She paused and glanced at him. "Will you answer questions then?"
He nodded slowly. "We'll both answer questions then. "
Kia laid down the makeup applicator and watched him with the glimmer of hope that always warmed him.
"I could call my parents. I might feel a headache coming on. " There was also a hidden shadow of fear.
But she wasn't stepping back. Kia hadn't run two years ago; she had fooled everyone. She had let her wounds heal, and she had strengthened, and when she stepped back into society, she had stepped back as a fighter, a woman stronger inside than Chase suspected even she knew.
"Soon," he stated. He had to rub his hand over his chest to ease the dull ache there. "If you miss this party, your dad will do more than just hurt me. "
Her lips quirked. "Daddy is fairly particular about this party. " She gave a small laugh. "Last year, he nearly drove me insane getting it ready. "
His eyes narrowed. "You weren't there last year. "
She reapplied her eye shadow, checked it, and glanced over at him. "I've coordinated all the parties Rutherford's has ever thrown since I was eighteen years old," she told him. "Drew didn't like it after we married, so I gave up the official job, just as I gave up my position in the company. " She shrugged and looked down before glancing at him again with wry amusement. "I was a bit immature when it came to my ideas of what a good wife should be, I guess. "
There was a warning there, and Chase caught it fairly easily.
"So you've always kept your pretty little fingers in that pie?" he asked her.
Kia shrugged. "The whole pie, I would say. Rutherford's will be mine one day. I wasn't willing to be completely ignorant, nor was I willing to turn it all over to Drew, no matter what he wished at the time. If anything ever happens to Daddy, I'll run it. Hopefully as well as he has. "
Son of a bitch. He stared back at her. It hit him then. She hadn't been in society, she had quit her official position at the job, but for years club members had listened to Drew Stanton bitch about the amount of time his in-laws demanded of his wife.
She had been keeping both hands in that pie and Drew never had a clue.
"You could be a scary woman if you wanted to be, Kia," he finally told her with a grin. "Remind me to never try to tie you down. "
She shrugged at that. "You make your own ties, don't you think, Chase? No one can tie you down. You can only tie yourself. I haven't done anything that I didn't think was best at that time. I hope I don't change that in the future. "
Pure steel. Sweet and soft, silken and warm. But inside she had a will to match his.
"Get out of here. " She nodded to the door. "You need to dress and we need to leave. I promised my parents we'd be on time, and we're already going to be a bit late. "
Chase shook his head, but he went. He should have guessed, he thought. She had stepped back into Rutherford's as though she had never left it. Because she hadn't left it, not entirely. And she had stepped back into society with her head held high and her chin raised, daring comments.
She was tiny, fragile. A man could break her with one hand, but Chase knew that the indomitable spirit he was glimpsing would never be broken.
And he didn't want it broken. He wanted to see how strong she could get, how much she could challenge him, and he wanted the woman, the confidence, and the sheer adventure of loving her, of learning her day by day.
Damn, he was in deep here, he thought, as he stepped into the shower. He wished he had showered before going to her. He could have worn the scent of her flesh on him as she was wearing his on her.
Damn cock. It sprang up as hard as it had been the first time he had taken her at that thought. The thought of her wearing him, his seed still lingering inside her, marking her. He had to clench his teeth and force himself to shower rather than taking the additional time to jack off.
Jacking off wasn't needed. It would wait, he told himself. Tonight, when he got her home, tonight he would tell her.
He'd stare into her eyes and he'd give her the words tearing him apart inside.
"I love you, Kia. " He whispered it in the shower. Those were words he had never given another woman. An emotion he had never thought he would feel for anyone. And it was frankly terrifying.
Chase Falladay had stared down bullets, drug runners, and even a few terrorists in his days at the Bureau, and he had never known terror. But now, realizing the depth of emotion he felt for Kia, he realized his guts were clenched in fear.
Because losing her would mean losing himself. And that was a risk he had sworn he would never take.
Chapter 24
From the moment they entered the Rutherford-Edgewood charity ball Chase knew there was going to be a problem. Not because he intended to start the problem. He was a great believer, in some situations, in letting people hang themselves. It made his life a lot less complicated when he did that.