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I find his blue eyes boring into mine. Too bad I can’t tell what he’s thinking.
“Of course, you can,” I say as I slide under the covers.
He slides in behind me and pulls my back to his chest, draping his arm over my stomach, holding me close. Closing my eyes, I tell myself I can pretend this is real for a few more hours.
When we wake in the morning, we’ll see what new light is shed on us then.
What have I done? I open my eyes to an unfamiliar room.It wasn’t a dream.I had sex with Lucy last night. And man, she’s amazing. But how could I let myself give in like this? I knew better. This is a sure-fire way to cause heartache and problems for not just me and her, but everyone who cares about us. I should’ve been stronger and said no…to protect her. Morning light is shining in through her closed blinds.
I sneak a peek at Lucy to see if she’s awake. Black, full eyelashes are fanned out against her ivory skin. Her dark-brown hair is still wavy from the night before and spills around her beautiful oval shaped face. She’s lying on her stomach with one arm over my chest and her leg thrown across mine. I instantly feel my body reacting from having her naked body draped across me.
I do my best to shift out from under her without waking her, but as I lay her arm down gently after sliding away, she opens her green eyes to look at me and my heart speeds up. What’s wrong with me? I’m perfectly capable of resisting a woman in this way. But with Lucy, just one look has turned me into a heart racing fool. “Good morning, love.”
Damn it, there I go with the pet names again, they roll off my tongue with her like a water main bursting.
She smiles at me but there’s something hidden behind it. Is she regretting what we did? “Hey. Did you sleep okay? Sorry I must’ve rolled all over you in the middle of the night. I don’t share the bed very well.” She turns to sit up and reveals her perfect breasts to me unknowingly, making me swallow hard. She corrects quickly and pulls the sheet up to cover herself, running her free hand through her tousled waves. She tosses me a guarded smile, but blushes lightly, the same cute little blush I’ve become so familiar with. Now I’m rock hard and need to get out of this room.
I grab my boxer briefs from the floor and pull them on followed by my jeans. “I’m gonna use the bathroom and give you some privacy, then when your dressed, I can take you to pick up your car if you want.”
Her smile falls slightly, but she quickly recovers. “Yeah, that works.” I make my way to her bathroom and take care of business. I find her mouthwash and rinse my mouth since I don’t have a way to brush my teeth right now.
Once I’m done, I crack the bathroom door. “Are you decent?” I ask before moving a muscle in her direction.
“Yeah, you can come back in,” she answers sweetly. I open the door and head back in her bedroom, noticing she’s dressed in tight jeans and a teal colored long sleeved shirt, before bending to pick my own discarded shirt up off the floor. She starts to head to her bathroom but stops and faces me. “I meant to ask you last night, what does the tattoo over your heart mean?” She puffs out a little air, “I mean, obviously I know whatunbreakablemeans, but what does it mean to you? Are you saying your heart is unbreakable?”
I stand and meet her questioning gaze with one of my own. “Uh, yeah, I guess you could say that.” She still waits for me to explain further.
When I don’t, she presses for more. “Why do you believe that?”
I need to explain everything, so maybe she can understand why I am… the way I am. But I sum it up by saying, “I don’t let anyone close enough to touch my heart, much less give it to them to break.”
She pulls her perfect bottom lip between her teeth. “I wish I knew how to do that. It seems no matter how I try to protect my heart, it ends up broken anyway.” She smiles sadly before entering her bathroom and closing the door. The funny thing is, when the door clicked shut, it felt like it shut on my heart too—a heart that hasn’t felt anything in a long time, but it certainly felt the weight of that door closing.
We pull up at Ivie’s and I have my car keys ready so I can make this goodbye quick and hopefully less awkward. “Thanks for the ride.” I can’t believe out of all the words I could’ve chosen, those came out, after what we did last night. I glance at him and see humor dancing in his eyes which makes my cheeks feel like they’re on fire. I let out a little laugh, “I’m gonna go now.” I slide out of his truck and start for my car, but I hear his footsteps behind me.
He reaches me before I can open my door. “Hey, don’t avoid me now, okay?”
I turn to face him. “Well, I didn’t have plans to actively avoid you. Ivieismy sister and you’re Sterling’s partner at Valley B so, I’m pretty sure we’ll see plenty of each other.” I put on my best no nonsense smile.
“That’s not what I mean, Lucy. I’m here for you. I don’t want you to go through what you’re dealing with alone. I already know the truth, something you don’t have with anyone else, even Ivie.” I stare at the ground as if searching for a place to hide, but feel his fingers lift my face back to his. His lips gently touch mine. He tucks a loose strand of hair behind my ear and then kisses the new scar at my hairline. “I care about you, love.”
I don’t step back but I should. Instead, I stand my ground. “Don’t do that, Tate. I don’t regret telling you the truth about what I’ve been going through, because I needed to tell someone… I trust you to keep that secret for me, and I don’t regret last night. But I don’t need you pretending to care out here in the light of day. I know you care as much as you allow yourself, but you made yourself clear. Last night can’t happen again. You may be able to keep your heart out of it, but I can’t. When I love someone—when I care, it’s with my whole heart. It’s just who I am. You’ve already explained you don’t let people close to you, and I’m sure you have your reasons—reasons you won’t share even though I’ve laid all my secrets at your feet. But I need to protect my heart because we both know where this will end up if I don’t.”
“Lucy, please—” he starts but I don’t let him finish.
“Listen, it’s fine. It’s all good I promise. I’m a big girl, I knew what I was doing last night. But I think we need some distance for a bit so I can focus on healing, and you can go back to whatever you were doing before. You don’t have to babysit me. You haven’t even known me long.” I laugh a little ridiculously.
He doesn’t speak, he just presses his lips together. After a couple minutes pass, he leans down and kisses my forehead. “I’ll give you space, but I want you to call me if you feel unsafe or need to talk. I still don’t have a good feeling about Taylor. Promise me you’ll call me if anything happens or seems out of the ordinary.”
“I promise. You’ll be my first call.” He gives me another once over before turning back to his truck and leaving.
I let out a shaky breath before hearing my name. “Lucy? Are you okay, sweetheart?”Rhett.It didn’t occur to me he might see my little exchange with Tate. He was nice enough to drop me off at High Road last night so I wouldn’t have to worry about having drinks and then leaving my car somewhere else.
I walk to the front porch where he’s standing. “Yeah, everything’s fine. Tate was just bringing me by to get my car.” He squints at me.
“Is that right? He didn’t take advantage of you, did he?” I can’t help myself, I burst out laughing.
“No. No, he was the perfect gentleman.” I try to placate him. This is odd, having my dad almost ask if I had sex last night.
