Blissful Surrender (Bliss #3)(21)
Author: B.J. Harvey

“Look, Sean, I appreciate dinner and it has been great to catch up, but I’m not willing to take a walk down memory lane with you and rehash the past. It was good, then it was bad, and now it is great to reconnect, but I think it’s best if we just put this down to exactly what you said, two old friends catching up for old times’ sake. Now we can move on knowing there is no animosity between us so if we see each other around, it won’t be awkward.”

Well, that came out better than I could’ve hoped.

He takes a step back from me and I immediately lose the warm, mellow feeling I had as it transforms into something more closely resembling the hard look that now mars his beautiful face. “Right. So I invite you to a nice, well thought out meal, if I do say so myself. We share a bottle of wine, you clamp up the minute the topic of conversation hits too close to home, and now when I suggest a walk after our wonderful, albeit quiet dinner, you balk and decide it’s too hard.”

“Well, I—”

“No. You’re right. At least one of us can think clearly around the other because I thought that this night would take another turn, maybe lead down a different, definitely more enjoyable path. I was obviously mistaken. I see that your complete inability to be honest with yourself hasn’t changed.”

Now that got my back up. “Hang on a minute. You can’t honestly think that you could bring me out for a nice meal and I’d lay down on my back, spread my legs and put out like some spineless submissive whore. That’s barbaric!” I shout, not giving a f**k that we’re in the middle of the sidewalk.

His face suddenly cracks into a full arrogant smile before he answers. “Now there’s the fire I’ve been looking for. Fortunately, all I see now is an image of you spread eagled, lying before me, begging me to take you.” He leans in until we’re almost nose to nose. “Tell me what it’ll take to make that happen.” He stands up straight and shoots me an arrogant smirk.

Before I know it, my palm connects with his cheek, making my hand sting. “You did not just say that! Seriously, Sean, you are the most arrogant ass of a man I’ve ever met. You’re lucky your hand still wants to touch your own junk. Thank you for the meal, but goodbye and have a nice life!” I turn my back and stride away from him, thankful yet disappointed that he doesn’t come after me.

I walk half a block and turn the corner before hailing the first cab I see. Jumping in, I give the driver my address before resting my head on the cool glass window as he pulls back into traffic. Biting my lip, I try to hold back the deluge of emotion threatening to burst out of me.

Damn that man.

Chapter 10: “Walking Away”

Sean

I watch Sam walk away from me as I war with the need to chase after her versus the need to give her the space she so obviously needs. I pushed too hard. I text my car service and five minutes later, a black sedan pulls up to the curb outside the restaurant.

Telling him to take me to the club, I drop my head against the back seat and scrub my face with my hands. I f**ked up. I’m man enough to admit it, but f**k if I know how to fix it.

I thought dinner had gone well. She was quiet while we ate, answering my questions but focusing on the food more than anything else. There were a few times when I mentioned certain things subconsciously, not realizing how they may have been taken, that I noticed her pause whatever she was doing. A fork laden with food stopping mid-air, or her body tensing up when I mentioned my grandfather’s passing. I didn’t mean to bring up our past, or the moment when she walked out of my life, but even I know that if Samantha and I are to have any chance of moving forward, we’ll need to deal with why she broke up with me and the issues that caused it.

In the ten minute drive to the club, I think back to that day when I met Samantha’s mother, the last woman to storm out of a restaurant and leave me speechless …

Which is a big achievement.

We’d met her at the restaurant of her hotel and straight away I knew I was in trouble. Sam had told me on the way there that her mom was stuck in her military ways and that she sometimes had trouble distinguishing between the military way of life and the way Sam chose to live hers. It had always been a bone of contention between them with Sam usually conceding to her mom to keep the peace.

Sam and I had talked about our families when we’d first started dating a year earlier, and Sam had met my brother and my grandparents. I hadn’t been introduced to her mother until then because her mom lived in Kentucky. She’d recently retired from the Army and had been based at Fort Knox but was thinking about joining Sam in Chicago, hence the visit.

When we walked to the restaurant I knew we were in trouble. Debra Richards, in her well-polished, rigid stance, was already seated at our table, looking at her watch intently before scanning the room and seeing us. Her furrowed brow at Sam was all the confirmation I needed. Her mom was pissed, and I’d made the worst first impression possible. I should have seen the writing on the wall then and there because the lunch only went from bad to worse after that.

First thing I did wrong was ordering Sam’s meal. It was a habit I had gotten into early into our relationship. I knew what she liked and didn’t like, and she would just let me order for her whenever we went out. I didn’t think twice about it, it was just second nature, but the scowl I got from Debra following a loud unapologetic gasp let me know that I’d f**ked up.

“Samantha, I was certain you knew how to order your own meal. Did I not teach you that?”

“Mom, Sean and I know each other well, and he knows what I like, so he orders for me. I find it endearing.”

“I find it controlling. Anyway, Sean, Samantha tells me you’re studying pre-law with her. Which law schools are you looking at?”

My eyes widened at Debra’s directness. She’d been abrupt with me since we’d arrived, yet she dived straight in there with the hard questions, questions that Sam and I hadn’t discussed in depth between the two of us let alone with her mother that I just met.

“I’m staying at the University of Chicago, Mrs. Richards.”

“It’s Ms. Richards. I never married the asshat thankfully.” My head shot back in shock at her retort. I held back a grin that I knew would not be appreciated in that moment, but I now knew where Sam got her dirty mouth from.

“Sorry,” I replied sincerely.

“So you should be.” Her eyes narrowed and suddenly I felt like I was on the witness stand at a trial.