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“Madison begged me to.”
There were other questions he wanted to ask, but it seemed pointless now. He stopped in mid-step and released her. “Then I won’t make you suffer my company any longer.” He turned to walk away when her next words froze him in his tracks.
“Was Melissa in your high school Shakespeare class?”
The fear in her eyes and flinch at his touch all made perfect sense now. He slowly turned back around, then hesitated only a second before he grabbed her hand and led her through the dancers to the sultan’s tent. Inside was a series of rooms separated by walls of colorful fabric. He searched until he found the one reserved for the Beaumonts and pulled Eden inside.
The room held one long couch with brightly colored pillows and a coffee table with lit candles and a bottle of champagne on ice. He released the curtain from the hook and closed it before turning to Eden.
“So how did you find out?”
“A friend of a friend served on the jury.” She moved as far away from him as she could get, her hands nervously smoothing out the velvet of her gown.
“So you know about the trial.”
She nodded, then turned her back to him as if she couldn’t stand to look at him for one second more. He knew how she felt. He could barely stand to look in the mirror. She released her breath on a quiver of air before she spoke. “Did you rape her?”
It was hard to believe that Eden was the first person to ask him the question. His brothers and father had never believed that Nash could be capable of rape. And his defense attorney hadn’t wanted to know. He’d just wanted to win—to twist the facts until he’d convinced a jury that his client wasn’t guilty. It was a relief to finally state the truth.
“Yes, I raped her.”
Eden’s shoulders fell as her breath rushed out. “Oh my God.” She clutched her waist as if in pain. It was her pain that had him trying to explain something that had no explanation.
“I didn’t even know her.” He swallowed. “Melissa was just a girl in algebra who stared at me during class. I knew she had a crush on me. It was pretty obvious. But we never spoke… at least not until the day she asked me to prom.” He tried to take a deep breath, but his lungs seemed to have shrunk to the size of peas. All he could get in were shallow breaths that left him feeling light-headed and dizzy.
“She came up to me right after baseball practice. Some of my friends were there, and they got a big kick out of how flustered and nervous she was. Their smug looks pissed me off, and before I could think about it, I had said yes.” He jerked off his mask, hoping that would help him breathe as the memories came flooding back. Memories that had been buried for too long. Or maybe not long enough.
“But the night of the prom, she wasn’t the same flustered, nervous girl,” he said. “She was different… more aggressive. She wore a lot makeup, and her dress was sexy as hell. She’d hired a limo to drive us to the gym where the dance was being held and snuck in two bottles of champagne. After the dance was over, she had the limo driver take us to a hotel.”
He scrubbed both hands through his hair. “I should’ve left then… or as soon as I stepped in the room and saw the rose petals on the bed in the shape of a heart. But I was already drunk by that time and I decided to give her what I thought she wanted. Except once we started having sex, she panicked.” Eden turned, and staring into her hurt eyes, he couldn’t continue with the story. The only word he could get out wasfuckbefore he jerked back the curtain to leave. Her hand on his arm stopped him.
“So you were already having sex when she asked you to stop?”
“Does it matter when?” he said. “No is no.”
She took a step closer. “I agree. But don’t you think that there were some extenuating circumstances? You were a drunk kid, Nash. And it wasn’t like you forced her to go to the hotel room. She knew what was going to happen and even orchestrated it.”
“Bullshit!” The anger that he’d been holding in for so long spilled out. “That’s exactly what my lawyer convinced the jury of—what he convinced me of. That it wasn’t my fault because Melissa had planned it, and penetration had already taken place. Therefore, I shouldn’t be punished. But I wasn’t some inexperienced kid. I was eighteen, and I’d had sex—a lot of sex.” He thumped his chest. “I knew better than to lose control!”
Eden’s eyes filled with tears. “But haven’t you punished yourself enough?”
The words felt like a swift kick in the stomach, and Nash had a hard time getting in enough air to answer. “No,” he said in a choked voice. “I don’t think I’ve punished myself nearly enough. Not when Melissa is dead.”
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Eden tried to stop Nash before he walked out, but her feet got tangled in her skirts. Then once she got untangled, she got lost in the tent’s maze of silken fabric and ended up in a room with a group of rowdy underwear models who refused to let her leave until she’d done a shot of tequila. By the time she downed the shot and found her way out of the tent, Nash was nowhere to be found. But she did find another Beaumont.
“Hey, Juliet. Whassup?”
Eden glanced over to find Grayson sitting at a table. His mask was off, his hair mussed, and a sappy smile tipped his lips. But she barely registered his condition.
“Have you seen Nash?” she asked.
“Nash.” His smile got bigger. “I want you to know that I love that guy. I mean I really love that guy. And I don’t want to see him hurt.” He pointed a finger. “And you’ve hurt him. He’s been moping around the office the last few days like he’s lost his best friend.”
Eden knew how he felt. Ever since Mike had told her about Nash’s trial, she had been miserable. She hadn’t been able to eat or sleep and spent most of her time on the computer trying to find any information she could. But because a juvenile had been involved, the courthouse files were sealed so she found nothing. Nothing at all. Which should’ve made her believe the worst. Mike had no reason to lie, and Nash’s problem touching women pointed to his guilt. But something inside her had refused to believe that Nash was capable of rape. And as far as she was concerned, it hadn’t been rape. It had been a bad judgment call made by a drunken teenager—make that two drunken teenagers. Melissa was just as responsible for what happened as Nash was. She had set the entire scene and brought the alcohol in the limousine. It was just sad that one night had ruined two lives so completely.
Grayson took her hand. “You, my beautiful Juliet, have the power to save my brother… if only you will.”
