Free Bedded Then Wed by Heidi Betts Page B

help, but I think Mitch and I need a few minutes alone.”
    Chase relaxed his stance enough to meet her eyes. “You sure?”
    “I’m sure.”
    “All right, but I’ll be just inside. Yell if you need me.”
    She nodded but kept her mouth shut, knowing that if she said anything, Mitch would take it as a further sign that she was siding—not to mention cheating—with his brother.
    Chase moved around them to the door, keeping a wary eye on his brother the entire time. With his hand on the knob, he said, “Hurt her and I’ll make you sorry,” before returning to the crowded house.
    “Too late,” Mitch muttered, even though his brother was no longer there to hear him. “I’m already sorry.”
    Her heart squeezed at his implication, but she lifted her chin and forced herself to face him head-on.
    “Mitch, what you saw…Chase was only comforting me because I was upset. We weren’t involved in some clandestine meeting. I’m not Suzanne,” she added with feeling. “I would never betray you like that, and neither would your brother.”
    His eyes narrowed, jaw tightening, and he lifted his hands to his hips. “I know what I saw.”
    “You saw me crying on your brother’s shoulder, that’s all.”
    But even as she said the words, she knew they were falling on deaf ears. No matter what she said, he wasn’t going to believe her. He thought the worst because he’d been cheated on before and was still raw and aching from the experience. She could talk herself blue…for heaven’s sake, she could show him photographs proving her faithfulness and he still wouldn’t believe her.
    A stab of regret pierced her belly and her heart began to ache as she realized this would never work. She couldn’t marry Mitch. Couldn’t maintain a relationship with him when it was obvious he would never trust her.
    His reaction to her innocent conversation with his brother was enough to convince her of that. And she didn’t want to be with someone who was automatically going to think the worst of her in every situation.
    She couldn’t live like that, always being watched, always being suspected and accused.
    Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes and prayed she wouldn’t break down in front of him the way she had with Chase.
    “You know, I don’t think this is going to work,” she told him, glad when her voice came out solid and self-assured, because her insides were shaking like the San Andreas Fault. “There’s nothing going on between Chase and me. That’s the God’s honest truth. But you’ll never believe it, never believe a word I say because you’re still not over Suzanne. And I can’t marry a man who doesn’t trust me.”
    She opened and closed her hands at her sides, not knowing what else to do with them and half-afraid she would reach for him, effectively ruining any resolve she had about calling things off.
    “I’m sorry, but I think it would be better if we called off the wedding.”
    For several long seconds, Mitch stared at her, gaze intense, a muscle jumping in his clenched jaw. “You’re right. Things never would have worked out.”
    Turning on his heel, he stepped off the porch and disappeared into the night. Emma watched him go, knowing she’d made the right decision but hating it all the same.
    Mitch was the one man she’d always loved. And now, she realized, he was also the one man she could never have.

Seven
    E mma pushed herself up from the bathroom floor, using the edge of the tub as leverage. Still shaky and weak, she made her way to the sink to rinse her mouth and splash a bit of cool water on her face.
    This was the fourth day in a row that she’d been sick, and she fully expected to feel better by midafternoon, just like all the other times.
    At first she’d thought she was just coming down with something—a cold or the flu. She’d even considered that the headaches, nausea and tiredness were simply symptoms of stress due to her breakup with Mitch. Lord knew she’d been upset every