Page 38 of Hard Ride
“Yeah, good plan,” Tate says.
After Lucas leaves the room, Tate shifts me, and I sit on the floor as he deals with the condom and does his pants up. Then he comes back to where I’m sitting and picks me up in his arms, carrying me back to the armchair again.
“You okay?” he asks, looking down into my eyes with a concerned expression.
“Oh yes,” I say. “I’m more than okay, actually.”
His expression relaxes and his mouth curves in a smile. He’s beautiful when he smiles, too. “You talked with Luc?”
“I did.”
“All good?”
“Yes. We sorted some things out.” I shiver slightly, and he leans down to pick up the woolen throw that’s folded up neatly on the floor, and wraps me up in it.
“Just as well,” he says, his arms tightening around me. “Because I’m not letting you go, okay? Not now.”
I go still, staring up at him. “What? What do you mean?”
“You came here.” His green eyes glitter. “You came back to me, and I don’t intend to let you go again.”
Something cold winds through me, despite the heat of his body and the throw wrapped around me. “Tate,” I say, a slighthusk in my voice. “One night doesn’t mean forever. I never intended to?—”
“I know you didn’t,” he interrupts. “But I always meant to find you, Katherine. It’s been ten years, and now it’s time to come home.”
He’s so peremptory, so sure of himself, and I can see the intent blazing in his eyes. He means this. But it didn’t work the last time, and there’s no reason it’ll work this time either, even now my secret’s out.
“I said a night, Tate,” I say flatly. “That’s all.”
“A night is not enough,’’ he says, his tone flat as mine. “I want more. And I think you want more, too.”
I push myself abruptly out of his arms, wrapping the throw around me and going over to the armchair opposite. Then I sit down on it, needing some distance. He doesn’t make any attempt to stop me, but he’s staring at me now, his rough, handsome features set in hard lines. He’s even more uncompromising than he used to be, and just as difficult to say no to.
“What is it about being with me that scares you?’ he asks into the silence.”
I have to be honest with him. I can’t lie, not anymore. “It didn’t work before,” I tell him. “You and me. What’s to say that’ll work now?”
“It’s been ten years, Katherine,” Tate says, impatient. “I’ve changed, and so have you. But you have to know, I loved you then and I love you still, and I want us to try again.”
A little shock goes through me. He loves me. Still? After all these years?
And you still love him. You always have.
I look away, unable to bear his gaze, my heart aching. I could go back to him, it’s true. But… what if I’m not enough for himnow? I was back then, but if he’s changed, so have I, and what he wants…I’m not sure I can give it to him. And then there’s Lucas…
“Tate, I?—”
At that moment, Lucas comes back in, his sharp amber gaze taking in the distance between Tate and me. “Food will be coming,” he says. “What’s going on?”
“I’ve told Katherine that I don’t want to let her go again,” Tate says baldly.
I don’t look at either of them, my gaze instead on the throw. It has a fringe and I’m toying with it. I don’t want to have this conversation in front of Lucas. It feels unfair. “We should have this conversation at another time,” I say. “Don’t spoil tonight.”
“No,” Tate says. “We’ll have this conversation here, right now.”
Lucas is silent for a moment. Then he says, “You and I need to talk, Tate.” His tone is hard and just as uncompromising as Tate’s. “Katie doesn’t need to be here to listen.”
My heart becomes even more painful. I don’t want to be the reason for these two to argue. I can’t bear the thought of all this complication yet again.
