Delinquent Daddy (Banks / Kincaid Family #2)(23)

He was hers.

"Was that the first time?" she asked hoarsely.

Finally, he lifted his face Their gazes met. "Does it matter?"

Ellie's already broken heart crumbled into dust. Tears rushed up her throat, but she choked them back with a fit of stubborn pride. She'd be damned before she let Boston Kincaid see her cry.

"No," she whispered, looking down at her hands. "I guess it doesn't." She blinked a few times. Her eyes burned but remained dry.

Silence grew thick between them. Boston returned to gazing out the window. Ellie stared at his back and swallowed 90

Delinquent Daddy

by Linda Kage

a lump in her throat that must've been her pride washing down her esophagus because the next words out of her mouth were, "Are you going to do it again?"

His shoulders tensed fractionally. The remaining ashes of her pulverized heart screamed out, begging him to say he was sorry and promise it'd never happen again.

She would forgive him.

In that moment, if he'd repented, she would've forgiven anything.

But he didn't. He hitched a shoulder and softly replied, "I don't know."

Ellie froze. Her blood turned to ice. "So...you're just going to keep cheating on me? Is that what you're saying?"

He whirled around at that question. "Cheating?" he repeated in confusion.

"Yes!" she wailed, throwing her hands in the air. "What do you call it when you're in a relationship with one girl and you go out and—"

"Wait a second," he interrupting, taking a step toward her.

"I never said anything to you to suggest we were in a relationship. I never made you any promises. What made you think this thing between us was exclusive?"

For a moment, she could only stare at him blankly. Was he kidding?

Then she glared and set her hands on her hips. "Oh, I don't know. Maybe the fact that we have been just that for the past seven months. You'd think after that much time, it'd be an unspoken agreement. You didn't have to say anything.

I gave you my virginity, Boston. I gave you—"

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Delinquent Daddy

by Linda Kage

"What does that have to do with—"

"It has to do with everything!" she squawked in growing alarm. "I gave you...I gave you—"

"Yeah, you did," he said. "You gave it. Willingly. I didn't force anything from you. I didn't demand or manipulate. And I never made you any promises. Damn it, Ellie. I thought you understood what was going on here."

She blinked in utter bewilderment. "I don't understand any of this."

Once again, he was unable to make eye contact. He sighed and scrubbed a hand over his forehead until a red mark appeared. "Well, it still doesn't matter," he mumbled more to himself than her. "It's almost May anyway."

"May? What happens in May?" A terrible feeling crept up the back of her neck, making the little hairs jerk to attention.

He lifted his face and sent her an incredulous look. "I graduate," he reminded her. "I leave and go to Yale."

She shrugged. "So?"

"So..." He frowned, obviously not understanding her confusion. "You're staying here."

The fear that washed through her had her gazing at him in frozen horror. Suddenly, she understood everything. "Oh, I get it," she murmured on a nod. "You go. I stay. That automatically means it's over, huh?"

"Look, Ellie." He let out an uncomfortable sound. "You have your plans, and I have mine. You've always known what I was going to do. Why're you acting like—"

"I have to go," she said abruptly.

"Whoa," Boston said, reaching out to grab her arm.

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Delinquent Daddy

by Linda Kage

She paused and stared up at him with her dry, burning eyes.

He shook his head in confusion. "That's it, then? You're just going to walk out. No goodbye, no nothing?"

Ellie snorted. She couldn't believe he actually expected her to be cordial. Then again, she didn't know why she was surprised by his assumption. He hadn't planned on trying to make a long-distance relationship work in the first place, which completely blew her mind. So obviously, she didn't know him like she thought she had.

"Gee," she sneered bitterly. "Let me think. You cheated on me and planned on breaking up in five weeks anyway. So, yeah, I'd say that's it." She glanced pointedly down at his fingers on her arm. "Let go."

His grip tightened. "Ellie."

As soon as she looked up, she realized it was a mistake.

The utter panic in his eyes had her melting. If he did anything, said one thing to get her back, she'd crawl into his arms and forget what a snake he was. And wouldn't that make her an utter fool.

"I..." he started and paused to lick his dried lips.

Ellie swallowed, waiting. Her crushed heart obviously didn't know it was broken, because it beat hard and fast in her chest, anxious to hear his words to bring them back together.

He wanted to say them. She could see it in his eyes. He didn't want her to go.

But he surprised them both when he disengaged his fingers and stepped back. "Goodbye then."