Page 114 of Master of My Heart

“I’m not letting you walk alone at night. It’s dangerous.” He was annoyingly calm.

“I’m fine.”

Chase arched a brow.

She turned and started walking away. When he began following her again, she stopped and clenched her teeth. “Leave me alone.”

“Sabrina, I don’t understand what happened.” He turned her to face him. “We were having a good time, right? I thought you were enjoying yourself. Weren’t you?”

She looked down at the ground. “You don’t want to marry me.”

“What? How can you say what I want or don’t want?”

She looked up at him. “You don’t know what I am. Just forget about me. It’s better that way.”

“Better for who?”

“For you.”

“How can you decide what’s better for me? What do you think you’ve done that’s so bad?”

She shook her head and turned away, trying not to cry. “If I take a taxi home, will you leave me alone?”

He didn’t answer right away. “Okay.” She heard Chase sigh, then he stepped to the curb, waving his hand in the air. A taxi pulled up a minute later. He opened the back door, but grabbed her elbow before she could get in. “Why won’t you tell me what’s going on?”

The anguish on his face made her heart break, but the disgust that would be there if she told him the truth would be much worse. “It’s better this way,” she whispered and tried to pull her arm away.

He released her and leaned in to talk to the driver. She heard him give her address, then saw him hand over a wad of cash. “Make sure she gets home safely.” Chase straightened and stood tall, like a soldier, as the taxi pulled away from the curb.

Then she burst into tears.

*****

Chase clenched his jaw as he watched the yellow cab drive away. His mind tried to grasp what had happened to upset Sabrina. He always believed honesty was the best policy and didn’t want her to think he was just playing with her. He wanted her to know that he was playing for keeps. He thought it would give her some semblance of security, but somehow, it had backfired. And he couldn’t figure out why.

He pulled his phone out of his pocket.

“Date over already?” Jayson laughed when he answered.

“Yeah,” Chase said soberly as he walked back toward the car.

“Woah.” Jayson’s laugh died instantly. “What happened?”

Chase ran his hands through his hair. “Honestly? I have absolutely no idea.” He leaned against the cold car and recounted the date up to the point where she got into the taxi and drove away. “Any ideas?”

“I think you scared her.”

“How?”

Jayson sighed. “She’s got some hang-up about being good enough for, well, anyone. When she’s feeling bad, she always calls herself a whore. Thinking about good stuff seems to trigger it. When she found out about you, she said you wouldn’t want her, but she never told me what she’d done that was so bad.”

“I don’t understand her.”

“Neither do I. Give her some time. I’ll talk to her when she gets home and see if I can get anything out of her.”

“I thought we were having a really good time,” Chase said, opening the car door and getting in.

“Home, sir?” Rafael asked as he looked in the rearview mirror. Chase nodded.

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