Page 81 of Tulips and Lost Time

“I love you, Kari. But it’s time you cool off.”

“You ass?—”

She hits the lake with an undignified splash, water sloshing in her wake, lapping onto the rotted dock and wetting my ass until my skin prickles and a laugh crackles along my throat. She stays under for what seems like forever. Her arms and legs spinning out of control. Her orange-covered backside, presented straight up as she fights with her hair and searches for the surface.

I could dive in and save her, I suppose. I could swim around with her. Perhaps even touch her a little. Hold her. But that’s not for me. And I suspect if I tried, I’d end up with her knee crushing my nuts.

So instead, I sit back and smirk, waiting for her to find her bearings and locate the surface.

Then I bite my lips shut when she breaks free of the water, her hair draped over her face and covering one eye completely. Her chest and shoulders heave, her arms calmer now as she treads water.

“You’re a complete jerk, Luca!”

“You were getting a little heated. And seeing as how you’re at the lake, I figured you’d come prepared to swim.”

“I hate you.”

“No, you don’t.” I angle forward, dangling perilously close to where my balance could be overthrown and my ass would end up in the water. But I cup Kari’s cheek instead, holding her up with my thumb on her chin and my fingers wrapped around the back of her neck. Then I bring her closer, closer, until her tongue comes out to wet her already wet lip. Her eyes, widening in fear. “You hate vulnerability,” I murmur. “And you hate that I hurt you. You hate that I have that power.”

“Free me,” she grits out. Her heart? I wonder. Or her face? “You’ve had me on the hook for too long, Luca. Let me go.”

“I can’t.” I lean in and press my forehead to hers. It’s brief. It’s way too fucking forward. Too intimate. But it’s what I need. And I’ve spent six years depriving myself of that. “I want to keep you,” I whisper. “For the rest of my life.”

24

LUC

GUNKLES

“Oh my god!” Jess melts into Kane’s lap. “You guys hid all of this from the rest of us! What the hell, Luc!”

“Well… Kari wasn’t wrong about the dead-Luca-when-Marc-finds-out thing.” I look down at a sweet, sleeping Billy and grin. “So I was in her face. Making a scene and working to force her hand. But I knew I had to be discreet, too. I wasn’t ready to spill my shit to Marcus before I even had Kari on side.”

“Did she kiss you then and there?” Jess wraps her arm around Kane’s neck and smooshes her cheek to his. “Was that where things turned around for you?”

I snort and remember back to that day. The sunburn I went home with. The stomachache I walked around with for days after. And then I remember her hand in my face, her knuckles bruising my skin. “I’m not saying she punched me,” I chuckle. “But I am saying she pressed her fist to my cheek and pushed me back.”

Kane snorts. “She decked you, bro.”

“More like…” I bring my free hand up and touch my cheek, right where she did that one time. “Shoved me. Forcefully. She didn’t kiss me. And she sure as shit didn’t fall into my arms and declare her love.”

“You bombed out,” Kane sniggers. “You gotta get slicker than that. Declaring your love was the wrong move. Instead, you trick her into bed. Once they figure that out, it’s all over.”

I look at my sister, cuddled into his chest, and sneer. “Gross.”

“Tried and true,” he taunts. “Tried. And. True.”

“Stop talking now.” Jess plants her elbow into his stomach until he lets out a muffled grunt. Then she looks at me expectantly. “She left you at the lake, longing for her to love you back?”

“That was the problem. She did love me. And that inability to turn it off is what hurt her.”

Jess, Laine, and Britt are at Alex’s place tonight. Making a mess. Making noise. They let him cook for them, because they long ago perfected that princess energy, and he’s nothing if not a simp for the girls.

He sourced an air conditioner for their apartment about twenty-three seconds after he found out they wanted one. Then he and Oz sweated their way through installing the machine and securing the apartment so the girls would still be safe and the window, lockable.

But while he and the girls are busy watching the Titanic—extended edition—and eating enough ice cream to make them all fat, I get myself across town.

Because apparently Kari forfeited dinner in favor of date night with Blake.

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