Page 39 of Scarlett and the Big Bad Billionaire
Her jaw dropped in apparent horror. “What’s that supposed to mean? I have a job. I’m doing fine. Besides,you’rethe one who invited me to come.”
“On her behalf. And you shouldn’t have needed an invitation,” I said. “You should have been here all along instead of waiting until your wealthy grandmother was practically on her death bed.”
Scarlett’s eyelids flared. “How dare you. You have no idea about the family dynamics at play here.”
“So fill me in.”
“Why should I? It’s none of your business.”
“Victoria thought it was. She mentioned her son struggled with mental illness post-deployment. You said your father was a former Navy SEAL who had CTE, right?”
“You remember that?”
“I rememberalotabout that week,” I told her honestly.
Then, just to watch her squirm, I ran my gaze up and down her body. “In fact, I remember every… last… detail.”
To my delight, she did squirm, and her face turned the most appealing shade of pink. I flashed back to a vision of Scarlett in bed, underneath me, just after I’d made her come. Again.
She straightened her shoulders and jutted out her little chin.
“I guess you’d know something about battle damage, huh,Wolf? Is that your special ops nickname? You and Sharkbait and Gandalf and Wildman and Volt and Badger. You guys were a SEAL squad, huh?”
I closed my eyes for a moment then opened them, meeting her gaze straight on. “Victoria told you.”
“Yes, she told me. I guess I know why you didn’t.Andwhy you didn’t have any condoms with logos with you when you supposedly sold them for a living. You guys were in Greece on pre-deployment for an operation, weren’t you?”
“Post-op,” I said. “I’m sorry. I wanted to tell you the truth. I just couldn’t. Besides, you seemed to have something against military guys. I liked you. I wanted to keep talking to you. And then we were having such a good time that week, I didn’t want to ruin everything by confessing that I lied. You seemed to have some trust issues.”
“Gee, I wonder why.” She looked away and tapped a few keys on her laptop. “It doesn’t matter. That’s all water under the bridge. We don’t have to like each other—we just have to work together and be civil for the next few weeks. But since wearegoing to be working together, I should mention… honesty isveryimportant to me.”
“Okay…” I dragged out the word, my tone expectant.
“So if you’re keeping any more big secrets, now’s the time to fess up.”
A thrill of panic went through my midsection. Which was weird. After all I’d been through, nothing made me panic anymore.
Besides, my secret wasn’t the kind she was referring to. It was not something I could share with her, but in the grand scheme of things, it wasn’t that big a deal.
“None that pop to mind,” I said. “And since we’re going to be working together for the next few weeks, I’d also like to make an announcement. I really am sorry about the way our non-honeymoon week ended.”
She gave me a half-hearted, “Thank you for saying that.”
“I thought about looking you up later… when the operation was over, and I was back in the States. But I felt weird about it since I’d lied to you. Also, I wasn’t in the greatest frame of mind for a while. Anyway, I figured you wouldn’t want to hear from me. You still seemed pretty hung up on that bozo you were supposed to marry.”
“His name is Bryce, and he’s not a bozo. He was just confused.”
“Oh shit, don’t tell me you’re back with him?”
“What? No. Of course not. It’s just… he’s not a bad guy. He just made a mistake by promising to love me forever when he wasn’t really sure how he felt.”
“Exactly. Bozo.”
“What?You’reso in touch with your feelings?” she challenged. “Oh wait, I remember. Your gut has never steered you wrong.”
“I never said that.” If I had, it would have been a lie.
My gut had absolutely steered me wrong in the situation in Iraq. And later, when it had told me I had no choice but to testify against my commander. Goodbye military career, hello civilian life.
