DirtyBeautiful (22 page)

“I…I just can’t go through this again.”

“Go through what?”

Erica wanted to walk away. To forget she even opened her
mouth and allowed the past to control her. Dylan cupped her cheeks, his
expression earnest. “What is it, Erica? Why are you so certain I’ll cheat?”

She swallowed hard. “Because it’s happened to me before.”

Fury stiffened his lips and he sucked in a hard breath. “It
was that Greg guy, wasn’t it?”

“Yes.”

“I should’ve pounded his ass into the ground.”

Erica shook her head. “No. It’s all in the past.”

“But it’s making you doubt me.”

Too ashamed to look into his eyes, she nodded. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be.” Dylan kissed her on the nose then pressed his
forehead against hers. “Tell me.”

Erica let out a ragged breath, the old hurt throbbing
inside. “There isn’t much to tell. He lied to me for months while he was seeing
another woman behind my back. I never felt so fat and frumpy as I did when I
saw a picture of her. She was so…skinny and I’m just…not.”

“Jesus. I’m gonna kill him.”

“Don’t.”

Dylan wiped at her cheek with the ball of his finger,
catching a tear she didn’t know had broken free. “That man didn’t deserve you,
Erica. You are sexy as hell and he was a fool to let you go.”

Erica threw him a watery smile. “You think?”

“Hell yeah. I’m glad though. That means that you’re all
mine.”

She placed her hands over his and nodded. “All yours.”

“No more secrets?”

“No more.”

He grinned and kissed her, reminding her of all the passion
he felt for her. His hand clasped her ass and brought her flush against him as
he teased her with his mouth. After a sensual foray, he broke off, his chest
heaving and an erection pressing against her stomach.

“How about we continue this in the shower?” He wiggled his
brows.

Erica smiled. “All right.”

He led her into the bathroom and turned on the shower, then
shucked his jeans. Steam wafted outward and he stepped under the spray.

“Coming in?”

She unknotted her kimono and eased it off her shoulders. It
fell to the floor in a soft whisper and goose bumps rose on her skin. Dylan
followed the move with a ravenous gaze.

“Damn, you’re so sexy.”

Erica smiled. She did feel sexy. With Dylan. Only with him.

As she stepped toward him, a knock drifted up the stairs.
She hesitated, but the knocking persisted. “You start without me. I’ll get rid
of whoever it is and be back soon.”

He pulled her up against his wet body and nuzzled her neck.
“All right, but don’t be too long.”

Giggling, she pushed him under the showerhead and pulled on
her kimono. Hurrying down the stairs, she answered the door, ready to make her
excuses and return to Dylan. The words froze in her throat at the sight of Greg
on her doorstep.

She tried to slam the door in his face, but his hand slapped
over it. “Erica, I have to speak to you.”

Giving up on trying to shove the door closed, she glared at
him. “Well I’m not interested in anything you have to say.”

“You will be. It’s to do with your…with Drake.”

“It’s Dylan. I’ve already heard it and I don’t care. He told
me everything.”

Greg’s brows lowered in consternation. “You think he told
you the truth? Whatever he told you is a lie.”

“What do you know about truth, Greg? I’m done talking to
you. Now leave.”

Greg’s focus drifted beyond her, anger drawing his lips
downward. “He’s here, isn’t he?”

“That’s not any of your business.”

“It
is
my business. I made a mistake, Erica, but you
can’t let what happened between us let you make the biggest mistake of your
life.”

“
My
biggest mistake?” she said on a laugh filled with
derision. “My biggest mistake was giving you the time of day.”

“Look, you can be angry at me if you want, but in time I’m
hoping you’ll forgive me and give me a second chance.”

“I would
never
give you a second chance. You cheated
on me. Repeatedly. You gave me an STD and you made me feel worthless.”

Nostrils flared as two rose plumes appeared on his cheeks.
“You think he won’t cheat on you? Because you’re deluding yourself if you think
so. You’re a novelty to him. A man like him will
never be faithful.”

Erica slapped him before she could even register the
movement. Tense silence stretched between them. “You know everything there is
about faithlessness, don’t you? How dare you come to my house and say nasty
things. You don’t know anything about him.”

“I know enough.”

“What, because you saw him in some obscure adult magazine
years ago?”

His eyes narrowed. “He hasn’t told you, has he?”

Erica folded her arms, not liking where this was going.
“Told me what?”

“He makes pornographic movies.”

Erica’s mind went utterly blank. “I don’t believe you.”

Greg pulled something from his jacket. A DVD case with a
picture of Dylan caught in an erotic pose with his hand down the sheer panties
of a woman. A roar began in her ears and numbly she reached for it. She turned
it over to see various images of men and women caught in some type of sexual
conduct. Her focus moved to the year of production to find it a recent release.

“This…this can’t be right,” she mumbled.

Greg thrust yet another DVD at her. “Your Dylan is Drake Van
Wulf. He has been fucking women for a living.”

Erica shook her head in disbelief. All the women in the
pictures had sensual bodies and a knowing look in their eyes. Her fingers
tightened over the newest DVD, the title coming into focus.
Dungeon and the
Dragon
. This time Dylan stood beside a woman on her knees with her torso
bound in rope. The profile looked familiar and she scrutinized the model with
growing apprehension. It was Ruby.

The ground disappeared and she heard a cry of despair from a
distance. Greg was speaking, but she couldn’t focus. Her knees wobbled and she
stumbled to the nearest chair, the DVDs falling at her feet. Words of dissent
whispered in her mind and she wished that all this was just a bad dream.

Chapter Twelve

Dylan switched off the showerhead and exited the bath,
wondering what took Erica so long. He donned his jeans and exited the bathroom.
He could hear a muffled voice below that was definitely male and instantly went
on high alert. Taking the stairs two at a time, he found Erica in the living
room. She sat on the couch, her face in her hands, shoulders hunched in misery
with a man before her, his back to Dylan.

“Erica?”

Her head shot up at the sound of his voice and his gut
dropped at the disbelief in her gaze. He’d seen that look before and feared
history was about to repeat itself. The unknown man stood, and Dylan recognized
him. “What the hell are you doing here?”

Greg thrust his chin up. “Stopping Erica from making a big
mistake.”

Oh shit.
Dylan clenched his fists, fighting back the
acid panic that bubbled up his throat. “Is that right? We’ll see about that.
Erica?”

Her pale features struck him like a punch to the gut and
when she shook her head slowly, it tore his insides out. “I…I…”

Desperation propelled him forward, but Greg stepped in front
of him. Rage churned. “Get the fuck out of my way.”

“She doesn’t want to see you.”

“This has nothing to do with you.”

“It has everything to do with me. You lied to her.”

Dylan sneered. “Like you haven’t before? You fucking let her
go and now she’s no longer your concern. She’s
mine
. Now back the fuck
off!”

“You think Erica wants to speak to you after knowing your
cock has been dipped in every available pussy in LA?”

Dylan punched him in the face. The impact sent the snide
little ass into the coffee table. Greg rolled onto the ground and touched his
lip, grimacing at the sight of his own blood. With a roar, Greg launched
himself at Dylan, wild fists swinging through the air. Dylan dodged one and
suffered a clip from the other. Ringing started in his ears and he snatched at
Greg’s shirt to hold him still to deliver a body blow.

“Stop it!”

Dylan’s attention snapped to Erica and he took a dirty
strike in his kidneys. Grimacing, he pushed Greg from him and stepped back, his
eyes on Erica. Greg approached Erica and Dylan resisted the urge to rip his
arms off. Erica evaded Greg and hugged her body.

“Is it true?”

Dylan knew what she wanted to know, and made one last-ditch
effort to avert disaster. “Is what true?”

Erica’s features contorted. “Don’t lie to me. Were you a
porn actor?”

Dylan struggled to swallow. “Yes,” he rasped.

She shook her head, her face paler than before.

Unable to stop himself, he ate up the distance between them
and cupped her face, forcing her to look into his eyes. “That’s not me. Not
anymore. You have to believe that.”

The sheen of tears stabbed him in the chest and he caught a
tear with his thumb. “Erica?” he begged on a broken breath.

“I can’t think right now.”

“Please. Don’t listen to what he said. I’m not some
perverted guy who likes to fuck everything that moves. It’s different.
I’m
different.”

She pulled away from him then and he let her. Wordlessly she
retrieved something and handed it to him. He stared down at the cover and
struggled to draw in air. Every part of him screamed in internal agony as he
felt everything he wanted slip through his fingers. The dark BDSM cover
portrayed him in a way he had never revealed to Erica. Ruby was at his feet and
he knew now the depth of betrayal she felt. He was now slotted in the same
category as Greg.

He looked at her then, his throat working to pull out the
words he needed. “If you’d just give me a chance to explain.”

Dylan waited in silence, watching every nuance on Erica’s
face. He could hear the fast thundering of his heart in his ears and it felt as
though it would leap from his chest at any given moment. He wanted to wrap her
in his arms and tell her that he would never hurt her. But the fact was that he
had. By the choices he made, he’d hurt yet another person he cared about.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I can’t.”

Dylan sucked in a harsh breath, his chest seeming to
constrict against the motion. He’d lost her. He knew it and couldn’t think of
anything more to save what had already died right before his eyes. Shoulders
slumped, he turned and exited her life, wondering how he was going to live with
her disdain.

As the door clicked shut, Erica jerked as though he’d
slammed it. Guilt and misery sat in her stomach like a black mass. She
struggled to draw breath, but the pain in her chest made it difficult. The
nights with Dylan played out in her head. The way he expertly brought her to
orgasm. She thought they shared something unique and full of meaning. But she
was wrong.

Still…the look of devastation on Dylan’s face… It hurt her
heart.

Movement behind her caught her attention.

“Please leave,” she whispered.

“You can’t be serious,” Greg said with incredulity.

She faced him then. “I am. Please. Leave.”

Greg straightened his shoulders. “I came here to protect you
and this is the thanks I get?”

Anger rose to the fore. “You came here to satisfy your ego.
This had nothing to do with me.”

His eyes narrowed. “How can you think that? You want him
after all I’ve shown you?”

Erica turned away. She didn’t know what she wanted. All her
emotions tumbled inside in a cyclonic mess. The path unclear. She felt the
agony of betrayal, made sharper by the woman now currently residing next door.
But she also yearned to seek Dylan out and comfort him. Confusion ran riot
within.

“That type of man will never love you like I do, Erica.”

She stiffened and turned on Greg, emotion clogging her
throat. “Love? You lied and cheated on me. Countless times. How is that love at
all?”

Greg pointed to the door. “And what he did is different?”

“I don’t know. But what I do know is that I
don’t
want you!”

He closed the distance between them and Erica moved away. He
stopped, fists clenched at his sides.

“You only started to call me when Dylan moved into
Templeton, didn’t you? I know your mother wouldn’t be able to keep something
like that from you.”

His lips pursed into a thin white line. “That’s not true!”

“Isn’t it? Did you like it, Greg, thinking that I pined over
you? That I was alone and no man in this town had any interest in me?”

A muscle jumped in his jaw.

“You thought you could sow your wild oats and I’d still be
here, ready to take you back?”

She saw the truth flash in his eyes and she wanted to
scratch his face off. How could she have not seen it sooner? “Get. Out.”

He glared at her. “You’re going to regret this. Don’t expect
me to take you back when you realize your mistake.”

She laughed, a sound without humor. “I regret many things,
but leaving you isn’t one of them. Now leave before I call the sheriff.”

He stormed to the door, wrenched it open and threw her a
look of utter disdain. “You want that sleaze next door, then you’re welcome to
him. But don’t come crying to me when he leaves you for some woman who knows
what a man likes.”

The barb hit home and she picked up the nearest item, a vase
of roses, and flung it at him. It shattered on the floor near the door. Water
and rose petals trailed along the wooden floor, bringing with it the memory of
last night.

She wiped at the tears on her cheeks and wondered who she
should believe, Dylan’s proclamations of being different, or the internal voice
that screamed at her to protect her heart. Except she feared it might be too
late, her heart might’ve already been lost.