I gave him a hearty shove, we disengaged and he rol ed to his back but I got the distinct feeling (and that pissed me off too) that he let me get away with this. I was rol ing the other way when he caught me at the hips and whipped me around so I was on top of him.
I pushed up but he kept me pinned with both arms tight around my waist, his long legs tangling with mine.
“Talk to me,” he demanded but he said this with his face soft and his voice low and I’d never been a match for that combo so I did.
“The Rock Chicks intervened. That morning when Shirleen shot that guy. They were worried that we were over and they decided to tel me what happened to Caitlin. I tried to stop them but before I could do that, they told me about her hand.”
Mace’s arms got tighter but I kept talking.
“When I heard that, I got sick, as in, literal y. Straight to the toilet and then no more eggs benedict.” I watched him flinch and when he was done, I saw his eyes had grown warm.
“Kitten,” he mumbled but I shook my head to let him know I wasn’t done.
“I knew you’d tel me but I had to be strong for you. When you told me, I couldn’t lose it, make something that needed to be about you about me. So I talked Duke into tel ing me the whole story. He didn’t want to but he did. After he told me, they gave me the papers.”
He rol ed me to my back and was half on me, half off me, up on one elbow, his other arm across my midriff.
“Al you had to do was tel me this,” he said softly.
I shook my head. “I never wanted you to know. Not about me losing it. I just wanted to be there for you.” The tips of his fingers went to my temple and, whisper-soft, they sifted into the hair there.
“I appreciate that,” he muttered and his head bent to kiss me but I jerked my mine back and to the side. His brows drew together and he asked, “You stil pissed?”
“Um… yeah.” I answered in a tone that stated, isn’t it obvious?
“Why?” he asked.
“I don’t make you explain your every movement. I don’t boss you around. I trust you.”
His head jerked. “Didn’t I just spend a week workin’ at winnin’ you back because you didn’t trust me?” Effing hel .
I forgot about that.
Cover! My brain screamed.
“That was then, this is now,” I returned.
He stared at me then he sighed. “Al right Kitten, you wanna stay pissed, stay pissed. I’l be here when you’re over it.”
That, for Mace, apparently was that.
He did a push up, exited the bed, got dressed, grabbed the lead and whistled for Juno. As he was doing this, I pul ed up the sheets, laid in bed and watched. When he was gone, I got up and stomped to the bathroom. I was out of the shower and standing at the sink wearing my robe, my wet hair combed back, brushing my teeth when Mace walked into the bathroom. He came up behind me, put an arm around my waist and kissed my neck where it met my shoulder.
His eyes came to mine in the mirror. “Done bein’ pissed at me?”
I wasn’t.
But as I stared into his beautiful green eyes, I noticed they were a strange mixture of wary and amused, as if he was preparing for a negative response but any response he was going to get would make him laugh.
I kept brushing and looking at him in the mirror noticing something was missing.
For a second, it escaped me.
Then I realized it was the guard. The guard was not down over his eyes.
And there were no demons.
It was just Mace and me in the bathroom.
My eyes moved to his throat and I saw his sister’s tiny ring resting there.
I wanted to take a moment and mental y do a triumphant war dance of glee at my trouncing of the demons. Instead I took the toothbrush out of my mouth and answered through a mouthful of foaming toothpaste, “Yeah. I’m done.” Just like I thought, what I said made him laugh.
I watched that too. Then I leaned forward and while I spit and rinsed, I al owed myself a mini-mental war dance of glee.
Ha!
Die demons die!
He was stil behind me when I straightened and his other arm joined the first around me.
“That didn’t take very long,” he told me.
“You’re infuriating and bossy but you’re hot. You’re lucky you’re hot. You weren’t, I wouldn’t put up with you,” I said it but I didn’t mean it (at least not al of it) and it didn’t sound like I meant it either.
His mouth went back to my neck.
“Bul shit,” he muttered there.
I ignored that and asked, “Is your suit for the wedding here?”
“Nope, tux is at the office. We’l drive by there on the way to Daisy’s to pick it up.”
“You’re wearing a tux?” I asked, surprised. It was an evening wedding but stil .
“I’m in the wedding,” he informed me and my eyes grew round.
“You are?”
“Yeah, standin’ up with Lee.”
I blinked.
“You are?” I repeated.
“You didn’t know that?” he asked.
“No. I didn’t know that. You didn’t tel me.”
“Indy didn’t tel you?”
“I’m not sleeping with Indy,” I reminded him.
“I thought you women talked wedding shit al the time.” He sounded surprised.