Priceless(35)

“So I can never tell about the night you spent in the arms of a woman who isn’t some glamorous model or sexy actress,” she said, exposing a hint of vulnerability. She’d been attacked by self-doubt almost from the second he’d left her room. It was running rampant now.

Mack regarded her with disbelief. “Are you crazy? Believe me, letting the world know I slept with a brilliant, dedicated doctor would probably do more for my reputation than you can imagine. This is something worth bragging about, not hiding.” He grinned. “Not that I will, of course.”

Beth faltered at his acknowledgment that he wasn’t ashamed of the time they’d spent together. She hadn’t gone looking for any kind of compliment, but she was ridiculously pleased that he’d offered one.

“How?” she asked, unable to resist pursuing it.

“People might finally accept that I have half a brain.”

She’d never considered that one aspect of his football and playboy celebrity might mean that people didn’t take him seriously. She should have, too. Until she’d gotten to know him, wasn’t that how she’d seen him, as a mental lightweight with few scruples? Not even his law degree was that impressive, since he wasn’t using it. On some level she’d wondered if he hadn’t cruised through law school simply because of who he was. Thankfully she’d never said such a thing. Her cheeks still burned when she thought of the comments he’d overheard her making the first time he’d come to the hospital to meet Tony.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “I never looked at all the gossip from your point of view.”

He shrugged. “Why would you? It’s not as if I ever shied away from it. The image worked for me.”

“How so?”

“Because if I ever let anyone take me too seriously—any woman, that is—I might have to deal with real emotions,” he said easily.

The comment and his tone were fair warning. Beth couldn’t mistake the message he was sending. “Last night didn’t give me any expectations where you’re concerned,” she reassured him, surprised by just how empty those words made her feel. “It was nothing more than two people who were hurting reaching out for each other.”

Mack’s gaze lingered on hers, his expression wary. “And you don’t have a problem with that?”

She forced herself to shrug. “Why would I?”

“I just thought you might,” he said.

“Hey, it was no big deal, Mack. Nothing you need to worry about.”

He nodded slowly. “Good to know.”

Beth expected to see relief in his eyes, to hear it in his voice, but it wasn’t there. In fact, if her imagination wasn’t playing tricks on her, what she heard instead was disappointment.

Or maybe she was merely projecting, because right this second she felt more of an emotional letdown than she’d ever felt in her life. If she weren’t so late, she’d sit right here and try to figure out why.

Then again, the prospect of spending one more second with Mack right now, when she was feeling totally vulnerable and exposed, was too much to bear.

“Gotta run,” she said, taking one last bite of toast, then standing up. “Lock up when you leave.”

Before Mack could even react, she grabbed her purse and keys and tore out the door. She wanted to be safely in her car and on the road before the first traitorous tear fell.





Chapter Eight




Mack sat at Beth’s kitchen table for a very long time after she’d gone, staring into space, trying to figure out why, after such an incredible night, he felt so damned lousy. Surely it wasn’t because he’d been honest with her, warned her not to make too much of what had happened between them. He’d had the same conversation dozens of times with dozens of women. It was a part of his spiel, as routine as the flirting that came second nature to him. It usually filled him with relief to know that things had been clarified.

But Beth was not in the same sophisticated, blasé league as all those women. They knew the score from the moment Mack met them, understood the rules going in and accepted them. In fact, they had rules of their own about the level of emotional attachment they were interested in pursuing…or not pursuing.

With Beth, despite that brave, nonchalant front she’d put on, he felt as if he’d just kicked a friendly puppy. There had been a brittle edge to her voice, the slightest hint that she might suddenly shatter if pushed. And in those expressive eyes of hers, he’d seen the faint shadow of genuine hurt.

For the first time in a very long time, Mack wasn’t proud of himself and his brand of so-called honesty. He saw it as the cop-out it was, a way to extricate himself from guilt over doing whatever the hell he wanted to do. Something told him if his aunt ever found out about this encounter, she’d tear a strip out of his hide for treating Beth in such a cavalier way. Not that Destiny was likely to berate him any more than he was berating himself at the moment.