Instead, he opened his mouth and let the first thing that came to mind out. “Please tell me that you’re fucking kidding me.”
*-*-*-*
“Oh, my fucking God,” he said, dropping his head into his hands as he sat on the edge of the bed as she sat there, hugging her knees to her chest and biting her lip as she sat there, humiliated and pretending that he hadn’t just broken her heart.
Asshole, she thought bitterly as she reached up and wiped away another tear, wishing that there was somewhere that she could go and hide and pretend that this never happened. What she wouldn’t give to make the last three hours disappear.
“Just leave,” she whispered around a soft sob, praying that this time he listened to her and just left her alone so that she could cry in peace.
“I’m sorry,” he said, starting to sound like a broken record now and making it worse every time he said it.
He was sorry and that was supposed to make everything better.
He was sorry that he’d ever come here.
He was sorry that he ever touched her.
He was really sorry that he’d kissed her.
And she was sorry that she’d just given him her virginity, but most importantly, she was sorry that during the most vulnerable moment of her life, she allowed herself to believe that he finally saw her as something more than an annoyance.
That he finally saw her as a desirable woman that he wanted for himself, but how foolish she had been. He hadn’t wanted her at all. He’d just wanted to get off and she’d just wanted to be alone, but he refused to leave.
“I’m so fucking sorry, Necie,” he said, sounding absolutely miserable and just adding to her pain.
She’d just given this man her virginity and he was sorry, she thought, shaking her head with a humorless chuckle as she reached up with a shaky hand and wiped away another useless tear.
“I’m-”
“An asshole,” she said in disbelief, finally getting his attention and unable to believe that she’d ever wanted it in the first place.
Sighing heavily, he shifted so that he was facing her. “Necie, I’m going to make this up to you,” he swore as he reached out to touch her, but she wasn’t having it.
“Get out,” she said firmly as she glared at the wall, refusing to look at him.
“Necie, I-”
“Get out!” she cried, not caring that she sounded hysterical or that she was making herself look even more pathetic. She just wanted him to go even as she prayed that he wouldn’t leave.
She wanted him to shake his head, refuse to leave, pull her into his arms and tell her that everything was going to be okay. She wanted him to do anything other than what he was doing right now, looking at her with pity.
It wasn’t the look of a man in love.
It was the look of a guy who’d just slept with a woman that he couldn’t stand. It was also the final straw, the final wake up that she’d desperately needed.
“We need to talk about this, Necie,” he said, still reaching for her when fate finally stepped in, and for once, didn’t screw her over.
“You have about thirty seconds to explain why my granddaughter is crying and then ten seconds after that to tell me why you’re naked in her bed,” the man that she was going to grill the biggest steak for tonight after she’d finally stopped crying, said.
“It’s just a misunderstanding,” Duncan said as he slowly reached down, grabbed his boxers and pulled them up right around the time that the power was finally turned back on.
Duncan shot her grandfather a questioning look before settling his gaze back on the shotgun that was aimed between Duncan’s legs.
Her grandfather’s lips kicked up into that smile that terrified most men as he asked, “You really didn’t think that I would leave town without making sure that my little girl was being watched after, now did you?” he asked with a tsk and a sigh as he gestured with the barrel of the gun for Duncan to get off the bed and away from her.
Duncan slowly stood up, raising his hands in the air even as he leveled a glare on her grandfather that let her know the only thing saving her grandfather from a broken nose was the gun.
“Then I would say that whoever you left to watch her did a horrible fucking job, wouldn’t you?” Duncan said, squaring off with her grandfather as she sat there, trembling and hoping that Duncan did them all a favor and just left.
Grandpa nodded once in agreement. “You’ve got me there, but it’s a mistake that I won’t be making twice.”
“How did you get the power on so quickly?” Duncan asked instead, making conversation when he really should be taking this as the blessing in disguise that it really was and leave.
“As soon as I found out that I had a Bradford shacking up in my house, I called in a few favors, got the roads cleared, the wires fixed on the house and the electricity turned back on,” her grandfather explained as he slowly backed away from her bedroom door, the barrel of the gun remained locked on its target.
“I was taking care of her,” Duncan bit out, sounding offended and somehow managing to take her misery to a whole new level.
“I can see that,” her grandfather said as he glared at Duncan, “but now it’s time for you to go.”
Shaking his head, Duncan said, “Not until Necie and I talk about a few things.”
“Doesn’t look like she’s interested in talking to you right now, son,” Grandpa said, gesturing with the gun for Duncan to get out.
“We need to talk,” Duncan said firmly, but she’d had enough.
“No, you need to go,” she said in a tone that let him know that she was done being pitied.
Chapter 17
“May I ask why you’re walking through the snow wearing only a pair of boxers?” Danny asked in a bored tone as he grabbed another cup of salt and threw it on the walkway that Duncan had shoveled the night before.