Page 61 of Dark Terror
“Why do you think that is?” Men had no modesty, so it was hard for them to understand why women were more comfortable keeping their beautiful bodies covered.
She seemed to give his question serious consideration before saying, “I think because after coming within seconds of dying, being naked in front of you is something I never thought would happen. I regretted that.”
Well then. “Was that all you regretted?”
“No. It was funny. Funny strange, I mean. When I thought he was going to actually shoot me, a calmness settled inside me. It was going to happen and there was nothing I could do about it. Strangely I was at peace with it. I was going to be with my parents and brother again. My regrets all involved you.”
“How so?” The conversation wasn’t going how he’d expected. He’d thought she’d be traumatized and in no way at peace with almost dying. He sure as hell wasn’t at peace with it.
“I knew you’d blame yourself and… Well, I didn’t want that, Gabe. I also regretted that I was never going to see you naked.” She wagged her brows.
And when he’d thought the last thing he’d want to do was laugh after thinking of how close he’d come to losing her, he laughed. “Believe me, that’s going to happen.” There was one thing, though, that he needed to get settled between them.
“I let it ride at the time because we were only agreeing to a fling. You said that you could never love a cop. Why? And do you still feel that way?”
She picked up the wineglass and took a deep drink. After setting it back on the rim of the tub, she met his gaze straight on. “I thought that because of David. Losing the last of my family almost broke me. And then there was Lisa, his wife. She was devastated. The day I watched her draped over my brother’s coffin, I made a promise to myself that that would never be me.”
“Not all cops die, Cara.”
“And other people besides cops die. I know. Lisa managed to get that through my head in a recent conversation about you.”
“You talked about me with your sister-in-law?” That absurdly pleased him.
“Yeah, well, don’t let it go to your head.” She waved her fingers at him. “I also talked to her about cleaning the toilet.”
He stared at her for a moment and then grinned. “You did not.”
“Could have.” She flicked at the water, then lifted her eyes to his. “My turn. Have you ever been in love?”
This woman was always surprising him. He didn’t like talking about Brittaney, but Cara had been honest with him and she deserved the same from him. “Before you, I thought I was once. For about a minute.”
“What happened?”
“It was in my last year of college. Everything was great at first. She was beautiful and fun to be with. When it started getting serious between us, she changed. Became clingy. Hated it when I spent time with my friends. I played baseball. She thought the games were boring and wanted me to quit because it meant more time away from her. If I even said hello to one of my female classmates, Brittaney thought I was flirting. Then she started accusing me of cheating on her.”
“But you weren’t, were you?” Not Gabe. He was too honorable to do that.
“No, and I don’t know when she thought I had the time. If I wasn’t in class, I was with her. It reached a point when I just couldn’t take it anymore, so I broke up with her.”
“Bet that didn’t go over well.”
He stared at the floor for a moment, then lifted haunted eyes to her. “She took her own life. Left a long, rambling letter blaming me.”
Cara leaned forward and wrapped her arms around her knees. “That’s awful, Gabe, but it wasn’t your fault.”
“I know that. I do. But I’ll always wonder if I could have prevented it. It came out later that I wasn’t the first man she’d fixated on, obsessed over. Looking back on it with clearer vision, I think she was mentally ill.”
“It does sound like it. Were you leery of relationships after that?” She was sure she would be if a man blamed her for something like that.
His gaze caught hers and held it. “Until you.”
“Oh,” she whispered. “Why me?”
“I don’t know.” He scrubbed a hand through his hair. “That’s not true. It’s your heart, the one that cares and takes in strays like Ugly Dog.”
“He’s not ugly.”
Gabe snorted. “Yes, he is. But back to why you? It’s your eyes. They shine with your every emotion, and they mesmerize me. Or it could be your legs. Did I ever tell you I was a leg man?”
