Hero(51)

He scampered off before I could do anything to stop him. Not that I wanted to now—there was nothing more unattractive than a scaredy-cat. Although … taking in the look on Caine’s face, I couldn’t imagine many men wouldn’t find him intimidating. “What was that?”

The muscle was working overtime in his clenched jaw. It took him a few seconds to manage to utter the words, “That was me stopping you from making a drunken mistake. A mistake you’ll regret in the morning.” His warm hand wrapped around my elbow and he gently guided me off the stool. “Let’s get you to your room.”

I jerked out of his hold, infuriated by his high-handedness. “What? You’re done ignoring me while you flirt with Farrah Rochdale so you thought you’d come spoil my fun?”

Caine’s features hardened, but he didn’t answer. Instead he gripped my elbow again and began striding through the bar.

There was nothing I could do. If I attempted to stop him I’d just make a scene, and despite what he thought, I was buzzed, not drunk.

He manhandled me into the elevator. “I wasn’t ignoring you. You were ignoring me.”

The elevator began to rise. “Oh yes, of course. How silly of me. I was the one to blame when you were flirting with another woman right in front of me merely days after we had sex.”

“Not that it’s any of your business, but Farrah and I are just old friends. I never mix business with pleasure.”

I shot him a look. “I know from personal experience that’s not true.”

Color appeared high on his cheekbones. “Usua—”

The abrupt halt of the elevator and its doors opening cut him off. I hurried out, hoping he wouldn’t follow.

I had no such luck. Caine caught up to me and grabbed my arm again.

“I’m perfectly capable of making it to my room.”

Instead of listening to me, he took my purse out of my hand and raked through it for the room key.

“I’m not drunk,” I insisted.

“So that was a sober decision to flirt with that *?” he asked, his voice tight, as we stopped at my door.

I huffed and waited for him to open it. To my dismay he pushed his way in first, holding the door open for me.

“You can leave.” I glowered at him and strode inside.

I bent down to tug off my shoes, whirling and almost falling when I heard the door shut behind me.

Caine stood watching me.

“You can leave,” I repeated

He just stared at me in that intense, overwhelming way of his.

“What?” I snapped. “What now?”

“I’m sorry if I hurt you tonight,” he said, and for some reason his apology only fanned the flames of my anger. “You don’t deserve that.”

Whether it was the alcohol or a buildup of tension from the past few weeks of ignoring our chemistry, my self-control slipped. The hurt and fury just exploded out of me. “You know what? You’re right. I deserve better. I’ve deserved better my whole life, but I never got it. Neither did my mother.” I let all my pain blaze out at him and he stood there, frozen by my words. “But my mom refused to ask for better. I won’t make that same mistake.

“From the moment my father told me what he did to your mom, to your family, I cut him out of my life.” I watched how this information made Caine’s eyes glitter, arrested on my face. “I used to think he was some kind of hero,” I whispered. “Some kind of fairy-tale prince who came around on my birthday and showered me with gifts and made my mom really happy. Then suddenly he was there all the time. I thought he’d finally come to save us. And I kept thinking of him like that until I was a teenager, until I was old enough to see how spoiled and lazy and entitled he was. How he made my mom cry more than he made her laugh. But I pretended.” I gave a huff of bitter laughter as I remembered the way I’d stuck my head in the sand.

“I kept pretending right up until seven years ago when he confessed his sins. I hated him for what he did to your mother. I hated him for lying to me all those years, for having a family I knew nothing about, for coming to us because we were all he had left, his only recourse. I left home. But I couldn’t let it go until I knew everything. So I went back and I asked my father your mother’s name, your name, but he wouldn’t tell me. I decided I didn’t need to know your name. I just needed my father to apologize to you, to prove he really was remorseful and that whatever he was going through wasn’t just about him, but about the people he hurt. But he refused. So I told him I didn’t want anything to do with him ever again, and I never went back.