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She shivered and shuffled forward, her heart choking her. “What’s going on, Cash?”
“Your sons know I went to jail.” He hadn’t picked up a tool, hadn’t made any movement toward the bike propped like a wall between them.
“Both of them?” That hadn’t been on her radar at all. She blinked, adjusting to the revelation. “Cyril just told me he knows, but Felix does too?”
“He confronted me after the barbeque, before we came here.”
“Oh.” The choking sensation intensified. “I was hoping they’d have time to get to know you before I told them.” If I ever did. Guilt prickled. Was she more ashamed of Cash’s past than she was willing to acknowledge?
He shifted his weight from foot to foot in an anxious tell she’d never witnessed before. “This isn’t going to work.”
She scanned the area, looking for somewhere to sit, her knees shaky. The best she could find was a large square box that declared it contained Super Absorbent Paper Towels. It squished alarmingly beneath her butt. “What isn’t going to work?”
He gestured to her and then tapped his own chest. “This. Us.”
She wasn’t in love with Cash. She couldn’t be. The fissure in her chest wasn’t heartbreak. “I don’t understand.”
“We come from two different worlds, Penta. It’s a cliché because it’s true. I almost killed a man in a barroom brawl. I went to jail, for fuck’s sake, and I deserved to.” His voice broke, his cold expression shattering into fragments of pain.
Her own agony eased in the face of his. “I know that. I’ve known it all along. Why does it matter now? What did my boys say?”
He gripped his beard with both hands, tugging. “Felix is worried about you.”
But not Cyril? If her second son hadn’t accosted Cash on her behalf, what was he doing bringing up the topic? Casual but cruel curiosity?
“That’s sweet. But it’s not necessary.” Cautiously, as if approaching a stray dog, she stood up and rounded the bike with slow, deliberate steps. “I know you’d never hurt me.”
She repressed a jolt of surprise when, with explosive violence, he pounded his fists on the workbench, making the tools jump and clatter. “Damn right I wouldn’t. You can’t blame them for thinking it, though. And what about your father? What happens when he finds out?” He pressed his knuckles to the surface with all his weight.
She rested her hand flat on his back. The muscles were rigid under her palm. “He knows, Cash. I told him before the party.”
He stood still under her touch. Then his shoulders sank and his head dropped. “He never said anything. We talked a long time. He never said anything.”
“He’s a firm believer in redemption, for letting a person’s present actions speak louder than past sins.” And so am I. She sternly banished the last sliver of shame she’d been harbouring. Cash worked so hard to be a better man. She refused to be embarrassed about his history. Wrapping her arms around his waist, she laid her cheek on his back and listened to the thudding of his heart. “I’m proud of you, Cash. You should be too.”
CASH HADN’T REALIZED how disturbed he’d been by Cyril’s question until he’d spewed his agitation all over Penta. As soon as he’d seen her, though, all he’d wanted to do was bury his head in her lap and howl out his remorse and regret.
At least he hadn’t blurted out Cyril’s reason for bringing up the topic. He wouldn’t betray the boy’s secret unless he absolutely had to.
He inhaled deeply several times, the clasp of her arms around his torso as comforting as a weighted blanket. “Sorry for losing it.”
Her breath huffed out in a quiet chuckle. “I have teenagers. That was downright reserved compared to their meltdowns.”
“You really told your dad about me before we met?”
“I did. In hindsight, we probably should have told the kids too.”
Her use of we melted the last chunks of panic from his chest. He shifted so he could wrap his arms around her shoulders and curl over her. She snuggled in. For a few minutes, they did nothing but hold each other.
As his pulse settled, his libido woke up. He gave his cock a stern talking to, but it ignored him.
Penta lifted her head and let her lower body rest heavily against his. “Well, hello there.” The amused glint in her brown eyes burned with heat. Her palms teased under the hem of his T-shirt and slid up his pecs.
He groaned. “You probably don’t have enough time—” His words broke off with a hiss as she tugged one nipple.
“No. Not right now.” She rucked up the material and dropped a kiss on his chest, then shot a guilty glance at the front windows where passersby had a wide screen view. Smoothing the shirt back into place, she gave a wistful sigh. “I can’t stop thinking about last week. I want to be with you again, I really do. You’re being remarkably patient.”
He could only grunt in reply as his hands moved restlessly on her back, tweaking the curls at the nape of her neck. He’d never realized how potent the combination of easy affection and lustful sensuality could be.
