“So why didn’t you fall in love, Bliss?” he asked in a whisper that wafted through her hair and reverberated through her mind. Oh, Lord, he was too close and oh, so male.... She noticed the shadow of his beard, dark gold and rough against his square, uncompromising jaw.

“What?”

“I asked, why didn’t you fall in love?”

I did. A long time ago. With you. And you hurt me. Oh, God, Mason, you hurt me so badly. She swallowed hard and licked lips that had become dry in a second. “I, uh, I guess I’m picky.” Dear God, was that her voice that sounded so breathless—so filled with a desperate yearning she didn’t want to name? “What—what about you?”

“I fell in love with the wrong woman.”

Terri Fremont. His ex-wife. Of course. “I see.”

“Do you?”

He was too close, way too close. She needed to escape, but her feet wouldn’t move.

“Terri and I are divorced.” His lips turned downward and a private pain pierced his eyes. “We have been for a long time. Ours wasn’t exactly a marriage to write home about.”

Her heart squeezed even though she’d told herself over and over again that she didn’t care about Mason Lafferty, that he could rot in hell, that he was a selfish bastard. “I suppose not.”

His mouth twisted and his hands, still upon her shoulders, didn’t move. “You know, I never meant to hurt you—”

Oh, no, he was going to apologize! Again! This man who could barely admit to making a mistake. Bliss couldn’t take it, didn’t want to hear anything he had to say about what had happened between them. “Don’t, Mason,” she begged, staring into eyes as gold as an October sunset. “Just don’t, okay?”

“I thought I should explain what happened.”

“I know what happened, and guess what? It doesn’t matter anymore,” she said, her tongue tripping over the untruth. “I said what I wanted to say.”

“Liar.”

“Pardon me?” she asked, inwardly telling herself it was time to leave, to get away from him.

“I think you have a lot more to say. More questions that beg to be answered.” He stepped even closer, touched the side of her face with one callused finger. Just being alone with him and breathing the same air he did caused her chest to constrict and her heart to pound in a silly, useless cadence.

“Bliss—” His hands captured her shoulders. His expression, harsh only minutes before, seemed suddenly haunted and weary. “Just . . . just believe that I never meant to hurt you.”

She swallowed against a sudden lump in her throat as she witnessed a ghost of pain cross his eyes.

“I am sorry,” he whispered.