the burgers, he prepared to force another one down. “Did you enjoy your lunch with Nickel?”
“It was okay.”
He frowned at her lackluster reaction. “What was wrong with it?”
“You weren’t there with me.”
Chapter Fourteen
Shoving his plate away, appetite lost, Reaper reached for the computer, opening the folder he made for the questions he had for her.
“You seem to enjoy Nickel’s company more than mine.”
Monitoring her reaction, he saw she seemed more confused than triumphant at the note of jealousy he deliberately injected into the question. Taylor had loved to make him jealous. Hell, to be honest with himself, it was what had drawn his attention to her.
Ginny tilted her head to the side. “Why do you think that?”
“You smile at him the same way you do me.”
He had to give her credit; she didn’t give away any movement that would betray how she felt. She seemed genuinely puzzled.
“No, I don’t.”
“Yes, you do,” he argued.
“Then either you’re not looking hard enough or you don’t want to see the difference.”
“Or maybe it’s a habit you’re unaware you have.”
Ginny sank down on a chair across from him. “Why don’t you just come out and ask me what you want to know instead of beating around the bush? Are you trying to hurt me, because I’m not trying to hide that I care about you?”
“You haven’t known me long enough to care about me.”
Ginny squeezed her eyes tightly shut, as if she was experiencing excruciating pain. When she raised her eyes back to his, he felt an intense sorrow trying to pierce through the shield around his heart.
“I’ve known you forever, Gavin,” she whispered.
“Because you felt a connection to me at T.A. and Dalton’s wedding?”
“You know I did. You felt it, too.”
“Who else have you felt that connection with?”
Her probing gaze had him shifting uneasily on his chair.
“You think I led my stalker on?”
“Not deliberately, no.”
“Because I smiled at him?”
“It’s a nice smile.”
“Are you serious?” She solemnly waited for him to take it back. When he didn’t, a puff of air escaped her as if he had punched her in the gut. “You’re being a jerk. If another man said that to me, I’d never talk to him again.”
Wincing, the depth of pain she was showing sent another piecing pain into his chest.
“I’m not saying you deliberately—”
“Thanks.” Sarcasm rolled off her in waves.
Reaper braced himself as rage beamed at him from across the table.
“No, there has never been anyone else other than you. I wish there was. Right now, you don’t know how much I wish that were true. If there had been, I wouldn’t still be sitting here. Believe that, Gavin.”
“I was making sure we didn’t leave any stones unturned.”
“Is that what you were doing? I don’t think so.” She shook her head at him. “I think you were trying to explain away why you’re so damn concerned about the way I smile at other men. Why don’t you call and ask Nickel if he thought I was flirting with him? Then call Shade, Rider, Moon—hell, call every man I am acquainted with and ask them! You want to know something about me, Gavin, come out and ask. Don’t dillydally around and presume something about me that isn’t true.”
“The only way I’m going to figure out who it is, is to find a link between you and whoever is stalking you.”
“There is no link!” Tears glistened in her eyes. “There is no link. There can’t be, Gavin.”
“Quit calling me Gavin!”
“I can’t call you Reaper!” she yelled back.
“Why not?”
“Because I fell in love with you before you were Reaper. I fell in love before I really knew what love was.”
“Stop … I don’t—”
“What if I tell you something that you can connect to my stalker?” Mockingly, she waited for him to argue. When he couldn’t, she continued piercing his heart just as surely as she had when she poked his chest with her finger when she got angry at him in her car.
“There is no link to anyone else, because there has never been anyone but you. I have a large family, mainly boys, but I had a sister who was everything to me. Our father homeschooled us, and while Leah spent a few days a week with her mother, she was the only girl I spent time with. When Leah came back from visiting her mother, she brought books and magazines that she let me have. We laid on her bed and dreamt about what it would be like when we grew up. Bless