Page 32 of Shattered Hope
“Want some?” I asked, pushing the cookies tray to the middle of the table. “There’s also some wine if you want that too.”
“Wine and cookies? I’ll pass…” he replied, pulling a chair and taking a seat in front of me.
“You can’t say no if you haven’t tried it…” I pointed out, taking another sip of wine.
“True… but some things are best left untried,” he assured me, grabbing the bottle and pouring some wine for himself in one of the cups I had put on the table.
Perhaps, my subconscious had always expected him to join me forn my night snack. Which was insane, of course… why would I want him with me when I was trying to forget he existed? Or so I kept telling myself…
“Coward...” I teased him, picking up another cookie.
He chuckled. “No… just cautious,” he replied.
“If you say so…” I said, my lips twisted into a scowl.
He stared at me for a few moments. “You look troubled.”
“That’s because I am…” I admitted.
“Care to share what’s troubling you?” he asked after he emptied his cup of wine.
It was my turn to chuckle, though there was little humor on my laughter. “You’re troubling me…”
“Me? What have I done to trouble you?” he asked, sounding intrigued.
“Everything and nothing… and that’s precisely the problem,” I tried to explain, the wine loosening my tongue. “First, you were willing to kick me out, into a raging storm, refusing to hear my pleas… then, I promise you a night in paradise, and you still insist on showing me the way out…”
“I thought you were a spy, someone that would have a car waiting for her just outside the building. You didn’t look like a homeless person,” he explained himself.
I nodded. I had gotten to that same conclusion. “Then, you changed your mind and let me stay, even after I backed out on my offer,” there was intrigue in my tone. Few men would have done that. “In fact, you not only let me stay, you even gave me a paid job and a place to stay. One would think you expected something in return… but instead, you spent the whole week avoiding me,” I continued, summarizing what had happened between us. “Until today… Today, you bought me clothes, took me out for lunch, and even introduced me to your mother… just to ignore me again… so what the hell do you want from me, Wells?”
“You’re drunk, Anne…” he pointed out with a deep frown.
“Drunk? No, not even close. This is my second cup,” I showed him the half-full cup I had in front of me. “It takes a bit more for me to get drunk,” I assured him.
“Are you sure you can handle the answer to your question, Anne?” he asked, in a dark tone, not exactly what I was waiting for.
“I’m a big girl… I can handle much more than you think,” I replied, looking at him straight in the eye.
“Can you now? Because last time, you cowed… as if you were afraid of me,” he pointed out.
I shrugged, trying to dismiss his words. He still scared me, a little, but not because I was feared he would hurt me. The feelings he woke in me were different, and therefore a million times more dangerous. He took a no for an answer… that much I knew for sure.
“Let’s say it was an instinctive reaction… you took me by surprise,” I confessed, though not telling him the whole truth.
“Fair enough,” he conceded.
I looked at him through squinted eyes, not willing to let him see straight into my soul. “So, what do you want from me?”
“That hasn’t changed, Anne… I still want you,” he said in a firm tone.
“And yet, you haven’t done anything to get me,” I pointed out, not entirely buying his story.
“Are you sure?” he asked, cocking his eyebrow. “All the things I’ve done so far could be a means to an end.”
“Yes… but that would be the strangest way to seduce a woman…”
He shrugged. “Probably, but I think it’s working… don’t you agree with me? You’re intrigued, you can’t stop thinking of me…” he pointed out.
