She rolled her eyes.“I guess I should be thankful for small mercies.She’ll flirt like hell with you when you’re my boyfriend, but deigns to tone it down when she knows you’re going to be my husband.”She huffed.“It’s a wonder she hasn’t come on to you, Shawn.She always knew how much I liked you.”
Shit.If the conversation could have gone anywhere, he’d have wished like fuck it hadn’t gone down that particular track.
Speechless for a moment, and utterly uncertain of what to say, he just kept quiet, hoping beyond hope that the conversation would veer off and head somewhere else.
When it didn’t, and when silence continued to overwhelm the cab, with it, a looming sense of rage from El’s part, he wished like fuckhecould roll into a ball and never come out.
This was not going to go down well.
“Shawn?”
Her voice was deadly.So cold, and so rammed with icicles, the single syllable sound of his name tore through him like a sharp dagger.
“Yeah?”he asked gruffly.
“Did she come onto you?”
The poisoned words had him tensing up behind the wheel.He pulled off onto the road that would take them to the compound, and with the traffic far less dense, caught her gaze in the mirror and said, “A few times.”
He could feel the other guys glancing at one another, wondering what the fuck was going on, and could understand why they were staying out of this.This was his war, not theirs.
It wasn’t them pushing him out into the cold because he was the odd one out.He knew that, so wasn’t offended.He just wished like hell they’d try to change the subject.
Although, maybe they sensed like he did that that wasn’t going to happen.
El had grabbed a hold of this particular topic and she wasn’t letting go.
“A few times?”she whispered softly, but it wasn’t out of a need to lower her voice.More like she couldn’t control the volume at all.
“Yes,” he confirmed roughly.He wouldn’t lie to her.Even if lies would serve him better.And there was no way that this conversation was ever going to go well.
“And did you act on those ‘few times’?”
Because the question was loaded with a world of hurt this time, not just female rage, he indicated to pull in and braked to a halt on the side of the road a mile or so away from the compound.
From his vantage point, he could even see the weird turret Pride House had atop its roof.The creepy tower reminded him of a fancied-up Gomez and Morticia Addams mansion.He half turned in his seat, using the wheel to keep him in place so he could see her, process her reaction.
The look in her eyes was something he’d never forget, and he wished like hell there was another answer he could give her, but the truth hurt for a reason and he didn’t want to start out this new section of their life with lies.
That is if this ‘section’ lasted once he revealed the truth.Of course, after what Ryan had showed him the other day, he knew what they had wasn’t something that could simply be thrown away.
Thanking God for that particular truth, he murmured, “Yes.”When she sucked in a sharp breath, he quickly stated, “It was a long time ago.”
“You think that makes it okay?”she demanded, her voice hoarse now.The betrayal etched onto her face felt like a knife to the heart.
“No, of course not, but it was a different time.I was a different person, El.You have to understand that.It was way back in the beginning.”
“You fucked my mom.You think something like that has an expiration date?”she spat.Then, shaking her head, she turned to Trip who was at her side and asked, “I need to get out of the SUV.”
Shawn’s eyes widened.“No!You have to stay in the car, El.For your own safety.I’ll get out.One of the others can come back for me.”
El sliced a hand through the air.“I need to get out of this SUV right this instant, and if you don’t fucking let me out, I’ll open the goddamn sunroof and climb out through there.”
The deadly hiss had him narrowing his eyes.“Then that’s what you’ll have to do.For your own safety, you have to stay in this vehicle.”
She let out a yell, one loaded with impotent rage, and reaching up, began to scrabble with the sunroof settings.
He reached over to stop her, trying to grab her hand to halt her foolishness, but when his fingers connected with her wrist, she let out a shriek.“Get your fucking hands off me!”
