Page 124 of This Heart Of Mine (Chicago Stars 5)

“I thought I’d finally gotten smart, but obviously I haven’t, or I wouldn’t be letting you do this.” She rose from the chaise. “Listen to me, Liam. I made the mistake of falling in love with a controlling man once in my life, and I’ll never do it again. I loved my husband. But, God—sometimes I hated him more.”

She hugged herself, astonished that she’d revealed something to him she could barely admit to herself.

“He probably deserved it. He sounds like a son of a bitch.”

“He was just like you!”

“I seriously doubt that.”

“You don’t think so?” She jabbed her hand toward the redbud tree. “He wouldn’t let me have wind chimes! I love wind chimes, but he hated them, so I wasn’t permitted to hang them in my own garden.”

“Good judgment on his part. The things are a nuisance.”

Her stomach clenched. “Letting myself fall in love with you would be like falling in love with Craig all over again.”

“I really resent that.”

“A month after he died, I hung a set of wind chimes outside my bedroom window.”

“Well, you’re not going to hang them outside our bedroom window!”

“We don’t have a bedroom window! And if we did, I’d hang as many sets there as I wanted!”

“Even though I’ve expressly asked you not to?”

She threw up her hands in frustration. “This isn’t about wind chimes! I was just giving you an example!”

“You’re not getting off that easily. You’re the one who brought the subject up.” Now he was on his feet. “I’ve told you I don’t like the damn things, but you’ve said you’re going to hang them up anyway, is that right?”

“You’ve lost your mind.”

“Is that right or not?”

“Yes!”

“Fine.” He gave a martyr’s sigh. “If it’s that important to you, go ahead and hang the damn things. But don’t expect me not to complain. Bloody noise pollution. And I’ll expect you to give in on something that’s important to me.”

She clutched her head. “Is driving me crazy your idea of seduction?”

“I’m trying to make a point. One you seem unable to understand.”

“Enlighten me.”

“You’re not going to let any man run roughshod over you, not anymore. I just tried, but you wouldn’t let me, and if I can’t do it, no one can. You see? We don’t have a problem.”

“It’s not that simple!”

“What about me?” He touched his chest, and for the first time he looked vulnerable.

“What about my fatal weakness?”

“I don’t know what you mean.”

“Maybe if you’d think about someone other than yourself, you would!”

His words didn’t sting as Craig’s would have. Liam’s were intended to goad her, not to wound. “You’re impossible!”

“What is a man like me supposed to do, tell me that. I don’t know how to pull my punches, and I’m too old to learn, so where does that leave me?”

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