Delinquent Daddy (Banks / Kincaid Family #2)(64)

But, damn it, she just wanted to know.

"Did you have sex with her or not?"

His smile was slow and relieved. "I did not," he said, looking all too pleased to report it.

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Delinquent Daddy

by Linda Kage

Ellie shook her head, suddenly lost. "Then why'd you tell me you did?"

He frowned. "I never told you that."

"Yes, you—"

"No! I didn't."

"Boston, you confessed to being unfaithful."

He sighed and ground the palms of his hand into his eye sockets. "I went back to her apartment with her," he admitted. "I kissed her and took her shirt off. I fully intended to have sex with her. Isn't that unfaithful enough for you?"

Ellie's jaw dropped. Okay, so he'd still done stuff. But all this time, she'd thought he'd put his penis inside another woman. She'd thought...

"So, why did she stop you?" she asked. "She find out you were already involved with someone else?"

He closed his eyes and shook his head. "Oh, she knew about you, all right. But she wasn't the one to stop. I was."

"You..." Ellie suddenly found it way too hard to breathe.

"Why?"

"You really want the whole story?"

"If you don't mind."

He shrugged. "Hey, it was a long time ago. What would spilling the truth hurt now?"

Ellie was quiet. For a minute, he was too.

Then he cleared his throat and started. "You were working that night. One of my friends was having his twenty-first birthday and bugged and badgered me to stop by this party he was throwing. I didn't really want to go, but I knew I'd never hear the end of it if I didn't. So, I showed up and was 238

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by Linda Kage

ready to leave the minute I arrived. As I was looking for my buddy to wish him a happy birthday, she spotted me and approached. When she started flirting, I told her I was seeing someone else, but she kind of shrugged like it didn't bother her. So, I turned her down again."

"That's not all," Ellie said, making it a statement rather than a question.

For her interruption, she got a dirty look. "I'm not done,"

he said. Then he closed his eyes and ran his hand through his hair. "As she was walking away, it hit me what I'd just done.

And I don't know...it rattled me that I could turn down a good-looking woman so easily. I hadn't realized I'd gotten quite that attached to you until then. So, I started to think stupid stuff like, 'You know what? Ellie doesn't have exclusive rights to me. I never made her any promises.'"

Sending her a quick, ironic smile, he added, "It pissed me off that you'd been able to gain so much power over me without me even being aware of it. I didn't like it. I hadn't planned on getting serious with you. In fact, I'd told myself from the very start of our...whatever...I'd convinced myself it wasn't going to last. I was leaving for Yale at the end of the year, and I wasn't going to have any kind of ties holding me back."

"So you did plan on breaking up with me all along?" Ellie asked.

Boston sighed. "Yes...no...I don't know. Damn it, Ellie. All I know is that I wasn't planning on feeling what I felt. I didn't want you to be important to me."

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Delinquent Daddy

by Linda Kage

Not sure what to think of this confession, Ellie turned away and briskly rubbed her arms up and down. "So, how did you end up at her apartment with her shirt off?"

"I went after her," he admitted. "After realizing how far gone I was over you, I freaked out. I completely denied how deeply I'd fallen for you and, to prove to myself that I didn't care so much for you, I pursued her until I got her back to her place. I had every intention of cheating on you. I actually wanted to, if for no other reason than to say I could."

"So, what happened?" Ellie asked in a whisper. She wrapped her arms around her waist. It felt so fresh all of a sudden. Like she'd just walked into history class and heard Heather two seats over, bragging to her friends about tempting the hot Boston Kincaid back to her apartment.

"I couldn't do it," he said. He looked so beaten and defeated, she almost felt sorry for him. His voice cracked as he continued. "I had her shirt off and I wanted to get rid of her bra next, but...I don't know. It felt wrong. It just...it wasn't you."

He lifted his eyes to hers and looked so sincerely regretful her stomach began to burn.

"As soon as I thought about how it was so much better with you, I realized what I was doing, how I was comparing, and I stopped. I booked it out of there and went straight home. When you came by the next day, I couldn't even look at you. I felt so...shitty. And I resented you for that. You weren't supposed to have any kind of control over me. You weren't supposed to make me feel anything I didn't want to 240

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by Linda Kage

feel. You weren't supposed to matter." He sighed and rubbed at a spot on the center of his forehead.

"So, that's what happened," she stated softly.

Turning away, she pressed a hand to her own forehead as the memories flashed through her...of his belligerent attitude when she'd finally confronted him and his cold flashing eyes as he'd spat back, " God, El. I never made you any promises.