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“What if my father figured out what we’re doing? What if he and Bill are here—”
“If they are, so what? You want to be my wife, Mary Catherine? The bullshit aside, I know it’s crazy. I know you’d never in a million years want to be with a guy like me—”
“You’re the first guy I got off to, Digger. You’re the guy I wanted to date when I was in high school—I went for the bad boy and learned he was an emo, then I got him killed for his pains.” Misery slithered into her gaze. “I don’t know why, but that one glance in Westchester and I knew what desire was. I don’t love you—I don’tknowyou. But I’d like to. I’d like to have the chance.”
“Then that’s all that counts,” I rasped, appreciating her answer more than she could know.One thing I couldn’t tolerate was bullshit. “I’ll keep you safe, MaryCat.
“They won’t get to you. Whether or not they know you’re here, it doesn’t matter. You have no need to be scared when you’re with me.”
“You really mean that, don’t you?”
I shrugged. “Wouldn’t say it if I didn’t. And you don’t need to rush into sex if you’re not ready just because you’re scared of them.”
Her eyes were massive in her face, but the heat in them told me she didn’t just want me because of the situation—got it.
“What about you?” MaryCat asked a second later. “God, you can’t want any of this.”
“Maybe I shouldn’t, but you’ve grown on me.”
“Like mold. Great.”
My lips twitched. “No. Not like mold. I had motivations of my own for starting this, MaryCat.”
“What were they?”
“That secret I was talking about… I told you that I didn’t have a dad, but I didn’t tell you that I knew who raped my mother.”
“You know—”
My smile was cold. “His name was Bill Murphy.”
A gasp escaped her. “You’re…” She surged onto her tiptoes to get into my face. “Are you being serious?”
“I’m being deadly serious.” My mouth tightened. “I found out when I was twenty-four after she died. Found some letters that confirmed it.” What a shitty fucking Christmas that had been.
I eyed the tree at my side with a grimace.
“Is that how you know all about his wives? I thought that was weird.”
“Yes. Because I went looking.”
Her eyes widened and then she proved she was clever, and I suddenly understood how she’d earned her scholarship. “He’s why you went to jail, isn’t he?”
“He is. My biggest regret is that I didn’t kill the bastard. That I only went down for aggravated assault.”
She gulped. “Wow.”
“Yes.”
“So, this is revenge?”
I hitched a shoulder. Sucked that it was my sore one. Fuck, that hurt. “Started that way.”
I half-expected her to be hurt, but she wasn’t. Instead, she graced me with a smile.
“ThatI can handle. This makes sense to me. I don’t like things that don’t make sense. It hurts my brain.” She tugged on my hand and started trying to drag me toward the strip mall. Unfortunately for her, she was tiny and I was not. “Okay, you can buy me a ring now.”
Stunned, I laughed. “It’s that simple?”
