Taming Clint Westmoreland - Brenda Jackson [44]
But then she knew what he thought did matter. What he had done tonight, not once but twice, had been intense, passionate and an unselfish giving of himself. “I asked you a question, Alyssa,” Clint said in the same hard voice.
Reining her anger back in and holding his gaze, she shook her head. “I’m not married, Clint.”
“But you were,” he said.
It wasn’t a question, it was an accusation. She wondered where he had gotten his information. It would seem like the handiwork of Kim, but she knew that couldn’t be the case.
“Alyssa,” he said.
Apparently she wasn’t answering quickly enough to suit him. The details of the humiliating day of her wedding were something she didn’t like remembering, much less talking about. Having all those people at the church know the reason she hadn’t gone through with the wedding—that she had been unable to satisfy her future husband to the point where already he’d gone out seeking the attentions of others—had been a degrading experience for her.
Knowing Clint was waiting for a response, she lifted her chin and tilted her head and slanted him a look.
“I’ve never been married, Clint,” she said.
She saw his anger die down somewhat, but she also saw the confused look in the depths of his dark eyes.
“Then explain that picture and this article on Internet,” he said.
So that was where he’d gotten his misinformation, she thought. With as much dignity as she could muster, Alyssa sat up straight on the sofa.
“The wedding was supposed to take place, but it didn’t and it was too late to pull the article scheduled to run in the newspaper. To be honest, I didn’t even think about calling the papers to stop the announcement from printing the next day. I had other things on my mind,” Alyssa said.
Like how my cousin could hate me so much to do such a thing, and how my fiancé, the man I thought I loved, could allow her to use him to accomplish such a hateful act, she thought.
“You’re saying that you called things off on your wedding day?”
She heard the incredulous tone of his voice as if such a thing was paramount to the burning of the flag. “Yes, that’s what I’m saying,” she said.
She knew that statement wouldn’t suffice. He needed to know more. So she began talking and remembering that dreadful day. Her feelings of shame and embarrassment hadn’t lessened with time.
“I was home that day getting ready to leave for the church when a courier delivered a package for me. It contained pictures of my soon-to-be husband in bed with someone I knew. The pictures arrived just in time to ruin what should have been the happiest day of my life,” Alyssa said.
She watched Clinton’s fury return, but this time it wasn’t directed at her.
“Are you saying that while engaged to you your fiancé was sleeping around? And with someone you knew and that the person deliberately wanted to hurt you?”
She nodded. “Yes, and the pictures were very explicit. Kevin didn’t even really apologize. He said he felt his behavior was something I should be able to forgive him for. He said I should get over it because it just happened that one time and meant nothing.”
“Bullshit,” Clint said.
Alyssa tried not to smile. “Yes, that’s what I said.”
“And the woman involved?”
“She accomplished her goal, which was to hurt me and embarrass me. She wanted to prove that there was nothing that I considered mine that she couldn’t have,” Alyssa said.
He frowned. “She doesn’t sound like a very nice person.”
She thought that over for a moment. “In my opinion, she’s not.”
The room got quiet and Alyssa was very much aware of him staring at her, so she tried looking at everything else in the room but him. She wondered what he was thinking. Did he agree with some of the others who’d pitied her because they felt she hadn’t been able to hold on to her man, keep him from wandering?
She heard Clint move and when she glanced over in his direction she was startled to find him standing in front of her. She lifted confused