The silence that followed shattered her ears. She gulped in dismay. But instead of feeling smug and triumphant at the stunned look in Jack’s eyes, she felt sick. It wasn’t the truth and nothing but the truth, after all.
She’d left out a few bits here and there—like how every inch of her skin still craved his touch, and that her heart’s wish was to be the one he wanted for longer than a night or two.
For once in his life, Jack didn’t know what to
say.
He hadn’t counted on hearing how she felt, or
what she thought of him.
The reason he came here no longer mattered. The truth in the words she’d just uttered wasn’t going away, although he could use the wave of a magic wand right now in dealing with this turmoil.
Jack stared at Keely, seeing clearly now the intelligent sparkle in her eyes beyond her glasses. How could he have been so clueless, not recognizing the curve of her face, her sweet mouth that bloomed so full beneath his kisses?
Had he been so self-absorbed that he’d missed out on her—a real woman—for all these months?
No longer did he just see desirability or loveliness. There was heart and passion there too, coloring the view and forcing him to take a hard look at his attitude toward women. Everything his way with the end result the same.
Not that you care, since you only ever want one thing from them.
What came so easily for him and always got.
Sex.
He cleared his throat. “So, let me get this
straight. You went through this charade to sleep with me? To get one over on me, somehow?”
“Yes,” she croaked. “No.”
“Can you be a little more specific?” he prodded, graveness shadowing his voice. He still had his pride. No longer a handy player in this wicked game of hers, he was a man wanting answers.
“You didn’t recognize me that night you walked back into the office, Jack. I went along with it, thinking that we’d never meet again. It got out of control, and we wound up having s-sex.”
“And that was all you wanted from me? Sex…?” He shook his head. “Dumb question. After all, your game limited you to private, dark-lit spaces and nothing more. Isn’t that right?”
“Y-Yes.” Her lie sounded clunky and awkward. “It was just sex…”
“Well it was more than just sex to me,” he calmly told her through the chaos rioting in his mind. He remembered her limp, near unconscious body in his car earlier that day—and re-lived the shocked instant he knew that his secretary had been his dream lover all along.
“Really? I’d never have guessed, Jack. It’s not like I’ve seen you give any woman in your life cause to think otherwise,” she confessed, her chin trembling.
Jack couldn’t argue her point, or her perception.
She was right. It was true, all of it. But once…
Once, he’d given a woman cause to expect more, much more. It had brought him to a church where he’d waited for his bride to show up. He’d waited and waited.
At least he didn’t wait alone. Three hundred wedding guests waited right along with him, as the minutes yawned on with a no-show bride. Jack had faced the inevitable alone, and announced that the wedding was off. He hadn’t even had the support of his best man to do the dirty work. His best man had been a no-show, too…
He should just walk away right now with his pride intact, Jack thought, but knew pride would be all he had if he did. That, and his pride wouldn’t be worth shit if Keely walked away from him. Not that he’d blame her. She’d puzzled him out, teased him, played with his mind, his body.
His heart.
Every male nerve he owned throbbed with temptation to take her in his arms and kiss her senseless, but that would be selfish. The typical brash, bold thing she would expect from him. Not that it would work now on the woman who stood before him—flustered and hurt.
Would she even want more from him now? He wondered, feeling a twisting ache in his gut at the thought that she very well might not. That he might have read her wrong, after all.
He hauled in a breath. No way to find out but to lay it on the line and let her choose.
“Keely,” he reached out for her hands clenched at her sides. He gathered them in his hands with little resistance.
“Keely, I’m sorry…I have been a complete and total creep. I can’t excuse my behavior of the past, but if you let me, I can show you a better man starting right now.”
She shook her head, and Jack could see the glint of tears in her eyes behind her glasses. “You have to know, Jack, I’m not one of those women who try to change a man. You need to be you, but I…I need to be me, now. I quit.”
Jack exhaled a stunned breath, like his lungs had just been hit from behind. But this was what she wanted.
This was her choice.
“Okay. If that’s what makes you happy,” he said, his voice soft with sincerity even as his mind fought against the blow.
He lifted her hands to his lips and kissed the back of each one in turn before letting them go.
“May I?” he asked, touching her eyeglass frames.
She nodded, looking a little unsure but she didn’t resist when he tugged the glasses from her face.
“Look at me,” he gently commanded. She tilted her face up, and Jack smiled into her eyes. No chunky frames obscured the view. He admired her nerve and sass before placing a lingering kiss on her forehead and breathing in her essence for what might be the last time.
“I hope,” he said as he drew back, “that you won’t feel you need to use these around me anymore.” He gave her back her glasses. She stared at them in her trembling hand, then back up at him. “But for the record, I think you’re beautiful either way,” he said, and turned to go. He was three steps to the door when she called out his name.