Page 112 of Every Bit As Perfect
My gaze swung back to Noelle, the stark look in her eyes verifying my worst fucking nightmare.
As if from a distance, I heard Daire scoff incredulously.“History?You call that history?”
When?When did they have history?Did they date when she lived away from home?Oh, God!Did he fuck her the way he fucked me?Was it serious?Wouldn’t she have told me?
I inched forward slowly.
Daire’s hand landed on my back.
I flinched away from him.
Noelle squeaked, her mouth turned down at the corners, “Harley…”
I held out my hand to Noelle.“I cannot believe you lied to me again.I do not want to speak to you right now.”
Her whispered apology did little to assuage my hurt.
I prided myself on the fact I spoke softly and evenly as I escaped to the kitchen, but once there, I broke down.
“For fuck’s sake,” Daire grunted.His heavy footsteps behind me followed a flurry of low murmurings.
“Harley…”
I covered my face with my hands to hide my shame, shame at being picked last once again.
I closed my eyes behind my hands and even that was not enough to block out the looks on their faces.
To find out I was second choice after giving myself over to him so utterly and completely.
After I’d fallen wholly, deeply, irrevocably in love with him.
Nausea forced me to breathe deeply and evenly through my hands.My stomach threatened to spill its contents.
But still.
A tiny flicker of hope still burned.“Is it true?Were you interested in Noelle?”
“Yes.”
Bald and direct.
A perfect bullseye.
I nodded and attempted to swallow past the lump in my throat, but the sob broke through.
“Little one,” he murmured gently.“I’ve asked a lot of women out.Are you going to react this way every time you find out I was even slightly interested in someone at some point?”
“This is different, and you know it.”
He moved closer, his voice stopping right in front of me.
A stronger woman would have moved away.
I was not a stronger woman.
“It is different.I do know that.But it’s because of how you feel about it.For me it’s not.To me, Noelle is no different than any of the other fifteen or twenty women I’ve dated.”
“Fifteen or twenty?My god, Daire!”
