Perfect Lies by Liza Bennett Read Free Book Online Page A

really shocked you the other night, didn’t I?” he said in a subdued voice.
    “You know, I think it’s better if we just put that whole episode behind us. You were drunk. I can understand that. Things can get out of control—”
    “No, Meg. That wasn’t it at all. Listen … I shouldn’t have waited. I should have faced this years ago.”
    “What are you taking about?”
    “Oh, don’t give me that bullshit! You know exactly what I’m talking about.” Meg had never heard such vehemence in his voice before; it frightened her.
    “Ethan—”
    “I’ve been in love with you for fourteen years. Don’t tell me you didn’t know—that you didn’t feel the same.”
    Meg felt as though someone had punched her in the stomach, knocking the breath out of her. She stared at him. He couldn’t be serious. “No. Absolutely not.” she told him. “I don’t know what made you think that. It’s … it’s just not true.”
    “Meg, please. It’s okay to admit it.” Ethan said, turning to her. He’d slipped off his glasses and Meg noticed that his usually clear blue eyes were threaded with red. “I’ve been thinking about this almost nonstop. What we have—what draws us together so powerfully—it’s really out of our control. I’ve been trying to deny it for so many years. Then, the other, night—it just felt so right.”
    “Actually, Ethan, nothing ever felt more
wrong
to me in my entire life.” Meg felt tainted just having to explain this to him.
    “I don’t believe you.”
    “Well, you’d better, damn it,” Meg said, angry that there was even a shadow of a doubt in his mind about how she felt.
    “All these years, when you’ve been hanging around my family. All these years when you’ve been unable to find the right person … Haven’t you wondered why?” Ethan’s tone was persuasively sincere. She found herself listening, though she knew she should already have gotten up and walked away.
    “Don’t you wonder why you never seem able to make a relationship work?” he continued slowly, sensing that he’d gotten her attention at last. “Why you pick men who are wrong for you—wired to backfire within a short time? I’ve been watching you play out these charades of love affairs for years. These so-called successful men—brokers, lawyers, bankers—whom you start out admiring, proceed to dominate, and end up despising. You’ve never been in love, Meg.”
    “How dare you—”
    “You’ve never found a real partner. Someone who would stand up to you. Who refused to be controlled. Each time I see you repeat one of these ridiculous cycles, I become more convinced of what the problem is. You don’t want to find the right person because, deep down, you know you already have.”
    “Oh, please—what self-serving—”
    “Listen, to me, baby.” His hand was at the back of her neck. He gathered a fistful of her hair. “This is about us. Not me.
Us.
It’s real. I know you can feel it. We’ve got to work this out.”
    “Let go of me. Or I’ll scream. I mean it.” He released his grasp, and Meg moved away from him on the bench. “The only thing we have between us is you acting like a fool. And a bastard. Do you have any idea how deeply Lark would be hurt—she’d be just ripped apart—if she knew what you were saying to me right now.”
    “Of course, I know.” Ethan looked up at her without remorse. “Why in the world do you think I’ve waited so long, why I’ve denied these feelings, tried to block them out? I know how badly Lark would feel—if she knew. But what about me, Meg? Do you have any idea what I’m going through this
minute?
The utter hell of it?”
    “No, I don’t understand,” she replied, unable to feel anything but disgust. “And honestly, I don’t want to. Somehow you’ve confused my caring about you as a brother—a brother-in-law—with something very different. And—believe me, Ethan—you’re dead wrong. You’ve meant a great deal to me—as Lark’s