Two Can Play (Celeste and Dominic) novel Chapter 577

SCARLETT

After holding me for a long while, Sparrow gently turned me around to face him. He wiped the tears from my cheeks with the pads of his thumbs, his touch feather-light.

"I don't want to see you cry, Scarlett," he said softly. "It makes me feel very helpless."

"I understand that you're trying to make me feel better," I told him, "and I appreciate it. But it doesn't change the facts of my life."

He held my shoulders with both hands, his grip steady and grounding. "I'm not one to care so much about the past, Scarlett. Whatever happened in your past should stay in your past. For me, it's all about the present and the future."

I shook my head slowly. "I just can't let go of it. I've been with too many men, and the thought makes me feel unworthy of any man's love."

I looked up and met his eyes. "I've even slept with your most hated enemy. Big Bryan. Multiple times. That's the reality of the life I've lived. How can you look at me and feel any love toward me?"

He was quiet for a beat, then let out a low breath. "About Big Bryan, I already guessed it before you said anything. But none of that matters to me. As long as everything happened before I met you and fell for you, I couldn't care less."

A corner of his mouth lifted. "Besides, do you consider me a saint? If most of the women I've slept with stood in front of me right now, I wouldn't even recognize their faces."

He stepped back and crossed his arms. "Okay. Let's clear the air right here, right now. What's your body count?"

I blinked at the bluntness of the question. "I stopped keeping count after the number became many."

"More than a hundred?" he asked. I nodded.

He gave a rueful shake of his head. "In the past, I considered love to be complete nonsense. But now I know that going through life without ever experiencing this feeling even once would be truly pathetic. The chances that I'd ever feel this way for any other woman in this world? Zero."

He squeezed my hand. "My past is a mountain, Scarlett. Yours isn't even a molehill. But that's it. That's the past. I'm letting my past go, and I want you to do the same."

"But it's not the same," I insisted. "Sex for men isn't the same as it is for women."

"It makes no difference to me," he said simply. "I want to be with you, Scarlett. That's the biggest truth of my life."

He looked at me then, his eyes searching mine. "So tell me. Without the burdens of your past trying to tie you down, would you want to be with me? Be honest."