Change of Heart by Laura Abbot

Author:Laura Abbot
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2011-03-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER EIGHT

WHY HAD SHE NEVER HEARD any of this before? Libby was seeing not the devil-may-care man’s man of their marriage, but a little boy broken by abandonment, determined never again to let anyone get close enough to hurt him. As she listened to him explaining how desperately he had sought his father’s approval, the pain in his words broke her heart.

“Nothing was ever good enough,” he said. “I should’ve hated him. But I didn’t.” He rubbed a thumb across the back of her hand. “Not until after he walked out. At first, I thought he’d left because of something I had done wrong. That it was all my fault. If only I had said the right thing, done the right thing, he would’ve stayed. With time, I realized he wasn’t coming back, and that he didn’t care about Mom or me. Maybe never had. That’s when I got angry. I decided to show him. I would be the best rider, hiker, kayaker, skier, you name it, that ever came along.” He paused, lost in reflection. “I made up my mind no one would ever hurt me again.” He gave a rueful shake of his head. “Ironic, huh? You don’t live this life and escape hurting.”

He closed his eyes, obviously thinking about Ashley and, Libby hoped, their lost baby. “No, Trent, you don’t.” For the first time it struck her that maybe they had unconsciously set conditions on their love. She’d done it to protect herself from her lonely, anguished childhood, and he to buttress himself against rejection and fear of failure.

When she uncrossed her legs and moved closer, settling into the curve of his arm, he opened his eyes. “That sounds self-serving and melodramatic, I suppose.”

“Not at all. Looking back, I suppose we were both scarred and had something to prove—me to be the perfect parent and you to conquer the world.”

“And we didn’t communicate.” After a pause, Trent continued, “We pledged Kylie the truth. Give me the truth, Lib.”

“Don’t do this to me,” she pleaded, clutching the front of his wool shirt.

His lips were against her cheek, his breath warm, spicy. “Do what?”

Her answer came out as a squeak. “Tempt me.”

He turned her face so she had nowhere to look except into his depthless eyes. “Like this?” His arms came around her and he caught her lips, gradually deepening the kiss until she was lost in a white-water vortex, powerless to surface. She had longed to kiss him again since that day he had first walked into her classroom.

It’s been so long, a voice cried in her head.

He broke the kiss and gently cradled her in the crook of his arm and smiled at her so lovingly her breath caught. “I think you’ve given me the truth, darlin’.”

A part of her wanted to hide her head in shame. Like dry tinder to a match, she’d exploded at his first touch. But he was right. There was an important truth here. “You still set me on fire.”

He brushed a stray lock of hair off her forehead.

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