“You’re a… friend,” he finally said, as if it was a struggle to come up with why he should care.
Friend? That was news to her. “I don’t recall us ever being friends.”
“You’re the sister of a friend, so that makes you a friend.”
And what was she before, when he had been sliding his tongue down her throat four years ago?
Chapter 3
“Friend,” she repeated. The word replayed over and over again in her head like a carousel.‘What man could desire you? Look at you, all frigid.’ Do you remember saying that to me? Because I do.” Fiona pulled from his grip. She couldn’t stand him touching her. “Friends don’t say hurtful words like that to each other. You are no friend of mine. I’ll deal with this on my own, thank you very much.” She’d rather be homeless on the streets than take help from him. He had hurt her and humiliated her. She would never trust this man again.
Vincent winced at her harsh words. “You will never know how sorry I am for saying those things, Fiona.”
“Enough,” Fiona snapped, pushing out of the seat. She couldn’t stand his nearness. She didn’t want to hear his honeyed lies and excuses of why he tore her poor heart apart years ago and stomped on it before leaving without a backward glance. “I told you I don’t want to talk about that night.” She turned away from him so he couldn’t see the tears burning in her eyes.
So many nights wasted crying over his words. She was stronger than that now. She had gone through hell and back to get over this man, yet here she was, back at square one, allowing him to still affect her. Would she ever get over him? It was a question she was afraid of the answer to. As much as she hated him, she still desired him. How could you hate someone yet still find them attractive?
Fiona gasped when she felt Vincent come up behind her, touching her arms. His touch sent electric currents that traveled from her arms through the rest of her body and were impossible to ignore. When she was angry earlier, it had been easy to ignore, now she was feeling vulnerable. Her body unable to block how good it felt to be in his arms again. Like a dream she didn’t want to wake from.
“I never meant what I said to you,” he whispered.
Wait, what? Fiona turned her head, afraid to face him fully. “What did you say?”
His eyes bore into her. The green in his hazel eyes vibrant, pulsing, captivating her. “That night when I kissed you. I didn’t mean anything I said that night. I lied and I’m sorry.”
Fiona couldn’t breathe. He lied. She didn’t know whether to laugh or punch him. Again. Probably both. This man had caused her untold pain with his careless words, and he didn’t mean them, and he apologized now, four years later. Fiona turned fully to face him. “What do you mean you lied?” She wanted a clear understanding.
“I didn’t want you getting any ideas in your head about a future between us just because we kissed.”
“So you said all those deplorable things to me so I would hate you.” Fiona wasn’t buying the shit he was selling.
Vincent nodded. “But that’s not how I think of you.”
This just kept getting better and better. “Oh no? So you don’t think I’m young andnaïve. That I’m frigid and wouldn’t know how to please a man.” She fired back his venomous words that had destroyed her young heart.If he thought she would just forgive and forget with a half-ass apology and a “I lied so you didn’t get any feelings for me,” he had another thing coming. His apology was four years too late.
When she had met Vincent years ago, she thought all those secret glances they had shared had meant something. That when he finally kissed her it was because he desired her. That maybe he could be scared of what he felt for his friend’s sister. Some unspoken bro-code. She had tried reasoning with herself why he would be so sweet before and become another person after their kiss. She wanted to think his admitting what he said was a lie was because he desired her but was trying to protect her, but now she didn’t know what to think.
“You were so young. You still are. I was trying to protect you,” he defended.
“I’m twenty-four. I’m hardly the child you’re always accusing me of being, needing protection.”
“Compared to my thirty-three, you are young. I have almost a decade on you. I’m older and wiser.”
“Age is a number; it doesn’t mean anything. I’ve heard of people together that have more than a decade between them and it doesn’t affect their relationship.” If she could have bitten off her tongue she would have. Why was she trying to argue with him? It didn’t matter what he thought of her. She wanted nothing to do with him.
“I told you before, a relationship between us can’t work.” His tone hardened again. His early concern about her safety momentarily forgotten.
“Who said anything about us? I don’t even like you.”
Vincent smiled at her knowingly. “Your lips say one thing.” His index finger stroked her jaw. Those electric currents coursed through her again. “But your body says otherwise.”
“My body?” she asked, her brain unable to keep up with the conversation it had nearly shut down, focusing on his finger stroking her face. She would pull away any second, she promised herself. It was just the first time she had been touched in a long time and she wanted to savor it.
“Your eyes soften, especially when I touch you. Your nipples are hard, straining against your shirt. I bet if I touched you down there, you’d be wet.”
Fiona was panting listening to him describe what her body was doing. He was right about all of it. She was soaking wet for him, not that she would ever admit it out loud. She watched, captivated, as his eyes lowered to her lips. He had done the same thing when he kissed her before. Her chin tilted up involuntarily as his lips lowered. He was just a hairsbreadth away when she came back to her senses.
This was the man who said mean things to her for “her own good.” He didn’t want her. She was just another conquest to him. Never again. Fiona stepped back until there was a good four feet of space between them. “No.”
