The Outback Affair by Elizabeth Duke

Author:Elizabeth Duke
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2013-12-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER EIGHT

‘I LIED to you, Tash,’ Tom admitted finally. His tone was grave, his eyes bleak. This time he didn’t apologise for using her old nickname, didn’t even seem aware that he’d used it. ‘Don’t ask me why. I just panicked, I guess.’

Lied? Her hand trembled, almost spilling her rum. ‘What do you mean—you lied to me? Lied about what?’ Her eyes narrowed. Had he been two-timing her from the day they first met? Even while he was professing his undying love to her during their short-lived engagement?

‘About getting involved with another woman in Sydney. About falling for someone else.’ He leaned closer, as if to make sure she understood. ‘I didn’t even meet anyone else I’d have wanted to look at twice. In Sydney or anywhere else!’

Shock stopped the breath in her throat. He was lying! Not back then, but now. What was he up to? Why would he want to make her believe that the woman he’d dumped her for had never existed? Was this a clever ploy to win her back? A desperate, farcical ploy?

She took a deep shuddering breath before attempting to speak. Her throat felt like sandpaper, her lungs in grievous need of air. When she did finally answer, her voice was amazingly calm—belying the turmoil below.

‘Not that it matters to me any more, but I don’t believe you,’ she said flatly. ‘Only two days ago you told me “it didn’t work out.” And now you expect me to believe that the woman you dumped me for never existed in the first place? You’re a liar, Tom Scanlon. A pathological liar. You can’t help yourself!’

‘I’m not lying now,’ Tom said soberly. ‘There never was another woman…not since you, Tash. I swear it. I’m just sorry I ever said there was!’

She drew in her lips, sucking in a shaky breath. ‘Why would you tell me you’d met someone else if you hadn’t? It hit me like a bolt out of the blue, you said.’ Her eyes taunted him. ‘You’re saying you just made that up?’

Tom groaned aloud. ‘Anything I said at the time was…’ He broke off with a curse and shook his head. ‘Hell, Tash, what have I done to you?’

She recoiled, her eyes turning to slivers of ice. ‘You’ve done me a favour,’ she flared, her voice a husky rasp. ‘You cut the tie between us before I rushed into making the biggest mistake of my life. I’m glad you set me free,’ she lied—though it wasn’t really a lie because she’d tried desperately for the past eighteen months to believe that it was for the best, and had almost managed to convince herself.

She tossed her head, gripping her plastic tumbler like a lifeline. ‘So don’t insult my intelligence by—’

‘But it’s true, Natasha—there’s never been anyone else. Not since the day I first met you.’

No ‘Tash’ this time, she noted shakily. It was as if he didn’t want to risk provoking her, or upsetting her even more. His face was grimly earnest, the way

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