Page 80 of Lush

He whispered, “I’m getting the hang of caring for you again.”

As he kept talking, he gently held my face, his fingers almost touching me, and suddenly all the tension disappeared, leaving me breathless.

“C’mon, you and…” Reese paused. “When did you get a dog?”

“He’s Gigi’s,” I muttered. “Both of them stress me the hell out.”

Reese called a tow truck for Erik’s car, and we hopped in his car and drove to my house.

“Why were you out here alone?” Reese asked. I shouldn’t be jealous of the way he lazily petted Walter or how Walter leaned into his rubs, nearly crawling into his lap. “The truth.”

“I was following Blair.”

Reese’s jaw tightened. “You what?”

“I had to,” I defended. “Something’s off with her, Reese.”

“You couldn’t just—” He shook his head. “What if something had happened? You were out there alone, Laurene. Somebody already attacked you. What were you gonna do if it was worse this time?”

I didn’t have an answer for that.

“I can’t have you running off like that,” he said, his voice dropping lower. “I need to know you’re safe. I can’t?—”

I saw fear in his eyes.

“When I heard you screaming,” he began again, “it brought me back to the yacht.”

The words came out in a rush, like he’d been holding them in for too long.

“I couldn’t find you then, and I thought—” His voice cracked, just slightly, before he composed himself. “I can’t go through that again.”

Reese’s hand brushed mine; I eagerly held it.

“Look, if you think it’s Blair, then let’s go in that direction, but you cannot be doing shit like this alone. Iwilltell Erik.”

“Oh, so now y’all friends?”

He gave me a look. “Actually yes. He brought me a cigar.”

I didn’t have time to figure out of he was lying or not.

“What about what you said before…in the garden?” He’d promised me hell, and I hadn’t forgotten.

Reese’s hand still held mine but his eyes darkened, as if everyhurt, every bit of anger between us was running through his mind in this moment.

“I thought I needed to even the score.”

With just one hand, he effortlessly steered the car too smooth and sexy.

“I haven’t forgiven you,” he said. The look in his eyes was intense. “Hell, I don’t know if I ever will.”

He squeezed my hand, then let it go gently.

“But I can’t keep holding on to that. Not with everything going on. We’ve got bigger problems than our past.”

My heart clenched at his words.

“So maybe we calling a real truce for now.”

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