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“After a while sex was as much work as getting ready for a photo shoot or appearance. And frankly, the payoff wasn’t that great.”
    Hunt choked on his wine, his head jerking up and eyes colliding with hers.
    The fire crackled. At least it better be the fire and not the tension tightening low in her belly. Why did his perusal make her vividly aware of her body, of herself?
    “I don’t know what the hell you were doing, Lyssie, but that wasn’t sex. Not the kind you deserve with a man who cares about your pleasure. There’s nothing hotter than a woman losing control from my touch. Nothing. Not a perfect body, lingerie, makeup or anything can compare to watching her eyes lose focus, her body shudder from bliss… That’s sexy and it’s a gift. But you know what really pisses me off?”
    She leaned over the arm of her chair, drawn to him, to the force of Hunt and his words. “What?”
    “You didn’t care either. You let a man treat you that way, and that’s not okay, Lyssie.”
    Confusion tangled with the power of his statement. Old guilt reminded her that she’d been selfish too many times with terrible consequences. “I let him because I wanted a baby, and I wanted it to be right this time. Married, secure, the child loved and shielded. I thought Nate wanted that too. Instead, I just made another mistake, another bad decision that led to painful consequences.” It took an effort to meet his scrutiny.
    “What other bad decisions are you talking about?”
    “I had unprotected sex and got pregnant.” The memories pressed in on her, stealing her breath. Getting up, she reached for her plate.
    Hunt caught her wrist in a gentle grip. “One mistake. We all make them.”
    He needed to know the truth. “Maybe, but not everyone’s mistakes end in a crash that kills their mother.” She tugged her wrist free and headed inside.
    …
    Hunt gripped the arms of the chair to keep himself from going after her. Shit. All these years, she’d been carrying that? He narrowed his eyes on the fire, his instincts screaming. He’d wondered how her stepfather, and later her fiancé, controlled her. Now it made a sick kind of sense.
    The front door opened and Lyssie returned, stopping by her chair. Her eyes brimmed with uncertainty and pain, then firmed into determination. “Eli wasn’t a mistake. I mean getting pregnant was careless and foolish, but a child is not a mistake.” She pivoted on her bare foot and took a step.
    Goddamn. That right there grabbed him by the throat. She cared so much for the baby she gave up and he respected that. He shot up and caught her hand. “Lyssie, don’t go.” He eased her down into the chair, then settled into his own.
    She faced him. “I couldn’t let you believe I think he’s a mistake.”
    “But it’s okay if I believe your actions led to your mother’s death?”
    She pulled her knees up and locked her arms around her legs. “I never told anyone else this, not even the police, but that night, I told my mom I was pregnant. That’s why the two of us were at the restaurant. I thought if we were out at dinner, she’d take the news better.” She tilted her head back, gazing up. Taking a deep breath, she said, “I never saw that look on her face before. Such disappointment. Then she got a migraine and was really sick.”
    Hunt stayed quiet, just letting her talk.
    “We left, but reporters swarmed us as we walked out of the restaurant. They’d heard that Scott had broken up with me to go on tour with his band. They wanted to know how it felt to be dumped by him. My mom tried to pull me back inside to call our bodyguard to come get us instead, but I insisted I could drive us home.” She lowered her chin to her knees. “Parker told me I should have listened to my mother. He could barely look at me that first year after the accident. The truth is, when Carmen took me away to Arizona, he was relieved.”
    That bastard had twisted Alyssa’s misgivings, those what ifs everyone asks