Page 70 of A Kiss for Carter (The Laws of Love 3)

He baulked at that description.“I didn’t run, exactly.I walked at speed.”

“You didn’t give me a chance to explain.”

Carts couldn’t argue with that.

He glanced up, for once wishing he hadn’t cut his hair, in case she saw the glint of tears still in his eyes.“Are you two back together?”

“No.We’re totally through.”

He stared down at his hands and tried not to sniff.But at least a little flame of hope had re-ignited in his heart.

Her hand closed over his, steadying the tremor.

“He really is your ex?”he mumbled, studying her fingers.“Like, as in Finalised?Extinguished?”

She laughed.“Vaporised actually.I screamed at him to get out.I have literally never seen anyone move so fast.”She gave a shaky laugh.

Bolder now.“Can I ask why he was there?”

She sighed.“He came round to try and borrow money off me.He’s already taken all my savings.”

“You are kidding!”

“No.He reckons he’s developing some gaming app and wants to take it to Vegas or something.Pippa reckons he’s getting into debt paying for gaming advantages.Who knows?”

“Bloody hell, what a dick.”

“I agree.”She stroked his hand.“Do you want to tell me what happened?”

“It would appear I stupidly walked away without giving you a chance to explain.”

“No,” she said gently, “I mean what happened before—to make you react like that.”

Christ, her intuition was razor sharp.

He sighed.“Lucy—”

“Your last girlfriend?”

“Yeah, that one.”Now she was tracing a little whorl with her fingertips on the back of his hand.It felt divine, but it also made a lump rise in his throat again.“I thought I loved her.In all honesty, it wasn’t close… we never really clicked.But anyway, we had some time apart, I’d been working long hours and she said she needed space to think.I decided, in my wisdom, that it was my fault—that I needed to be a more attentive partner.We’d talked about getting engaged at one stage and I thought that would fix it.”He sucked in a deep breath.“So I went round to her place after work, with a ring I’d chosen… she opened the door and I went down on one knee and—” He heard her suck in air.“Yeah, I know, dumb right?”

“No, I was thinking that’s a really romantic thing to do.”

“Anyway, just as I did that, this freakin’ pair of legs walks out of the bathroom at the end of the hall.And weirdly, her house is configured just like yours, toilet facing the front door and… the legs were naked ‘cos the guy was only wearing a really small towel and…” He grimaced.“It was the personal trainer I’d paid for to help her overcome her insomnia problem.”

“Oh, that is awful.No wonder when you saw Mark—”

“And then when he put his hand on your shoulder…”

“He did that on purpose to make mischief.I am so, so sorry it caused you pain.”

“Yeah, well.I shouldn’t have reacted so fast, or said what I did, but… that image just shot in front of my eyes and it’s like I had no control of my body or my mind.I just reacted on auto-pilot.”

“It must have seemed like history repeating itself.”Judith’s voice was full of compassion.

“Kind of.I’m sorry.I fucked up, didn’t I?Will you forgive me?”

Gently she turned his face with her palm, gazed deeply into his eyes.“There’s nothing to forgive.But please can we talk about things—like if something bothers either of us— in future.”

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