Free The Ultimate Seduction by Dani Collins Page B

lover?”
    She didn’t turn around, but her shoulders seemed to flinch before she lifted her head to say cockily, “So far, but with my looks and connections, I’m encouraged to believe there’s more in my future.”
    He bit back a curse while his free hand clenched into a fist at his side. He wanted to shake her out of sheer frustration with her cavalier attitude, but at the same time he had a deep compulsion to cradle her against him. The erotic memory of their coming together grew sweeter even as he struggled with the ramifications of being a woman’s first. He’d done it once before. He knew the emotional ties it pulled from both parties.
    A splintering sensation accosted him as he once again compared her with Luiza. His first instinct was to walk away. Confusing emotions tumbled through him like a rockslide, tainted with the intense grief he’d managed to avoid as the aftermath of war had consumed him. He once again hated himself as a traitor for having more than a passing interest in Tiffany, but learning he was her first changed things. He wasn’t so archaic he thought virginity was a seal of quality, but losing it was an important marker in a woman’s life. He couldn’t be dismissive of her or what she’d offered him, even if she was trying to be.
    “Can you explain to me how this is possible, Mrs. Davis?”
    * * *
    Tiffany looked to the ceiling, battling back stupid tears and a deeper sense of vulnerability than she’d ever felt. There had been a time when her confidence, her belief in her own superiority, had been unflagging. In an instant she had become weak and broken and dependent. Finding her way back from that seemed impossible, and she hated that Ryzard saw her at this low point. He was so strong and sure of himself. Where had he been when she’d had all her defenses in place and could have handled his forceful, dynamic personality?
    A dozen sarcastic responses to his question came to her tongue, but the nearest she could get to flippant was to say, “I was afraid I’d fall in love with someone else if I didn’t save myself for Paulie.”
    She tightened her belt and turned, surprised to catch him in an unguarded moment.
    The faraway look in his eye suggested he had dark thoughts of his own. Seeing he might not be as completely put together as he seemed gave her the courage to continue with more outspokenness than she’d ever allowed herself.
    “Our marriage was written in stone. Our fathers were friends, and his mother was my mom’s maid of honor. Paulie and my brother, Christian, were inseparable through childhood. The architect and engineer designed the bridge between our families when Paulie and I were still in diapers. By the time I was in high school, no other boy had the guts to ask me out. They knew I was already taken.”
    “You didn’t date? Didn’t sleep with him?”
    “ Paulie dated. He sowed enough wild oats for the both of us. He took me to the Friday night dances, and on Monday I would hear what had happened at the parties he went to after he dropped me at home. He came here and had affairs.”
    “And you put up with that?”
    She sighed, hugging herself. “I believed him when he told me he was getting it out of his system. He swore that once we were married, he would never stray. I still believe he meant it. He encouraged me to do the same,” she offered with a shrug, “but like I say, no one offered and I told myself it would be romantic to wait.”
    “Did you love him?”
    She sighed, chest aching as she admitted what she’d never told anyone. “I adored him like a best friend. That’s a good foundation for a marriage, right?” She had needed to believe it, but hearing it now only made her hug herself tighter.
    She tried to stem the emotions swelling in her, but the rest of her feelings, the churning doubts and anger and grief, gathered and poured out. “I miss him like crazy. He’s the one person who would have been right beside me through all of this,