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She sucked her bottom lip between her teeth. “And you’re still not going to tell your brother?”
“Uh-uh.” I polished off my whiskey and rinsed out the glass.
The glare I got was incinerating. “I can’t believe you think it’s better for them to just wake up one day and find that the power company owns the ranch.”
“It ain’t gonna to get to that point. I’ll fix it.”
“How? So far you don’t have anything.” She dared me to argue with her over the rim of her goblet.
“Zegas is working on it.”
“He doesn’t have anything either,” she said into her glass.
“What am I supposed to do?” I threw my hands up.
“Tell your family what’s happening,” she fired back. “You’ve seen what secrets can do. Right now, your behavior is no different than Daniel’s.”
I was insulted she’d compare my situation to his when it wasn’t even close to the same. “If it protects my family, so be it.”
She straightened her shoulders. “You’ve seen what that’s done to me. I can’t believe you’d want to do the same to them.”
“It’s different,” I insisted, voice rising.
“I suppose it depends on your perspective,” she said through gritted teeth. “We’ve made a lot of progress in our relationship, but I assure you I won’t ever tolerate being lied to.”
My jaw worked. “I don’t see you jumping up and down to tell me your secrets.” I clamped my mouth shut. Wrong time to bring it up, but it was too late.
Her face turned an angry shade of red. “I told you why I can’t do it.”
I folded my arms over my chest and just looked at her, not saying a word.
“You’ve seen what it’s like for me, but you continue to push.” She lifted her chin in a stubborn set.
“This thing we’ve got, it won’t work if you can’t talk to me about what happened to you,” I fired back.
“Just like you won’t talk to them?”
I hauled in a deep breath to steady my temper. “If I can fix it before they find out, that’s what I want to do.”
“It’s the wrong thing.” Her voice was strength and surety.
“And it’s not right for you to hide from me, either. We’re together now, except you aren’t all the way with me.”
“I am!” she shouted. “But I won’t let my past touch you.”
“It already has.” I softened my tone, desperate to make her understand. “I told you I want it all. Good. Bad. Ugly.”
“I told you I can’t give that to you.” Her knuckles turned white around the back of the barstool.
“You promised you’d try.”
“Last night wasn’t good enough?” she asked in disgust.
I pressed my lips together; this island between us was too great a distance. Rounding the counter, I slid up next to her. I touched her cheek, and she recoiled slightly.
“I can’t stop thinking about it. I’ve never felt closer to you.” I swallowed hard. “But it’s driven home that I want more. I need you to trust me, not just with your body, but with your heart and mind. There’s this wall between us that won’t come down until you let me into your world. Your whole world.”
She turned a deeper shade of red.
