“Let me see your feet,” Ryan said as he lowered himself onto the couch next to her.

He reached down, took her feet and maneuvered them until they rested on his lap. He examined them with the precision of a physician, testing for swelling. Then he settled into a gentle massage until she all but wilted in pleasure.

“They’re looking better. The swelling’s down quite a bit.” He paused for a moment, his hands still moving over her arches, and stared at her. “You look better, Kell.”

“Thanks. I think,” she said in amusement.

His expression grew serious. “You looked tired and worn down when I found you in Houston.”

“I was,” she admitted. “But I’d rather not talk about it.”

“Yet another thing that’s off-limits?”

She shrugged. “Nothing good can come of it.”

“I worried I kept you on your feet too much this evening,” he said as he continued to rub. “But I enjoyed dancing with you on the beach. It was an excuse to hold you.”

She smiled and leaned back, allowing the pleasure of his touch to wash through her body. “I feel fine. Really. Not so tired anymore. I have more energy now than I’ve had since early in my pregnancy. Being on my feet all the time eventually wore me down.”

He went silent and he looked brooding, his expression intense. He massaged her soles and then worked up to her toes.

He seemed to battle whether or not he wanted to speak, but finally he locked his gaze with hers and said, “Why didn’t you cash the check, Kelly? I gave it to you so you’d be provided for. No matter what you did, how angry I was or how things were between us, I intended you to be cared for. Do you have any idea what it did to me to find you working in that god-awful place and living in a dive, barely making it? Hell, you didn’t even have food in your apartment.”

“I ate at the diner,” she said.

He made a sound of exasperation. “Like that’s supposed to make me feel any better? Why didn’t you use the money? You could have finished college. You could have lived for a long time to come without ever having to work.”

“I have pride. It took a beating but it’s still intact. I guess if I hadn’t been able to find a job and the choice was between starving or taking money that made me feel dirty, I would have sucked it up and done it anyway.”

“Did you hate me so much?” he asked hoarsely. “That you would rather work in such deplorable conditions than accept anything from me?”

She leveled a stare at him. “Don’t ask questions you aren’t prepared to hear the answers to.”

He closed his eyes. “That’s answer enough, I suppose.”

She shrugged. “You hated me, too.”