Page 27 of 7 Nights of Sin

But when I glanced up again, Kevin was smiling at me, flashing those dimples, and I put the menu down with a snap.

"What?"

“What?” he echoed, head tipped to one side.

I fought the urge to scowl. He got under my skin something terrible, but I didn’t have to let him know that. I could be neutral about it all. I could.

“You’re staring at me,” I said, and I softened my tone.

He snorted. “You’ve got to be used to that by now, Caro. You’re beautiful.”

Dammit. I could feel my cheeks getting hot. I never handled compliments well. It wasn’t the sort of thing I was used to in the office, since most of the men I worked with only saw me as a woman when it came to keeping me from making upward progress. In the whole time I’d worked for the firm, none of my coworkers had ever awkwardly hit on me. Which was a blessing, but it left me flustered whenever someone else did it.

I picked up my menu again and tried to stare at it, but the words weren't going in. I was just too aware of him and the flush on my face and the way my heart was beating faster and how much I hated it.

"You seem tense," Kevin commented, and I huffed a breath.

"I'm fine." That did come out sounding snappish, but there wasn't much I could do about that. My hackles were up, and of course we couldn't even have a nice dinner together without things getting in the way. It was probably stupid to have thought that we could.

"Can I ask you something?" he said, and then barreled on before I could answer. "What did I do? To make you hate me so much? Or to piss you off or whatever. Every single time we're in the same room you get like this, and I know you well enough to know you're not always like this."

"You don't know me," I muttered.

He frowned. "It's been a while, but you haven't changed that much."

"And neither have you," I snapped. "You're still the same self-centered jackass that you were before." I kept my voice lowered, not trying to make a scene in the fancy restaurant because that would undo plenty of the progress we'd made, and I didn't want to get dragged into the media circus as one of Kevin's conquests or whatever. "You only think about yourself. You always have."

When I looked at him, he had a slightly hurt look on his face, and I rolled my eyes. I wasn't believing that. He was just trying to manipulate my emotions. To make me believe that he was some soft, wounded thing, when really he was the reason for whatever problems we were having.

"What are you talking about?" he asked.

I stared at him for a second and then shook my head. "I'm talking about how you don't care who you hurt as long as you get your own way. As long as you can be happy, fuck everyone else, right? You know what you did."

"I don't," he insisted.

And that was the last straw. My temper broke, and I put both hands on the table like I was about to use it for leverage to get up and walk the hell out.

"You broke my heart," I hissed. And it was the first time I'd ever said it out loud. Every time I had cause to tell the story, I always downplayed it, made it sound like it had been just a blip on my radar.

Honestly, if he wasn't back in my life, reminding me of what happened with everything he did, then I might have been able to leave it buried.

I searched his face for a hint of emotion. For some shred of remorse or understanding. But he just looked confused.

"I just did what I thought was best," he said. "For both of us. You had dreams, too. You had just as many goals as I did. You were going to do the same thing."

For a second I just gaped at him, unable to make his words make sense in my head. I was going to do the same thing? He actually thought that I was going to do the same fucking thing?

"No, I wasn't," I said. "I was...I can't believe you..." My voice shook as I tried to get the words out. "I was driving myself crazy trying to think of how to keep you. How to make sure we both got what we wanted out of life without losing each other. Because that's how much you meant to me, you fucking asshole. I wanted you. I..."

I shook my head. I wasn't going to say it. He didn't deserve to hear it.

Then it was his turn to gape at me, mouth slightly open, and eyes wide. He just stared for a long moment, and then all of a sudden, I couldn't be there anymore.

My stomach was roiling, and the thought of eating just made me feel nauseous.

"I can't do this," I said, getting up and gathering my things. "I'm not hungry anymore."

I expected Kevin to say something, to ask me to wait, to want to talk it out, but he just sat there, still looking like someone had hit him across the head with a bat, so I walked out, leaving him behind.

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