Heat Wave(82)

“God,” he says, licking up my neck, a slow, languid pace to my ear that makes me shiver. “Don’t talk like that.” His hand slips down the side of my waist, down to the front of my work pants and starts sliding underneath the waistband.

“I think I’m supposed to make you a famous meal,” I manage to say.

“I think you’re my meal.”

I put my hand at his chest and push him back an inch. “I’m serious. I made something tonight that you’re going to be proud of.”

He cocks his head, studying me. “I already am proud of you.”

“How so?”

He gives me a lopsided grin that makes him look boyish. “You don’t realize what you’ve done here. Or maybe you do. I don’t know. I know I’ve been giving you a hard time since you arrived.”

“You can say that again.”

Now he’s full on beaming. “I’ve been giving you a hard time,” he repeats. “And it’s about to get harder.”

I laugh. “Okay, you are the worst at innuendo.”

“I know. But I am serious. I’m proud of you.”

I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone tell me they were proud of me, not like this. I try and brush it off but the fact is, it hits deep. It hits in a place I never thought possible. Tears are springing to my fucking eyes. All those years, all those years of just needing someone to believe in me and having no one, no one in my corner at all. You grow up thinking that your family will be the ones to believe in you but that’s not the case at all. Your family might be the first ones rooting for you to fail.

“Hey,” Logan says softly, brushing away the tears from my eyes. “What’s wrong?”

I shake my head, looking away.

“Ronnie,” he says and the sound of my nickname makes my heart soar. “Please.”

I take in a deep breath. “It’s nothing. It’s stupid.”

“Hey,” he warns, his eyes turning hard and glinting.

I sigh. “I’ve never had anyone tell me they were proud of me.”

He seems stunned. “Never?”

“Never,” I admit. “I mean, I never really thought about it until you told me. It didn’t seem to matter what I did, it’s just that no one seemed to care. And, contrary to popular belief, I did do things that were worthy. At least I thought so. But…no one noticed.”

He doesn’t say anything for a moment. “I’m sorry,” he says, voice throaty as he runs his thumb over my lips. “I’m sorry that no one has ever seen how special, how beautiful you are. You need to know that the moment I saw you…I couldn’t forget you.”

I know I should just take the compliment and move on but I can’t. I stare up at him. “Then why did you marry her? Why did she steal you away from me that day?”

He closes his eyes briefly, breathing out of his nose. “I was a fool.”

“It’s that simple?”

He nods, looking me dead in the eye, washed with regret. “Sometimes there isn’t some elaborate story why two people end up together. I was…dumb. Thinking with my dick.” I grimace. “Sorry. And I bloody hate talking about this, you know. Because…I was blind. I saw your sister and she was beautiful.”

“Thanks.”

“Veronica,” he whispers. “You know more than anyone the ability she had to blind people. You’re a million times more beautiful, gorgeous, real and everything, and I knew that. I knew that when I saw you and I knew that you would take me on a ride. I knew that if I had left that bloody party with you our lives would have been turned upside down. In the best possible way. And I wasn’t ready for that. I was so business-minded. I could only think about the hotel, about getting it off the ground. I was blind to everything else but my ambition. And I saw Juliet and that way she had, that way she tricks people. She made me believe that I would rise to the top with her. And I fell for it. Somehow she fell for me.”

I can’t help but look away.

“You know I don’t like talking about it,” he says. “But it’s the truth. By the time we were married, it was too late. I was in too deep. And little by little, day by day, I started realizing the woman I was married to wasn’t at all like I thought. It was like she was hiding every aspect of herself until she had me and only then she came out. You have no idea, Ronnie, no idea.” He pauses. “I don’t think she was trying to trick me. She wasn’t…duplicitous, like the plumeria flowers. It wasn’t like that. It was just a case of hiding your true colors. She was afraid to be real.”