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“Would you like to stay here tonight?”
Gibson’s voice sliced past a whole wealth of her own emotional noise, stirring up all her fears for her self-preservation.
Her fingers slid away from her forehead as she met his dark gaze. Her pulse thrummed hard through her temples. Pounding. “Of course not. How can you ask me that?”
She leaned closer in spite of herself, perhaps with the need to press him for an answer.
“Because you’re upset. Because there’s a spare bedroom away from the media and away from the pressure of being around your family. Reporters know better than to drive onto my property. I’ve made that clear, and since the incident at the courthouse, I added extra security for the next few weeks until interest in my career fades.” He shrugged one big shoulder. “I know being in Catamount has to come with a lot of stresses, especially now that Jessamyn and Ryder Wakefield are getting married here.”
Blinking from the accuracy of every last one of his observations, Lark realized she was in way over her head tonight. From the moment she’d pulled into Gibson’s driveway, she’d been giving up control of the situation. By now, her ex-husband was unraveling her every last protective layer with all the insider knowledge that a former spouse possessed.
“Now who’s the therapist here?” she teased lightly, her hands finding the tie around the end of her braid and retying the fabric. Anything to keep her fingers busy.
Away from him.
“Just calling it like I see it, since you never seem to extend the same grace to yourself that you’d give to anyone else in your life. It’s okay to say enough is enough with your father. And your sister, too.”
The locked box where she normally kept her emotions opened wider, the overflow too messy to stuff inside.
“Thank you,” she managed finally, seeing no way to maintain an argument with him when he insisted on being kind. Letting go of the hair tie, she straightened to her full height. “It has been a rough week, but I’m committed to healing my relationship with Jessamyn. I’m even helping plan the wedding.”
She caught herself before she rolled her eyes. Gibson knew how much she’d regretted losing Jessamyn to their father’s side for so many years.
“Is that right?” Mischief skipped through his tone as he reached toward her forgotten braid.
Mesmerized by the careful movements of his fingers, she watched as he straightened the lopsided bow she’d left in the scrap of cotton fabric used to secure the tail.
Technically, he wasn’t touching her body anywhere. Weren’t the cells that made up hair supposed to be dead? Yet his efforts shifted the silky rope in a way that made her whole scalp tingle with awareness.
“Jessamyn and Ryder are in a hurry to make things official since she’s pregnant,” Lark rambled, needing to fill the air between them with words before the tension became too thick. Plus, the mention of any pregnancy still felt loaded for her after the way she hadn’t been able to tell him about that one time when the stick had shown two distinct pink lines. Dragging in a breath, she continued, “And she’s having the ceremony at Crooked Elm, so Fleur thought if we all helped, it would speed things along and give us a way to spend time together.”
It really had been a sweet gesture on Fleur’s part, now that she thought about it.
“I’m glad you’re trying to work things out with Jess.” Gibson had finished with the hair tie, but he hadn’t let go of her braid. He smoothed his thumb and forefinger over the links, his gaze tracking the progress.
Sensual memories bombarded her. She had never understood his fascination with her hair, but she recalled vividly how many times he’d done this very same thing as a prelude to kissing her. Undressing her. Coiling the length of the braid around a wrist. His or hers...
Her breathing grew shallow. Her body heating with want.
When he tipped her face up to his with his free hand, she wouldn’t have been surprised if he’d lowered his mouth to hers.
Instead, his voice was pure gravel when he spoke.
“Let me be your date for the wedding.”
Gibson didn’t know where the suggestion had originated.
He only knew that there was unfinished business between them, and he had to find a way to see it through—had to find a way to seeheragain so they could explore it together.
Because fighting off the urge to wrap her in his arms and kiss her until they were both breathless was taking every ounce of his strength. But he knew if he gave into that hunger too soon, he could stoke the fiery resentment that lurked inside his ex-wife.
Well, sure, he could distract her with the chemistry that sizzled into a full-blown blaze when their lips touched. Yet sooner or later, she would remind him of all the reasons they didn’t work. Reasons that didn’t even apply anymore now that he was retiring.
Not that she believed him. And it shouldn’t matter so much to him when she’d walked away at the lowest point of his career, when he’d needed her most. But the effect she had on him had never made sense.
He only knew that if he wanted a chance to be with her again, to explore the chemistry that had them both sizzling right now, he needed to bide his time. Not push for too much, too fast.
“You want to be mydate?” Lark’s eyes were wide. Her fast breaths worked the top of her fitted tank dress in a way that made his hands ache to mold to her curves.
