Bear Seeking Bride: Trent (Bear Canyon Brides #3) Read Online Free PDF Page B

one little detail?
    Right now she felt like the grumpy, irrational one. Why did he have to press the issue? She’d already shared so much with him; couldn’t more of her past wait until another day?
    It could, but she knew it shouldn’t. If he was going to walk, she’d rather he did it today instead of a week from now. Even though she didn’t want to, she knew she had to tell him.
    “Charles started working for my father while I was away at college,” she started, “and by the time I returned, he’d been named his chosen successor. I knew it wouldn’t be me, so I wasn’t that surprised, but I was surprised when Charles asked me out. I didn’t say yes at first, in fact I didn’t give in until a few months later. I couldn’t reconcile the two working together, because they seemed so different, but I realized later, it had all been an act. My father made sure the three of us were never in the same room together unless it was a social gathering, and I didn’t realize Charles’ true nature until almost a year later.”
    She glanced at Trent and understood the confused look on his face.
    “He was a very good liar,” she said. “Anyway, after a party one night, he wanted to fool around, but I had a headache and wanted to go home. We’d had sex before, but I didn’t enjoy it, so I rarely gave him what he wanted. Usually, he just took me home, but this time he didn’t.”
    “He forced you,” Trent said, his voice lethal.
    His scorn brought tears to her eyes, but she blinked them away. As soon as dessert was over, she could hide in her hotel room until her time in it expired, and then she’d leave this town and never share her story with anyone again.
    “Yes,” she said, studying her empty plate.
    She wished she could disappear and never see him again.
    “And your father?” he asked.
    “Laughed when I told him, and said if I didn’t suck it up and marry Charles, then I was on my own. I left that night.”
    “Olive, look at me.”
    She hated men and their stupid egos. They always wanted you to watch when they tried to destroy you.
    She forced herself to look at him, and absently hoped he didn’t try and stick her with the bill.
    “I’m sorry that happened to you, but I’m glad you dumped him and stood up to your father. Even though you couldn’t stop what happened that night, you held your ground and decided to make your own path, and that path brought you here. For that, I will always be grateful. What happened to you doesn’t define you; it’s only a small part of you.”
    He’d used her words from earlier to make his point and her heart fluttered in her chest. Did he really not care about her past?
    “This changes nothing for me, except if he ever crosses my path, he’ll wish to hell he hadn’t.”
    She let the tears she’d been holding fall.
    ***
    Trent got up and slid into Olive’s side of the booth. He wrapped his arms around her and held her to his chest. Her quiet sobs tore down the last of the wall he’d built around his heart and he knew he wasn’t the same man he was yesterday.
    From this moment on, he’d never be a single man again. He held his future in his arms.
    The waiter quietly set the bill on the table and questioned him with his hand in the thumbs up position. Trent nodded once and the waiter scurried away. Most of the patrons had left, and he knew the owner so they had time. He wouldn’t leave until she was all cried out.
    A few minutes later, Olive reached for a napkin and dried her eyes. Then she pushed away from him and studied his shirt.
    “Oh my god, I’m so sorry, Trent. Your shirt is soaked.”
    “That’s okay,” he laughed. “Feel better?”
    “Much better, thank you. It’s the first time I’ve really cried about it and it felt good to let it go. I’m sorry it happened in public though. Thank you for shielding me from the stares.”
    “Anytime, but there weren’t any stares. Almost all the couples are gone, and I know the owner so he left us alone