Twelve Days The Beginning - By Jade Reyner Page 0,44

was frightened. Frightened of the depth of emotion she was beginning to feel for this man, frightened that she could feel something like this when she was married to Dale and scared witless as to where this was all going to go. If Dale ever found out about any of this, she would be taught a lesson she would never forget and she couldn’t afford for that to happen if her marriage was ever going to stand a chance.

She didn’t want Vaughn to believe that he had freaked her out though and she felt she owed him some kind of explanation. After all, she hadn’t been a completely innocent bystander and it was unfair for him to take all of the blame.

“Vaughn,” her voice was shaky, wavering slightly with the emotion that she was trying to conceal. “You didn’t freak me out – at all. That wasn’t why I bolted.” she swallowed, unsure how to continue, but she knew that she needed to be honest. She felt that she owed him that at least.

“I’m scared, Vaughn – scared for more reasons than you can possibly understand. I’ve been married for ten years and in that time I never once considered another man. And then you – you burst into my life and totally scramble my brains, making me think things that I should in no way be thinking and making me feel things that I shouldn’t be feeling. All of a sudden, I find myself thinking about another man and that is fundamentally wrong. It goes against everything that I believe in. I’m scared shitless, Vaughn; really, really scared and the irony is that you have absolutely no idea why.”

She looked up from the table and locked eyes with his, hers full of unshed tears, his full of concern and another emotion she couldn’t even begin to name. He continued to absent-mindedly rub her hand, his fingers finding their way to the underside of her wrist and stroking her there. This time she could not contain the shiver his touch produced and Vaughn sighed, a small smile playing around his mouth.

“You feel it Elise, don’t you? Tell me you feel it too and that it’s not just me going mad here?”

“Yes, Vaughn.” she allowed, finally being honest with herself “Yes, I feel it too – but it can go nowhere and I think for both our sakes, we should try to keep our distance from now on. I have more than enough going on in my life without adding any more complications to it. Maybe I should resign from the off-site team – that way we wouldn’t even need to work together. I’m a strong woman Vaughn....I’ve had to be, but there is only so much strength left right now and if I lose it, we will both end up in a situation we’ll regret.” She looked across at him, her eyes moist with the ever-present tears threatening to spill. She was an emotional wreck around this man and she wasn’t ready to delve into her psyche to find out why.

“I can promise you Elise that any situation with you would never be cause for regret.” Vaughn sighed. “I know that you are married, I know what that means to you and believe me, I am not in the habit of pursuing married women. There is something about you that draws me in though, something that I can’t explain and I find myself unable to walk away. I don’t want to walk away. I am not going to walk away. It’s as simple as that. I want to take whatever risks I need to take to be with you....however problematic that may be.”

“You hardly know me though Vaughn – why me? Why not Olivia? She’s young, beautiful and completely available and, as we know from recent evidence, not averse to your advances. Why would you want to get involved with me when you know it will never go anywhere?”

Ignoring the last part of her sentence, Vaughn instead picked up on her comments about Olivia, his eyes flaring a little with hope. “Why Miss Grayson, dare I flatter myself that I hear a slight jealousy in your voice?” he mocked.

Elise raised her eyebrows at him, effectively silencing any further comment he may have been about to make on that subject and he laughed.

“I guess I just don’t understand what it is about me that has you so compelled to potentially ruin both of our careers, my marriage and your reputation –