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“Maybe not, but I have the worst luck ever, so something was bound to happen eventually.”
He shuffles to face me. “I don’t believe that, and I’m going to get you out of here and back to your family.”
“That would be nice. At this point, I’d even be thrilled to see my mother. I’d even take the cussing she’d give me and the uppity looks of pity she and my stepfather always cast my way.”
“You don’t have a good relationship with your mother?”
I shake my head. “Never have.”
“Why?”
I chuckle without humor. “It would take me a long time to answer that question.”
“We have time.”
“I doubt you’d want to use that time to listen to me talk about my mother, and my life.”
“Try me.”
Maybe talking about Mama might be a good distraction from the weird sexual vibe still sparking between us.
“My mother is one of those high society women who love money and prestige. She’s a control freak who needs to have everything and everyone a certain way.” That’s a good summary. “She was the main reason I married Kurt—my ex.”
“Your mother forced you to marry him?”
“Yes. I was pregnant, and he comes from a rich family. We were together in high school, but I never saw myself spending the rest of my life with him. My mother forced the wedding and the marriage on me. Months later, I lost the baby, and she blamed me. Years passed, and we found out I can’t have kids. She blamed me for that, too.” Every time I say that out loud, a piece of my soul dies.
Kurt’s family wanted grandchildren, and so did Mama. In the years before everything fell apart, we tried everything under the sun to get me pregnant, but nothing worked. I had five miscarriages, several rounds of IVF, and that was it. The doctors declared me infertile, and my only options were adoption or a surrogate, but without my eggs.
I was willing. I thought it would be nice to adopt a child who needed a loving home, but Kurt didn’t want to pursue either option. That’s when the arguments began and maybe when Mary started fucking my husband.
“How can that be your fault?” Nick cuts into my thoughts.
“My mother found a way to blame me for everything, so she thought it was perfectly understandable that Kurt cheated on me. And since my ex-best friend already has kids, Mama thought it made even more sense. She called me an evil bitch when I wouldn’t take him back. That’s how I ended up leaving Wilmington and living with my cousin.”
“Sounds like you made a wise choice.”
“I think so.”
“You think? You don’t sound too certain.”
“I am certain.”
“Oh, because for a moment there, I thought you might be in two minds about your ex. Fourteen years is a long time to be with someone.”
“I just want to forget him. Forget I ever met him and that we were ever together.”
“Is that why you went to Vegas? To forget?” His eyes darken again to that magnetic color, lulling me to get lost in the attraction rippling between us.
It beckons me to give him the truth. “I didn’t go to Vegas to forget, but I did forget him when I was with you.”
I should regret the confession, but I don’t. He reaches forward and touches my cheek, then he catches my face, and suddenly I’m trapped.
The lump expands in my throat, and the silence filling the space between us feels like it’s about to explode from the anticipation coming from me.
Before my next thought can take fruition, Nick leans in and kisses me. His lips crush mine and transport me back to the way we were in Vegas as I lay beneath him and he devoured me.
I want to feel that again.
