Bring Me Home Read Free

her like a caress. “That’s your style, after all.”
    â€œMy style?” she managed, pissed that she could react to him so easily.
    He closed the distance between them, brushing a wisp of hair back from her eye. The close proximity made it impossible to breathe. She’d played this moment over and over in her mind for years, and it had never gone this way. In her dreams, she’d walked away. “Yeah, baby. Your style. You run when things get rough.”
    â€œIf you’re referring to four years ago…” She raised her chin to meet his stare in the moonlight. “I left because you couldn’t keep your dick in your pants. That’s about as rough as it gets.”
    â€œShit, Mi,” he scoffed. “At least be honest. Susan was a convenient reason. The out you were always looking for.”
    â€œConvenient?” Even her worst imagined scenarios had started with him groveling. Having him try to turn the tables and lay blame at her feet was too much. She’d heard all she needed to hear and tried to push past him. “Fuck you.”
    He blocked her path toward the bar, scowling down at her. “What’s your problem?”
    â€œMen. Well, you, specifically.” She was pissed, and even if he was almost a foot taller than her and had her by a good seventy pounds, one well-placed knee to his crotch would incapacitate him. Violence wasn’t her forte, but if he pushed much more she’d rethink that standpoint. She didn’t feel threatened by him, and there was too much history between them. Even if it had gone south in the end.
    Mentally shelving her kickboxing lessons, she settled for verbal sparring. “What do you want, Shawn?”
    â€œAn explanation would be nice,” he pressed. “You left without giving me a chance. Without a reason.”
    â€œRight,” she scoffed. “No reason at all. Is this where you’re going to tell me that I willed you to fuck my cousin so I could get away from small-town hell and its chains?”
    â€œI didn’t even know what you believed happened between Susan and me until years later.”
    â€œThen stop playing stupid.” She tried to get past him again, but it was the equivalent of moving a brick wall. No such fucking luck. “You know why I walked out.”
    â€œI get why anyone else might walk away. But not with us. You didn’t trust me enough to know that whatever you thought you saw or heard wasn’t the truth.”
    â€œI did trust you,” she rasped, furious at the emotion thickening her throat. Why wouldn’t he leave it alone? “I did.”
    â€œBut not enough?”
    â€œWould you have believed anything differently?”
    â€œYes.”
    He said it with enough conviction that she almost believed him. “Easy to say when you weren’t on the receiving end of the heartbreak.”
    â€œYou not trusting me hurt. I can’t tell you how much. But you didn’t tell me that was why. You just left. You’d wanted out of Dead End for as long as I can remember, and what you chose to believe happened between Susan and me was your ticket out.”
    â€œWhether I wanted out or not, you gave me plenty of reason.”
    â€œThat’s where you’re wrong,” he snapped. “That night… was a—misunderstanding.”
    â€œHa! That’s rich.” She remembered that night so clearly it might as well have been four hours rather than four years ago. Coming home to find him in bed with her cousin… She’d clung to that hurt. Drawn on it through years of disappointment in the life she’d hoped to find outside of Dead End. Now he was trying to tell her it hadn’t been anything more than a reason to run? The devil on her shoulder kicked ass in that moment. Fuck him and his explanations. “I suppose you’re going to tell me you slipped and fell and accidentally put your dick in my