean, I’m willing to live in a sexually exclusive relationship. With you. My wife. My only love.”
“Oh, Chad. Do you really love me?”
“With all my heart.”
Sunshine spread through Catie’s body, and she broke into tears.
“Now come on. Don’t cry, sugar. I’m liable to think you don’t love me back.”
“Oh, I love you back, Chad McCray. I’ve loved you for seventeen years.”
He leaned forward and took her mouth in a searing kiss. When their waiter came by with more croissants and cleared his throat, Catie’s cheeks warmed.
“So are you ever going to tell me your secret, little bit?”
“Little bit? Please, Chad.”
He laughed. “Okay, sugar. Now, about your secret.”
“I have no idea what you’re referring to. I don’t have any secrets.”
“That first night, at the Bullfrog, you said there was a reason you stayed away for four years. You said you’d tell me sometime. Now, sugar, a wife shouldn’t have any secrets from her husband.”
Catie shook her head. “You haven’t figured that out yet?” She ruffled his hair. “You are dense.”
“Was it because of me, sugar? Because of…that night in the gazebo?”
She sighed. “Yeah, well, that night, and the previous ten years, I thought if I stayed away I’d get over you.”
“Damn, you have no idea how much I wanted you that night.”
“Yeah, I do. I know. Because I wanted you that much.”
“I’m not sure you get it, Catie. You were still a baby to me, and there I was, having these feelings. Lusty feelings. I wanted to take you right there, and I didn’t much care if your daddy walked by. It felt all wrong to want you that way, but at the same time, it felt very, very right.”
Catie’s mouth dropped open. “Really?”
“I had no idea you were my destiny, sugar. No idea at all. I always knew you were a pretty thing, but that night, things changed. It…scared me.”
Catie smiled. “The womanizing Chad McCray? Scared of a little eighteen-year-old girl?”
“You brought me to my knees that night, sugar. If you hadn’t left the next day, I would have come back for you.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah. But you did. And I thought that was your way of telling me you’d changed your mind. Part of me was angry. I hadn’t been able to sleep at all that night. But part of me was relieved. I was scared to death we’d do something you’d later regret. I thought it was better with you gone. We’d both be out of temptation’s way.”
