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She now fidgeted with the fashion magazine on the console next to her, flipping the pages without looking at them. Maybe she was a bit overwhelmed. Made sense. He barely knew her.
She’d gotten married, which, though a rational decision, was the epitome of emotional for most people. Asking her a question or two to distract her from reality wouldn’t hurt, would it? “What happened with your ex-fiancé?”
“Oh. He broke up with me.”
“Why?”
“It’s embarrassing.”
Her answer only piqued his curiosity. “Tell me,” he demanded, looking at her square in the eye.
Her throat worked, visibly. “Why would I tell you something I haven’t even told my best friends or mom?”
He canted his head. “Because I’m not your best friend. I won’t be in your life for a long time, and I won’t judge you.” He shouldn’t be convincing her to open up. Not to him anyway, when he didn’t intend on reciprocating. But one look into her eyes, and common sense got lost in the rich brown irises.
“He called me a bad lay,” she said in a low voice.
What kind of sleazeball would say that to a woman? A twinge of irritation clenched his gut. “Bullshit,” he said quickly.
A shade of red stained her cheeks. “Nope. I wish it was.”
“He asked you to marry him, and then broke up with you because of sex,” he said. “He got cold feet.” No man would have asked her in marriage if they didn’t have chemistry to begin with. Her ex was a coward, at best. A strand of anger ran through him, and he fisted his fingers into a ball.
“Maybe,” she said. “I guess before him, I only had a few boyfriends and thought sex was something I had to do.”
“The fact you admit that is impressive,” he said. He tilted his head to the side, interested in what else she had to say. Most people didn’t admit their weakness in the beginning of a relationship, even a fake one. “But why? You’re an attractive young woman. Why shouldn’t you enjoy sex?”
“I don’t know… I walked in on my parents having sex once, when I was a teen. That probably ruined me for life,” she said, making a funny face. “Seriously though, I don’t know… growing up, all my friends at the time were so excited about sex, I didn’t want to be the one who couldn’t come. And nowadays I can come, just mostly on my own.”
He shifted in his seat, restless. He’d never shared such an honest conversation with someone he’d just met. Especially about such intimate issues. His body temperature increased, and he reached for his water, then took a long sip. What he really needed was to pour it all over his face to keep focus. And change the subject. Change the subject now. “So you never talked about this with anyone?” he asked, finding it impossible to listen to his common sense.
“Nah. At first I was embarrassed, then I was branded as the sexy Brazilian girl… which made it much easier than actually being one,” she said with nonchalance, but he detected a note of sadness hiding in her voice.
His heart squeezed in his chest. The tip of his fingers tingled to touch her, to comfort her in a way. Her eyes flew to his, and he wasn’t sure if she challenged him to respond or stay quiet on the subject. He could volunteer to test her sexual expertise, but such an idea would only complicate things further. Besides, since she had been sexualized by partners and stereotypes. He doubted that suggestion would do anything to make her feel valued.
“What’s on your mind? Was it too much to unpack?” she asked.
“I hate to say this, but I can’t help. I don’t know much about talking about sex.” Just about doing it, he added to himself. “But my point circles back to that stupid former fiancé. He wasn’t the man for you. If he were, he’d make you forget about any insecurities in that area.” He cleared his throat, and forced his gaze back to the laptop. “Now if you excuse me, I have some work to do.”
3
“You did what?” Nikki said out loud, her eyebrows reaching her hairline. Lara shushed her. That morning, two days after the quick Vegas wedding, she was in her office at work when her friend had brought her lunch, a delicious veggie burger.
“I haven’t told my assistant yet,” Lara said, glancing at the open door leading to the rest of the office.
Nikki closed it behind her and then slumped in the seat in front of her. “Well, you should. I mean, this is some big news. Who is this guy? Were you drunk?” Nikki leaned closer, pushing her salad to the side. “Was this a bet or something?”
Close enough. Lara reached for her burger and took a bite, swallowing it slowly to buy some time. “He’s someone I met a few weeks ago, but I didn’t tell you guys anything because it was so new. Then we decided to take the leap and get married. It was all very last minute.”
Nikki clapped her hand to her mouth. “Wow. Sounds so impulsive… and some would say, romantic.”
Lara slapped on a smile. She hated lying to one of her best friends, but she’d also signed a non-disclosure agreement and didn’t want Troy to sue her because of codes of friendship. Later, much later after the divorce, she’d tell the girls the truth. Then they’d laugh about it. Hopefully.
“Does anyone else know?”
“No, and if you could tell the girls about my new marital status, that would be great,” Lara said. “I can’t make it this Friday anyway because I’m meeting his parents.”
“Damn. I never get a scoop as good as this one.” Nikki played with her grilled salmon salad. “So tell me, who is he? What is he like?”
