Bound for Me (Be for Me #4)(57)

“Why don’t you? Your father would have made money on the hotel sale?”

“Sure. More than enough to pay the bank debt,” she muttered. “And then he gambled every last cent of it away.”

She felt Connor’s muscles tense beneath her. “He’s a gambler?”

“For the last few years.” She closed her eyes as the memories surfaced. The slow decline, then rapid fall to rock bottom. “He gambled his money. All of it. And then mine. Until there was absolutely nothing. He lied to me. I gave him that money on trust, but he lied.” And it still hurt. She lifted her head, looked into Connor’s serious blue eyes. “And for all that time, I’d heard nothing but how amazing Summerhill was, and what a freaking oracle Rex Hughes was… and when everything fell apart, I guess that became my fixation.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Not your fault.” She finally stepped up and admitted it. “It wasn’t.” She’d been wrong to blame his family.

“It must be hard for you.” Connor said. At least he had the grace not to gloat. If anything, he looked more grim than he ever had.

“I’m over it now.”

“So where’s your mom?”

“She and dad broke up a few years ago.”

He nodded. “But she has a new partner.”

“Clearly,” she drawled, hiding her hurt. “Dad wanted to get her back... That’s why he was so determined to make the hotel such a success. Why he modelled himself on Rex. But it was never going to happen.”

“The hotel? Or getting your mother back?”

“Both.”

“She’d already met that someone else?”

Savannah nodded.

“What happened?”

She wanted to curl up and hide. She never talked about this. But Connor pulled her close so she rested her head on his broad shoulder again. He wrapped both arms around her, his hand gently rubbing her back. She closed her eyes, breathed in the scent of sun and snow and sex and him. “We went on a school trip. You know how you do. A week in Washington, seeing the sights. She came as a parent help. And he was my history teacher.” Savannah explained.

“No.”

“Yes. Fresh out of college, he’d only just gotten registered. He was the hot new history teacher. Nearer my age than hers.” She chuckled, it was that or cry. “Every one knew. They were off f*cking around with each other, while my father was home alone and clueless. While I’m there. Ostracised by the rest of the class. They’re all giggling. And then bullying. Are you as easy as your mum? The guys asked. Do you come like a banshee the way she does?” Savannah winced, drawing more tightly into herself, but Connor’s arms now cradled.

“My few girlfriends walked. You know how kids get—they operate in packs. If you’re the weak one, you’re attacked. And I was now the weak one. Brad—mum’s hot history lover—stayed teaching at the school for a while. It was hideous. Then they moved to a town an hour or so away. But my friends were no longer my friends.” She hadn’t felt like she could trust any of them again. She drew in a deep breath.

“What about boyfriends?”

“Didn’t have one for ages. Not ’til I’d left school. When dad’s problems really started to impact… he decided he couldn’t handle it.”

“Did you love him?”

“I thought I did. But he bailed.” All those she’d trusted had bailed. “So I guess we both know what it’s like to be let down by those we love…”

“Yeah, I guess we do.”

She lifted her head to meet his somber eyes and whispered. “So help me forget again, for just a little while.”





Chapter Seventeen





He was going to have to tell her. The worst. What he’d avoided. He’d thought she’d known, but it was obvious from this morning that she hadn’t a clue.

Connor was afraid she was going to be hurt. And angry. But he’d told her he had nothing to hide. And he didn’t. So he had to be honest with her. He owed her that.

Right when she’d finally opened up to him.

He walked into the bar just as Luca must have said something funny to her, because she threw her boss a smile—so gorgeous it stopped Connor in his tracks. She had an intensity that he found irresistible.

Seven nights? Not enough. Seven days and nights?

Still not enough.

He looked down, frowning at the thought. It was going to have to be enough. Because she was going to get on with her life. And he needed to get back to his.

This whole keep her close, distract her deal, was now only about the attraction between them, right? The challenge. He’d wanted her capitulation—to have sex with her again, to have her stay the night in his arms...

But now he had it?

Still not enough.

And worse than that? He felt shitty about what had happened to her. And the very real part he’d played in that. So he was going to have to ‘fess up.

“Hey you.”

Connor glanced back up, his worries slipping at the sound of her sweet greeting.

But it wasn’t him she was talking to. She was looking the other way—at another guy who was walking over to the bar from a corner table.