Big Shot(38)

She frowned, her stomach pitching with insecurities and doubts. “Am I that much of a pain in the ass that he’d have an affair with another woman?” Had she been too ambitious, too driven, too focused on work as Mitch had accused her of being? Too high maintenance?

“Natalie, that’s not what I meant,” he said quickly, and when she continued to stare at him quietly, desperate for an explanation, he gave her one. “I told you I never liked the guy, that I thought you were too good for him, and it’s true. From what I saw, he was uptight, insecure, and so f*cking needy, and you were always trying to please him. And because there is just no pleasing a self-centered guy like that, no matter what you do or how much time you spend with him, you always seemed stressed out.”

“I was,” she admitted as she drew her legs up onto the couch. “The balance between work and our relationship was exhausting. And frustrating.”

He stretched his arm across the back of the sofa, his fingers playing with her hair. “If any guy can’t handle the fact that you’re a strong, intelligent, career-minded woman, then he’s a f*cking * and you’re better off without him.”

The corner of her mouth twitched with a smile. It felt good to hear someone else validate her emotions when a part of her had wondered if she’d been to blame.

“I just never expected to be cheated on,” she said, hating that part the most. The heartbreaking betrayal and feeling like a fool. “Why not just break up with me and date someone else? We talked about getting married and having a family, and if he didn’t want that with me, or I made him so unhappy, then why stay and be miserable?”

Wes let out a caustic laugh. “Wish I knew the answer to that. Believe me, I used to wonder the same thing about my father. If he was that unhappy, why didn’t he just divorce my mother? Instead, he got caught in a lie, and when the truth came out about the affair, he blamed my mother . . . for not being there for him. For not giving him what he needed. Everything was all her fault, even though he was the one who’d f*cked around.”

She heard the bitterness in Wes’s voice, and her heart ached for him. He’d been young when his parents had split, but he’d been good friends with Connor by then, and Natalie remembered how hard the breakup had been on him. But this was the first time he’d ever talked about it, and he obviously needed to release a lot of pent-up anger over what had happened and how it had affected him.

“If it wasn’t bad enough that my father had torn my mother down emotionally, he dragged her through a nasty divorce, gave her a shitty settlement, and turned his entire family and their friends against her so she had no one to turn to.” His jaw clenched tight, and his brows furrowed with contempt. “Of course, the * gave my mother minimal child support and thought that would make up for the fact that he was a shit father who turned his back on his son, as well.”

Seeing the real, tangible anguish on Wes’s face, she knew without a doubt that this was his reason for avoiding serious relationships. For him, he’d seen and been through the worst of them. “It’s not always that way.”

He stared at her in disbelief. “You can honestly say that after what you went through with Mitch? What he did to you?”

God, Wes was so cynical, but she knew that everyone handled their emotions differently. That everyone had their own reasons for making the choices they did. And just because Wes had sworn off committed relationships because of his father’s actions and the pain they had caused, it didn’t mean that Natalie felt the same. She definitely hated what she’d lost with Mitch—the possibility of marriage and a family. But she didn’t hate that she’d lost him. No, him getting caught with another woman had been a blessing in disguise. Natalie was no longer stifled by Mitch’s demands and expectations or feeling torn over having a career she loved.

And just because a relationship with Mitch hadn’t worked out, it didn’t mean she was going to let that particular heartbreak taint her belief in love and happily-ever-after. Her parents were proof that marriages worked, that two people could argue, fight, and compromise and still be true to the other. Out of love, mutual respect, and trust.

But she didn’t expect Wes to understand or even accept her reasons when they had such different views. And the only thing she could do was make light of the situation, to bring in humor and sexy times to diffuse the heated conversation and alleviate his defensive mood.

Crawling over the one couch cushion separating them, she straddled his lap, drawing his attention to the fact that she wasn’t wearing a bra and her nipples were already tight and hard against the thin cotton fabric. Distracting him further, she skimmed her fingers across his chest, down his deliciously firm abs, and followed that light trail of hair that disappeared into the waistband of his jeans.

“Haven’t you heard that saying that sometimes you have to kiss a lot of frogs before you find your prince?” She asked the question playfully, but it was also the best answer she could give him as to why she hadn’t given up on finding a man who’d also, eventually, become her lifelong partner.

It took him a few extra seconds, but he finally, reluctantly lifted his gaze from her breasts and quirked an eyebrow at her. “Are you calling me a f*cking frog?” he asked incredulously.

She laughed, because she could see the humor glimmering in the depths of his gaze, and that’s exactly what she’d been aiming for. “Frog . . . toad.” She shrugged as she unsnapped the button to his jeans. “Whichever you prefer.”