Twelve Days The Beginning - By Jade Reyner Page 0,35
bit of a blur.” Dale shook his head as if to encourage his memory cells to respond. “Vaughn has been telling me that he was the one that gave me the knock-out punch – he came to apologise.”
At her husband’s easy reference to Vaughn, Elise stiffened a little. It was clear that Dale was still in the dark about everything that had happened yesterday and she was grateful to Vaughn for his silence. Whilst she was feeling uncomfortable with the passion that had flared between the two of them, she was scared to realise that she didn’t actually regret it, and coming to that realisation whilst at her husband’s hospital bedside, was not something she was particularly proud of.
She could feel Vaughn’s eyes watching her as she continued to look at her husband and a telltale heat began to course through her.
“That was good of him.” she said, addressing Dale and continuing to ignore Vaughn in the hope of desperately trying to calm his effect on her.
“I know,” Dale replied, “Sounds weird but I’m actually grateful to him.”
Grateful?
“If it hadn’t been for him, I don’t know when I would have stopped. Seems like I was pretty wild and, as much as I dislike pretty-boy, I don’t want his murder on my hands!” He laughed humourlessly.
That was one way of looking at it she supposed, but if he hadn’t been so over the top in the first place then Cole would never have jumped in to defend her. Even though Dale was showing some remorse, she knew that he would never fully acknowledge his issues and admit that ultimately, he was the one at fault. He would still rather blame Cole for some nonexistent crime that he had long since decided that Cole had committed, than accept responsibility for his own actions.
Elise blew out a frustrated breath. This conversation would just go round and round in circles so she decided to change the subject and summoning her resolve, turned to address Vaughn.
“Mr Granger – it really is very kind of you to visit my husband and offer your apologies. We both appreciate your er.. part.. in this situation but I think Dale and I both agree that no apology is really necessary.”
For the first time since she had arrived, she risked looking at him properly and instantly regretted it. His eyes were studying her, scrutinising her and following her lips as they moved over the words when she spoke, tracing the outlines of her face and then dipping lower, roaming over her casual jeans and t-shirt and finally lingering on her breasts. As his eyes came back up to meet hers, she couldn’t miss the unmistakable heat in them and shivers began to form somewhere in the base of her spine and travel throughout her body. She repressed a shudder and crossed her arms over her breasts to prevent Vaughn from seeing the pointed evidence of her arousal brought about by his brief inspection. It was a fruitless gesture. Vaughn was well aware of the effect that he was having on her. That infuriating half smile when she looked back up at him indicated that he knew all too well what she was trying to cover up. The way this man made her feel was just insane, and Elise knew that she was way out of her depth.
Nervously she darted her eyes to the bed – if she was aware that Vaughn was mentally undressing her then surely so must Dale be. Thankfully, he was lying back with his eyes closed and she realised that Vaughn must have already known that. He seriously didn’t miss a thing.
She turned back to Vaughn, realising that he had not responded to her statement. This situation with him was becoming too close for comfort and she had an overwhelming urge to get him to leave – right now. She had no idea what game he was playing; all she knew was that by him being here, it was getting increasingly dangerous and she needed to get him to leave. He had no right to look at her like that. Maybe if she could convince herself that she felt no reciprocal attraction then she would stand a chance of getting away from this madness unscathed. She needed time alone with Dale, time to begin to help him to mend and heal, and to deal with whatever the future held for them. She couldn’t do that whilst her brain was scrambled by six-feet of scorching testosterone.