“You realize,” Nathaniel said, “we’re not discussing my favorite person.”

   “I have never known anybody to hold a grudge for so long.”

   “You were almost assaulted.”

   “That was months ago and I wasn’t.”

   From the way the conversation was going, it appeared this was not the first time they’d had this discussion.

   “I put up with her because she is your boss and you like her, for whatever reason I certainly don’t know.”

   Luke couldn’t help but notice the smile Abby had opened the door with was long gone. “You and I,” she said to her husband, “will pick up this conversation later.” She turned to look at Luke. “What did Meagan tell you?”

   Luke took a deep breath. He wanted to discuss Meagan even less than he wanted to discuss the new club. It was obvious Abby had something on her mind and she wasn’t going to move on until she had her say.

   “I know she was being blackmailed. And that was the main reason she agreed to do the photo shoots with me.” He looked up, silently wishing that Abby would tell him he was wrong. That he had misunderstood and Meagan had wanted to be with him from the start.

   But Abby simply nodded. “That’s true,” she said. “In the beginning.”

   Luke snorted. “I suppose now you’re going to tell me that after I took a few pictures of her, she fell madly in love with me and couldn’t imagine life without me. So much so that she kept the fact that she was being blackmailed a secret.”

   He glanced at Nathaniel. The other man clearly had no idea what his wife was talking about. And he didn’t seem happy about it.

   Abby must have sensed the same thing. She turned to him. “It wasn’t my place to tell you. It really didn’t concern me.”

   “Either way.” Nathaniel shook his head. “You should have called the police. Something.”

   “I did what I thought best for my friend. And I wouldn’t change it at all.”

   Nathaniel opened his mouth to speak, but then closed it. Obviously, the conversation wasn’t over. It just wasn’t going to continue at the moment.

   Abby shifted her attention back to Luke. “Yes, it started that way. But as time went on, she grew more and more attracted to you. And she was afraid to tell you about the blackmail because she thought you’d act exactly like you are now.”

   “Of course,” Luke said. “How else would she expect me to act?”

   “Can you see her point at all?” Abby asked. “Seriously, what would you have her do?”

   “I’m going to go out on a limb here and say, tell the truth?”

   “She was protecting her brother and her father.”

   Luke laughed. “Her brother is an ass. Why the hell would she want to protect him?”

   “It was more than that. Whoever it was also threatened her.”

   That was the first Luke had heard about a possible threat. The thought of someone hurting Meagan made his blood boil. He clenched his fist. “Damn it, she should’ve told me. I could protect her.”

   Abby’s right eyebrow cocked up. “Really? Maybe you would have known if you’d let her explain instead of kicking her out of your house.”

   A punch to the gut would have felt better. Damn it. Was his ego so fragile that he couldn’t have heard her out that day? Had she been so frightened for her safety that she felt she couldn’t talk to him?

   He knew how it looked. Like he wanted to have his cake and eat it, too. It was the Dom inside him who was bound to protect at odds with the man who’d had his heart broken.

   He shoved his hands through his hair, finally admitting the truth to himself. “I was an ass. I care for her. I do. What happened hasn’t changed that.” He sighed. “I just don’t know if I can trust her.”

   “Have you never made a mistake?” Abby asked.

   “Abby,” Nathaniel said, a slight warning in his tone.

   She held up her hand. “No, he has to understand that we all do stupid things when we’re in love.”

   Luke felt as if someone had punched him. Love? Was it possible Meagan loved him? It didn’t seem possible. You didn’t keep things from people you loved.

   But as soon as the thought popped into his head, he dismissed it. Of course you did. People kept things to themselves all the time. Yes, Meagan had been wrong to keep the blackmail from him, but if he looked at it from her point of view . . .

   He’d broken her heart years ago. He saw just recently how much their breakup back then had impacted her. If, in her mind, things were going well between them—and they had been—it stood to reason that she feared telling him about the blackmail might drive him away again.

   Hell, it had. He was here now, wasn’t he? Away from her. And he’d replied to the e-mail telling her not to contact him again. Damn. He was an ass.

   Granted. It didn’t get her off the hook. She’d fucked up and fucked up big-time. But she was human and if there was a chance she loved him, didn’t he owe it to her, to them, to forgive her?

   She’d given him a second chance. Didn’t he owe her the same?

   From her chair across from him, he saw Abby’s smile begin to return. His expression must have shown what he was thinking.

   “I knew you’d come around,” she said.

   “I don’t know if I’d say that just yet,” he admitted. “We still have a lot of issues to discuss and work out. But, I’m willing to work on them. Willing to listen.”

   “Damn.” Nathaniel looked at him with a strange expression.

   “What?” Luke asked.

   “You’re really in love with her.”