A Heart to Heal Read Free Page B

place.”
    Her eyes became guarded as she stiffened. “You know why I’m back.”
    He finished with her ankle before turning to lean his back against the exam table. “I know why people say you’re back. I want you to tell me the real reason.”
    â€œSo you can lecture me?”
    â€œNo,” he said. He didn’t need to know the real reason. It didn’t matter what she did with her life. He pushed away from the table. “I was just making conversation. Forget it.” He said walking to the door.
    â€œI lost my job … for sleeping with a client.”
    He paused. He kept his back to her as he lowered his eyes. He didn’t want to know. The idea of Shayla in another man’s bed caused feelings he didn’t want to explore to swell in his chest. And jealousy over her relationships was a waste of time.
    He turned back to her. “It’s none of my business.”
    She swung her legs to the side of the table. “Apparently it’s everyone’s business. You’ve heard the rumors, so you might as well hear the entire story. Yes, he was a member of the Atlanta city council. Yes, my firm handled his campaign. Yes, I … slept with him. But not for as long as the papers reported.”
    A vision of the arrogant blonde guy insisting that he was free to
talk
with Shayla when he’d seen her in Atlanta a year ago came to mind. He’d been in Atlanta for a party Jared and Malcolm put together for their mother’s engagement. The happy celebration quickly turned sour when Jared and Tasha got into an argument and he’d been enlisted to take her from the party to a friend. If he would have known the friend was Shayla, he would have let Tasha and Jared fight it out. At the time he hadn’t seen Shayla since high school, but it didn’t stop his body from reacting the way it had when he was seventeen whenever she was around. But when the man walked up to her and caressed her arm with his wedding ring clear for everyone to see, he’d pushed his desire aside and remembered that Shayla was only out for herself.
    â€œWas he the guy I saw you with in Atlanta?”
    She raised her chin and met his eyes. “Yes, but we weren’t together at the time.”
    He shook his head. “If you knew his position, why were you seeing him?”
    She shrugged a shoulder. Dark lashes lowered over her eyes. “I don’t know.”
    Irritation snapped within him. “Bullshit, you know. Why were you with him?”
    Her eyes widened, anger sparked within their dark centers. “I don’t owe you an explanation.”
    She was right, but he couldn’t help himself. Once again she picked the wrong guy. A part of him knew this push for answers was because he never asked for them when it was his heart she’d broken. He wouldn’t think about how unappealing years of old jealousy looked on a man. “No, you don’t. But you owe yourself one. Shayla, why do you choose these guys?”
    She looked away. “Sometimes they choose me.”
    â€œAdmit it. You enjoyed the excitement, the rush of doing something forbidden. Regardless of the consequences, you wanted what made you happy.”
    Her lips curled into a sneer as contempt filled her eyes. “That’s easy for you to say, isn’t it? Easy to believe I only care about myself. Not that I avoided his advances for
years
. Or that I didn’t believe it when he said their marriage was in trouble until
she
filed for divorce. It doesn’t matter I didn’t agree to one date with him until
after
they separated. Forget that he swore he loved me, but quickly changed his tune when he realized it would be easier for him to run for senate with his wife of ten years than me.”
    Pain and humiliation were clear in her eyes, yet she held her head high. A part of him believed her. There were men who lied about their marriages to sleep with other women. But he clearly