He reached across the table to cover her hand with his. “Is something wrong?”
“You could say that,” she said, removing her hand from beneath his.
“Tell me what’s bothering you, babe.” He looked sincere, but she knew better than to trust him.
“First of all, I don’t want you calling me ‘babe’ anymore,” she said, folding her arms beneath her breasts. “I’m not your babe, your honey, your sweetheart or anything else.”
He had his beer bottle halfway to his mouth, but he slowly set it back on the table. “Okay. Would you like to tell me what’s going on and why you suddenly take exception to my calling you that when it didn’t seem to bother you before?”
“I learned something about you today that I find very disturbing,” she said, forcing herself to stay calm. If she didn’t keep her emotions under tight control, she knew for certain they were going to betray her. And she’d rather die than allow Lane to see how badly he had hurt her.
His eyes narrowed slightly. “What did you learn?”
She could tell he anticipated what she was about to say. He had probably already formed a plan for damage control on the outside chance that she did figure things out. But as far as she was concerned, there was nothing he could say that she would find redeeming.
“You failed to tell me that you were put into the foster care system because you were a thief and a grifter.” She shook her head at her own foolishness. “I should have trusted my instincts. You did swindle my grandfather out of half of this ranch, didn’t you?”
“No.” He rose from his chair to walk over and pour his beer down the sink. When he turned to face her, his expression gave nothing away. “I told you before, I’ve never cheated at cards.”
“Sure. Whatever you say. You were good enough at swindling and stealing from people that it took a year for the authorities to catch you,” she said, getting up from the table to face him. “You had to have been a very convincing liar to get all those people to believe your schemes. I know you had me fooled.”
“I’ve never lied to you,” he said, taking a step toward her.
Refusing to let him intimidate her, she stood her ground. “You must think I’m horribly gullible or more likely, you think I’m a complete fool. Did you have yourself a good laugh when I made it so easy for you to seduce me?”
“It wasn’t like that, Taylor,” he insisted. “Deep down you have to know that.”
“To tell you the truth, at the moment I don’t trust myself to know anything,” she admitted. “I suppose I have you to thank for teaching me that my judgment is completely unreliable and more than a little flawed.”
“Listen up, Taylor. You have a flaw, all right. It’s jumping to conclusions before you have all of the facts.” His voice held a steely edge and there was no doubt he was furious, but he didn’t shout as she’d expected him to do. He didn’t have to. His deadly calm tone was far more effective. “Yes, I withheld the information about my past for two very good reasons. Number one, I’m not at all proud of it. And number two, I knew how you would react.”
“Were you ever going to tell me?” she asked.
“Yes.” He took a deep breath. “I intended to tell you about the trouble I got into when I was a kid, as well as my reasons for doing what I did. But I was waiting for the right time.”
“Are you going to tell me now?” she asked, wondering why she bothered to ask. He probably thought she was so gullible that he could tell her anything and she would believe him.
“No, I’m not,” he stated, surprising her. “You have your mind made up about me and, at the moment, there’s nothing I can say that will change it. I’ll tell you everything tomorrow after you’ve calmed down.”
“There won’t be an opportunity tomorrow,” she said determinedly. “I want you out of my house and off my property until after we play for the ranch.”
“This place is just as much mine as it is yours,” he pointed out, his voice still deadly quiet.
“This is an intolerable situation and one of us has to leave,” she said, hoping he wouldn’t call her bluff. Legally he had every right to stay and they both knew it. “You’re the obvious choice because you can go stay with one of your brothers. I don’t have anyone I can turn to.”
He stared at her for what seemed an eternity before he finally nodded and started toward the hallway. “I’ll go pack a bag and be out of here in fifteen minutes.” Turning back, he added, “But don’t think I’m giving up. This is my home now and I have every intention of living here for a very long time.”