It was time for the truth, and I was glad to have it out. Now he’d understand. Now he wouldn’t lust after me anymore. This … whatever weird situation we were in … would never happen again.
“Yes.”
“Is that why you won’t date?”
“Yes.”
Another long pause. I prepared for him to hang up on me without another word or explanation. He was a jerk, that much was certain, even if he was a handsome, good-looking jerk.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” he demanded. “Were you afraid I’d back off if you did?”
I considered that. “In the beginning, yes. I didn’t think we’d run into each other again. But now that we are running into each other more often, I did want to tell you. In fact, I was going to tell you over dinner. But—” I bit my tongue. I knew better than to bring up Cora’s sudden appearance into the conversation.
He was silent for a bit, and I was prepared for a hasty good-bye, and to perhaps never hear from him again.
“What’s your child’s name?” he asked, surprising me.
I hesitated, caught off guard by his unexpected question, before giving in. “Evie.”
“Well, is Evie’s dad in the picture?”
“It doesn’t matter, Jonah,” I said in a warning voice.
“It does matter,” he said, his voice a low rumble. “Because I’m not losing you again.”
“You’re impossible,” I said, my face heating with the sudden awareness that this man still wanted me. He knew I had a child, and he wasn’t running for the hills.
I was aware of my conflicting feelings. I was a mom who should have had her heart full with her daughter and her work, but was unfortunately still lusting after this man.
Lust, because there was no way a man like Jonah would have anything stable, sensible to offer me. He was wrong for me in more ways than I could count.
“Was it Evie’s father?” he persisted while I tried to hang up. “Who hurt you?”
I sucked in a breath. “I never said he hurt me.”
“Well, someone did. I’m asking you again, who hurt you? Who made you write off all men?”
My mind flashed back to Dylan. To the moments we had shared, laughing together, us as a happy family. But then it went dark, to Dylan isolating me from my friends, separating me from everyone. I swallowed. It had been the loneliest, hardest time of my life, where I felt like I could only depend on one man who had no time for me.
Tears pricked my eyes, and before I could sob, I pressed the button on my phone to hang up.
I ran my arm over my eyes, wiping away the traces of tears. I didn’t need Jonah asking me such questions. I didn’t need him making me relive the worst moments of my life.
I hated that guy for bringing those memories up. I hated him for thinking he knew me when, in reality, he lived in a cushy multimillion-dollar apartment with gold all around for all I knew, and would understand nothing about my life.
A few hours later, once Evie was in bed, a text message from Jonah lit up my screen.
I couldn’t help it. I read it.
JONAH
Tonight, I want you to do something that’s just for yourself. Not for Evie. Just for you. Take a warm bubble bath, light a few candles, and to help you relax, think of me.
He followed it up with a good-looking picture of himself. Taken at a beach recently, going by the looks of it. He was dressed in shorts, and was gazing off at the sunset. His face beautifully tanned and gorgeous, and he was shirtless, showing off those ripped muscles.
Ha.
The. Arrogant. Prick.
