Deacon had never talked about his marriage with Emily or the reason it fell apart, but she’d always wondered, had guessed it had to be something pretty bad for Deacon to be so closed off about it, especially with his sisters. “What happened?”
He released a shaky breath. “It’s kind of hard to get a hard-on over a woman who lies about being pregnant to get you back, manipulating you into marrying her because she knows the pain and guilt you felt when your mother left…that because I’d opened my mouth, told my father what I’d seen, my sisters grew up without their mother. She knew I wouldn’t want that for my own child.” He shoved both hands in his pockets. “I told her, you see, about you and me.”
Alex stood frozen, struggling to take it all in.
“She called that morning, the morning after you gave yourself to me.” His voice shook on the last word, so much longing in his gaze, she struggled for breath. “I told her that she had to stop calling, that I was in love with you. She broke down, told me she was pregnant. After that, after she told me she was carrying my child…” He shook his head. “I didn’t think I had any other choice. So I went back to her. And fuck, leaving you that day…it was the hardest thing I’ve ever done.” His nostrils flared. “I found out months later there was no baby, never had been. I told her we were through.”
Alex was stunned. How could Emily do that to him? Lie and scheme like that? “What happened?” she whispered.
“She threatened to kill herself if I left. If I told anyone what she’d done. Convinced me she’d fall apart if I didn’t stay. I planned to leave when she was better, but every time I thought she was doing okay, that finally I could leave, she’d relapse. I was stuck in that nightmare for four years.
“Then I caught her in bed with Steve—another ploy, this time an attempt to make me jealous, to get our relationship back. It blew up in her face. I left.”
“Oh my God.” He’d been through hell because of that selfish bitch.
“It gets worse. I found out yesterday there’s nothing wrong with her, there never was. She’s been manipulating me all these years. Her family cut her off after what happened between us, and she was biding her time with Steve until I wised up and took her back. She used her fake illness to keep me tied to her.” He held Alex’s gaze. “But you threw a monkey wrench in the works and screwed up her plan to win me back. So she pulled the suicide card again. That’s why I was with her, why I couldn’t tell you what was going on. I was afraid what she’d do—that she’d harm herself. She gave me no other choice. I was trying to convince her to get the help I thought she needed.”
He moved in then, brushing her hair over her shoulder, cupping the side of her neck, gently moving his thumb along her jaw. “I’ve loved you since that first time, Alex.” He shook his head. “No. If I’m honest, long before then. But you were still so young, and I knew you weren’t ready for what I wanted with you. Then I broke up with Emily, and as soon as I saw you again, I knew I had to have you, that I couldn’t wait any longer.”
Her head was spinning. He loved her. He had always loved her. “What about blackmailing me into your bed?”
“You don’t trust easily, Alex, and I’d already hurt you. I didn’t know how else to get you to give me another chance, to spend time with me, to let me love you like you deserved.”
“You were never going to sell this place?”
He shook his head and pulled out his cell phone, opened his text messages, and showed her a reply from David Cannon.
Thanks for the referral. My car looks amazing.
“You sent Mr. Cannon to us?”
“No.” He shook his head. “I referred him; the decision was his. I barely know the man, so this wasn’t a favor to me. We aren’t business associates. I just met him through a friend.”
“He’s not the first, is he?”
He shook his head. “I believe in you, in this place.”
She sucked in a breath, the lump clogging her throat suddenly escaping on a giant sob. All the emotion she’d held back over the last few days—the last few years—came rushing forward. She had no hope of holding it back. She shook her head. “No Emily?”
“No Emily.” He ran his thumb over her lower lip.
“And you…you love me?”
“Yes, I love you. So fucking much,” he choked.
Her body started to tremble so hard her legs felt weak. He pulled her into his arms, hands going to her butt. He lifted her off the ground, and she wrapped her legs around his waist, arms circling his neck. Hot tears streamed down her face and soaked into his shirt.