Owen looked at her with stormy gray eyes. “I overheard you and Lexie. You were talking about how you slept with Cooper Grady.”
Maddie nearly keeled over by the wave of guilt that swelled inside her. She stared at Owen, shame creeping up her spine and grabbing hold of her throat. She gulped a few times, afraid to meet his harsh gaze, but then she forced herself to snap out of it. She had no reason to feel guilty. She might have had sex with Cooper, but she’d done it before she and Owen agreed to see this relationship through.
“I did sleep with Cooper,” she said in a steady voice. “Before you and I got together.”
“So that makes it better?” he muttered.
“It doesn’t make it anything,” she said quietly. “Cooper and I had sex. Once. And it was after you pushed me away, saying you couldn’t get involved with me.”
“Are you in love with him?”
The hoarse question made her heart clench. “Of course not,” she said firmly. “Like I said, it was just sex.”
“Just sex,” he echoed dully.
After a second of hesitation, she went to sit beside him, placing her hand on his shoulder. “It wasn’t a big deal,” she murmured. “It happened one time.”
“I…” He raked a hand through his dark hair. “I don’t know what to say.”
“Say you agree that it isn’t a big deal.” She bit her bottom lip. “I don’t care that you slept with a ton of women before we got together. It doesn’t make a difference to me.”
“Oh really?”
She faltered. “It doesn’t. Everyone has a past, Owen. It’s the present and future that matter most.”
“I guess,” he said darkly.
“You guess?” Her irritation returned. “Are you saying you really can’t get over the fact that I slept with someone else—when we weren’t even together?”
His jaw twitched. “Maybe that is what I’m saying.”
Maddie’s eyebrows shot up. “You can’t be serious.”
He turned to meet her eyes, and she realized with growing dismay that he was serious. His features were taut, his expression blank, and she could see his throat working as he swallowed.
“I don’t know if I can look at you without picturing you having sex with that guy.”
She just gaped at him. “Wow. You’re being unbelievably ridiculous, you know that?” A panicked thought occurred to her. “Are you…are you breaking up with me?”
He didn’t answer.
Anger and disbelief formed a bitter cocktail that swirled in her gut. “Do you even want to know why I did it?”
More silence.
“Because I was insecure,” she growled. “After you pushed me away, I thought it was because my inexperience might have scared you off.”
His head lifted in surprise.
“I needed reassurance, okay? And Cooper was there, willing to give it to me.”
Owen stiffened at the mention of Cooper’s name. “So, what? You slept with him to get back at me for that night?”
“Of course not.” She stared at him in utter misery. “I just wanted to feel…wanted. Maybe it was silly, but I wanted to feel like I could handle myself in the bedroom, that I wasn’t some na?ve schoolgirl who couldn’t turn someone on.”
Bitterness laced his next words. “Did you turn Cooper on?” Without letting her respond, he hurried on, his voice cold. “You claim you’ve been in love with me for years, and then we fool around, and three days later you hop into bed with another man. What am I supposed to make of that?”
“You can accept that maybe we both had some issues,” she said quietly. “Mine were about insecurity, yours about fidelity.”
He gave a humorless laugh. “Yeah, and the fact that you screwed Cooper Grady doesn’t really convince me that people are capable of being faithful to one another.”
Maddie shot to her feet, unable to believe what was happening. “So you’re saying I cheated on you when we weren’t even together?”
“I don’t know what I’m saying.” He sighed. “But I do know we need some time apart. Time for me to digest all this.”
“Digest it?” Wow. Maddie couldn’t control the annoyance pricking at her skin. Maybe she should’ve told him sooner about Cooper, but she didn’t regret what she’d done. She’d needed Cooper that night, though she probably shouldn’t be surprised that Owen didn’t understand. He was Mr. Confident when it came to sex. And he’d hooked up with countless airheads before they’d gotten together. You didn’t see her holding it against him. How could he be so willing to throw away something so good, something so—
She suddenly froze, another thought dawning on her.
“Oh for Pete’s sake,” she grumbled. “You’re doing this on purpose.”
Owen’s head shot up. “I have no idea what you’re talking about,” he said, eyeing her in suspicion.
“Oh yes, you do.” She eyed him right back, equally suspicious. “You’re in love with me, aren’t you?”
His jaw tensed again. “What?”