Until We Touch (Fool's Gold #15)

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LARISSA DREW THE brush across Dyna’s back. The cat lay in a patch of sun, her eyes half-closed, her purring all rumbly.

“Is that nice?” she asked softly. “Do you like the attention?”

The rumble continued.

“I think I’d like being a cat,” Larissa continued. “People to pet you and take care of you. And it’s different in the cat world. Humans have to earn your trust, right? Like you and me. You were interested in living here, but cautious. Over time, I won you over. It’s not like you were begging me to take you in and then I didn’t love you back. Trust me, that sucks.”

She paused mentally, if not with the petting, to consider that maybe she was anthropomorphizing the situation a little bit more than she should have. Dyna was a cat. She didn’t fall in love—at least not romantically. She bonded with the person who took care of her. Larissa, on the other hand, had bonded where she wasn’t welcome and was now suffering the consequences.

Someone knocked on her door. She looked over her shoulder before scrambling to her feet. She was pretty sure she knew who would be there. Someone from Score. Odds were on Taryn or Jack. She knew who her heart wanted her visitor to be.

She drew in a breath, then turned the knob. Jack stood on the small landing. He looked at her with a steady gaze.

“We have to talk,” he told her.

A few weeks ago she would have teased him about turning into a woman, saying something like that. He would have teased her back. Things had been easy. Before, she thought sadly. Before she’d realized she’d fallen in love with him.

Ignorance really was bliss, she admitted to herself as she stepped back to allow him in. Right now she was battling an uncomfortable combination of hurt, humiliation and, the real kicker—happiness to bask in his presence. How ridiculous was that?

Jack stepped into her small apartment. He bent down and scooped Dyna up in his arms. The long-haired feline relaxed completely and continued to purr.

“Hey, gorgeous,” he said as he rubbed the side of her face. Dyna snuggled closer.

Larissa had to admit that the sight of a big tough guy holding a fluffy cat was pretty hard to resist. Not that she was interested in resisting all that much. Which was part of the problem. Her lack of willpower.

Jack set Dyna on the sofa and then drew in a breath. “I’m sorry about the masseuse,” he said. “That was wrong on a lot of different levels. I shouldn’t have called her at all, but having called, I should have gone to see her somewhere else. I violated your personal space. I apologize for that.”

She nodded, knowing he wasn’t responsible for all the blame.

“I changed the rules,” she admitted, not quite meeting his gaze.

“You did and you scared the hell out of me.”

That made her look at him. “How do you figure?”

“Larissa, you’re important to me. You and I are close and I like that. I like everything about our relationship. I trust you and there aren’t a whole lot of people I can say that about. What we have...” He paused. “I saw Percy in town today.”

“Okay, and that’s relevant how?”

“He was with a girl. Her name is Melissa and they’re seeing each other.”

“Percy has a girlfriend? Why didn’t I know about this? Who is she and do I approve?”

Jack smiled gently. “Not my point. When I freaked out, he told me not to worry. That he wasn’t, ah, sleeping with her. She was too important for that. Now, I used to be an eighteen-year-old guy so I know exactly how much sex matters. What I think he meant is hooking up is easy. Relationships are a whole other thing. That’s what I mean about you. I don’t want to date you because my romantic relationships always end badly. If we don’t go down that path, we can stay together forever.”

Maybe, but the way things were, she was stuck being in love with him. “What if I want more?”

“I can’t give you that.”

“You mean you don’t want to.”

“Isn’t it the same thing?” he asked.

“Not really. I just wish you were interested in me in that way.” She wanted to ask if he could try a little harder, but that seemed too much like begging. And a girl either had to have Dyna’s looks or a little pride.

He closed the space between them and took her hands in his. “We’re a great team. Look at all we get done. Your causes, my causes. We laugh a lot. Isn’t that better than being in love with me?”

She pulled her hands free. “I don’t like this any more than you do. It’s humiliating to think you don’t want me or think of me as other than a friend. Why can’t you be begging me for something I don’t want to give?”

“I’ll beg for things to go back the way they were before, if that helps.”