Paired With His Fate

Chapter 8

Marcus chased Adriana through the front door and found her huddled on the steps as if trying to disappear inside herself. His heart ached that they were at a place where she didn't want to be in the same room with him.

"Where are you going?" he asked gently, fearful she might startle like a spooked deer. "You don't have a car here."

"I know. I figured that out as soon as I hit the front yard," she admitted crossly.

He sank down onto the top step and smoothed a lock of mussed hair from her brow. "Why don't you come back inside? Our conversation is far from over."

The evening had eclipsed his wildest expectations and then gone downhill fast. He hated that serious issues had marred such a cataclysmic experience as making love for the first time, but this thing between them was real and significant. It was better to deal with issues now rather than later, when it would be harder to end their relationship, if it indeed came down to that.

"Oh, you weren't done with the insults? Pardon me. Sure I'll come back inside so you can disillusion me some more."

"Is it that bad?" he responded bleakly. "Maybe now's when I should mention that I'm not good at relationships."

Lack of practice, probably. Lack of finesse, definitely. His brain worked faster than his tongue and he often said the wrong thing because he was already four steps ahead, but forgot to connect the dots for people who weren't privy to his thoughts.

He probably should have told her about the depth of his feelings much sooner, for example.

"You don't have to be good at relationships. Just at seeing the truth. Which you haven't shown much evidence of." She sniffed and he realized the glint in her eyes wasn't a reflection of the porte cochère light, but shiny tears.

The sight lanced him in the gut and not in a good way. Not only was this their first time making love, but also their first fight. That hadn't been his intent when asking her to come home with him after the charity ball. Had he made a mistake, pushed her too hard before she was ready?

He'd been so sure she felt what was happening between them too. His nice guy status was slipping.

He cocked his head. "What truth am I supposedly blind to?"

"Well, for one, that I'm only interested in your money. Surely you don't think it's a good strategy to continually turn down a man you'd like to fleece."

Okay, that was an excellent point, one that had failed to occur to him in the heat of the moment. Maybe his brain didn't work as fast as he pretended.

He sighed. "I owe you an apology. My knee jerk reaction anytime money is mentioned is to shoot first and ask questions later."

She nodded. "Yeah, obviously. I've had money, by the way, and it doesn't buy anything important."

That jived with the person he knew Adriana to be. What kind of an idiot was he that he kept trying to uncover a gold digger?

"Yes," he said wryly. "I've discovered that."

"Really? What have you tried to buy?"

"Vengeance," he admitted simply. "It was all I ever wanted. I thought if I became successful, everyone who ever picked on me for being smart would be sorry. They'd chastise themselves for calling me names."