Page 59 of Unraveled

“My God, ask.”

“I don’t need to, Gian. That’s the point. I was thinking too much this week—overthinking like I do—because of my sister and that guy. She had online journals she used to keep, you know? I went through some because I have her passwords and her laptop. I never did that before. And her phone, too. I still have that. I charged it and read the messages she hadn’t deleted.”

Gian frowned. “And what did you learn?”

“That it didn’t end between them when everyone thought it did. She still saw him occasionally, after he was married. She knew, too, about the other girl before the pregnancy thing came up. Why didn’t she ever say anything to me? Why didn’t she tell me? I’m her twin.”

Cara sighed, her manicured nails rapping against the table cloth as she added, “But then, I know why she didn’t say anything, because she knows me, too. She knows I wouldn’t have been happy—that I would not have agreed with what she was doing. So, I’m stuck in this headspace of being angry that she left me out of a private thing, and being grateful that she did at the same time. I feel like I didn’t know her, or this part of her. It’s messed up.”

“And this made you overthink because …?”

“Because I don’t want to be one of several woman, Gian. I want to be one woman to one man. Except that wasn’t what I told you before, so—”

“You are one woman to one man,” he interrupted smoothly. “I’m not with anyone else, and I haven’t been for a long time. I didn’t even do a casual thing with women, I did the random thing for an evening and that was it. Things are simpler in my life that way. I have … well, expectations of me, and it’s easier when I don’t have to bring others into that mess, too.”

Cara’s fingers stopped their dancing instantly. “Yet, you’re bringing me into it.”

“Not really. You’ve made it clear that I am not your type of man because of the business side of my life, Cara. You have no interest in being there. It makes it easy to keep you the hell out of it, when you don’t want to be a part of it at all.”

“Oh.”

“It’s an unnecessary fucking complication,” Gian said, knowing damn well he sounded crass and harsh. “And I like that we have this way of just enjoying each other, our time together, talking in bed, you thinking you’re sneaking up on me in the mornings when I know damn well you are there. Me reading in bed and you wearing my shirts. I like those things. They are uncomplicated, easy things for me to do, Cara. You don’t ask for more, so I don’t offer. But if you did ask, if you did want more, then I would try to give you that, too.”

“And you’re not doing that with someone else,” she said.

“No.”

“Or anything else, either.”

Gian chuckled lowly. “No, again.”

“Okay.” Cara gave him one of her brilliant smiles that lit up her pretty, delicate features. “I was also kind of irrationally pissed off at you this week, too.”

“For what?”

“Knowing something about my twin that I didn’t.”

Gian scowled. “That’s unfair.”

“I told you it was irrational.”

True.

“Fair enough,” he uttered. “Are you still angry about that? Even irrationally.”

Cara laughed a tinkling, musical sound. “Lucky for you, no. I’m not mad, or I wouldn’t have come tonight.”

“You would have come.”

“You don’t know that.”

Gian’s grin deepened. “You came tonight, not even knowing what this was. You came with a tight-as-hell dress on, even though I know my man only told you to dress appropriately for an upscale evening. You came with fuck-me-heels on and your hair loose and wild the way I like. You put the red lipstick on that I like to see stained on my sheets. You would have come, Cara, whether you were pissed off or not.”

Her cheeks reddened. “So you’re a good fuck—I never denied that, Gian.”

“Try again.”

She blew out a slow breath. “God, you’re insufferable.”