Page 29 of His Off-Limits Christmas Gift

“Huh?”

“She turned on the waterworks, saying she heard that I was cheating. In hindsight, I think she saw that colleague talking to me and guessed that he might have spotted her cheating on our wedding night. I don’t know. Whatever motivated her, she toldeveryonethat I was a cheater.”

When she stared at me, unmoving, I rushed to add, “I didn’t. I wasn’t. I could never cheat.”

She blinked. “No. I wasn’t thinking that. I was just… picturing it. My God.”

“That wasn’t the worst of it.”

“What could’ve been worse than that? Being lied to, accused. In front of so many people…”

“My colleague, who had the video? He’d gotten it from the man she was sleeping with.He’dtaped it on purpose, and my colleague got ahold of it. He was so upset with her accusing me that he aired the damn video on the screen.”

She gasped and covered her mouth again.

“So there she was… in graphic detail, on our wedding night…” I shook my head, hating to even talk about it. “It was awful for her to lie and accuse me of cheating. But then towitness the evidence of her doing it? It was, hands down, one of the worst nights of my life.”

“And now you just have to repeat that night every year.”

“Yeah. The same venue. Same people and crowd.” I shrugged.

“Damn.” She shook her head. “No wonder you don’t want to go alone.”

“And it shouldn’t be any wonder that I haven’t moved on for years afterward. She hurt me,” I admitted plainly.

“I can see that.” She took my hand and squeezed my fingers. It didn’t feel like a show of pity, but of sympathy. Of support. “I know how it feels. Being dumped is bad, but in a public setting? That’s cruel.”

“Yours was at Thanksgiving. Mine was at Christmas.”

“It hasn’t been long, not six years, but I know how it feels to move on from an ex. At first, you can’t.”

“I can’t say it’sat firstfor me anymore. I doubt I’ll ever be committed to a woman like I was with Yasmin for a long time.”

“You mean marrying again?”

I nodded, then changed to shaking my head. “Marriage. Or even settling down long-term. I always thought I’d be married and have kids by now, but she burned me that badly.”

“All it takes is one bad experience, and it’s enough to change your perspective.”

I laughed once. “Oh, come on. You’re going to swear off men since Kyle?” I shook my head. “You’re too young to commit to loneliness.”

“And you’re going to swear off women since Yasmin?—”

“Ihavesworn off women,” I corrected.

“Then I say you’re old enough to know how dumb that is too.” She squared her shoulders, confident. “When I say that I might as well be single forever, that’s because I highly doubt I’ll ever meet a man who will really want me. For who I am.”

I smirked. “That’s ridiculous.”

“So is the thought that you should settle for loneliness for the rest of your life.”

I refused to let her turn this back to me. “Rachel. You’re a sexy, smart woman any man would be lucky to have. You got that?”

She licked her lips, looking anywhere but at me.

I gripped her chin gently, tipping her face until she captivated me with those sparkling baby blues. “You got that?”

Her soft sigh of an exhale whispered over my knuckles. “Okay.”

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