Undenied (Unspoken #3)(7)

“Good Lord no,” he muttered, still reeling over the direct line she’d taken.

She arched one eyebrow. “Then what is it? Got something against brunettes?”

“Honey, I like all women,” he drawled.

She snorted. “That’s bullshit. If that was true, you and I would have ended up in bed last night instead of you pulling a lame-ass hat trick to escape.”

He coughed as a piece of chip went down the wrong pipe. He wheezed and reached for his water. A mournful sigh escaped him, and he briefly closed his eyes. Surely this was a guy’s worst nightmare. A gorgeous, vibrant woman offering herself on a silver platter and his mind and dick weren’t in unison.

“Payton, you’re a beautiful woman—”

She held up a hand in annoyance. “Good God, if you’re going to give me that brush-off speech, save it please. I don’t need you to patronize me. Contrary to what you may think, you don’t hold my ego in your little palm. Yeah, I’m attracted to you, yeah, we have a history, but that doesn’t mean you’re the only guy in the world I’ve ever wanted to sleep with.”

He scrubbed a hand over his face and groaned. This was such a cluster f**k. “That’s just it, Payton. Our history is what’s the issue here.”

She looked at him in confusion. “What?”

He glanced around at the nearby tables, cringing at the idea that he’d be overheard by someone. Then he looked back at Payton who was still staring at him with a crinkled brow.

“Look, can we get out of here? Go somewhere else to have this conversation?”

“Uh, okay, I guess.”

He stood abruptly and reached for his wallet. He peeled off a twenty and threw it on the table, not bothering to wait for their food. If he was going to have this come-to-Jesus moment with Payton, he damn sure wasn’t going to do it in a place where he could be overheard by people he had to face on a daily basis.

He reached for her hand before he thought better of it. She hesitated a brief moment before sliding her fingers into his palm. They walked out of the restaurant, him tugging her behind him in his haste to get out.

“Where are we going?” she asked as he pulled out of the parking lot.

“Somewhere private,” he muttered.

She shrugged and focused her attention out the window as he drove through town and hit the highway north into the country. A few miles out, he turned onto a dirt road leading up to an old logging site.

“This must be pretty serious,” she said dryly. “Planning to off me and hide the body?”

He pulled off and cut the engine before turning in his seat to face her. “Very funny. I don’t remember you being such a sarcastic wench.”

She eyed him angelically, the baby blue eyes a fitting accompaniment for her look of innocence. Though he was fast finding out, she wasn’t the sweet little sixteen-year-old he’d known.

“So why is our history such a big issue?” she asked.

With her sitting across from him, looking expectantly at him, he suddenly felt like a complete moron. It was obvious that she didn’t have the same hang-ups he did.

“Payton, I hurt you. Badly. I was clumsy, inconsiderate and I ruined what should have been a terrific experience for you. It was embarrassing as hell, and it’s something I would have just as soon liked to have forgotten. When I saw you again, my first instinct was to run as far as I could in the other direction.”

“You did run in the opposite direction,” she pointed out.

He huffed in irritation. Did she take nothing seriously?

She stared at him a long moment, her face scrunching up more with each passing second. “You’re serious, aren’t you?”

Knowing there was only one way to get his point across with the least amount of chitchat and skirting around the issue, he reached across the seat and grabbed her hand. He guided it between his legs, ignoring her expression of surprise.

“Let me put it into terms you can’t possibly misunderstand. You feel that? Nothing. I may as well be a f**king eunuch. You’re a gorgeous woman. I should be a walking hard-on around you, instead I’ll likely have to shove my finger up my ass to push my dick back out of hiding.”

She giggled. First a stifled sound like she was trying valiantly to control her mirth. Then she lost all control and began laughing uncontrollably.

“I’m glad you find this so damn amusing,” he said through gritted teeth as he released her hand.

She wiped tears from her eyes then dissolved into laughter again. Wes heaved a long-suffering sigh and stared out the windshield as Payton attempted to collect herself.

She wheezed a few times then tucked her hair back behind her ear. “Wes, tell me you haven’t been worked up all these years over the first time we had sex.”

He shot her a dirty glance. “Of course I haven’t been hung up on it for the last twelve years. It’s just that, damn it, Payton, I hurt you.”

The laughter disappeared and her eyes softened. She reached out a hand to touch his arm. “Wes, it was my first time. Of course it hurt. But that’s not what I remember about it.”

His eyebrows went up. “It’s not? What do you remember then?”

Her eyes twinkled merrily and she smiled that sweet smile that made his gut ache.

“So that was what all that was about last night? You were embarrassed because of what happened between us in high school?”