“Six years ago, I let myself get caught up in the idea of living in the moment so much that I never acknowledged my past.” She hadn’t wanted to taint Gage’s opinion of her, so she’d kept it to herself that her father was a wanted man. “And when you finally learned the truth about my family, you didn’t learn it from me. I’m not making that mistake again.”

The warmth in Gage’s dark eyes cooled, his expression growing distant as he leaned back against the hot tub wall. His gaze turned assessing.

“Meaning you’re keeping more secrets from me?” he asked.

Guilt stung. She didn’t know how else to broach the subject, so without preamble, she admitted, “I never took the bribe your father offered me.”

His dark eyebrows lifted in surprise for a moment, then swooped low in a scowl. “What are you talking about?”

“That day in New Zealand with your family,” she began slowly, remembering the waves of pain she’d felt from Nigel Striker’s cruel words, followed by Gage’s automatic assumptions regarding her character. “I was devastated by your father’s dismissal of me from your life when I believed...” She’d thought Gage had brought her home to propose. The turn things had taken had been so far off course from what she’d envisioned she hadn’t weathered the storm well at all. “When I’d thought things were going so well between us.”

“You weren’t the only one devastated, Elena.” The flash of pain she saw in his eyes was all too real, and it hurt to know that she could have lessened that ache if she’d reacted differently. “My father was merciless in characterizing you as secretive and deceptive about your past. But none of it would have mattered if you hadn’t jumped at the chance to take a lucrative detour out of my life.”

Had she always known that? Had she subconsciously sabotaged things between them even more than Nigel Striker tried to do? The humming of the hot tub motor seemed to grow louder in her ears, or maybe it was the buzzing of a guilty conscience.

“I didn’t take the bribe, Gage. I ripped up the check and threw it at his retreating back.” She sat forward on the hot tub bench seat, not feeling at all relaxed despite the rush of the jets on her shoulders.

Gage shook his head in disbelief. “You led me to think you took it.”

She bit her lip. “You immediately assumed I had.”

“So you lied to me?”

She closed her eyes for a moment, regretting her temper as the buzzing in her ears grew louder. Yes.

“I was hurt and angry,” she explained. “And I figured you’d learn the truth eventually—”