“Love you, too,” Kara said as Mack walked over to give her a hug and kiss the top of her head.
“I better not find you on the fuckin’ couch,” he said as he let her go.
Rose laughed, loud and hard.
“Thought you were goin’ to bed,” Mack snapped at her, making her laugh harder.
We watched as he moved toward her and she cackled, racing toward the hallway he chased her. Just as they were almost out of sight, Rose yelped, and I was pretty sure Mack had reached under her very short shorts and pinched her ass.
“I know I should be used to it,” Kara said dryly. “But watching my own parents flirt is disgusting as hell.”
“Looks like I’m sleepin’ on the couch,” I said, turning to face her.
“Did you think he’d let you sleep in my room?” she asked, raising her eyebrows.
“Nope.” I reached for her, and something settled inside me as she walked into my arms. “But I didn’t realize he’d be so adamant about it.”
“Adamant’s a good word,” she said with a laugh. “You’ve been reading, too, huh?”
“What else would you call it?” I asked.
“Unbending?” she asked, her lips twitching. “Resolute?”
“I don’t know, but he sure as fuck does not want me near your room,” I replied, leaning down to kiss her. I lowered my voice. “Little does he know, I was already in there.”
“Why the fuck is there a book floating in this full bathtub?” Rose called, startling us apart.
“Shit,” Kara said, grimacing. She walked toward the stair that separated the family room from the hallway. “I forgot to drain the tub!” she called.
“And you decided to give the beautiful man on the cover of this book a Viking funeral?” Rose called back incredulously.
“It was an accident!”
“Well, this poor guy can’t be saved,” Rose yelled.
“Just throw it away!”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, I’m sure,” Kara yelled in exasperation.
“Well, you’re weird about your books,” Rose shot back.
Kara shook her head as she turned toward me. “I better go clean up the bathroom. Do you need a blanket or anything?”
I looked at the couch. “No, there’s one in here.”
“Okay, I’ll see you in the morning.”
“Just like that?”
“What?” she asked.
“Kiss me goodnight,” I ordered.
Her surprise was a little annoying, but she still stepped forward and up onto her toes to reach me.
“Sleep good,” I said against her mouth. I was trying to be respectful of her dad and his ability to hide my body where no one would ever find it, but I couldn’t stop my hands from wandering to her ass.
“You, too,” she said, pulling away.
I watched her as she strode out of sight.
As I shut off all the lights and settled in on the couch, my thoughts ran in a circle of surprise, relief, and worry. I was seriously fucking happy that things had played out the way they had. Finally, it felt like Kara and I were getting somewhere, and I didn’t even mean the sex. She’d seemed comfortable around me for the first time since I got home. The constant jumping and moving away and distance that she’d put between us had suddenly vanished.
But something in the back of my mind reminded me over and over on a loop that it couldn’t be that fucking easy. Her feelings and whatever the fuck had her acting like I had the plague hadn’t disappeared.
Once the house was completely quiet, I stared up at the ceiling and let myself remember the way she’d looked, her eyes unfocused as she clutched at me, and the way she’d felt—familiar but also, not.
We’d only had sex once before, right before I’d gone inside. We’d done plenty before that, but neither of us had pushed for sex. I wasn’t sure what her reasoning had been—maybe just because it had been her first time. For me, I’d been hesitant to go that far when I knew, deep in my gut, that I was going to have to leave her. I’d made the decision before we’d ever even kissed that I wasn’t going to put any label on what we were doing because while I’d spent months assuring her that everything would be okay, I’d known it wouldn’t. Then, with the court date looming, my reasons hadn’t felt so important. The only thing that mattered had been binding her to me as tight as I could before I couldn’t anymore. I’d told myself that it was okay, because I hadn’t asked her to wait for me or promised anything in the future.
Jesus, I’d been such a selfish little prick.
I’d known it was selfish when it happened and I’d felt so shitty about it that when she’d stopped coming to visit me, I’d kind of just figured it was what I got for doing something I’d known wasn’t right.
Not right, but I’d never call it wrong. Saying it was wrong cheapened it somehow, and I wasn’t about to do that. Not when it was Kara.