Cadence

Ten

Her words left him fumbling. Fix? That was rich. As if he could fix anything, much less this particular situation. “You, uh, think I’m charming?” he nudged her shoulder with his, meaning to keep the conversation light to break the ice and coax her into a better humor.

“Not anymore,” she said matter-of-factly, crossing her arms firmly against her chest. “I know what you are.”

The sweet suffocating sensation from a moment ago evaporated. Damn, but her cold eyesgutted him. The gaze she fixed on him held nothing of the glowing adoration ever reflected in her violet depths. He detected none of the look he’d always known he didn’t deserve but craved nonetheless.

“Are we finished, Curtis?” she asked. “There is work to be done.”

A familiar black cloud roiled around the edges of his soul. Whatever illusion of goodness he’d tricked himself into believing still lingered faded away in the face of her dismissal, darkening of his every emotion. “Cadence, I’m sorry about the other night,” his tone grew harsh, grating, making him sound completely callous. “I suppose I took advantage of you.” God! That was the wrong thing to say, why did he sound like such an ass? “And I’ll marry you if that’s what you want.”

“If that is what I want?”

Curtis knew instantly how badly he’d erred. Her hands balled into fists, she spun toward the rail and then back to face him. Involuntarily he cringed away from the onslaught sure to come.

“If that is what I want? How many times must I tell you that I did not come here to trap you? You,” she spat as an expletive, “are without doubt the most incorrigible, conceited, untrusting ass I’ve ever met.” Curtis cringed. He deserved that. He was an ass, was behaving like an ass, and he certainly felt like a bloody ass.

“I hate you!”

He deserved that too. She had every right to hate him. He’d treated her terribly, and now she obviously perceived his attempt to do right as insincere. What woman wouldn’t? “Cadence, wait,” he pleaded as she made to leave. “I know you’re angry, but—”

“Goddamn right I’m angry!”

“Cadence, what I said. That is not what I meant. It came out all wrong and—”

“Oh? And exactly how did you mean it to come out?”

Hell! He was rapidly losing ground in this argument, though he wasn’t entirely sure when or how it had happened. “Well, I, um, what I meant to say is,” he pulled a hand through his hair and turned a frustrated circle. “Dammit! What do you want, Cadence? What? Just tell me what to say, to make things right between us.”

“I don’t want you to say anything, Curtis, unless it’s what you want to say.” Her eyes sparked against his. “I just want you to be truthful, be yourself, and say what you feel.”

“Truthful?” he railed. “You want me to be truthful? He jabbed an outstretched finger at her. You are some kind of hypocrite you know that? I am standing here trying to do the gentlemanly thing by you, you, a woman who has done nothing but lie to me almost since the day we met, and you want me to be truthful?”