But I don’t want to lose you,” he said. Her burning anger had turned to a chill. She shook and couldn’t stop tears from falling.
“Get out, Garrett. Just go. You can’t change my mind, and you and I are through.”
“Sophia, don’t do this. You’re being stubborn and foolish. If you don’t want the money for yourself, give it to charity and do some good with it. You don’t have to keep it or live on it.”
“There is nothing you can say that will make me change my mind. I don’t ever want to meet my half brothers. The only thing we have in common is Argus Delaney and nothing else. Garrett, get it through your head—I don’t want to have anything to do with any part of my father, and those half brothers are all part of him.”
“You’re part of him, Sophia.”
“Don’t remind me. If I could do anything to erase that, I would.” She walked toward the door, opening it to make it very clear that she needed him to leave. “You have to go now.”
“Why the hell are you being so selfish about this?” he said. Momentarily, she was taken aback by his harsh accusation and then her anger surged again.
“Selfish? Haven’t you been listening when I’ve talked about my father? His world revolved around him. He thought only of himself. His ego was enormous. Don’t accuse me of being selfish. He took the prize.”
“But what would it hurt to meet them? There’s no way you can be harmed by a meeting. You’re being stubborn and unreasonable about this—spiteful and hurtful for no reason. Argus will never know, Sophia. You are not getting back at your father,” Garrett said, his voice rising.
“How dare you. How dare you call me spiteful and hurtful after what you’ve just done to me. In case I haven’t made it abundantly clear, Garrett, I don’t want to see you again ever.”
“Sophia, I don’t want to lose you. You’re important to me and I thought I was to you. I thought we had something special between us. Other than my connections with the Delaneys, I’ve been open and truthful with you.”
“Other than your connections with the Delaneys? How can you discount that? That is actually the first thing you should have told me about yourself. Because the problem now, Garrett, is that I don’t believe you or trust you, and I never will. Get out of my life.”
“I’m sorry, Sophia. I’m sorry about everything. About the way this worked out, about how long I kept the truth from you. Just please promise me that you’ll think about this and stop having such a closed mind.”
Sophia wasn’t even going to grace his request with a response. Instead, she walked out of the room. He followed and caught up with her at the door.
“Just think about what I’ve said to you. Give some thought to your half brothers who have done nothing to you.” When she refused to look at him, he paused for a moment. “Maybe, Sophia, you’re more like Argus than you care to admit.”
“How dare you, Garrett!” she cried. His words cut like a knife. How could she possibly have given this man her body? Her heart? What on earth was she thinking? “Get out of my life!”
“That isn’t what I want to do. I don’t want things to end this way between us.”
“There is no ‘us,’ Garrett.”
“There was, and there can be, if you’ll just give me a chance to explain. I put off telling you about the Delaneys because I was scared of losing you. What I feel for you is real.”
“I can’t believe you care.”
He clenched his fists. “What I want is you in my arms, and in my life. What I feel for you, I’ve never felt for any woman. I can’t tell you how many times I thought about calling Will and resigning. But I didn’t, because I believed I was doing the right thing—both for you, and for them.”
“Goodbye, Garrett,” she said, unwilling to listen to another second of his plea.
“I wish you viewed this differently. You’re stirring up a storm when you could have so much joy and give so much joy. And you’re doing it for the wrong reasons. Actually, reason doesn’t even enter into it. You’re blindly striking out and trying to hurt whoever you can. Listen, if I had thought I could be up front with you from the first moment, I would have been. But I can see now that I was right. You wouldn’t have talked to me, and so I did the only thing I could to get near you. You have a closed mind. You want me out of your life? I’m out,” he stated coldly. He turned and left in long strides.
Sophia slammed her heavy door and sagged against it, sobbing and shaking. She hurt badly in every way.
Garrett had betrayed her—she couldn’t perceive anything else. Their lovemaking had simply been a means to an end, nothing more. When they had made love, he hadn’t been emotionally involved—he had been working. But as swiftly as that thought came, she replayed the pain in his voice as he confessed to her, and she believed his emotions were real.
Yet how could she trust him now?
She heard his car and then it was gone. And with that, Garrett vanished out of her life.
She sat on the nearest chair and cried. Hurt was overwhelming. Heartbroken, she hated herself for being duped just as much as she hated Garrett for deceiving her. How blind she had been to Garrett’s purpose.
His accusations echoed in her thoughts—you’re selfish; you’re blindly striking out and trying to hurt whoever you can.
Was he right? Was she being selfish?
He had not succeeded or even come close to getting her to consider meeting the Delaneys. So would Garrett continue trying, or was he giving up?
Would she ever see him again? And could she admit to herself that after everything he had done to her, after everything that had happened, the possibility of never seeing him was the worst part of all of this?
Garrett slid behind the wheel and took deep breaths. Desperate at the thought of losing Sophia, he had been tempted to just grasp her shoulders and force her to talk to him. But where the Delaneys were concerned, Sophia had shut off reason.
Her actions shocked him even though he had known about her feeling rejected beforehand, and had heard her bitterness when she talked about the Delaneys, particularly her father.
Anger churned his insides. Along with fury was an uncustomary hurt. He had enjoyed being with her more than any other woman he had known. He wasn’t ready for the hurt of losing her. He wasn’t ready for the fallout from telling the truth, yet he had been compelled to do so. How could she be so stubborn?
Clenching his teeth until his jaw hurt, he drove home, charging into the empty house and tossing down his keys. Yanking off his jacket as he headed to his room, he tried to compose his thoughts and get a grip on his stormy emotions.
He’d always thought Will was the most stubborn Delaney—until now. Sophia was more stubborn than Will because Will would at least listen to reason and if you got through to him, he would cooperate. Sophia, on the other hand, turned deaf ears to his arguments.
He thought about the night and her passion. It was as if he had been with a different woman when they had made love. A warm, loving, passionate woman. He hurt and hurt for her.
He swore quietly, pacing his room, glaring at the phone. He needed to break the news to Will, but he wasn’t ready yet.
Would she ever give him another chance to talk to her about the Delaneys—or to make it up to her? He doubted it and he didn’t care to hang around with unreasonable expectations.
He went to the kitchen to get a cold beer. Reeling with anger and frustration, Garrett popped the top and took a drink, feeling the cold liquid wash down his throat.
Procrastinating, Garrett stared at the window. He did not want to call Will or any other Delaney. Yet he had to. What would he do if he were in Will’s place? What could