“How far would you have gone, Kate? Would you have walked down the aisle and pretended to love me forever?”
She did love him. She’d chosen the absolute worst way to show him, but she truly did love the man. Kate pressed her lips together and remained still, waiting for the continuation of her punishment.
“Would you have gone so far as to have my kids?”
He took a step forward, but Kate squared her shoulders. She wasn’t afraid of him and she wasn’t going to turn and run, no matter how much she wanted to. Right now, he was entitled to lash out at her, and she had to take it.
“How could you do this to me?” His voice was low, calm, cold. “Now I know why you cried after we had sex in the shower. Apparently, the guilt got to you, but only for a short time, because you were quick to get back in my bed.”
Kate squeezed her arms tighter, as if to keep his hurtful words from seeping in. She glanced away, out the glass doors toward the sun, which had all but set.
“Look at me,” he demanded. “You don’t get to drift away. You started this and you’re damn well going to face reality and give me the answers I want. Are you even going to say anything?”
Kate shook her head. “Anything I say won’t change the fact that I lied to you, and you won’t believe any defense I have.”
Luc threw his arms out. “What was your motivation, Kate? Did you think I’d fall in love with you? Did you think you’d play with my mind for a bit?”
“No,” she whispered through the tears clogging her throat. “Hurting you was the last thing I wanted to do.”
“Oh, you didn’t hurt me,” he retorted, his face reddening. “I can’t be hurt by someone I don’t love. Didn’t you know that? I’m furious I ever trusted you.”
; Kate nodded. “When we made love—”
“We didn’t make love,” he spat. Luc took a step closer, so close she could see the whiskey-colored flecks in his eyes. “We had sex. Meaningless sex that never should’ve happened.”
Kate looked into his eyes, hoping to see a flicker of that emotion she’d seen during their days together, or when they’d been intimate. But all that stared back at her was hatred. Anything he thought he’d felt days ago, even hours ago, was false. The old Luc was back and harsher than ever.
“I’ll call for someone to come pick me up,” she told him. “I’ll be at the cottage until then. Anything I have here I can send for later.”
Kate walked out of the room, surprised he didn’t call her back so he could finish her off.
Mercifully, he let her go. She couldn’t cry in front of him, didn’t want him to think she was using tears as a defense. Her tears were a product of her own selfishness. She’d lived it up for a few days, had had the man she loved in her arms and had even worn his ring.
Kate stepped out onto the patio and glanced down at the gem on her finger. Thunder rolled, lightning streaked in the not so distant sky as fat drops of rain pelted her.
“Kate,” Luc called from behind her.
She froze.
“What the hell are you doing, just standing in the storm?”
Kate turned, blinking the rain out of her eyes. At this point she couldn’t honestly tell what was rain and what were tears.
“Do you care?” she asked.
“I’m angry, but I don’t want to see anyone struck by lightning.”
Luc stood in the doorway, his broad frame filling the open space. The lights behind him flickered and then everything went black, save for the candles she’d lit on the dining room table and the fat pillar on the coffee table.
Cursing under his breath, Luc stepped back. “Get in here.”
Slowly, Kate crossed the wet patio, hugging her midsection against the cool drops. She brushed by him, shivering from the brief contact and cringing the second he stepped back and broke the touch.
“I just—”
“I’ll be in my room.” He cut her off with a wave of his hand as if she was nothing more than a nuisance. “Don’t take this as a sign that I care. You can stay in here until the storm passes, and that’s all.”