Page 17 of Thorns

He took a step toward her and then stopped again, a frown creasing his brow. “You care about me. How nice of you.”

Rose gripped the cushion beneath her so tightly it stung. “I can’t change the way I feel. I can’t make myself live a lie.”

“How long has it been a lie?” Alex demanded. “Was it a lie the last time we made love? How about when we made ‘this child,’ as you’ve phrased it? Our child, Rose. My child. You’re damn right I’m going to be in his or her life.”

She closed her eyes tightly against the tears she couldn’t stop from forming. “Yes, our child. And of course you are. I would never keep you from doing that.”

“No, you’ll just keep me from you.”

“Things are different, now. All of this made me realize that I’ve made a lot of mistakes, and—”

“So I’m a mistake now.”

“No!” Rose let out a frustrated cry as tears began to spill down her cheeks. “I don’t regret loving you, Alex. But things have changed.”

His lips twitched. “Let me guess. Luke?”

She couldn’t look at him any longer. She lowered her gaze to the brown-and-white-checked rug.

“You mean to tell me that you’re actually in love with him?”

Several seconds passed that felt more like years, and at last, Rose managed one word. “Yes.”

“I want to hear you say it. Tell me again.”

“I’m in love with Luke!” Rose pushed herself to her feet, her fingernails biting into her palms as her fists clenched. “I’m sorry, Alex. I really, truly am. I never meant to hurt you, and I’m sorry. I have to go.”

She brushed past him and opened the door without processing the world around her. She vaguely heard Alex calling after her, but she didn’t turn around.

I’m sorry, she repeated in her mind. I’m so sorry.

Chapter Nine

Luke tried to focus on his work for the rest of the afternoon, but he couldn’t get her out of his head. The way her dress had hugged her breasts and her hips so perfectly, the seductive way she’d walked… she was all he saw every time he closed his eyes, and it was all he could do to keep his thoughts from getting carried away. For the first time in years, though, he had the idea of going home to her to propel him through the drudgery of working on a Saturday, and he managed to leave a little over an hour early.

He took the opportunity to make a pit stop on his drive out of the city—it was an instinct he wasn’t certain whether he should follow at first, but he told himself things were going so well that it would be fine. When he and Rose had first gotten together, she’d told him how she’d envied the women who could pull off lingerie, who were confident enough in their sexuality to own it and use it the way they wanted. Over the time they’d been together, he’d watched her grow confident in herself and her wants, and seeing her blossom from the sheltered young woman whose parents had barely allowed her to date into an absolute goddess had been an intoxicating experience. As she’d grown to realize she, too, could pull off lingerie and own her sexuality, he’d seen a side of her that no one else had ever been privy to.

Other than Alex, now, whispered a voice at the back of his mind, but he hushed it.

He hoped that stopping by what had been her favorite lingerie store—a small but expensive boutique downtown—on the way home and buying her something in a style he remembered she liked wouldn’t be considered overreaching. After all, his attempt to keep a bit of distance between them when he’d gone to work instead of staying at home longer had been unsuccessful. Rose had made it clear that she wanted things to progress between them. To return to the way they had been before she’d walked out of his life.

Don’t think about that, he ordered himself as he drove. That’s over. Everything is in the process of getting back to normal.

Luke smiled at the sight of her white car in his driveway when he arrived. He could definitely get used to her being here, sharing his home. To waking up to her lying beside him every morning, just like she had when they’d traded off which of their apartments they would stay at back in college.

He grabbed the lingerie bag out of the passenger seat and started up the driveway, and as he walked, the gravel crunching beneath his shoes, he found that there was a spring in his step for the first time in a long while.

***

When he couldn’t find Rose anywhere on the first floor, Luke checked his bedroom only to find it empty, as well. He left the bag in the closet and then continued his search, a frown sliding onto his lips as he started down the hallway. He’d hoped that after what had happened at his office, she would feel more comfortable here than she’d seemed that morning and that she might be starting to make herself at home.

The door to the room he’d shown her to the night before was closed. He knocked twice and listened for movement on the other side. The only thing he could hear was muffled weeping. His frown deepened.

“Rose?” he called.

She didn’t reply.

Luke pulled in a deep breath and opened the door. The lights in the guest room were off, though the afternoon sun streamed through the thin curtains to bathe the room in a muted glow. Rose lay beneath a mound of tan bedding that shook each time she sniffed.

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