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“All right then.” Crossing the room, Landon clicked the phone intercom and rang his assistant. “If you’d please get me Emerson Wells on the line. You should be able to do a Google search and find his number. He owns some sort of personal security business here in town.”
Hanging up, Landon rubbed his chin thoughtfully, his gray eyes on Garrett. “If he denies us...would you still go through with it?”
Kate’s face and words surfaced in his mind with a vengeance, and his chest cramped. I would never marry for anything other than love!
For one painful moment, he wondered if she’d even care whether he married someone else, for whatever reason. But although her words had cut through him, her body had spoken another language. He’d lost control, and so had she. They’d both been so needy he hadn’t even been able to stop to put on a condom.
What had he done?
Perhaps Garrett hadn’t technically broken his promise to her father, but he felt like he had. There was probably no man more undeserving of Kate’s affection than he.
Clearly, you blew it, Gage.
But she had wanted him. Hell, she’d not only wanted him, she’d melted under his touch. Was he supposed to turn his mind blank and forget about a moment like that?
“Molls said they have a fitting this afternoon that you insisted on driving them to?”
He glanced up at Julian in confusion. “Molly? I told Kate I’d drive her. I didn’t know it included Molly.”
“And Beth,” Landon added with a grin. “They’re all going together.”
Garrett almost groaned. So much for talking to Kate one-on-one.
“Fine, then. I’ll drive the three of them,” Garrett reluctantly conceded. An infuriating hunch told him that Kate was doing this on purpose. Clearly, she had no desire to discuss anything with him.
Julian dropped his pencil on the table and angled his head, his eyes sparkling in amusement.
“You know, bro, I can’t help you here. Molls would strangle me if I see her in the dress.”
“That’s fine.” He plunged a hand through his hair. He’d wanted to spend some time with Kate and talk, but he would manage somehow. “I’ll drop Kate off last and see if she’ll do dinner with me.”
“So I take it this means whatever Emerson says, you’re not keen on the marriage of convenience?” Julian queried.
“Would you be?” Garrett countered. “Keen to marry a stranger? When your every thought is consumed by someone else?”
“Why don’t you just tell Kate how you feel and get it all out there?”
Garrett shook his head.
Because he didn’t deserve her.
Hell, the way things stood, even if he were to tell Kate how she made him feel, she’d probably tell him to stick his declaration where it hurts. She resented him for having taken her father from her, no matter how much she tried to pretend she didn’t. He still couldn’t forget those words she’d lashed out at him with when they were young: How dare you!
He’d never forget the hurt betrayal in her eyes when she’d found out her father had died because Garrett hadn’t run as he’d been told to. And now, to top it off, she believed he’d deliberately slept with her just to make sure she stayed in San Antonio. True, it might have been the catalyst, but that was so not the reason.
“You know, Garrett,” Landon said, coming over to pat his back, “we all get the love we think we deserve...and you deserve it, man. No matter what you think. You both do. So you better own it before she leaves for Florida, brother. Neither Julian nor I, nor for that matter, Mother, has any desire to watch what her departure does to you.”
Seven
Kate checked herself in the mirror for the tenth time. She wore a plain khaki skirt and sleeveless halter top. She knew that it would be silly to try on another top, so she grabbed her purse and her phone, then glanced down on impulse at Garrett’s last texts.
He’d said he wanted to talk and tell her about the “bimbo,” but just thinking about the way he’d defended her made Kate’s blood boil. Worse was that every time she went back a little further, to his kisses, little bubbles of remembrance shot through her system. She didn’t want the bubbles. Or the tingles. Or any of the gut-churning jealousy she felt when she thought about him and Cassandra Clarks.
She hadn’t slept a wink last night; she could still feel his touch on her traitorously sensitive skin. Now, Beth and Molly were waiting in her living room for him to pick them up, and Kate was grateful for the buffer they would provide.
Coward. That’s why you asked them to come over.
Yes, yes, so fine, she was a coward. She just didn’t trust herself to be alone with him. She feared she’d either do s
