Free Into the Flames (Out of the Ashes Book 2) by S.M. Lynn Page B

that we’re friends, while I was there, we had a lunch a few times.  Of course she was at the dinner with Holden and the developers.  The press had a field day with it, making us into the perfect couple.  I don’t know how else to say this but to just come out with it.”  I gulp for air preparing for the blow that’s coming.  He has no idea that what he’s about to say will hurt me more than any punch Dean could ever deliver.  “Breathe Lauren.  It isn’t what you think.  I can tell from the look on your face that your mind has run away on this. Sweetheart,” his voice softens, “how many times do I have to tell you?  The only person in this world for me is you.  There’s nothing between Elizabeth and I, other than a couple friends having lunch.  I know what the press made it look like and that’s why I hoped you hadn’t seen the pictures.”
    “But Ian, I did see them.  I know what you look like in love.  I know what I saw and it was definitely the real thing.”
    “Sweetheart, did it ever occur to you that maybe I needed someone to talk to about everything that was happening between us?  If you saw love in my face in any of those pictures it’s because most of our time together was spent discussing you and our relationship.”  Well, fuck, I hadn’t even considered that.  “Sweetheart, do you really think so little of yourself or what we had to think that I could get over you so easily?”
    Yes.  There goes my insecurity again.  God, this has me reduced to a woman who doesn’t even know herself.  There’s no way I can tell him this though.  “No, but the pictures, there were so many of them.  You two were nearly inseparable or at least that’s what it looked like.  And I was here all alone and so scared and oh god, Ian…”  I can’t stop the tears; he was telling me everything I wanted to hear and yet he still had left me for all that time. 
    “Shit, Lauren, I’m so sorry.  Please I didn’t mean to hurt you.  I just needed some time and then work came up.  Honestly, I only had lunch with her a few times and then she asked me to accompany her to a couple events because her fiancé ,” he stresses this word as if I would miss it, “is out of the country.  One of which was for the same foundation I support here, the American Heart Association, since you know how much that means to me.”  He gives me a sad smile.  I knew events like that and talking about it made him think about his father.  His father would have been so proud of the man he had become.  “Funny thing about it though.  You know normally all I think about at our charity event here is my father.  But this time all I thought about was you.  How ironic that the one woman my dad had always gushed about, had always tried to push me toward, was the one I loved more than my own life?  Honestly, I think he may have had a little crush on you himself.  He would get a good chuckle out of this whole situation.  Well minus the shit with Dean, of course.”
    His eyes were glued to mine.  “Sweetheart, I’m sorry I didn’t call or respond to you.  I wasn’t trying to be cruel.  But I knew if I was around to see what that bastard did to you I would hunt him down and kill him.  I had to get away before I did something that would damage us forever.  I feel so stupid now.  You needed me, more than you probably ever have and I abandoned you.  Jesus, I can’t believe I’m so foolish.”
    I stare in shock.  When he began I was sure he was saying goodbye and now, well, now it seems like he’s saying something else entirely.  “Stunned you speechless huh?  Well, I always love it when I can accomplish that.”  He smiles, a real Ian smile, the panty dropping smile that he saves just for me.  “Sweetheart, how could you even think I would want anyone besides you?”
    Because I feel like I’m going crazy, like this whole situation with you, Dean, everything has me hanging on to my sanity by a single