by KC Klein
Moving slowly so as not to wake her, he brushed his finger along her cheek to remove a curl caught on her lower lip. Eyes still closed, she licked her lips and moaned softly. He grew painfully hard in seconds.
He lay back down and softly exhaled as he stared up at the ceiling. If Katie ever found out what all her little noises did to him, this wouldn’t be a marriage, but enslavement. As it was, he couldn’t look at her and not kiss the hollow of her shoulder, the rosy tip of her breast. But he wouldn’t wake her up. No, not after making love, like what, twice . . . three times? She was a virgin. He should’ve restrained himself, but God, Katie made love like she lived life—with no shame. The image of her naked above him, her hair taunting him with glimpses of her breasts, white teeth gnawing on the pink fullness of her lips . . . but that was nothing compared to the husky words she spoke. He should’ve been better prepared. He knew Katie never kept quiet, but the sexy things she had said heated his blood. He’d had a fleeting worry about waking Nikki as the lamp beside his bed shattered, but then quickly forgot as he took Katie’s naughty words and growled them right back.
Cole fingered the scratches along the back of his neck. His words seemed to have had the same effect on her as hers had on him. There was a bite on his inner thigh he was sure had broken skin. He scrubbed his hands over his rough jaw to hide the embarrassing grin he couldn’t hold back. Katie was his, after all this time; she was finally his, and no one could take her away.
He glanced over at her again. No. Regardless of his desire to wake his newly emerging sex kitten, Katie would be sore and deserved her rest.
But there was a little voice, a distant wail of a train that whispered in the back of his mind. He knew its name, had met and shaken hands with it, had spent sleepless nights lying beside it—doubt, always doubt.
Katie had never told him she loved him. He knew he’d spoken the words, was more than a bit nervous at his admission, but she hadn’t. Not in all her moans, screams, and pleadings during last night had there been one mention of love. He wasn’t that much of a wuss to need those words, but he couldn’t help noticing that Thomas’s ring was still on her finger. Not her left hand; of course, his ring claimed that spot, but her right. He assumed she’d put it there during their wedding with the intention of giving it back to Thomas. He wasn’t crazy, he knew things between them had gone super-fast, but he would’ve felt better if that ring was safely on her dresser. Or better yet, back with the dick who’d proposed to her in the first place.
Katie twitched in her sleep, and Thomas’s ring picked up a brightening ray of light. Christ. Had Thomas wanted to signal airplanes with that thing? What was he trying to compensate for? But deep down Cole knew his bitterness had nothing to do with Thomas’s bank account and everything to do with his own. Katie should’ve had champagne and a trip to the tropics to celebrate her wedding, not a brawl, and a night in his rumpled sheets.
Katie sighed and wiggled her delicious backside against his thigh, and Cole groaned, but didn’t recognize it as one of his own. Yeah, Katie deserved more, and he could give it to her. Maybe not a Learjet like Thomas, but a proper honeymoon on a sandy white beach where she could wear a red bikini or . . . nothing if the nights were hot enough. But he’d better do it soon before he filled her belly with his babies. The thought, like a slap in the face, brought on a quick inhale. Kids to him had never been a real want, but the image of Katie round with his child warmed him like nothing could.
No, he wouldn’t wake her. He’d just place one kiss at the spot where her waist curved in before rounding out to her hip. He leaned over and brought his mouth to the softest of skin. Okay, maybe two, and one taste, just one.
“Katie!” A man’s voice shouted.
Cole’s head popped up. His heart raced as if Katie was still a teenager, and he’d just broken Texas law. It took a few seconds to remember they were both adults, and Katie was his wife. The shout came from outside his bedroom window, but who else would know she was here? Her father was still at the hospital, and that wasn’t Jett’s voice.
“Katie! I know you’re in there.”
Cole flung the sheets off, ready to confront whoever was screaming for his wife, at the crack of dawn, in the middle of his front yard. Then Katie shifted, and her eyelids fluttered open. “Thomas?”
Cole’s gut tightened, literally cramped like he’d been socked in the stomach, because on her lips when she whispered Thomas was the sweetest of all smiles.
But he hadn’t been a boy for a very long time, and years of hard living had taught him to school his features. There was a knock at his bedroom door. Cole was up and half dressed in boxer shorts from the dirty hamper as he cracked the door. His sister stood on the far side of the hallway, trying to respect his privacy. She was dressed in her standard uniform of low-slung sweats and a tight tank top. And with her new black hair that he still couldn’t get used to.
“He says his name is Thomas Stillwater. He’s looking for Katie. He says she’s his fiancée. I told him Katie wasn’t here, but apparently he didn’t believe me.”
Cole nodded and went to close the door. Nikki’s hand reached over to stop him.
“What?” He looked back at her.
“It’s just that . . .” Nikki pulled on her short hair, twisting the longer pieces around her finger.
“Nikki,” he snapped. He wasn’t in the mood for this.
Nikki let her hand fall to her side and tilted her head. She had inherited the Logan blue eyes, but hers seemed darker than usual as she fidgeted. “Are you sure, Cole? I know you love her, have forever, but Katie is, well, she’s nothing but trouble. I was here, remember? I saw you after she left, and saw how you clawed yourself out of a hole to be sober again. Now she’s back. And I don’t think there could be anything worse.”
If the demons in his head could’ve been given a voice, they couldn’t have done a better job than Nikki. He wanted to say something, a rebuttal. He wished he could’ve told Nikki that Katie loved him, but he just didn’t know for sure.
So instead he closed the bedroom door and faced his new wife. A part of him would’ve liked to be surprised to find Katie dressed and scrambling into her boots. But another part, the larger part, mocked him with a laugh instead.
Katie flipped back her hair and looked him in the eye. “Cole?”
With more leisure than he felt, he grabbed his jeans off the floor, found a semi-clean shirt on the back of a chair, and pulled them both on. He leaned against the wall and stared back at her. Her face told him everything he needed to know. “Why’s he here, Katie?”
At least she had the decency to look abashed, even if it only lasted for a moment. “I tried to call him. But I couldn’t get a hold of him.”
She shoved her hair past her ear, and for some reason the gesture was less endearing than in the past.
“You didn’t leave a voice mail? A text?” He knew he was being a jerk, but he couldn’t seem to help himself.
Katie sighed. “Come on, Cole, this is something I need to tell him in person or at least speak to him on the phone.”
“Good.” He shrugged and was almost positive it came across as nonchalant. “He’s waiting outside my house. The timing couldn’t be better. I’ll go and introduce myself as your new husband.”
“No, Cole, let me handle this.” She stomped her foot into her boot. The front of her dress swooped dangerously low. Her hair was so wild he wondered how she ever got a comb through it. “And . . . and I’m not ready to go announcing our . . . our new arrangement.”
He stared her down, didn’t speak, didn’t need to. Her comment didn’t deserve a response.
Katie shot daggers of her own. Her face was flushed, and he could see the scratches from the roughness of his beard. Her lips were swollen and red. “Don’t you dare judge me. Everything has happened so fast. You can’t even be sure that marriage was legal.”
He narrowed his eyes. “Do you not want it to be?”
“No!” She ran both hands through he
r hair. “That’s not what I’m saying. You’re putting words in my mouth.”
“Then why are you acting like a cat in a roomful of rocking chairs?”
She pulled on the neckline of her dress and threw him one of her “special looks.” The look that called in question every intelligent thought he had in his head. It seemed impossible those same eyes, just a few hours ago, were smoldering like whiskey, the kind that burned all the way down. And for one incredible, weak moment he was thirsty.
“Don’t stand there and pretend that this is easy for me. I have feelings for him. I loved him enough to want to marry him at one time.”
He wouldn’t ask it. Nope, he’d rather bite his tongue in half before asking the one question he longed to know. But do you still?
Instead, he gestured toward the hallway and watched her red boots walk out his door.
Chapter 25
Katie buttoned up her winter coat and crossed her arms in front of her. Cole’s living room wasn’t even cold, but that didn’t stop a chill from making her shiver. She wiped her sweaty palm on her knee and reached for the knob of the front door. Stalling, she peeked out the small window in the door and watched Thomas pace across the yard in front of the porch.
He looked the same, possibly a bit more haggard. His cotton-blend pants still held the same precise crease, but his soft leather shoes were coated with the fine dust that blew constantly over the Logan ranch, layering everything like ash from a fire. His shirt was a bit rumpled, and his sport jacket rolled at the sleeves, but otherwise typical Thomas.
Katie’s gaze shifted behind him to a car she didn’t recognize. Back in New York, Thomas drove a black Lexus, the one his daddy had given him upon high school graduation. The red sports car must’ve been a rental, considering it was a tad flashy, especially for a conservative Stillwater. Thomas wore his family’s wealth like some would an undershirt, close to the skin, and most times hidden underneath clothes. Not that Thomas was a prig. He just came from money. It was a part of him, and to his credit, he’d been able to maintain a veneer of humility, though it was a bit thin.
Katie groped in her pocket for her lip balm and came back with lint and a ticket stub. She couldn’t remember where she’d left her purse, must’ve lost it somewhere between swinging the bat and kissing Cole.
Which ended up being a hell of a lot more than just kissing.
Katie pressed her flushed cheek to the cool pane of glass and took a shuddering breath. The things she’d done, the things she’d let Cole do. And for one moment, she’d been happy. They had shut the bedroom door and shut out the world. All the doubts and anger had slept in the shadows, only to come to life in the glaring light of the sun.
Her gaze found Thomas again as he scrubbed his hand through his hair, then punched his fists into his coat pockets and continued to pace. Guilt twisted her stomach. She’d never meant to hurt him, but couldn’t think of a single thing to say that wouldn’t cut him to the heart. Yeah, the world wouldn’t stay shut out forever.
It was time to wake up and be a big girl. Time to take responsibility for all that had happened. Ending things with Thomas was just the first hurdle among many.
But what should she tell him exactly? That she was married? Was she that callous? She could start with the truth. She could tell Thomas she was in love with someone else, and that someone else loved her. Of that she had no doubt. Cole wouldn’t have married her unless he loved her. He’d had said as much last night.
But Katie had heard Nikki talking to Cole this morning. And what she heard louder than any words was Cole’s silence. He hadn’t defended her. Was Nikki right? Cole had told her he hadn’t touched alcohol for over two years. Then he fell off the wagon after she’d been home for only, what, forty-eight hours? He had told her, but at the time she hadn’t processed exactly what that meant. During the years she’d been at school trying hard to forget everything back in Texas, he’d been struggling to stay sober. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out what the common denominator was—their relationship.
Things between Cole and her had always been volatile. And maybe Nikki was right. Did she bring out the worst in Cole? Was it time to leave childish fantasies behind and start to see love, no longer in terms of fire, but as something that grew instead of destroyed?
Thomas walked back toward the porch. Katie walked out to meet him.
The sun was a bit blinding after the shade-drawn indoors, and she shielded her eyes so she could look him in the eye. Then remembering her rings, she quickly shoved her hands in her pockets.
Thomas slowed to a stop and met her gaze.
Words weren’t needed as Katie watched Thomas’s face shift from shock to deep hurt. She lost courage, broke first, and began to count the planks of wood that led to the steps.
“I’m too late, then?” Thomas whispered.
Not ready to verbalize her failings, she let her silence be her admission. Silence and her actions, considering she’d just walked out of a man’s house in early morning, still dressed in last night’s clothes. Being pantyless just added to her walk of shame.
“So Amy told you? I knew she would,” he said.
Katie glanced up. Amy? She hadn’t spoken to her college roommate since she’d come home.
“I want you to know,” Thomas said, rushing forward. “It didn’t mean anything. I was at a stupid frat party, and you know how crazy those things get. And well, to tell you the truth, I was angry.”
Katie shook her head. He’d slept with someone else? She needed to stop him, didn’t want the details. “I don’t need to hear this.”
Thomas climbed the steps of the front porch and took her hand out of her pocket. “No, listen. You deserve an explanation. It’s not an excuse, but maybe . . .”
He broke off as he realized his ring was on the wrong hand. He ran his thumb across the diamond he’d given her on the park bench in front of her dorm. He had been sweet, not going down on one knee, but saying something along the lines of them bumping along well together. And why not try it for a lifetime.
“I deserve this, I know—” Thomas’s voice cracked. Katie could see the pale pink of his scalp through his short hair. She wondered how far his hairline would recede by the time he was forty. “I came down here to grovel, do whatever I could to win you back, but damn, seeing you is more painful than I thought it would be.”
Katie tugged at his hold, but he wouldn’t let go. She wanted to dry her eyes, but sure wasn’t going to pull out her left hand to do so. The tears fell, making tiny starlike splashes on the wool of her coat. “Thomas, please.”
There should’ve been anger, on both of their parts, but Katie was too honest with herself to play games. Thomas’s fling had freed her, and the guilt of lying to him by omission was gone.
Yet here was Thomas, who’d flown over fifteen hundred miles to hold her hand and ask for forgiveness. And then there was a part, another part, a big part, which screamed Cole had never chased her down, never flown to New York. And she had waited. Waited for him to come, or at least call, but there’d been no word, and Katie had slowly fallen to pieces. It had been Thomas, with his easy manner and dry humor, who’d painstakingly pulled her out of the worst depression she’d ever been in. It was Thomas, who had given her the strength to get out of bed in the morning.
“I have a proposition,” Thomas said, with a slight uplift of his mouth, a hint of his boyish smile. “No, wait, don’t say anything, just hear me out.” He laced her fingers with his and rubbed the back of her hand with his thumb.
Katie pulled away. Guilt sickened her. She had no pillar of virtue to stand upon. She’d betrayed their promise first when she’d slipped off her ring at the airport, keeping her engagement a secret.
“I was upset. No, I’m not using that as an excuse, but I knew he was here,” Thomas said, jerking his head toward the house. “I remembered how you were when you first got to school and, well . . . I was terrified. Then you wouldn’t let me come down here, and there were a few d
ays I couldn’t get a hold of you. I went a little crazy, imagining all sorts of things.”
He lowered his head and laughed bitterly, the blond highlights in his short hair picking up the early morning light. “I know now I should’ve trusted you.”
Shame ran through her blood, and she threw up her hand to cover her face. Not able to face him any longer, she turned and walked down the steps. What had she done? Her father had raised her to be a person of honor. What would he say if he knew the way she’d behaved?
Thomas chased after her. “Wait, Katie, what I’m trying to say is this. I know it’s my fault. I pushed you to him, but I think we can start again. Start fresh. The whole thing with your father and coming home after all this time, I know that’s tough.”
Keep walking. Put one foot in front of the other. Just walk. Don’t look back.
Katie slowed to a stop and closed her eyes, searching for answers against the black of her lids. Thomas came up behind her, his hand gentle on her shoulder. “What I’m trying to say is we can forget this weekend ever happened. We were happy together. Don’t throw three years away over one three-day weekend.”
“Thomas, this is all just too much right now.” Her head was spinning. Her heart told her one thing, but her mind another. Everything Thomas said was true. They had been good together. No, there wasn’t the passion she and Cole had, but there wasn’t the fighting either—the insanity. And Katie knew for a fact she’d never take a bat to Thomas’s car. Did she want to spend her life walking that fine line between love and hate? With Thomas it was so much simpler.
The front screen door banged opened, and they both swung their heads toward the porch. There stood Cole, his hair messed, a dark shadow lining his clenched jaw. And that was it. Katie was going to buy him some regular shirts, because again he hadn’t bothered with the buttons. His old, threadbare plaid hung open, bare feet poking out from under frayed jeans. He had the look of a man who’d spent the majority of the previous day in bed, and not alone. But his face told a different story. The swelling around his eye had faded, and so had the twinkle as he kissed her mouth and murmured words of endearment against her skin. “Open your eyes, Katie,” he had whispered to her. “Let me see you.” And she had. She had completely surrendered to him. So sure, so convinced this was their forever.
