As soon as the words were out of his mouth, he flinched.

There was a tense, awful silence but Vaughn could feel the heat of her gaze on his face. Bracing himself he turned to meet her accusing stare. “I’m sorry. I have a bad habit of being a bastard to you.”

Bailey’s eyebrows rose at his admission. And then something rueful and mischievous glinted in those beautiful eyes of hers. “Maybe that’s because I have a bad habit of being a bitch to you.”

He laughed before he could stop himself.

He felt her study his face as he did and when he stopped she was staring at him in wonder, like she’d never seen him before. Vaughn was uncomfortable with her obvious curiosity. “I do laugh once in a while, Miss Hartwell.”

“Well you’ve never laughed around me. And stop calling me Miss Hartwell. Please, I beg of you.”

He stirred, the heat in him rising as her words raised the ghost of a longstanding sexual fantasy he’d had about her.

Fuck.

“Why does it bother you? It’s your name.” His words came out more hoarse than he’d have liked, almost giving his arousal away.

“It’s the way you say it.” She shrugged, taking a sip of her wine. “And anyway, it makes me feel like a spinster at the moment.”

“Because of Tom? Do you miss him?” Why the hell did he ask that?

She seemed just as surprised by the personal question, and for a moment or two Vaughn thought she wasn’t going to answer.

But then she did.

And her answer shocked the hell out of him.

“No.” Sadness dimmed her eyes. “I miss my friend. But I don’t miss my boyfriend. What I miss are all the years I wasted with him . . . because it was a disservice to us both.”

Vaughn studied her face as she stared out at the ocean, taking in the way the muscle in her delicate jaw twitched, like she was clenching her teeth against a surge of emotion.

He wanted to know what the hell she meant. Maybe it was because she’d been so open with him, or maybe it was just sitting in close proximity to a woman he’d wanted for so long, but Vaughn’s self-control seemed to have taken a leave of absence. “What does that mean?”

She heaved a weary sigh. “Tom and I . . . we . . . we didn’t have what Jess and Coop have. We’ve never had that. I stayed with him because he was safe. I stayed with him because he was what I thought someone like me deserved. And vice versa. We weren’t right for each other and I knew it, and I didn’t speak up. He cheated because I didn’t speak up.”

“You don’t believe that.” He sounded annoyed.

Bailey narrowed her eyes on him. “Yes. What would you know about it?”

He ignored her angry tone. “Tom Sutton was a man punching above his weight. He knew that. Everyone knew that. And that is why everyone thinks he’s not only an asshole for cheating on you, but a fucking moron.”

“I don’t know whether to be flattered to have gotten a compliment out of you or pissed off. What does that even mean? Tom was less attractive than me? Isn’t that a little shallow?”

“I didn’t say he was less attractive than you. I wouldn’t know if he was less attractive than you. I do know I never spent a scintillating moment in that man’s company.”

“You’re saying he wasn’t interesting enough to keep up with me?”

He just looked at her.

Bailey couldn’t hide her amazement. “Huh. Really?”

Vaughn smirked, enjoying the fact that he could throw her off balance. “Just because you can be a bitch, Bailey, doesn’t mean you’re not an interesting one.”

“I’m only a bitch to people who are assholes.” She downed the rest of her wine. She didn’t ask for more, however. Instead she placed the glass out of her way and leaned back on the palms of her hands.

“As always you flatter me.”

“Why are you an asshole, Tremaine?”

“I would like to remind you that you’re the one who started a campaign of hate against me.”

“I was worried about the boardwalk. I thought you were going to erect this ugly, contemporary building that would compromise what we had here. The fact that you were so uncooperative did not help.”

“I don’t like to be questioned.”

“By a woman.”

“By anyone.”

“You were awful to me.”

He sighed, hating the hurt she tried to hide but just couldn’t. “Again, I’ll remind you that you were awful to me first.”

“I tried to be nice to you at first. You were a superior swine.”

“The first thing you asked was to see my architect’s drawings,” he huffed. “Like you had a right to them.”

“I felt I did.”

“Because you’re Bailey Hartwell, Princess of the Boardwalk. You’re not pissed at me for being a superior swine; you’re pissed at me for being the first person to say no to you.”

“Oh, believe me, you’re not the first man to say no to me.”

He tensed at the bitterness he heard in her voice. “I said person. Not man.”

“What?”

“Person, not man.”

Bailey shrugged. “Whatever. Let’s just agree I was a nosy bitch and you were a superior ass.”

“We’re using past tense?” he teased.

Their eyes met and he watched the way her lips trembled before they gave up and spread into a huge smile.