“The only way not telling her makes any sense is if this isn’t real. And it is.”
“It is,” she says, voice flaring with passion. “Of course it is. I feel the same. But…”
She moves away from me, throwing her hands up in the air.
“I don’t have any amazing reason, okay? I can’t stand here and give you some amazing logic for why we can’t tell her. All I know is Natalie is my oldest, best friend. We’ve known each other since freaking kindergarten. She was there for me when I was a little girl and my dad died. I can’t break her heart.”
Her words punch into me.
,
It’s like I haven’t properly thought this through, what telling her actually means.
I know we can’t fight this feeling.
But at the same time, the truth of her words pounds into me with almost physical force, thrumming around my body.
Goddamn, she’s right.
Natalie’s going to have the shock of her life when she learns about the connection I’m forging with her best friend.
“But what other choice do we have?” I question, honestly asking now rather than trying to persuade her.
She senses the change in my tone – reading my woman is so damn easy, another sign we’re meant to be together – and some of the tension drains from her body. “I don’t know. Because you’re right. This feeling, it’s not going anywhere. God. Why do you have to be Natalie’s dad?”
I try to smirk as I walk over to her, taking her hands in mine. “I can’t change that, can I? But maybe you should get into a big fight with Natalie so she’s not your friend anymore… I’m joking, obviously. I love how close you two are.”
She laughs quietly. “I know. So do I. I don’t want to do anything to threaten our friendship. Which is what makes this so freaking difficult.”
We’re quiet for a time, standing opposite each other with my hands clasped around hers. The way we’re standing – the way we’re gazing at each other – makes me feel like we’re at the altar ready to say our wedding vows.
If I had these thoughts about any other woman this soon, I’d run for the damn hills, but with Kelly, it feels right, like the only thing I can consider doing.
Because she’s mine.
And a real man puts a ring on his woman’s finger.
But there’s no way I can think about asking her such a monumental question before we’ve dealt with telling Natalie.
“Maybe we should try a date,” I muse, with a wry smirk. “I’ll try to make you sick of me. That way we won’t have to tell her.”
My voice swells with heavy irony. We both know we’re not going to get sick of each other, but she giggles and nods sarcastically. “Oh yeah. I’m sure I can turn you off from me very easily.”
We’re both joking, not taking this at all seriously.
We know how badly we need each other.
Forever.
This is an excuse, a way to delay the inevitable.
But a date with my woman does sound like heaven.
“Where would we go?” Kelly murmurs.
I can feel us slipping into a different part of the conversation now, tacitly agreeing to table the Natalie discussion… which is bad, which is cowardly, but which is also necessary if we’re going to float in this blissful closeness for a while longer before shattering it.
The idea of lying to my daughter sickens me.
The idea of not being with my woman sickens me further.
This is fucked.
But when I’m staring down into the shy sassiness of my woman’s eyes – a combination that would be a contradiction in anybody but my queen – I find I’m able to push all of that aside and simply be in the moment.
“What?” she murmurs when I don’t answer her question. “Why are you looking at me like that?”
I smirk and smooth hair from her face. She has such messy gorgeous hair, the sort I could spend years caressing and adoring. “Like what?”
“Like that.” She giggles, reaching up and smoothing her hand over my face. “Like you’ve got something you want to tell me but you don’t know how to say it.”
I reach up and press her hand against my face, savoring the warmth of her, even as the feral part of me imagines what her hot palm would feel like wrapped around my throbbing dick. I’m getting hot just thinking about it, my body burning up, scorching through me like a wildfire that isn’t going to take no for an answer.
“You remind me of what it’s like to be in the cage,” I growl.
She tilts her head, a cute-as-fuck look on her face.
I don’t think she has any idea how captivating she is when she looks at me like that, with so much excitement in her eyes, so ready to face our future together.