Page 48 of A SEAL's Fantasy

“I don’t see that my future is any different right now than it was before you dragged me away from my apartment three weeks ago,” she said. Well, not much different. She was pretty sure she’d never let another man touch her. She was positive her heart was broken and her faith shattered. But those were just life’s ways of reminding her that she’d screwed up.

“You have a chance at something here,” he argued. “Something that’s important to you.”

Lara frowned. Was he trying to apologize for ignoring her wishes, for bulldozing over her plans and treating her like a stupid child who didn’t know any better?

Maybe he was really bad at it.

“Just exactly what do you think I’m throwing aside?” she asked slowly, knowing it was stupid but needing to give him a chance.

“You need family,” he claimed, looking and sounding as though he’d just issued a proclamation from on high. What did he figure, that she should drop to her knees in thanks?

Lara rolled her eyes, using all her willpower to keep from kicking him instead.

“You really think that’s what’s important to me? Seriously?”

Somewhere through her fury a little voice pointed out that it was better that he have some stupid idea of her dream than know the real one. The him-and-her-together-forever dream.

“Fine,” she decided. “If you want so badly to fix me up, familywise, then okay. Let’s trade.”

“What?”

“I’ll take your family. You can have mine.”

“See, that’s what I mean.” He pointed as if she’d just made some brilliant point. “You’re sublimating your need for family by developing an unhealthy attachment to mine.”

Lara didn’t realize her jaw had hit her chest until the ringing in her ears clued her in that she wasn’t breathing.

She shook her head, sure she’d heard him wrong.

“I’m sublimating...”

“Look, you had a lousy family growing up. You meet mine and realize what a good one is like. It’s only natural.”

“You think I’m with you because I have the hots for your family?” she asked, pushing her hand through her hair in confusion.

“No, of course not. You’re with me because the sex is amazing.”

While Lara was trying to decide if it was pure arrogance to speak so close to the truth, he kept talking.

“But sometimes things get murky, you know? You’ve been through a major emotional trauma, whether you realize it or not. Your place was trashed, you were stalked, then hauled away from everything you knew. You’ve lost your job, your apartment and almost lost your last living relative. So of course you’re clinging to my family. It’s only natural.”

As if his words sucked the life out of her, Lara sank back against the wall. She held her laptop against her chest like a shield. Anger drowned in the wave of hurt that washed over her. This had nothing to do with Dominic being a control freak who thought he had the answer to everything. Nor was it some deep-seated desire to reunite her with her estranged brother.

No.

This was all about him wanting to keep her away from his family. After all, he had a reputation to protect, and a clinging lover who knew his home number didn’t fit that macho love-’em-and-leave-’em rep.

“You go ahead and think that,” she stated. She’d be damned if she was going to stand here and defend her emotions. Not the real ones, not the stupid ones he was claiming she had.

Lara had heard enough about that thing called unconditional love and had always sneered a little.

Not now, though.

Now she understood.

She loved Dominic. She didn’t need him to fit an image in her mind to keep that love. She didn’t expect him to give up things or change careers or dress a certain way.

But if he had sliced a vein open and written it in blood, he couldn’t have made it more clear that he didn’t feel the same.

Lara had spent more than half her life not being good enough, not being accepted for who she was.

And she’d promised herself that she’d never spend another second that way.

Which meant it was time to go.

“Goodbye,” she said quietly. Without waiting for his response, she stepped around him and headed for the lobby door.

“You’re kidding, right?”

She didn’t respond, but it only took him a moment to step in front of her.

His face was as serious as she’d ever seen it. Not focused, like the military protector he’d been. Not intense, the way he looked poised over her body. Simply serious. Lara blinked back the tears and tilted her head to indicate he should say what he had to, then move.

“You walk out, that’s it,” he told her quietly. “And you’re too smart to do that. To throw away what we have over a temper tantrum?”

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