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at the soft touch. She gasped, apparently feeling a similar reaction.
    A tightness knotted in his belly, part desire, part anger. “Talk to me, Jewel. You can’t go on trying to ignore me forever.”
    A sigh escaped her parted lips, lips that used to taste of strawberry lip-gloss. He wondered if they still would. As she submerged the dirty plates in the steaming water some of the stiffness in her eased. “I hate being part of your vendetta. I’ve got nothing to prove to this town.”
    “Well, I do.”
    Turning to him, with suds dripping from her hands, she asked, “Why? What does it matter what they think? Why should you care anyway? You turned your back on everyone twelve years ago.” Pain laced her words, jabbing him in the gut.
    Gritting his teeth, he said, “I was tossed out, on my ear. Or have you conveniently forgotten that?”
    She squeezed her eyes shut as if trying to block out that night. “Oh, I remember. Very distinctly, as a matter of fact.”
    “So, I didn’t have a choice.”
    “Damn you, Devon, you had a choice, but you took the hard way just as you always did.”
    “And you took the easy way out just as you always did.”
    Opening her eyes, she sought his. Agony chased across her delicate features. “Maybe I did, but it was all I knew back then. All right, I confess, I was a spoiled little rich girl who got anything she ever wanted.”
    “Including the stable boy,” he sneered.
    Jewel jerked back. All the color drained from her face. “My God, is that what you thought?”
    He raked a hand through his hair. “What else was I supposed to think? You asked. He coughed it up. I was just one more thing for you to add to your collection only daddy didn’t know until the end.”
    She grabbed a handful of his shirt, wetting the fabric. “And he let us both have it, didn’t he? Why wouldn’t you tell him the truth about us then? Why wouldn’t you let me?”
    Curling his hand around her tiny wrist, he felt the rapid pulse point. Is it from being near me or the heated conversation?
    Feeding her a dose of unvarnished reality, he watched closely for her reaction. “I didn’t want to go on being his slave. Or yours.”
    She pulled free of him. Wide, hurt violet eyes and the tinge of gray pallor invading her complexion should have brightened his nasty mood, but all it did was convince him how vindictive he could be at times, especially around Jewel. Silently, he berated himself.
    “I never treated you like that, Devon. Never.”
    He couldn’t deny what she said. She never deliberately regarded him as such. But her father had. He’d also flaunted how he had taken Devon’s mother as his mistress in order for them to keep a roof over their heads.
    And at eighteen he’d come to see the chains that passion created. He’d have done anything for Jewel. And he had. The last time he’d seen her he’d almost given in to her demands, but he had yanked himself back moments before disaster struck. Moments before I bowed down to her old man and lost my self-respect, my dignity.
    Dawning seemed to enter her expression. “You were testing me, weren’t you? To see if I’d cave in to his pressure, his demands to know some answers or to follow your instructions and remain quiet. You had to play it out in front of my father to show him the hold you had over me.”
    “It worked.” Wainwright had lost control. And, for a brief moment, I won .
    Deep grooves between her eyebrows marred the smooth skin. “At what cost? Us? What we had together? Did you ever really care about me or were you playing a game then, too? You once said you loved me. Was it just empty words to manipulate me to go along with your revenge? And what about…”
    When she trailed off, he glimpsed the raw pain washing over her features. No, it wasn’t false words. Everything I felt was real, too damn real. But how could he admit it to her without revealing the guarded part of him, the part that couldn’t afford to be vulnerable to anyone