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Chandler dropped his chin and breathed deeply. "Could you?"

"I don't hold your past against you. Because it's irrational and unfair, and you know it." She said,

"That's not what I mean." He lifted his head, held her gaze, and the resolve Elena saw there chilled her to her core. "Could you overlook it if I told you that I showed up that night to take a shot with Emily?"

Words were gone. Her mouth was sand-dry at what that did to her.

He kept talking, quiet, dangerous words that did horrible things to her heart.

"If I told you that I thought about being with her, touching her, kissing her, and for even one moment, I was disappointed that I got you instead."

She sucked in a startled breath.

"Yeah," he said slowly, softly. "You couldn't overlook it either. Because that look in your pretty brown eyes, baby. It feels like I just punched you in the gut, doesn't it?"

Her eyes filled with tears, and she hated them. She hated that he was right. And for just a moment, one fleeting, fast one, s