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I nod. "If you want to tell me. Don't feel you have to because I told you about Seona."
"It's okay. I want to tell you." She gives me a quick kiss. "Though it's very sweet of you to give me an out."
I enfold both her hands in my palm, holding them to my chest. "Whatever you feel like sharing, I'm listening. You can tell me anything, and I will keep your secrets. You have my word."
Her lips tremble a touch, but then she sucks in a breath and tells me. "I met Rade in college. He's from Croatia and came here on a student visa. Though he was two years ahead of me, we became friends and spent a lot of time together—but just as friends. His parents had died when he was eight, and he inherited a real fortune. I don't know exactly how much, but it would definitely qualify as stinking rich."
The anxiety in her expression might not be noticeable to anyone else, but I've gotten to know her enough that I can see it. She's uneasy about sharing her past with me. I clasp her hand more firmly, hoping to give her some small measure of comfort.
"Five years ago," she begins, "my parents died in a car accident. My brother Gavin didn't handle it well. He'd left the Marines eight months earlier, after a tour in Afghanistan, and he wasn't completely readjusted to civilian life yet. He's the toughest guy I know, but he basically fell apart after our parents died, and I had to handle everything. There were bills and debts neither of us had known about because our parents had kept their financial problems a secret. No life insurance, they'd stopped making payments on it. No savings. Almost nothing in their checking account. It was a horrible time, discovering how much they'd kept from us, and we couldn't even ask them for an explanation."
I fold my hands around both of hers now, lifting one to place a soft kiss on the backside.
Burgeoning tears shimmer in her eyes. "Rade was very kind during those first weeks after the accident. Two months later, he asked me—" She pauses as if she's searching for the right way to explain. "He asked me to marry him, for reasons I can't explain. I agreed, not because I wanted to be married to him but because I owed him a lot more than I can tell you."
"You don't have to say any more, if you don't want to."
"Thank you." The tears fill her eyes, about to spill over onto her cheeks. She sniffles and tries to wrest her hand free of mine.
I release her hands and wipe the tears away with my thumbs.
"Rade saved me, in a way," she says. "My life was in shambles, and he stepped in to pay bills I couldn't, helped me stay in school to finish my degree and go on to grad school. He gave me a place to stay too, when I couldn't afford my apartment anymore. When he asked me for a favor, I couldn't say no."
"A favor?" I squint at Calli, studying her face. "Marriage isn't a favor."
"Please, Aidan, I can't tell you anything more."
Lips compressed, I watch her for a few seconds, but can't understand this at all. She's told me a big part of her secret, that much I'm sure of, so I can't push her for more.
I exhale a long breath and run the backs of my fingers down her cheek. "I'm sorry. This is not my business, but I don't like the sound of your arrangement with this Rade person."
"I know." She kisses my cheek. "You're a very good man, Aidan MacTaggart."
I stand and stretch, arching my back. Time to forget all this emotional rubbish and get a good night's sleep that will make us both feel better in the morning. So, I offer her my hand. "This has been a tiring evening. To bed with you, Calli."
"You sound like a medieval lord," she says as she accepts my aid in getting up off the sofa.
"If I were, you'd have to obey me."
"Lucky for you, I feel like doing what you commanded. Sleep sounds wonderful right about now."
I walk the lass to her bedroom door, which hangs halfway open. Inside, the puppies have already settled in for the night on Calli's bed, with Misty at the foot and Mandy half on the pillow.
"Sleep well," I say.
"Good night."
I press a kiss to her lips, lingering there for a long moment. Then I turn and stride into my room, pausing on the threshold to glance over my shoulder.
Calli is just shutting her door.
Something changed between us tonight. I'm sure she senses it too and probably feels anxious about whatever this shift between us means. We've grown closer, for sure. I told her some of what happened between me and Seona, and she confessed to me that she married a man she doesn't love for reasons she still isn't comfortable telling me. The fact she shared that much has to mean something. She trusts me. Why else would she confess anything? I confessed to her too, but I still have so much more I need to explain to Calli.
Not tonight. Maybe not tomorrow. I need more time with her before I admit that I'm a selfish bastard. Calli thinks I'm a good man, and I don't want to ruin her opinion of me just yet.
Do I still plan to seduce her into loving me? I shouldn't, but I do.
I think I might already be falling for her.
