“You okay?”
“Oh yeah,” she said brightly. “Just tired and needed a minute to myself.”
“Just wanted to make sure,” he said, leaning on the wall beside her. “It upsets you; Charlotte and Drew?”
She groaned. “Christ, why is everyone so interested in that? No.” Katie shook her head. “Drew is free to do whatever he wants, with whoever wants.”
“And so are you,” Kyle murmured, leaning forward. “Right?”
“Right,” she whispered, not moving.
His hand curled around the back of her neck, his fingers cool against her skin. Then, his mouth was on hers, soft and teasing. He hummed deep in his throat then murmured against her lips, “You are so beautiful.”
She lifted her hands and laid her palms against his chest as he deepened the kiss, licking into her mouth, his tongue swirling around hers. He shifted slightly so her back was pressed to the wall and he was against her front, surrounding her with warmth. Katie tried to focus completely on Kyle, to lose herself in this moment, but…the kiss was nice, sweet. It didn’t turn her stomach or frighten her like those she worked so hard to forget. But that’s all it was. Nice. Drew had never even kissed her—not like this—and he made her feel so much more.
Part of her wanted to say screw Drew. Let him cuddle up and fuck Charlotte and she would do the same with Kyle. But it was petty and vindictive, and wholly unfair to Kyle. She didn’t want to lead him on, possibly hurt him. She needed to be honest and upfront with him.
She pulled away slightly. “Kyle—”
“Yeah, sweetheart?” He kissed the corner of her mouth.
“Katie?”
Son of a bitch. How did he manage to sneak up on her at the worst possible moments?
“Hello, Drew,” Kyle drawled, running his palm down Katie’s bare arm as he took a step back. “What can we do for you?”
“Katie,” he repeated. “It’s getting late.”
“It is,” Kyle agreed. He leaned forward and touched his lips to Katie’s. “I’ll see you in the morning, beautiful.”
“G-good night, Kyle.”
He squeezed her hand then walked past Drew back toward the fire. Drew moved quickly, was suddenly pressed full body against her.
“What. The. Hell. Was. That?” he asked through gritted teeth.
She pushed uselessly against him. “None of your business.”
“The hell it isn’t,” he snapped. “Stay away from him, Katie.”
“You have no right!” Katie shoved at him again and again.
Finally, he stepped back but kept his hands tightly around her biceps.
“You have no right to dictate my life.”
“I think we’ve already proven that wrong today,” he said darkly.
“And, obviously, that was a mistake,” she snapped.
“You don’t believe that,” he said in a harsh whisper.
“Don’t you?” she shot back. “You didn’t waste any time getting all snuggly with Charlotte afterwards.”
“I already told you—”
“Whatever.” She yanked away from him. “I already told you it’s none of my business who you fuck. And it’s none of yours who I do.”
Katie stalked away, stomped up the steps and into the cabin. She hadn’t made it halfway to the stairs when she was grabbed and spun around.
“Don’t walk away from me,” Drew ground out, pulling her against him.
“What’s going on here?” Jack’s voice boomed through the cabin.
Katie looked past Drew and saw Grace, Ethan and Jack standing near the door. As they moved inside, Chloe, Isaac and Noah followed. Katie groaned.
“Let me go,” she muttered.
“Like hell. Stay out of this,” Drew said over his shoulder.
“Drew, let her go,” Chloe ordered.
“Stay out of this,” he repeated, but he released Katie, and she stumbled back.
“Katie, honey, what’s going on?” Grace took a step forward, stopping when Drew turned around.
“It’s none of your concern,” he said.
“Bullshit,” Ethan said.
“For fuck’s sake, what do you want? To have a fucking family meeting about this?”
“Maybe,” Jack said, crossing his arms over his chest. “Depends on what exactly this is.”
Katie couldn’t stand it anymore. Hurt and pissed off, she threw her hands up in the air. “Fine, you want to know? Here it is. Apparently, I’m the only one in this little family that isn’t allowed to get laid. Shall we discuss now?”
All eyes were on her, and the sudden silence was deafening.
“Come again now?” Isaac asked, glancing between Katie and Drew.
“Well, you have Jack and Chloe warming your bed. Grace, Ethan and Noah regularly get it on from what I hear.” She cringed inwardly when she heard Ethan swear under his breath. “And Drew gets to fuck whoever he wants, which at the moment appears to be Charlotte. But someone shows the slightest interest in me? Well, that just won’t do. Gotta nip that in bud, so poor Katie stays alone in her cold, empty bed.”
Drew, who faced her again, shook his head. “Just because I don’t want some dumbass trying to charm his way into your pants—”
“What if I wanted him there?” she shouted, angrily pleased when his mouth dropped open. “Is it so wrong to want some fucking comfort? To not be so alone?”
“Honey, you’re not alone,” Grace insisted. “Never.”
Katie laughed bitterly. “Are you kidding me? Damned easy for you to say when you have two men who love you and share your bed. Cozy family dinners, games of chess, deep meaningful talks around the fire? Seriously? Not exactly an adequate substitute.”
Grace’s lips trembled and her eyes filled.
“Katie,” Noah said softly, but his anger was quite clear.
“No.” Katie shook her head, fighting against the guilt swelling in her. “I’m done trying to assure you guys that everything is okay and I’m just fine. It hurts.” Her voice broke slightly. “Being alone like this. And I can live with that, I really can. What I can’t stand?” She looked Drew in the eye. “When someone I lo—care about does everything in their power to keep me like that.”
She shook her head again, turned on her heel and hurried up the stairs. Kicking the bed, she swore a blue streak then sat heavily on the mattress. A sob broke free when pain blossomed across her ass. She covered her mouth, biting into her hand as she struggled to be quiet. Hearing the murmur of voices downstairs, but not any of the words, she closed her eyes and hoped against hope that no one came up after her.
Drew stared after Katie, his chest tight and his heart pounding. How the hell did they get here after everything seemed to fall in place earlier?
Suddenly, his sister was in front of him, hands on her hips. “What did you do? What is going on with the two of you today?”
“She was off with Kyle,” Ethan stated. “You chase him away from her?”
When Drew stayed silent, Grace sighed. “Oh, Drew, why would you do that?”
“Doesn’t matter why,” Noah said, leaning a hip against the table. “What matters is you fix things with her. Go apologize.”
“He’s not the only one who needs to,” Grace said quietly. “I knew things weren’t perfect, but I had no idea she was so unhappy here with us.”
“She’s not—” Frustrated, Drew shoved his hands through his hair. “She’s not unhappy here, Grace. She loves you, all of you. You’re not what’s making her unhappy.” I am.
Chloe frowned at him. “You need to make things right with her. She’s family, Drew. And if she wants to do…whatever…with Kyle, you back the hell off. With a smile.”
“Nice to know where your loyalties lie, sis,” he sneered.
Her face softened. “Don’t be a dick. They’re always with you. But she deserves some happiness, just like you do. If Kyle’s the one who gives that to her, who are you to stand in the way of that?”
“Go back out there,”
he said gruffly. “I’ll…I’ll make it right.”
He moved toward the stairway, but was stopped by Chloe. She stood on tiptoe to kiss his cheek and ruffle his hair.
“I love you. Don’t think just because—”
“I don’t,” he assured her, the slight hurt he’d felt easing. “For once, you’re right. I handled things badly and need to fix it.”
She nodded and gave him a watery smile. “Well then, get to it.”
“Love you, Chlo.”
Once he was alone, he made his way up the stairs and found Katie sitting on her bed, crying into her palm. When she saw him, she dropped her hand to her lap.
“Really? Come to say good night again?” She sighed. “Go, you have better things to do, I’m sure.”
He stepped in front of her and dropped to his knees, taking her hands. Looking down, he saw teeth marks on her palms, and his heart broke. He lowered his head and kissed them, and she trembled under his lips.
“Please, Drew, don’t.” She sniffed.
“I think I need to explain some things,” he whispered against her skin.
“No.” She tried to pull her hands away, but he held fast. “I get it. You feel like you have to take care of me and look after me like you did before, and I read way too much into things earlier. I thought there was more, that things were different. I misunderstood, obviously.” She shrugged. “Just go, Drew. I’m fine. I’ll be fine.”
“I’m where I want to be.”
A few tears slipped past her lashes. “Don’t say that, don’t lie.”
“I want to be here. With you.” He kissed her hands again. “Always with you.”
“You can’t say things like that,” she cried brokenly.
“Why not?” he asked. “It’s the truth.”
“Because not half an hour ago, you were with her!” she shouted.
“Charlotte?” He frowned in confusion.
“Yes, Charlotte,” she said sourly.
“Baby, I haven’t been with her, not like that, since that first day back, I swear. I don’t want to be with her,” he promised.
“Well, maybe you should let her in on that because she looked ready to climb into your lap and had no problems putting her hands all over you. Then you were whispering in her ear and…” Her cheeks flushed and her jaw tightened.
“At the fire?” He waited for her nod before continuing. “I was telling her in no uncertain terms that nothing was going to happen between us again.”
Katie frowned. “But she was touching you and— You really told her that?”
“Yes.”
“Because of me?”
He leaned forward until their foreheads touched. “Yes,” he murmured.
She inhaled shakily. “I wanted to smack her.”
“I wanted to do worse than that to Kyle. He touched you. I hate that.” He pulled back to study her face, wanting to see the truth when he asked her. And he had to ask, if only to appease the others. “Do you want to be with him?”
“What? No!”
“You were kissing him,” he said tightly.
She managed to pull her hands from his grasp and slid her fingers into his hair. “It was one kiss, and I stopped it. I was just about to tell him I couldn’t be with him like that when you showed up.”
He pressed his thumb against her lower lip and groaned when she opened and flicked her tongue across the tip. “He kissed you,” he ground out. “I haven’t even kissed you properly yet, and that dumbass had the pleasure of that.”
“What are you waiting for?” she whispered then sucked his thumb into the heat of her mouth.
“Fuck, Katie.” He pulled his hand away and surged up to press their lips together.
When she gasped, he claimed her, tongue sweeping inside, tasting her. Christ, she overwhelmed him, drowned his senses until all that existed was Katie. She whimpered, and her hands tightened in his hair.
“Oh, God,” she whispered, breath hot against him. “If it’s any consolation, you’re a better kisser.”
“Not doing it well enough if you can think clearly enough to compare.” He nipped at her lower lip.
She laughed and wrapped her arms around his shoulders, holding him tightly. “Why did you never kiss me before?” she asked through a yawn.
“I wanted to,” he admitted then pulled out of her embrace. “Lay down.”
She yawned again and stretched out. He covered her with the quilt and sat beside her.
“I’ve wanted to kiss you since the first time I saw you.”
Her eyes crinkled as she smiled. “Why didn’t you?”
“At first?” He carded his fingers through her hair. “I was shy.”
She snorted. “Sure you were.”
“I was.” He laughed. “Come on, I was seventeen years old, and the only women I was around on a regular basis were my sister and Grace.”
“Okay, I can see that.” Katie’s eyes drifted closed. “Who was your first kiss then?”
He hesitated a moment then answered, “Cara.”
She opened one eye. “From the farm? Drew, she’s older than Grace!”
“I know,” he said awkwardly.
She pressed her lips together. “Did you do more than kiss?”
“Do you want my entire sexual history, baby?”
“That’s a yes, then.” She closed her eyes again though she smiled. “I’m not judging. It’s not like our options are vast, are they?”
“No, I guess they aren’t. She was my first everything,” he admitted.
“Hmmm.” She snuggled farther under the quilt. “Was she…was she kind? Was it a good experience for you?”
“Yeah, she was.” He thought back, sifting through the memories. “She was incredibly patient and kind to me.”
“I’m glad.” Katie sighed. “So after that, why didn’t you kiss me then? After she imparted all her worldly wisdom onto you.”
Chuckling, he rubbed her back slowly. “Honestly?”
“No, lie to me.” She snorted. “Of course, honestly.”
“Well, by then, I was realizing how I liked things, and I was afraid of scaring you.”
“You mean the spanking and stuff?” she murmured. “Wouldn’t have scared me. I trusted you more than anyone. Still do.”
“Yes, the spanking, among other things.” He shook his head. “After everything you’d been through… I just couldn’t.”
“That’s kind of sweet, but you know you don’t have to treat me with kid gloves, right?”
Drew moved his hand to palm her ass, insanely aroused when she pushed back with a soft grunt. “Yeah, I figured that out.”
“I’m not a blushing virgin you have to ease into things.” Her voice slurred slightly. “That pesky problem was eliminated long ago.”
He froze. “What?”
“Hmmm?” She wiggled her hips against his hand.
“Who have you been with, Katie?” he asked stiffly, trying to think of all the men who’d visited their home since she never left their land. “Katie?”
Her eyes popped open, and she sat up quickly. “I…I…”
His gut clenched sickly at the panicked sound of her voice. God, no. “Who?”
“It was before I came here,” she whispered, looking down at her hands. “Please just forget I said anything, okay?”
“No, tell me.” He gripped her chin, tilting her head up to look at him. “You said you trust me? Trust me with this, baby.”
She nodded jerkily. “The couple who’d taken me in after my parents died got sick and they died, too. I stayed as long as I could but soon I ran out of food. So I left, thinking I’d find a house that had some food or some people who might help. I ended up sick, too, and wandering around the woods with no idea where I was going. One of the guys from the camp Jack and Isaac were staying at found me.”
“They said no one touched you,” Drew bit out.
“No one did, once I was at the camp. But, it took us three days to get there, and he didn’t care that
I was sick.” Her voice caught, and her breathing hitched.
“Why didn’t you tell them?”
“How could I? They were so wonderful, and when the others started talking about doing…that, Jack and Isaac didn’t hesitate. They’d already risked their health to take care of me then they fought to get me out of there. Jack almost died for me.” She looked at him pleadingly. “Please don’t tell them, Drew. It was so long ago, and there’s no point in hurting them with this now. And it would; it’d kill them.”
He kissed her lips lightly. “It kills me. To know you went through that and had no one to talk to, to help you through it.”
“But I did,” she asserted. “I had everyone here. I had you helping me through it every night.”
He squeezed his eyes shut. “The nightmares?”
“Yeah.” She gripped his shoulders. “And you made it all okay. You made it safe for me.”
He held her close and inhaled her scent. “The man who…” He swallowed past the lump in his throat. “Raped you, was he here that day they tried to take you?”
“Yeah.” She nodded against his shoulder. “He was the one I shot.”
“I wish I could kill him again for you,” he said. “Make him feel every ounce of pain you did.”
“Promise me you won’t tell the others?” she whispered. “Please.”
“Shhh, I won’t say anything.”
They stayed like that until Katie’s tight hold on him loosened. Drew eased back and saw she’d fallen asleep. Gently, he laid her back down and covered her. He framed her face with his hands and just stared down at her, marveling at how beautiful and strong this woman was. When he made his way downstairs and outside, he shook his head at the questioning stares from his family and stumbled to his cabin. After stripping down to his shorts and turning off the lantern, he climbed into bed. And ached. For his Katie.
Chapter Five
Katie woke early and went about her morning business before everyone woke up. She sat at the kitchen table and waited. She owed her family an apology, she knew that. In her anger and frustration, she’d been horrible to them, and after everything they’d done for her, they deserved so much more than that. The memory of Grace’s hurt face had her tearing up. She wanted so badly to go to Drew, to feel his arms around her, but she needed to do this first. On her own. She blew out a shaky breath when she heard movement in the downstairs bedroom, and nearly yakked when the door opened. Grace and her men walked in and all stopped when they saw her sitting there.
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