Liam's Perfect Woman (Home to Harbor Town 2) - Page 47

“And it just kept going?” he asked after a moment. “You were what—twelve years old when you went back to school? Are you saying that people continued to avoid you?”

“Not completely, of course not,” Natalie murmured. Was that anger she heard in his voice? She pulled the comforter up higher over her chest, feeling awkward in the knowledge of her nudity. “I made a few friends. But things have a sort of domino effect. Because of what happened to me when I was young, I became known as the shy girl, I guess. The quiet one…the different one.” The scarred one, Natalie added in the privacy of her mind. No reason to state the obvious. “The girl nobody ever asked out on a date,” she finished with a self-conscious laugh.

His head turned sharply.

“That’s the most…” He paused, his mouth shaping into a frown that made it look like he wanted to spit something out in furious disgust. “Infuriating thing I’ve ever heard. How could people be so insensitive?”

She exhaled in relief when she understood the reason for his anger.

“It’s only natural, Liam,” she said softly. “It just seems strange to you. You were the captain of the football team. You were the homecoming king.”

“What the hell has that got to do with anything?” he asked, his bewildered expression telling her loud and clear she might as well have just told him the moon was made of green cheese.

“You lived in a different world than I did during your teenage years. Think about it—if we’d been in the same year at school, would you have sought me out as a friend?”

He looked mutinous. “Of course I would have.”

She smiled, grateful to him for his indignation. “You’re just saying that because we both were affected by the crash. That made you see the world a little differently than a typical teenager. I should have included in the hypothetical question that you weren’t involved in any way in the accident. Would you have wanted to hang around me then?”

He opened his mouth but then paused. Something flickered across his features. He turned his head.

“I was an idiot when I was teenager, especially before the crash. I didn’t take anything seriously. It’s not fair to judge me based on that.”

“I’m not judging you, Liam, that’s the point,” Natalie said earnestly. “I don’t judge any kid for being a kid. It’s their right to live in an uncomplicated, happy world and want to stay there.”

“You were a kid, too,” he said stiffly. “You deserved that as well.”

Natalie wasn’t sure how to reply. She hadn’t been sure what to expect from Liam at her admission, but it certainly hadn’t been this frothing, simmering anger.

Her heart froze in her chest when he stood abruptly.

“I’ll be right back. Do you want some cold water?”

Natalie just shook her head, feeling as stupid as if he’d just asked her a complicated scientific question.

When he came back carrying a bottle of water, she was standing next to his bed, hurriedly fastening her shorts. He stopped at the door.

“What are you doing?” he asked.

Leave it to her to make a supremely confident man like Liam Kavanaugh look bewildered so many times in one night. Yet…he was the one who had pulled away from her. He was the one who had walked out of the room.

“Nothing,” she said, glad to hear her voice sounded even enough. “Just getting dressed.” She’d never felt so awkward in her entire life, and Lord knew she’d had her share of uncomfortable moments.

“Well…maybe we’d better…” She waved lamely at the door. If the earth couldn’t oblige her by cracking open and swallowing her whole at that moment, the best she could do was exit Liam’s bedroom as soon as possible.

“What…you want to leave?”

She barely suppressed a groan that would have told everything she was experiencing at that moment: embarrassment, hurt, confusion, regret.

“I’m not sure what I’m supposed to want, Liam. Or think. You just walked out of the room,” she added with more heat than she intended when he just gaped at her.

He winced and set the bottle of water on the bedside table. He came toward her, took her in his arms. Natalie remained stiff in his embrace, her mind churning out anxious thoughts at record high speeds.

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry, Natalie,” he spoke roughly near her ear. “I was just…trying to get ahold of myself. I needed a second. I didn’t mean to make you feel like I didn’t want to be with you. I meant what I said earlier. I want you to stay here. With me.”

“You were put off. You were disgusted by what I told you,” she said in a pressured rush at the same time that tears leaked beneath her clamped eyelids.

“No. No.” He pulled her over to the edge of the bed and urged her to sit next to him. His palm cupped her jaw, tilting her face up to him. “I was just trying my damndest to compute what you told me, while still wanting you so bad it was cutting at me at the same time.”

Tags: Beth Kery Home to Harbor Town Billionaire Romance
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