The Love Scam - MaryJanice Davidson Page 0,37
to keep them off me, but—”
“You don’t have to finish,” he said quickly. “I’m sorry to be asking. It’s none of my business.” He realized his hands had locked into fists and made a conscious effort to unclench. Names, I need names, goddammit. Also addresses. Blood types, too, maybe. They’ll all need hospitals.
“There’s nothing to tell—I told you they tried, not that they succeeded.” She actually patted his hand, because they lived in a fucked-up universe where she’d endured a brutal childhood and now was trying to make him feel better. “And to be honest I was kind of scared to lose it—to find out what all the fuss was about. What was it about sex that could make people so completely, dangerously irrational? To take risks they’d never, ever take in their right mind? Something not to be fucked with, no pun intended. So I put it off for a while.”
“Okay. I can see that.” Dangerous and irrational, yes. Of course. But tender and exciting and wonderful and sweet and sweaty and amazing, all those things, too. And it was even better when you were in love with the person, or so he’d been told. “Makes sense.”
“And then I finally met someone nice and we did the deed after his graduation at U of M. And it was … you know.” She smiled. “Fast. Which was fine with me.”
I don’t know where I am.
Oh God. Oh my God. Is that what she was talking about? Trying to walk away from? Is that why she feels trapped? For a long moment Rake thought he was going to faint. No, manly men don’t faint, he’d pass out, he wouldn’t faint and oh fuck, who did it and where could he find them and would Delaney lend him money for a baseball bat? And some body bags?
No one will come in? Unless I let them?
“I’m sorry.” It sounded beyond inadequate. “Delaney, I’m so sorry that you were scared to—that you felt you needed to put it off. But good for you. I mean, it was your choice at the Days Inn, right? You had sex on your terms. That’s— Some people don’t even get that, you know?”
A shrug. He’d never known anyone who could be so eloquent with her shoulders. “It was a long time ago.”
A long time ago? She wasn’t thirty yet.
“Does this go back to that whole eventful childhood thing?”
Her gray gaze was on him, watching his face for—pity? Wondering if he’d crack a joke? God, please, please don’t let her think I would joke about this. “Yeah,” she said eventually. “It was.” She shook her head. “I can’t believe I told you that. I mean—I really can’t believe it. You’re an entitled pain in my ass, Tarbell, but you’re sure easy to talk to. It must be the oh my God you’re blushing.”
“I am not!”
“You’re blushing even harder now!” she cried, delighted.
As annoying as that was, it was pretty great that his lack of control over the blood vessels in his face had cheered her up. “Yeah, well,” he mumbled. “It happens sometimes.”
“It’s sooooo cute.”
“Please shut up now.”
“Downright adorable, in fact.”
“I hate you and everything you stand for.”
That made her laugh. “That’s probably true. But getting back to my point—” She gestured at the newspaper. “My point is, I can barely order a meal in Italian.”
“Yeah, I’ve been meaning to talk to you about that. You think you’re ordering milk, but you’re actually ordering coffee and milk. Which is why they keep bringing you coffee and milk. Then you force it down and glare through the rest of dinner.”
“That’s because it’s not so much Minnesota Nice as it’s Minnesota Passive-Aggressive. I’ll roll right up on a CEO who changes his mind about a charity pledge, but I’ve never sent a restaurant meal back in my life, and I’ve had some stinkers. And for the last time, whatever is in the paper you want to show me, just tell me already.”
“Here. Right here.” He pointed to the headline below the fold. “That jewelry/handbag shop near the Rialto Bridge. It says they had pledged a donation and then reneged, and then reneged on their reneging.” He thought of what Delaney would do to anyone who promised charity and then didn’t deliver, and shivered. Decapitation, probably. Followed by one hell of a long shouting match. “This is just the kind of thing you hate, right?”
“Yep.” She reached out and touched the paper, looking puzzled. “That made the news?”
“Guess it was a big