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It worked damn fine, Kady being there, Kady being with him. It helped a fucking lot, helped enough for him to hear himself say, “I met one of your predecessors.”
She stiffened, but when she tried to pull back a moment later, he wouldn’t let her, and after another moment, he felt her yielding, and this time her arms went around his waist, her face rubbing against his chest.
Just like a pet that knew it didn’t have the words to ease the pain.
He thought of telling her exactly that, and almost immediately he saw Kady in his mind, reacting in that uniquely contradicting way of hers. Slade, she would probably cry out indignantly, but at the same time her eyes would be soft and bright, her cheeks pink with emotion. Because she might be annoyed, but she would also be thankful that she was able to comfort him.
It made him smile, just thinking about it, and he realized all of a sudden that Kady had joined the small number of women able to make him smile with genuine pleasure outside the bedroom.
But more than that…
“We didn’t part on good terms the first time, and we still didn’t part on good terms now.”
She was turning out to be the only person in his life that he could open himself to.
“It was never my intention to hurt her, but she left me with no other choice—” His voice turned bitter. “And even now, nothing has changed.”
He waited for the questions to come, but they never did. He only felt Kady wrapping her arms more tightly around his waist, and God help him, he found himself wanting and needing her more because of it. Pulling away, he said gruffly, “We should go.” Before he made an ass of himself.
“Okay.”
No questions at all, and that should have been enough, but instead it made him fucking talk like a canary. The moment they were inside his truck and on their way back to Hartland, the words just wouldn’t stop falling off his fucking lips.
“I was nice to her. That was all. But she instantly thought it meant I loved her back. Just because I was fucking nice, she fooled herself into thinking I loved her, and that she loved me. But she didn’t—” He saw the silent question in Kady’s eyes, and his lip curled. “I know what I’m talking about, Kady. And I’m telling you, she didn’t love me. How could she fucking love me when she was just one fucking step above a stranger in my life? She worked for me for a month. A month. She didn’t fucking know anything – didn’t know my middle name, didn’t know where I grew up – she fucking knew nothing more than any other stranger would know about me. And with all that, she really wanted me to drink the same Kool-Aid and believe she loved me?”
Don’t you dare make it seem like you know my feelings. Because you don’t. You don’t!
The memory made the billionaire tighten his hold on the steering wheel. Damn her. Penny was young and beautiful. A nice girl. A good girl. Why the fuck did she have to go and convince herself that—
And that was when he heard it.
Despite the taut silence that thrummed under Alison Krauss’ Baby Now That I Found You, he heard it like he had the sixth fucking sense where it came to her pain, and he didn’t even think. He pulled to the side without a word, and the moment he killed the engine, he didn’t even have to turn—
She had already thrown herself at him, crawling into his lap, her face against his chest.
And she was crying.
“What’s wrong, baby?”
But the concern in his voice only made Kady cry harder.
She couldn’t get Slade’s hardened expression out of her mind.
Couldn’t stop remembering the look on his face as he told her that it was impossible for Penny to be in love with him—
Another sob wracked her frame, her endless damn of tears soaking his shirt.
Oh God.
She couldn’t forget that look on his face. Would never be able to forget it. Never. Because it was that moment she realized she had done the very same thing Penny done…the very same thing that Slade thought was a lie.
She was in love with him.
Even if she was just one stop above a stranger. Even if she also didn’t know his middle name. His hometown. Even if she knew no more than what a stranger would know about him.
She was in love with him, Kady thought hysterically, and the worst thing about it was that she hadn’t been with him for as long as Penny had.
Penny had an entire month, and she had weeks.
“Kady, dammit. Say something.”
She could only shake her head. There was nothing to say. Nothing. She had to say nothing and would always say nothing. Because that was the only way she could stay a little longer in his life.
