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My chest tightened.I texted back.
Same.
Lifting my gaze from my phone, I found Hamilton watching me.He was drinking his coffee, clearly relaxed on my sofa.
“You look like a mama bear, about to attack someone upsetting your cub,” he said.
I felt like one too.“Yeah, well, Sarah’s dad isn’t a fan of mine, and vice versa.But for her, he needs to let the past go.”
Hamilton raised his perfectly groomed eyebrows.“Ah, that explains it.I was wondering why any man would provoke you.Most, I assume, pursue you.”
“What do you mean?”I asked, not sure I was following him.
He smirked.“There is a past between the two of you.A man doesn’t get over a woman like you.He just learns ways to be around you without drooling.Your brother-in-law seems to have taken the jerk role.If he is difficult and treats you badly, then he doesn’t have to worry about you smiling at him and him groveling at your feet.”
“Ex-brother-in-law, and trust me, it wasn’t a past like that.At least not for him.”The bitterness in my tone was unavoidable.Thinking about Wilder and what had once been was hard.I tried not to do it—ever.
“Oakley, you can’t be that naive.You have a mirror.You know what you look like.I can assure you that it was that way for him.He must have hidden it well.”
I laughed then, although there was no real humor in it.“He married my stepsister.He wanted her.Not me.It was never me.”
Hamilton studied me for a few moments as he drank from his cup.Those green eyes of his were part of the reason his face was so sought after.The sculpted body he had from working out and eating gross food also contributed.
“I’m a guy.I understand men.I know how we think.Unless your stepsister was equally as gorgeous as you, as intelligent and easy to talk to, completely unaware of her looks and ability to control a man, then he wanted you.He settled for her.”
“He slept with her.He wouldn’t have sex with me,” I said.“But … but I can’t hate him for that.Not now.Sarah is here because of that.I wouldn’t go back and change it.I love her as if she were my own.”I paused, and a small smile tugged at my lips.“Which surprised me.When I first held her, I thought … I thought I would resent her.Sylvia—my stepsister, her mom—and I didn’t get along.At all.We didn’t like each other, but it wasn’t because I hadn’t tried.She had never been nice to me.Then, she had taken Wilder from me.I hated her.I hated her so much until Sarah’s little face looked up at me and stole my heart.My hate evaporated that day.All of it.For Sylvia, for Wilder.They’d betrayed me, but because of it … we had her.This precious baby girl.”I stopped talking, realizing I had just bared my soul to a man, and … well, I didn’t do that.Ever.Not to anyone.It’d felt good to say it though.Get it out.
Hamilton leaned forward and set his cup beside my glass.“I wasn’t prepared for that,” he said, turning his eyes back to me.
I felt embarrassed.I’d just blurted out a lot to him, and it wasn’t like me to do it.“Sorry.I didn’t mean to ramble.”
He shook his head gently as he studied me.“You didn’t ramble.You opened up.Showed me what’s inside.And …” He paused, and then a slow smile spread across his face.“Damn, Oakley.I’m used to beautiful women, but you … you’re gonna end up ruining me.”
I frowned, unsure of how I was going to be this man’s ruin.There was no future for us.I’d already figured that out, but then there never was.My fractured soul made sure of that.
“Your heart is so fucking closed off with walls; it was like a billboard broadcasted that fact the first night we met.But I happen to like a challenge, and you were the first one I’d had in … well, a really long time.You letting me see inside that heart.How big it is.How damn pure it is.That’s not something I’m used to.Not from women who look like you.There isn’t one ounce of ego or vanity.Hell, you could at least be a touch self-absorbed.Anything to make you less than perfect.Because right now, I can’t see a flaw.Not a single one.”
I dropped my gaze from his.He didn’t know me yet.
“Trust me, the flaws are there.Keep looking.They’ll rear their ugly heads soon enough.”
Twelve
Wilder
I needed to fuck.It had been too long.That was all this was.The dream had meant nothing—other than I was in dire need of sinking my dick into a willing cunt.One who wouldn’t expect anything from me.Who would go away after.Someone easy.
The doorbell rang, followed by Belladonna barking at the noise, interrupting my internal battle.The one where my damn subconscious had wanted to screw me up while I was asleep.As if I needed any more help in that area.Annoyed by whoever was at the door, I left my coffee that was still brewing in the kitchen to go see who was here to bother me.Sarah had been pouting for two days, and nothing I could do seemed to get her out of it.She was mad at me for not asking Oakley to come stay with her for the next two nights.
I had paid an ungodly amount to take her to Disney World on Halloween, and at least twenty times that night, she’d mentioned how much Oakley would have loved it.
Stalking to the door, angry that Oakley was causing issues with my relationship with my daughter and now my sleep, I hoped whoever had decided to bother me had a good fucking reason.Belladonna was wagging her tail with excitement as she stared at the door.She barked at me, as if to tell me to open the damn thing already.Impatient, happy dog.I grabbed the handle and jerked it open, not looking to see who it was first.
The blue eyes glaring at me with that fake bright smile on her stunning face tripped my temper over the thin line it had been balancing on.Belladonna pushed past me to get to our uninvited guest like she was a walking piece of bacon.
“What the fuck are you doing here?”I seethed, wishing like hell the dream I’d had last night about fucking her like a crazed man in my shower wasn’t replaying in my head.
Damn her for always being a walking wet dream.Destroying men everywhere she went.Getting in their heads.Ruining their lives.
