Page 45 of A Lesson for Laurel

“She didn’t, but she did like to go out. We did at times. My best friend and his wife live in town. We spent a lot of time withLiam and Nicole. I work with Nicole. I’m the one who set her up with Liam.”

“I don’t picture you the type to set people up.”

“That’s another story.”

“We’ll get to it another time then,” she said.

“I thought things were fine with Rachelle.”

“Fine isn’t a good word to use in a relationship,” she said. “Just saying. Not from a woman’s point of view.”

“I learned that too,” he said.

“Did she want that ring and you weren’t moving fast enough?”

“That was part of it,” he said. “I didn’t feel the urge to buy it yet.”

“Ouch,” she said. “That hurts.”

He didn’t need to hear that either.

“She met someone else,” he said. “Someone to give her what I couldn’t.”

“That makes more sense. I want to say we’ve got that in common too, but it’s not like I wasn’t giving Philip sex and that is all he was getting out of those women. I’m not into kink, but I do enjoy sex so I don’t think there was much to complain about. Or that could be me being cocky too.”

He felt a rush of blood to his cock over the statement she’d made about enjoying sex.

“I’m willing to bet Philip was more into being spoiled and getting what he wanted when he wanted it.”

“There was that. I think if I didn’t put my foot down at times, he’d be a selfish lover. I guess that is part of it. He might have done that with those hookups but didn’t want to with me.”

He’d process those words at another time when it didn’t turn him on as much.

“As for Rachelle. She claims she didn’t sleep with Connor. They were coworkers. Going into the office, they’d flirt and he’dtell her the things she wanted to hear. Things I didn’t say or do. Not sure. She told me she was falling in love with him and didn’t want to hurt me.”

“One of those emotional things?”

“Yes. Since they are engaged now, I guess it was more than a passing thing for her. She got what she wanted. She said she saved me the embarrassment of cheating.”

“Okay,” she said.“NowI’m pissed. Internally though I felt for you and what you went through, I understand that sometimes you can’t control your heart and I thought maybe she felt she was doing the right thing. But to say she did it to save you. Nope. Bitch.”

He burst out laughing. “I thought the same thing when she said that. It was to save her guilt. My feeling is, if she was that unhappy with me, she should have said it. She didn’t. She used that as an excuse to fall for someone else.”

“I see it the same way.”

“And there you go. You know all about my ex too.”

“I’m sure I don’t know it all just like you don’t know it all with me either. But we’ll get there. Not a bad third date. Tools, pizza, and confessions.”

“You’re one of a kind,” he said.

“Hopefully that is a good thing,” she said, grinning at him.

“One of the best.”

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SORDID PASTS

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