Surprise had me blinking down at her. “You know about her?”
“Kayla told me this morning.” She pressed her forehead to my chest. “I know you have a past. You don’t have to be scared that I’ll hold it against you.”
Relief made my knees feel shaky. “You mean you don’t care?”
Her head lifted. “I’m not going to lie and say I’m not a little jealous. But Kayla explained that Dana was going through some stuff at the time. I know Dana’s not going to try to steal you away from me.”
“Baby, you don’t know how glad I am you’re not pissed. And you don’t ever have to worry about anyone stealing me away from you. I’m yours. Now and always.” I kissed her forehead, releasing the pent-up breath I’d been holding all day. “I swear to you, I wasn’t picking Cannon over you. It was just bad luck that he showed up right when Dana was here with her girlfriend. I begged him to keep his mouth shut about the threesome, and his price for silence was to move in here.”
Shaw pulled back. “Wait… What did you just say?”
I opened my mouth, only to snap it shut, not sure what I’d just said that had her so pale all of a sudden. “He was blackmailing me, baby.”
“No, I heard that.” She waved her hands. “The other part. The…threesome. Are you saying you and Cannon…? That you both fucked her?”
Ah, fuck.
“You said Kayla told you,” I rasped out.
“She said Dana had a past with you. Not with you and my brother together.” She closed her eyes, but not before I’d seen the tears filling her baby blues. “Were you even going to tell me?”
“Not if I could help it,” I muttered, but I wanted to be honest. Keeping shit from her so far had proved to be foolishly stupid. “I didn’t want you to know about the fucked-up shit I’d done in the past.”
“But she lives right down the hall. Don’t you think I should have known that you and she…with my brother.” Her face turned green for a second before it quickly paled again. “And you were just going to keep it from me. You weren’t going to say a single word about anything. Not Dana. Not Cannon moving in here. Not…that.” She shuddered and turned away from me. “You were just going to sweep me off to Mexico and pretend like everything was perfect. Then I would have been gone for another four days before I got back from Chicago.”
“I would have told you,” I made an effort to assure her even as the guilt tried to choke me again. I had wanted to wait as long as possible before telling her about Cannon moving in.
“Why?” she demanded. “Because by the time I got back, you would have been bored with me like you get bored with every other girl, and it wouldn’t have mattered if I was hurt or angry?”
“No!” I shouted, reaching for her, but she put more distance between us. “It’s not like that, I swear.”
“From where I’m standing, it seems like that’s exactly what it’s like.”
“Shaw, baby, please just listen to me.” I grabbed her around the waist, my fingers biting into her in my desperation to keep her close. “I was going to tell you about Cannon moving in. And I probably would have ended up telling you about Dana. Maybe not about the threesome, but the guilt would have made me tell you that I’d been involved with her in the past. It was already killing me that I was holding everything back. I wanted to tell you last night, but I was scared.”
“I get that,” she whispered. “I understand that kind of fear. But mine was starting to fade. I thought… I thought you were different. That I could trust you with my heart after all.”
“You can,” I promised her vehemently. “I will never hurt you, Shaw.”
“Too late.” Jerking away from me, she walked out of the kitchen.
Fear like I’d never felt before kept me rooted to the spot for a moment before I heard her keys rattle. That sound kicked my ass into gear, and I ran, catching her before she could reach the front door. “Baby.” My arms locked around her waist, holding her back pressed against my front as I kissed her neck. “Don’t leave. Please, give me a chance to fix this. I know I fucked up, but