Riley took a cleansing breath and blew it out slowly.
“That’s my girl.”
His cajoling tone and the dumb double dimples he flashed her had some of the rage draining from her body. His wet, naked body on top of hers didn’t hurt either.
Stupid lust.
“Now, what in the hell would make you think I’d abandon you for Beth? Or Sesame. I mean, sure, she’s got a bigger rack than Beth did, but—my god, woman—were you not in the room when she confessed to lying about everything since birth?”
“You’ve been obsessed with her since I met you.”
Nick shifted his weight so he could look up at the ceiling as if he was the wronged party. “You’re kidding me right now, right?”
“Do I look like I’m kidding you?”
“Not really,” he admitted. “I’ve been obsessed withfindingher. There’s a difference.”
“Explain it to me,” Riley demanded. “And while you’re at it, explain to me why Kellen is destroyed over this and you’re just-won-the-Super-Bowl happy.”
“Because I didn’t fuck up.”
“I’m pretty certain that’s a false statement,” she countered.
“No, Thorn. I didn’t fuck up and get Beth abducted or ‘disappeared’ or murdered. Her leaving had nothing to do with me. She met a guy who burned down a warehouse. Tale as old as time.”
“Yeah. It’s a real meet-cute,” she said dryly.
“I didn’t miss any signs. I didn’t misread a threat. I didn’t put her in harm’s way.Ididn’t fuck up.”
“You’re telling me you spent all this time blaming yourself and you thought the only way you could fix it would be to find her. But now that you know the truth, you realize it was never your fault in the first place,” she said.
“Bingo.”
“Well,why didn’t you say so, Santiago?” The only part of her body that wasn’t pinned down by freshly showered man was her feet, which she kicked enthusiastically against the mattress.
“Why are you mad again? I was all vulnerable and shit just now.”
“I’ll tell you why,” she sputtered.
“I’m all ears, sweetheart.”
“Because you made me feel unsafe.”
Nick went still on top of her.
“What?”
“I felt unsafe. And not just because I spent the last forty-eight hours worried you were trying to protect Sesame from me, but also because you were in love with her and her admittedly magnificent boobs.”
He went still and serious. “I’m not the mind reader in this relationship. Explain.”
“I lost everything when I divorced Griffin. My job. My home. My car. Everything. And then I fell in love with you, and everything was great while there were murders to solve, but the second you found out Beth wasn’t dead, you put it all on hold.”
“I had to find out what happened,” he said.
“I know that. I get that. But I went all in on you. I work for you. I bought a house with you. We’re sharing a life, and you put that life at risk without so much as discussing it with me. Now all I can think about is that I jumped in too fast, and it’s all going to come crashing down on me again. And another thing—”
“There’s more?”
