Wild Sexy Hurt (Wild Sexy 3)

“Or the body,” I amended for him.

“Or the body.” He smiled. “You make me feel good about myself.”

I frowned. “Why shouldn’t you?”

There was a short silence, and through the windows, passing lights threw shadows on his perfect face. “I haven’t always done the right thing,” he said quietly.

“Nobody has,” I told him. I thought about the pattern my life had taken all those years before I made the decision to change things. Now it was clear to me how carelessly I’d used people. I could see all the unanswered messages, the dismissed feelings, the wounded hearts I’d left in my wake.

“I never used to think of how many people I hurt by never allowing myself to feel,” I told him, my voice soft, “but there were a lot, and it hurts me to think there are people out there whose views on relationships were shaped by how horribly I treated them.”

“We tell ourselves it doesn’t matter because we didn’t make any promises…”

“But it doesn’t change the hurt.” I took a deep breath and stroked his face. We couldn’t go back. All I could do was hope that between the two of us, we could completely heal each other.

Chapter Seven

I woke up sometime in the middle of the night and discovered I was alone in bed. My body still felt languid and satisfied from the hours Jason had spent making good on the sensual promises he’d made all night.

I got out of bed and put on a robe then padded over to the attached suite of rooms that included a large dressing room and a bathroom. Just before we went to bed, Jason had shown me the changes that had been made while he was away. The closet was now larger, with more mirrors. The walls and fittings had changed from a mute gray to a brilliant white. Spaces had been added for shoe storage and handbags.

For me.

He’d also remodeled the library attached to his study, adding a lot more books and a delightful reading nook with soft cushions and a view of a tree-lined park. It was perfect.

He’d been working on these changes even when I was sure I would never speak to him again, because all his focus had been on the hope that I would forgive him.

He’d been building his existence around me while I’d been holding on to my walls.

I hugged myself. I would never be able to take this for granted, this love, this exquisite fulfillment of knowing he belonged to me. It was worth everything.

I left the dressing room and went looking for Jason, crossing the carpeted hall and going first to the den then to his study.

The door was ajar, and from inside, I could hear a woman’s voice. As I pushed the door open, I realized that it was coming from Jason’s phone. Jason was at his desk, his chest bare and his head in his hands as he listened to the voice coming from the phone.

“…not the first time and I know you don’t want to hear from me, but I have something very important to tell you, and I don’t have much time. I keep trying to get in touch with you, and you keep blocking all my efforts. I’m finding it…”

The message stopped playing as Jason noticed me at the door and touched the screen of his phone. He stared at me, almost as if he couldn’t really see me standing there.

My heart was thudding. Who was the speaker and why was he avoiding her? Was it someone from his past? I imagined an old lover coming back to cast a shadow on my happiness, and my stomach twisted in pain.

“Who was that?” I asked, keeping my voice calm and trying not to give audience to the multiple scenarios and explanations making their way into my head.

He made a tired face. “Nobody important.”

I shook my head and steep farther into the room. “I just heard you listening to a message from a woman you’re avoiding. You’re going to have to do better than that.”

His eyes shuttered as he rose from behind his desk. “Don’t you trust me?”

I paused. “I do.”

“Then believe me when I say it’s nobody important.”

“You don’t look like it was nobody important.” When I’d come into the study, the strain had been clear in his body, and now I could see it in his face. I went to him and placed my hands on his chest. His heart pounded under my fingers, and I sighed. “You can tell me.”

He pulled away from me. “Go back to bed,” he said.

I frowned. “I don’t understand. Are we keeping secrets from each other?”