AllFreeNovel
Share Us
‘Why not?’
He turned his back on the question, sank his fists into the pockets of his shorts. His body vibrated with tension. ‘What the hell was I thinking spilling my guts like that?’ he muttered, more to himself than her. ‘I must have lost my mind.’
‘I didn’t tell her, Cal.’ Stepping forward, she placed her palm on his back. The urge to touch him, to soothe, overwhelming her. ‘But you should.’
She felt the muscles on his spine tense.
He gave a brittle laugh as he turned, dislodging her hand. ‘You don’t know what you’re talking about.’
‘Cal, how can you think any of that was your fault?’
Why was he being so hard on himself?
‘Maddy caught him banging his secretary when she was fourteen years old and it nearly destroyed her,’ he shouted. ‘That’s on me. If I’d been able to stop him. If I’d told my mother. If I’d at least let Maddy know what he was really like.’
‘It’s not on you,’ she shouted back. ‘Can’t you see, whatever you did or didn’t do wouldn’t have made any difference? Some things you can’t control, no matter how much you might want to. You have to tell her, Cal.’
The sharp frown of frustration arrowed down. ‘I’m not telling her and neither are you. It will only open up old wounds which have healed.’
‘How could they be healed, when you’re cutting yourself off from the only family you have?’
‘I’m not talking about me. I don’t have any wounds. I’m talking about Maddy.’
How could he be so clever with words, so smart and analytical, and yet such a dolt when it came to the simplest of relationships?
He did have wounds. And ones that went much deeper than Maddy’s, she suspected.
‘Maddy’s much tougher than you think,’ she said, trying to approach the problem from a different angle. ‘You don’t have to protect her.’
‘And you know this from what? One ten-minute conversation with her?’ he snarled. ‘I think I know my sister better than you do.’
Ruby ignored the sneering contempt in his voice. He was still angry, still raw.
‘How can you know her?’ she shot right back. ‘When you refuse to even talk to her properly?’ She dragged in a breath, determined to hammer her point home. ‘She’s a strong, capable woman who’s building a home here. Building a loving relationship. Building a life that matters. If you’re so well adjusted, why are you so scared to be a part of it?’
‘I’m not scared. I just don’t want to be part of it,’ he said, the frustration making a muscle bunch in his cheek.
‘Of course you do.’
He swore loudly. ‘Do you have any idea how ridiculous that sounds coming from you? If you really think home and family are so wonderful, why haven’t you built the same thing for yourself?’
The snarled question had her opening her mouth. Then closing it again.
She wrapped her arms around her waist, the salty wind tearing at her hair and stinging her cheeks as the strike hit home. ‘This isn’t about me,’ she said, trying for measured and reasonable, even though her insides were boiling, her heart burning. ‘This is about you and—’
‘We’re through talking.’ He grasped her arms, hauled her up on tiptoes. ‘This conversation is over.’
His lips crushed hers, the kiss ruthless, and demanding but so full of desperation, and heat, Ruby felt the response right down to her toes.
Her head told her to push him away, not to surrender to his attempt to silence her. But her heart and her hormones screamed something entirely different.
Wrestling her arms free, Ruby thrust her hands into his hair and opened her mouth, letting the rush of heat consume them both. She fed on his passion, his anger, pressed against the solid weight of his arousal—meeting the unstoppable force of his will with the immoveable object of her desire.
She had no doubt he’d meant to punish her with the kiss, but when he finally lifted his head, he looked stunned and aroused, but the storm of aggression had passed.
‘Why can’t you ever do what you’re told?’ he murmured as he touched his forehead to hers, the rigidity of his shoulders softening as his hands caressed her bottom.
She was fairly sure it was a rhetorical question but she answered it anyway. ‘Because that would be incredibly boring.’
