Page 5 of Confessions of Pain

Why couldn’t he have let himself go and get fat and ugly? Why did he have to still be so fucking beautiful? Why did my heart still have to thunder wildly just from being near him?

“Security, Barb. Now!”

The older lady cleared her throat and answered dryly, “You had to lay the security department off two months ago, Mr. Morganston. Remember? You needed the funds to add a pool to your secretary’s house. Cuts had to be made.”

Oh, she was enjoying herself very much, indeed. I do believe Wayne had himself a hater in the group.

“Then call the fucking police,” he hissed through gritted teeth. Turning to look at me, he added, “They’ve been looking for him.”

“Sorry, friend,” Ethan broke in with a smug smile. “Not true. Got anything else? Something not so…predictable?”

“Get off my property,” Wayne demanded in outrage.

“Sorry, Wayne. I can’t do that. This property belongs to me now,” I answered, finally playing my trump card. I watched, with pleasure, as the color drained from his face and his ass hit his chair with a thud that told me his legs may have just given out on him.

“That’s…that’s not possible. I was signing loan papers today. We are getting that military contract. Winters wouldn’t do this to us. We own this town!”

I wasn’t sure who he was trying to convince.

“Nope, it’s mine now. This beautiful building and, if my lawyer is correct, most of the Morganston private property as well. It looks like you guys hocked about everything to keep this cash cow producing milk.” I made a tsking sound. “Too bad. Looks like you gambled and lost.”

The next thirty minutes were spent with Wayne and his brothers, all except Kelsey, screaming in outrage and then whining for another chance. Naturally, it all fell on deaf ears. I enjoyed every damned minute of it…except for the fact that Kelsey remained perfectly quiet the entire time. From the first time he’d looked at me, that first leap of what had looked like joy in his eyes, until now, he hadn’t shown much emotion. He didn’t look surprised or disappointed. If anything, he looked almost happy.

That expression worried me.

Finally, the brothers were gathering their Louis Vuitton briefcases and vowing they would have their lawyers overturn thisstupid buy-outthat had to be some kind of mistake. My head was already pounding, and I hadn’t even had a real confrontation with Kelsey yet. He’d remained perfectly quiet during his brothers’ explosion, watching me with those beautiful eyes, but never saying a word. I’d noticed Ethan watching Kelsey, probably trying to figure out how someone so beautiful had ever gotten mixed up with me in the first place.

I’d been prepared to demand that Kelsey stay in the boardroom when his brothers left, but he had remained seated as the rest of them filed out of the room. Barb hung back, protecting Kelsey like a mother hen, until he nodded for her to go as well. She even kissed his damn cheek on the way out, glared at me, and then left the room, closing the door behind her.

I felt the oxygen get trapped in my lungs when I was finally able to focus my undivided attention on the boy who had nearly destroyed me. The room was eerily quiet while I tried to gather my wits. I’d practiced this speech a million times in my head, knew exactly what I wanted to say to him, but now that it was finally time, my ability to speak was gone. My emotions were too…mixed. I wanted to hate him. Ididhate him. Didn’t I?

I wanted the last ten years of my life to have been a bad dream. I wanted all of it to vanish and return to the last moment I held him in my arms. The moment that I had called making love, and that he had characterized as being raped. Or at least that’s what he’d told his father and the sheriff.

Kelsey spoke first, looking directly up into my eyes. “Welcome back, Gabriel. It’s been awhile. After all this time, I was beginning to think you’d forgotten the way home.”

His voice was huskier than before, much sexier and more mature. He sounded confident and composed. But he wasn’t. I could still read his emotions as easily as my own. I could see the way his hands trembled slightly as they rested on top of the table. He knew damned well what was coming. He had to have known I would show back up one day, demanding revenge for what he’d done to me.

“This isn’t my home,” I said between gritted teeth. Finally, I found my voice. No, the comeback wasn’t much, but at least I’d managed to achieve basic speech patterns.

“It was at one time. I remember.”

I snorted in disgust. “Really? It just wasn’t that memorable for me, I guess.”

Pain flickered in his eyes but then vanished so swiftly that I wondered if I’d imagined it. I must have, because I knew he didn’t care.

“No, I guess not. You’ve made that apparent over the years, haven’t you?” he countered in a quiet voice that was probably meant to try and make me feel bad for my comment. He failed. The pain twisting in my heart had nothing to do with seeing him hurt and everything to do with his betrayal. That had to be it.

Then, as if for the first time, he seemed to notice Ethan sitting next to me. Using that same shy smile he’d used to woo me into believing he was different than all the other rich bastards from his side of the tracks, he turned his attention to my friend. “Hi. I’m Kelsey. Since I was late for the meeting, I guess I missed the introductions.” He reached his hand across the table to offer Ethan a handshake.

Ethan sat stone-cold still in his seat, refusing to shake Kelsey’s hand or even acknowledge his words. A slight tremble in Kelsey’s out-reached hand was the only visible sign of the embarrassment or discomfort Ethan’s rudeness caused him. The tremble did, however, draw my attention to the two thick leather bracelets wrapped snugly around each of his wrists. I hadn’t noticed them earlier since the sleeves of his dress shirt had kept them hidden. The decorations seemed strange with his business attire, and I’d never known Kelsey to ever wear any form of jewelry, not even a watch. They didn’t fit him, and I hated them on sight.

They looked sexier than fuck on him, though…which made me hate them even more.

The hand he’d offered Ethan seconds ago dropped back down to the table and then both hands disappeared back to his lap. From where I was sitting and the fact that his chair wasn’t pushed close to the conference table, I could see that he was nervously twisting the leather bracelet around and around on his right wrist. He’d always been a nervous kid. When we’d first met, he’d demonstrated nervous ticks like now, but gradually they’d disappeared as we’d gotten closer. I supposed they must have returned—probably because he’d known I would eventually come back and demand my revenge for his lies.

The fucker should be nervous. I’d waited years to make him pay for what he’d done, and I wasn’t about to let his pathetic nervous gestures interfere with my dreams. When I’d lived on the streets, not sure where my next bite of food would come from or if my next john would slit my throat instead of giving me the twenty dollars I charged, I’d been nervous, too. I just hoped to fuck that I hadn’t looked so pathetic. Kelsey looked like a puppy that had been kicked one too many times.

“Well, okay,” he said. “I guess I’ll be leaving too. It was nice seeing you again, Gabriel.” He nodded politely in Ethan’s direction.

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