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“You’re already keeping me safe.”
“I’m not keeping score, and I’m heading to the kitchen, anyway. Drink?”
She needed to stop bristling. Her emotions were complicating everything. But how the hell could she just stop feeling? “Water, please.”
With a nod, he left the room and headed down the hall, his wide shoulders eclipsing most of the light. Watching him, she fidgeted. Clearly, he had an agenda…and she had no idea what was on it.
She made a pit stop in the restroom and brushed her teeth. Then she had no other reason to stall, so she headed to the sofa.
As she sat, nibbling her lip and trying to guess what he was after, she scanned the spread of meats, cheeses, peppers, olives, and nuts he’d arranged. Little plates, a dish of mustard, and napkins accompanied the charcuterie board. “You made this?”
From the kitchen, Matt smiled wryly. “Don’t be too impressed. It’s not actual cooking, but I figured you’d be hungry. You slept for five hours.”
Seriously? The sun was still up, but without any visible clocks and no phone, she’d lost connection with time. “No wonder my stomach is rumbling.”
Matt headed toward her, balancing two glasses ofaguaand a pair of stems, a bottle of red under his arm. “I brought something stronger in case you changed your mind.”
As he uncorked the wine and poured them each half a glass, her nerves began to rattle. She filled the time by snacking on a slice of cheese and an olive, then taking a swig from her stem. “What do you think we need to hash out?
What was he after? Sex? Like they had already observed, the cabin lacked entertainment…
Madison tried not to be hurt. Or angry. But screw it, if he had no compunction about using her, she would return the favor. God knew she was due since she had done without for most of her marriage to Todd.
“I want to clear up some misconceptions,” he said as she took a sip of vino. “I’ll start.”
“Why does it matter? We’re fine. Besides, with Todd and his family hanging over my head, I don’t really have a life.” And she may never have a future.
“Bullshit. It matters to me. I think what’s going on between us matters to you, too. Three years ago, you left our suite believing we had a real connection, right? It may have started with sex, but it ended up being a lot more.”
“I thought so, but I was wrong—”
“You weren’t. We did have a connection. I wanted more…but I let all the shit that happened with my dad get to me.”
Where was he going with this? Madison busied her hands by picking up a cracker, then stacking on salami and nervously downing the bite. “Someone committed suicide at his house, right?”
“His girlfriend. I didn’t tell you the whole story because I didn’t want to freak you out. The truth is, women usually leave my dad the way my mother did, crying and cursing him. Having one end her life because of him was a new low.”
Madison hadn’t seen that coming. “Oh, my god.”
“It terrified me.”
Disturbed, sure. But… “Are you saying your dad’s experience made you afraid to have a relationship with me?”
He hesitated. “After our weekend together, I questioned how much I was like him. When it comes to women, my father is domineering, verbally abusive, and manipulative. He makes sexual demands and expects his partners to comply, pushing hard and dismissing their feelings, even belittling them when they won’t blindly obey.”
She gaped. “That’s not you, Matt. You know that, right?”
He shrugged. “I’d spent my whole childhood watching my dad run roughshod over women, even my mom. Same cycle, over and over. Their emotional rape was painful. I tried to warn them, but… He’s never going to change. For the sake of family harmony, I’ve kept my opinions and disdain to a minimum.”
Her heart ached for him. “I’m sorry. But you’re not your father.”
“For a decade and a half, I was convinced I wasn’t. Sex was always light, and I made sure the fun was mutual. I was never demanding, voracious, blunt, or insatiable. Until you. Then? I was fixated, possessive, insistent, filthy—”
“None of that upset me. I liked it.” Loved it, actually. “Why didn’t you talk to me?”
Matt braced his elbows on his knees and pressed his fingertips together. “I didn’t know how. I’d never had to try to make things work with a woman. Laramie, Wyoming, isn’t a big place. Most of the local girls knew my dad’s reputation and assumed I’d be the same, so they avoided me…unless they wanted a forbidden few hours with the bad boy from the wrong side of town so they had something exciting to giggle about with their friends.”
They had used him. Hurt him. Left him. After his mother had abandoned him.
