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He didn’t know her dad at all if he could think that. “My father offered the information as a way to bring you closer to our family because he thinks you’ll like us and that will make you give me a second chance.”
His eyes were fixed on her. “Is that what you want, Tash? A second chance?”
“More than anything.”
He seemed to think about it for a moment, and an infinitely sad expression came over his gorgeous face. “I can’t. I’ve spent much of the evening thinking about how I’ll stand living with you for the next week. How I can possibly make it through and not let that smile of yours trick me again.”
“I’m not tricking you. I promise I will never lie to you again. I’m willing to lay it all bare for you, Dare. I fell for you the first night we met. I did not go into that pub looking for a target. I went looking for solace.”
“Because you broke up with that guy?” His eyes flared as though he was a predator and she’d tossed him a slab of raw meat. “That asshole? You didn’t merely date him. I heard your cousin say you were ready to marry him. You were going to marry that preening asshole.”
Oh, that did not sound like a man who was indifferent to her. All night he’d been cold and untouchable, but that was all an act. Her warm, loving guy was still in there. He was just coming out as jealous guy. This was what her mother had been talking about. Men had trouble dealing with pain and loss. Jealousy and anger were much easier. They were stand-ins for the real emotion.
She had to choose her words, had to give him no reason to think she was still holding a torch for Chet. “It’s hard to stop a wedding. Well, not if you’re my brother’s fiancée and you decide you don’t want to marry a guy just because he got you pregnant. She left us all there at the church after my aunt had worked to put it all together in record time. I didn’t get that far. I was having second thoughts before I realized Chet was a cheating asshole.”
He pointed her way as though she’d made his point. “His name is Chet. That should have been your first second thought, Natasha. Chet. Who the fuck names their child Chet?”
“You sound a lot like my father right now.”
“Well, he makes sense,” Dare admitted. “Your father is good at giving advice. Do you know what he told me to do if I wanted to stay out of trouble?”
She winced because she could make a pretty good bet on what he’d said. “Did he offer you a condom? You have to understand. He’s a sex-positive guy, and he’s always been open about safe sex. And did I mention that my brother’s ex-girlfriend had his baby and dumped the kid in a car seat with the receptionist at my father’s office? Being a grandpa wasn’t something he was expecting for a couple of years. He’s sensitive about condoms right now.”
“He did not offer me protection. He told me not to put my penis in you.”
She felt a smile cross her face. “Then he likes you. Wow. He really likes you.”
Dare frowned. “He does not like me. He basically told me to stay away from you.”
“He does like you. I can tell because he knows you probably will put your penis in me, and he didn’t even tell you to wrap it.” Her family had been supporting her all night even as her dad had yelled at the team and probably threatened to demote Zach. “He’s willing to get stuck with half-Canadian grandkids.”
Dare stood there as though trying to figure out what to do next and utterly failing. “I don’t know how to handle this. I don’t… I’ve spent so much of the last few years of my life reacting that I have no idea how to act. Tonight was weird and traumatic and I want to talk to you about it. I want to share it with you and have you help me through, but you caused it, Tasha.”
Her heart threatened to crack. “I am so sorry.”
“I don’t know that I can go through this again. It hurts too much.”
She wanted to cross the space between them and wrap herself around him, but he wouldn’t accept that from her at this point. “You won’t have to. I promise. No more lies.”
“I can’t.” He shook his head, weariness coming over him. “I can’t trust you again. I can’t be in your world. Your world is nothing but lies. I understand it’s necessary, but I don’t want to be a part of it. You’re all wolves. I need some fucking peace in my life.”
“It’s not all lies. It’s not.” If he was scared he would be drawn into her dangerous work world, she could fix that misconception. “Normally it’s fairly boring. It’s watching over my sisters as one of them picks up a dead drop or does surveillance on a potential terrorist. I have to watch over them. They can be reckless, and I don’t know how I would live if something happened to them and I wasn’t there.”
