Trask opened and closed his mouth like a beached fish.
How did he respond to that?
After a moment’s thought, he made up his mind.
She’d been bluntly honest, so he would too.
“My brothers and I have been bickering for years, so nothing, not even you, will ever drive a wedge between us. Which means I wouldn’t be taking any of my…irritation out on them.”
“But youwouldtake it out on me. Is that what you’re saying?”
Why had her voice dropped into a suggestive register?
Oh, fuck. Was she referencing his…heavy-handedness? His need to dominate in bed? He thought maybe he’d escaped that conversation for the time being, but clearly he’d been dead wrong.
The situation, now laid out on the table, needed to be addressed.
“About that.” He cleared his throat. “I’m…sorry it happened.”
“Nice apology, but I call bullcrap,” Jett returned, a scold apparent in her tone. “You’re not sorry it happened, and neither am I.”
“You’re not?” Nowhisvoice seemed to have lost an octave.
“Duh,” she responded, and he could almost see her eyes rolling. “I loved every minute of what we did, and you know it. The only thing that pissed me off, is that you stopped.”
It had been the same for him, but…
Trask needed to reset Jett’s expectations where he was concerned.
Hedidwant more of that with her, for sure, but he couldn’t let her know that. She’d made him tip so far off center, he wasn’t willing to risk having any more intense, physical encounters with her.
Never, in all his years, had Trask given a woman power over him, and he feared that Jett would be the one who broke that streak if he let her in.
Not happening.
If he said, instead, that he’d ended their encounter because he just wasn’t feeling it, she’d be hurt, but it would make her back the hell off.
And that’s just what he needed.
He could taste the lie, bitter on his tongue as he began. “I hate to say this, but I actually stopped because?—"
“Because you were scared,” she interjected with a certainty that had Trask reeling.
“Wha…?” he stumbled, but regrouped immediately. “No. I wasnotscared. I was…” He had to make this good. “…underwhelmed. Listen. I knew you’d take it badly if I said I wasn’t feeling things with you, but I didn’t want you to be hurt. So I decided to use the excuse that we were both tired from our long day, and that the reason things got out of hand was mind-fog on my part. Which is my way of saying that I wanted to let you down easily. That seems to have gone poorly. So I’m sorry. I’m sorry if I made you question yourself. That wasn’t my intent in pulling away.”
“Whatwasyour intent?” she asked, a little too astutely.
He huffed. “I just told you. To make you believe that the whole…thing that happened was because of a brain freeze instead of incompatibility. And to hope that once you came to grips with that, we could move forward and have you agree to work for Diver Downeast. Even if you decided you hated my guts,” he ended.
“Trask, can you hold on for a moment please?” she asked sweetly.
“Uh, sure.”
Ahh, hell. This wasn’t even close to any response he’d been imagining.
He heard the phone hit the ground with a thud, then…
Clap, clap, clap.
