Page 67 of Power Play

“Wow,” I said. “That’s some view.”

“Yeah,” she said. “It’s really something.”

“Bunk beds!” Tess cried and Kit turned, smiling. She was about to go find Tess and admire the bunk beds, but I caught her arm.

She stiffened.

I knew I was doing this wrong too, but sometimes, when everything went to shit, there was no point trying to pull out. You had to commit. Throw your weight behind the disaster. There came a point in every bad game when you realized you couldn’t save it, you could only race to the bottom. This was that time.

“I really am sorry,” I said. “I could have said something about Dillon. It honestly just didn’t occur to me. I get why you have no reason to believe me, but it’s the truth. I’m not interested in hurting you.”

“Anymore,” she said softly. “You’re not interested in hurting me…anymore.”

I nodded in acknowledgement of the pain I’d already caused.

I’d wanted revenge. I’d wanted payback. I’d wanted to see her squirm. I’d also wanted to see her struggle with her attraction to me. There was no point in lying about that either.

It all came down to one simple truth.

“You broke my heart that night,” I said with a smile that made it seem like I wasn’t serious. “In Nashville.”

“That can’t be true,” she said.

For once I didn’t make a joke. I didn’t grin. I just stood there and tried to be honest.

“I understand you had ulterior motives for coming up to my room. But I went up there because I wanted you. I wanted you more than I’d ever wanted another woman in my life.”

This was as honest as I’d ever been with someone outside of my brother.

She swallowed and turned away, but I wasn’t ready for this to be over. I wanted to get us back to that place. Before the whole day fell apart running into Nick, then Dillon. Back to the moment it felt like she was melting towards me.

I looked in her eyes and for once she didn’t try and look away. Or make some sarcastic comment. I’d laid down all my weapons and here she was doing the same. It was like being naked on center ice at an away game. Terrifying and exhilarating.

“This…can’t happen,” she said.

“It was happening before we ran into Nick and Dillon. You can lie all you want, but we both know the truth. If I’d kissed you outside that bookstore, you would have let me.”

She was breathing fast, like a little animal caught in the trap of a bigger, more dangerous animal. I didn’t want her scared. I wanted her turned on and trusting. I wanted her as into me as I was into her.

“If I kissed you now, you’d let me,” I said. Perhaps taking my life in my hands, but I was beyond caring at this point. I had to have her.

She shook back her hair and looked up at me, her eyes the color of steel. “So, why don’t you?”

It was a dare. A challenge. She was building her walls as fast as she could, trying to keep me out. Telling herself she was only doing this, because I’d bargained for it.

Telling herself she only agreed to my bargain to finally be done with me, but I was coming to know Kit better. She’d agreed to kiss me, because she wanted it. Like I wanted it.

I was about to call her bluff, but decided to let her have her way. Because I’d been dreaming of this kiss for five years.

On the ice I was known for my instincts and reflexes. There wasn’t a defense I couldn’t break.

I kissed her.

The words she swallowed went down with a grunt. A startled oomph. I caught her vulnerable and tender.

It was soft, the kiss. I cradled her face in my hands like she was made of sugar, like I had to be careful. And I didn’t push the way I wanted. The kiss I ached to give her was there, but only in hints. In the careful touch of my tongue to her lips. The way I groaned in my throat at the taste of her, coffee and toothpaste. The way I couldn’t control my fingers sliding from her cheeks into her hair. I kissed her with restraint, but what I wanted was right there, prowling the edges of my control.

I wanted to ravage her. Hold her down and make her scream my name. I wanted to make it so she could never look at me with that distance in her eyes again.

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