Page 43 of Promise Me This Christmas
“Oh?”Andrew’s interest was mild at best.
“Larkin Carrillo.”
Andrew choked on the scotch, started to cough.Carson watched, feeling the start of a slow burn of anger.The other man’s reaction said a lot.So did his eyes.They were wary all of a sudden.
When he was capable of speaking, Andrew said, “You two were good friends.”
“Yeah, but you were the one who took her to the prom.”
“That was just one night.”Andrew polished off the rest of his drink in a long swallow.
He was going to bolt if Carson didn’t talk fast.
“Maybe it was just one night, but you sure bragged about it, didn’t you?”Andrew had made sure everyone knew that Larkin had slept with him that night.At the time Carson had assumed he really liked Larkin.But now he realized that it had been a game of one-upmanship for Andrew.He’d done it to spite Carson.
“Hey, we were stupid kids back then.”
“You made it sound like Larkin couldn’t get enough.But the opposite was true.”The anger was flaring inside him now.His words came out deep and hard and hot with fury.“She tried to fight you off and you forced yourself on her.”
Andrew held out his hand in a stop-right-there gesture.“She gave me mixed signals.She—”
“Like hell she did.That may be what you tell yourself so you can sleep beside your wife at night.But you raped her, asshole.That’s what you did.”
“You’re just going to take her side on this?”
Andrew was trying to look affronted, but it wasn’t working.Maybe he didn’t have enough bluster.Maybe his lying skills were rusty.
“Don’t go excusing what you did because you were young.What you did was criminal.”Carson’s hands were fists.His shoulders and back ached with the stress of holding back his urge to pulverize this man.
Calling upon every ounce of willpower he possessed, Carson left space for Andrew to explain himself.To mount whatever defense he could muster.
“I may have misread the situation,” Andrew finally said.
Carson stared hard at him until he dropped his gaze.
“Does she want to press charges?”
“She should.”
“It would ruin my marriage.Cost me my job.But she’d be in the right, I guess.”His shoulders slumped and suddenly he was a defeated man.
Carson had the power to ease his mind and admit that Larkin didn’t intend to press charges.But he wanted Andrew to suffer.Emotionally, physically, any way possible.
“What happens now?”Andrew asked.
“Now I take you out back and let my fists tell you what I think of you.”
Andrew winced, but before Carson could act on his threat, he noticed a woman entering the bar.A woman with long chestnut hair, a puffy red jacket, and a wool scarf wrapped around her neck.
Larkin was here.And he didn’t know who was in the most trouble.Andrew.Or him.
Chapter Twelve
Larkin had beenright in guessing Carson would be at Grey’s Saloon.There he was, in the very back booth, looking like a guilty kid with his hand in a cookie jar.Who was the cookie?Larkin wondered grimly.
On the walk here she’d lectured herself on the impropriety of what she was doing.She should trust Carson, not check up on him behind his back.He was probably meeting up with a friend or a business associate.He was under no obligation to explain himself to her.
Now she was glad that she’d come to see for herself.The guilty expression that had washed over his face when he first spotted her told her everything.This was a meeting he’d wanted to keep secret.Maybe they’d only shared a few kisses, but she’d thought they meant something.And if they hadn’t, she needed to find out right now.Her trust in men had already been a problem.After this she might well become a confirmed cat lady.Or a dog lady.The type of pet was negotiable.
