I hurt you...I’m sorry...I crave you...
With each word, her heart had cracked open wider, until she’d been as raw as his voice had been.
As raw as she was now...
The need to run from her thoughts was very tempting. Giving in, she activated her returned phone. Several voice and text messages flooded into her inbox.
Three were from the same number. One she didn’t recognise but suspected its origin.
She answered Annie’s query as to when she would be returning and declined her invitation to a girls’ night out when she was back from the West Coast. She wasn’t ready to face anyone yet, least of all her perceptive roommate, when her emotions felt as if they’d been through a shredder.
The second message was from her mother, asking her to get in touch. She tensed as she listened to the message again. On the surface, it sounded innocuous, a mother asking after her child. But she heard the undercurrents in her mother’s voice and the hairs on her neck stood up. The other messages forgotten, she played the message a third time.
‘What’s wrong?’ Narciso’s deep voice cut across her flailing emotions.
‘Nothing.’
‘Ruby.’
She glanced at him, and her heart lurched. ‘Don’t look at me like that.’
‘Like what?’
‘Like you care.’
‘I care,’ he stated simply.
She sucked in a breath. ‘How can you? You told me there was nothing beneath the surface, remember?’
She knew she was probably overreacting but the thought that her mother was reaching out to her because her father had in all likelihood had another affair made her stomach clench in anger and despair.
But unlike the numerous times before when she’d been angry with her parent, Ruby was realising just how harshly she’d misjudged her mother.
From the cocoon of self-righteousness, it’d been easy to judge, to see things in black and white. But having experienced how easy it was to lose control beneath the charisma and magnetism of a powerful man, how could she judge her mother?
Sure, she was aware that part of the reason her mother had stuck around was because she craved the fame that came with being part of a power couple. But Ruby also knew, deep down, her mother could be a success on her own.
A strong, warm hand curled over hers. Her gaze flew up to collide with silver eyes. ‘I know what I said but I want to know what’s going on anyway.’
His concern burrowed deep and found root in her heart. ‘My mother left me a message to call her.’
He nodded. ‘And this is troubling?’
‘Yes. Normally she emails. She only calls me when something...bad happens.’
‘Define bad.’
‘My father...sleeping with a sous chef, or a waitress, or a member of their filming crew. That kind of bad.’
He swore. ‘And she calls you to unburden?’