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Amusement gleamed in his gaze once again.
“Make or break your own heart?” he asked.
“Men don’t break women’s hearts, Steven. We’re perceptive creatures and we usually know when something isn’t good for us. I knew what I was walking into, and I might not have known the reasons why they wouldn’t stay, but I knew they wouldn’t stay,” she revealed. “Still, I loved them.”
“Why?” Tilting his head to the side he watched her now as though she were some amusing experiment. “Explain that to me.”
“They’re mine.” She spread her hands helplessly as she fought to make him understand. “Even furious with them, I need their touch. They comfort me, calm me, and infuriate me. They balance me, when no one else in my life has ever been able to do that. I loved them before I was even aware of the meaning of my reactions to them. But, the damage to my heart was my doing, because I knew the odds were stacked against me, and I chose to experience every second I could have with them rather than never knowing what could have been.”
Her decision.
Summer felt something loosen inside her at the admission, felt the anger dissolve. The pain was still there, just as sharp, just as deep as ever before, but that dark undercurrent of growing anger eased away.
“Thank you, Steven,” she said then, reaching out to grip his arm and stare up at him with eyes that blurred for a moment with her tears. “For helping me to see something I’d missed.”
The confusion on his expression deepened. “I am at a loss.” He shook his head in bemusement.
“The forest for the trees,” she said. “Sometimes, we don’t always see what’s right there, plain as day, until someone who’s important to us says just the right words or helps us to say them. The pain is worth what I’ve had with them. I’d make the trade again, every single time. And how can I be angry when it was a decision I made myself.”
His features softened more than she’d ever known them to ease. Steven was never really relaxed, he was always on guard, always prepared.
“You are a woman wise beyond your years,” he said then. “Now, I must be going. I see that pretty little blonde who promised to rock my world tonight.” He wagged his brows and as if on cue, Summer felt heat blaze in her face as he chuckled in delight. “Come along.” Holding his hand to his arm once again, he led her back the way they’d come. “Come to the house early tomorrow, I have something extra beautiful planned for your hair and I want your approval before I begin. I believe I might have a gift hidden in the house for you as well.”
“A gift?” Steven rarely gave anyone gifts.
“A special gift,” he promised her. “So be early.”
He left her with her momma and sister once again, winked at her momma, then with a chuckle hurried away as her daddy moved toward them.
She looked around at the still full crowd and knew she couldn’t bear being away from Falcon and Raeg any longer. Bidding her parents good night and letting them know she was heading home, she caught Falcon and Raeg’s gazes and moved toward them.
They met her halfway. Flanking her, they led her from the party to the limo two of the agents from DC had arrived in earlier.
There, they slid into the back with her, keeping her securely between them. If only, she thought, she could stay between them forever.
Chapter
SIXTEEN
Her aunt lived nearly an hour from the Calhoun property, the reason why Falcon had ordered two of the agents from town as added security to and from the party. They’d left her house, one in the SUV Raeg and Falcon had driven in, and the other security agent had driven the limo in later.
She was completely alone with them in the back of the limo, the privacy window securely locked.
They hadn’t spoken since leaving, nor had they spoken during the party unless they’d been given no other choice. They sat there too still, too silent—characteristics that were nothing like them.
She hated it.
Breathing in deep she tossed her small purse to the seat opposite them, lifted herself from her seat, then turned and slid between Falcon’s thighs as he stared back at her in surprise.
“Shh,” she whispered, lifting a finger to her lips.
Lowering her hands, she gripped the hem of the camisole top she wore and pulled it over her head, dropping it carelessly on the seat behind her. She toed her sandals off, hooked her thumbs in the elastic waist of her skirt, and shimmied out of it before tossing it behind her and kneeling once again between Falcon’s legs.
Clad only in her pale peach balconette bra and matching thong, she held Falcon’s gaze, seeing the hunger burning in his eyes though he kept his hands carefully at his side.
“Did I undress for nothing?” she asked him softly before glancing at Raeg for a moment.
Turning back to Falcon, she felt uncertainty beginning to fill her, discomfort edging at the arousal that burned inside her.
