Never Let You Down: The Connaghers, Book 4 by Joely Sue Burkhart Page A

stop spilling out the words he’d been dying to tell her his entire life. “Until that night you came to Texas A&M. That’s the only time you ever looked at me as a man and not your friend. Don’t you remember, Ginny? How it was between us? But it wasn’t enough, because you went right back to Ty and told him everything.”
    “I had to. I loved him. I wouldn’t… I couldn’t…”
    “I know,” he replied hoarsely, finally turning his head so she could see the agony that must have been grooved into his face. “But you loved him more than me. Even after all those years we’d spent growing up together. You couldn’t even bear to look at me after that. You refused to talk to me. So in the end, I lost you, just as I feared, but it was worse than I ever imagined after you showed me what it could have been like for us. I lost you and I wanted to die.”
    Virginia’s throat ached worse than her broken arm. All she could do was stare at Jeb and try to find something to say that could undo the hurt she’d done to him. God, she’d been so stupid. So blind and selfish and foolish. “I’m so sorry. Jeb, I had no idea.”
    “I hunted Sissy down, dragged her to my car, and drove like a demon to catch you, following you back to Crystal Springs that night. I had to make sure you got there safely. Then I went to see Tyrell.”
    Her eyes flared with surprise. “You did? You…”
    “I talked to him before you did. I told him everything. I told him it was my fault, that I’d tricked you into coming to College Station so I could make one last attempt to steal you away from him.”
    She shook her head. “Even then, you were still trying to protect me.”
    “He wasn’t even mad. He sure wasn’t surprised.”
    She opened her mouth, but couldn’t seem to find anything to say. Ty wasn’t surprised that she’d kissed another man? “But I saw the bruises on you both. You were in a fight.”
    “Later. After you talked to him. That night, though, he told me it was up to you.”
    She couldn’t wrap her mind around what Jeb was telling her. All those years, Ty hadn’t said a word. He’d never told her he had this talk with Jeb before she’d ever found him to tell him the truth. “What was up to me?”
    “He said, and I quote, ‘I promised her she’d get exactly what she wants. If she wants you, she’ll tell me. And if she don’t, then I’m going to beat the ever-lovin’ shit out of you.’”
    Her mouth fell open again. Closed. Opened. But she could only stare at Jeb.
    “So when Ty showed up alone at the house the next evening and asked me outside, I knew the truth. You didn’t want me.”
    “He… And you…” She closed her eyes, trying to seal out the truth, but it was too late.
    Ty had known the truth before she’d ever even admitted it to herself. And he’d never said a word. She’d looked him in the eye and told him she didn’t have any feelings whatsoever for Jeb. A sound escaped her lips, a half-strangled hiccupping laugh of shame.
    “Ginny?”
    “I lied.” She looked up into his dark, concerned gaze and fought not to burst into tears. “I never thought I could do it, but I did. He knew it too, but he never called me on it. He let me lie to his face. I can’t believe the bastard let me go on and on like a half-brained twit and never said a word. Damn it all to hell, if he wasn’t dead already I’d be tempted to beat him within an inch of his life. But then he’d only enjoy it.”
    “Ginny,” Jeb repeated, louder.
    “Did he tell you about that too? Did he tell you that the first time he kissed me, it was because I beat him with my crop and the damned fool enjoyed it? Worse, so did I. And that was only the beginning.”
    Jeb averted his face and spoke so softly she had to strain to hear him. “Did you tell him that when I kissed you, I ended up on my knees?”
    “No,” she whispered gently. “That was only for you and me to know. There are so many things you don’t know about me, Jeb.