were already setting the world on fire. You got hired by the law firm, graduated with a business degree, and were making real changes with animal rescues.” His gaze sparked with intensity. “You exhibited a fire and passion I’d never experienced before. You believed you could change the world, and I knew you could. Yet here I was, tagging behind you, trying to pretend I knew what I was doing.”
Her jaw dropped. Why was he twisting the past to suit his vision? “You were just as involved! You worked at the Bishop farm, signed up for an internship at Pets Alive, and decided to go back to school for your master’s.”
“Sure, because I still had no idea what I wanted to do with my life.” He leaned in, frustration flickering from his figure. “Because that’s what you suggested I do.”
“Are you blaming me for your insecurities?”
“No, not even close. I’m trying to explain how it was. I was twenty-two and had spent half my college days fucking around. My grandfather had been the only one left to believe I’d make my mark one day, and I lost him. I never showed him proof I’d ever succeed. My father left long ago, and it’s not a damn excuse, but I struggled to figure out if it’d been something I did to make him leave.”
“You never told me you felt like that,” she murmured, flashing back to those brief instances she’d asked about his dad, and he’d shut down with a lopsided smile. He’d hidden that part of himself. The hurt that sliced through her was ridiculous. Yes, she’d told him everything, but maybe she’d been completely wrong about the relationship she believed they’d had.
“I wasn’t even sure what I felt, babe.” The familiar endearment scorched her ears, but she didn’t tell him to stop. “Losing my grandfather messed me up a bit. I wanted to be so much better for him, for you, for myself. The only path that made sense was to give myself the time and space to grow into what I always wanted. A man to stand as your partner.”
“You were always that to me. I just wish you would have told me this stuff instead of shutting down. Making me believe you didn’t love me the way I loved you.”
He’d never once confessed he felt intimidated by her. Suddenly, shame filled her, along with doubt. Was this what men thought of her? Was she so independent that she pushed everyone away, making them feel unworthy? Had she bullied him into leading a life she wanted instead of allowing him to choose? Had losing her mother so young twisted her into a woman who’d never be able to need a man the way they craved?
The thoughts spun in her head and sickened her stomach. Suddenly, she needed to get away and think. Process everything he’d thrown at her in the past hour. She jumped up from the booth and stumbled back a few steps. “I-I need a minute. I have to go.”
A muscle clenched in his jaw. “Oh, hell, no. Not like this. Not believing what you’re telling yourself right now.” He threw down his napkin and stood up.
She shook her head, ready to scream. “Leave me alone.” Vision blurred, she veered toward the back of the pub, down a shadowed hallway leading to the restrooms. The demons inside whispered, taunting, reaching deep into her insecurities and throwing them at her with a mad glee.
A firm grip on her arm stalled her escape. He turned her around and her back bumped up against the wall. Chloe tilted her head up to meet his gaze head on. “Everything you’re thinking is wrong. It was my fault for the way I handled things. Never yours.”
A shiver slid down her spine. He was mad. She rarely saw this side of him, his good-natured personality rarely allowing him to experience such volatile emotions, but the man a few inches in front of her was not the boy she remembered.
Pale blue eyes glinted with a fiery intent as he laid his fingers over her shoulders, holding her in place. The scent of him assaulted her full-force, a clean combination of lemon and soap, his breath scented with a sting of heated whiskey and coffee. There was no hesitation or searching for permission as his gaze raked over her with a simmering hunger that thrilled her to the core. She fought the feeling, hanging on to the mix of anger, frustration, and self-shame his