Her Knight in Black Leather (18 page)

Michael stiffened beside her, his fingers going still in hers. “And here I thought maybe we’d actually gotten past that.”

The dejected tone of his voice had Cat glancing at him.

He stared at the table, his brow furrowed. After a moment, he lifted his head. “You know, I didn’t have to bring Cat home at all. I said this in the hospital, and I’ll say it again — what happened ten years ago wasn’t my fault. I didn’t pull that damn trigger. I’ll admit I’ve made my share of mistakes, Dad, but I’ve grown up. I wish like hell you’d stop hanging them over my head. Every single person in this room has made mistakes. Including you.”

Silence once again fell over the room. Mr. Brant lifted his chin, a stubborn glint in his eye. Apparently, the old man refused to budge.

“I didn’t come here to ask for your approval. I thought maybe after all this time we could mend a fence somewhere, but obviously I was mistaken.” Michael shook his head and pushed to his feet, shoving the chair back with his knees. He darted an apologetic glance at Cat. “I’m sorry. I need some air.”

His heartfelt admission the night of the Fourth came back to her, his soft-spoken words etched with pain. Her heart ached for him. Compelled to offer some small measure of comfort, she took his hand and gave his fingers a gentle squeeze.

His features relaxed. Tenderness and gratitude flashed in his eyes, and his fingers tightened around hers.

“Michael, sit down.” The commanding voice came from the other end of the table, where Mrs. Brant sat with baby Amy in her lap, her brow furrowed in anger. “I’ve watched this go on for far too long and held my tongue, hoping the two of you would eventually grow up and get over your egos. Two more stubborn men I have never met. Bullheaded and acting like children on top of it. The two of you are so much alike you can’t even see it. This stops here. Now.” She stood, moved around the table and handed Amy to Gabe before turning back to Michael. “What is it you see in this girl?”

Michael rolled his eyes. “Does it really matter, Mom?”

Mrs. Brant returned to her seat, her expression calm but unyielding. “I asked you a question, young man, I expect an answer.”

Michael turned to study Cat’s face. After a long moment, his eyes softened, and he sank onto the chair behind him. “That’s easy. She takes me as I am. She doesn’t expect anything from me, doesn’t ask for more than I’m willing to give. She accepts me for me. Ugly past and all. She’s gone through nothing but hell since I got here, but somehow, she still said yes.”

The intensity in his eyes made her tremble. Something real, something soft and tender, passed from him to her and back again. It was a simple gesture but one that spoke volumes, and the moment wrapped around her heart. It was yet another piece of him she wanted to be there forever. A lifelong connection to a man who made her feel, for the first time in her life, her heart had finally found a home.

A fact she found simultaneously comforting and terrifying. She’d dreamed her entire life of being loved for who she was, for people to finally see her separate from mother’s sordid past. To judge her based on her merits. There it was, echoing back at her from the depths of his eyes.

“Six months.”

All eyes turned to Mr. Brant, who sat pushing food around his plate. He took a bite, chewed and swallowed, before looking at Michael with an impassive expression. “I want six months.”

Michael turned to his father, brows raised in surprise. “You want us to wait six months before we’re married?”

Mr. Brant nodded and waved his fork at him. “If you two can make it six months, I’ll give you my blessing.”

Michael studied his father’s expression. “And you’ll be happy about it? No negative comments or bad wishes? Because at the end of the day, I’m marrying Cat with or without your blessing.”

Again, Mr. Brant took his time answering and forked a bite of food. “The expression on her face when you answered your mother’s question told me everything I needed to know. I suspect your mother knows that.” He darted a tender glance at his wife before pointing his fork in Cat’s direction. “I may be a stubborn old fool, but if I’m not mistaken, that girl’s in love with you. So, yes … ”

Mr. Brant continued to speak, but Cat stopped listening. She couldn’t hear above the sudden roaring in her ears. The blood drained from her face as the man’s words echoed through her mind.
That girl’s in love with you.
The realization washed over her like a tidal wave. Had she fallen in love with him?

One look into Michael’s eyes, at the heat and tenderness that flashed there, and she knew she had. In the depths of his dark eyes, she also saw the same fear gripping her chest. Something had happened between them that neither anticipated.

“You handled my father very well.”

Michael glanced over at Cat, walking beside him through the hedge maze in the backyard. The yard was several acres of land. Celebrations and family gatherings took place closest to the house, around the back deck. Out here in “the back forty,” as his father often called it, was mostly landscaping. Lines of rose bushes of every color, his mother’s favorite, along with an elaborate hedge maze.

As they left the table, he’d taken Cat’s hand in part for his family’s benefit, but they’d walked for ten minutes now. They’d left his family’s prying eyes far behind, but still neither of them moved to release the intimate contact. He had no desire. Their announcement took a turn he’d hoped to avoid, and the heated exchange had taken a lot out of him. Right then, Cat provided a comforting presence. The small, simple gesture of her hand in his filled him with peace.

“I have to admit I’m surprised. You took my father’s challenge head on, didn’t so much as blink an eye, even when things got ugly. I can’t help but admire the hell out of you for that.” He shot Cat a tender smile, lowered his voice with the desire that overtook him. “It’s damn attractive.”

Her gaze caught his, something electric pulling between them. A soft pink flush flooded her cheeks, right before her luscious mouth curled. “You weren’t so bad yourself. You held your own.”

He led her around another corner of the maze and let out a heavy breath. “I’m sorry you had to see that. I knew it was a possibility he’d go there, but I was hoping he wouldn’t, that we’d moved beyond it.”

Cat squeezed his hand. “Are you okay?”

He glanced at her upturned face and, for a moment, the compassion and echo of pain radiating from her eyes caught him. In a couple of weeks, he had to leave, go back to his life, and that thought left an emptiness he didn’t know what to do with.

“I shouldn’t have let him get to me.” To see his father’s deterioration filled him with regrets he didn’t know how to handle. There were so many things he would have done differently, wanted to change now. He came home two years ago to mend fences and failed then, too. Now, somehow, doing so seemed more important.

She offered a reassuring smile that simultaneously lit up his insides and soothed the wounded place deep inside. “In the end, he gave in. Everything turned out okay.”

“Mm. That’s what worries me. It means he knows he’s dying. He told me he wants to see me settled before he dies.” Twin waves of guilt and worry hung heavy in his chest, his father’s mortality weighing him down. This had been a long time coming. Until they could find his father a donor heart, the old man’s time ticked away, like the sand in an hourglass draining from top to bottom with no way to stop it.

Turning another corner, they reached the center of the maze. He moved to the large, round fountain in the clearing and sat on the edge, pulling Cat onto his lap. He slipped his hands into her hair, reveling in the silky strands sifting through his fingers, and kissed her gently.

A whisper soft exhalation left her mouth, and she leaned into him, her lips opening beneath his. He allowed himself to get lost in the heady flavor of her tongue entwining with his, in the soft, mewling sounds she released. Her hands found his shoulders and drew him closer, until her breasts flattened against his chest and her fingers dove into his hair.

Whatever happened between them left him caught. Kaylee’s death cut a hole in him he’d hadn’t patched. Ten years of trying to forget the unbearable guilt of his role in her death. He’d set boundaries on all of his relationships, liked them simple and uncomplicated. What he felt for Cat went beyond complex. He liked the idea of wrapping his life around her. To see what she clearly felt for him shining back at him in the depths of her eyes made the idea all the more tempting. The question was, did he even have the right to happiness when his selfish needs had gotten not one but three people killed?

He left Cat’s mouth to trail kisses down her long neck and across her shoulder, relishing the sweet, velvety feel of her skin. She clung to his shoulders like she needed him every bit as much as he needed her. He shut his mind off. He didn’t want to think anymore. He wanted to drink her in, lose himself in her.

He drew his lips up the side of her neck and scraped his teeth over her earlobe. “You know, nobody can see us back here.”

She pulled back, her heavy-lidded eyes searching his with uncertainty, unease. “Here?”

He drew her bottom lip in between his and sucked gently, lifted his hands and cupped her breasts in his palms, let his thumbs drag across the hardening tips. Her eyes fluttered closed, a soft moan escaping her as she dropped her head back.

“I need you.” He whispered against her skin as he bent his head to taste the exposed column of her throat. “Now.”

It was all the explanation he could muster. All he knew was he wanted her. Needed her. Needed to feel her body joined with his, to feel the intense connection between them. He wanted to lay claim to her body, her heart, her soul, and he wanted it with a fierceness that shook him. He needed to be a part of her, to take a part of her with him when he left.

She lifted her head and searched his eyes. Acknowledgement passed between them, silent and hot. Then she stood, her eyes smoldering as she hiked her skirt above her knees and straddled his lap. God, she never ceased to amaze him. If it was possible to be anymore turned on by her, he’d combust where he sat.

“We’ll have to be fast.” Her voice was breathless as she reached between them and plucked the buttons of his jeans open.

“And quiet.” He sipped at her lips, already reaching into his back pocket.

He quickly sheathed himself then slid his hands up her thighs, moved her panties aside and pulled her onto him.

A whisper-soft moan slid from her lips as she arched against him, a sound of agony and delicious abandon that only served to increase the ache. He groaned quietly, a combination of pleasure and relief shooting through him as her tight silky warmth surrounded him. He moved with her, eased in deeper, reveled in the feel of her body joined with his. She met him thrust for thrust, and with every stroke, their rhythm increased. He dug his fingers into her backside, needing her closer. She curled her fingers into his skin, her nails biting into the backs of his shoulders.

They clung to each other, rocking together in a fast, furious rhythm that left him feeling like he spun out of control, slowly losing every sense of himself as being separate from her. In a matter of minutes, she drove him to the brink of madness then tossed him headlong into the fiery void. She bit her bottom lip and threw her head back as her body shuddered against him, around him, massaging his heat, drawing his own climax out to an intensity that left him shaken to the core. Never in his life had he lost himself in a woman. Never in his life had he wanted to.

Terrifying and exhilarating all at the same time, the sweet intensity rocked him. It left him breathless, his body yearning for more. Yet, at the same time, part of him deep down wanted nothing more than to push away from her and reclaim some semblance of control over his runaway emotions.

She laid her head against his shoulder, her arms tightening around his waist, her chest heaving with her breathlessness, clinging to his body, and conflict twisted in his heart. His arms tightened around her of their own accord, one thought echoing through his mind to torment him — in a few short weeks, their time together would end. He would make sure she was safe first, but eventually he had to go home. He’d go back to building bikes for the rich and famous while Cat stayed behind in Crest Point. That had been the plan from the very beginning. The question was, did he still want it to go off like that? Was he prepared to go home alone? Go back to a life that, while full, still left him empty inside? Or was he ready to try again? To finally put his heart on the line?

He didn’t know, and that terrified him.

• • •

“Wow.”

At the sound of his voice, Cat turned from the bathroom mirror in time to watch Michael lean against the doorway. Hunger blazed in his eyes as they swept over her. He looked at her like he wanted to eat her alive, and a shiver ran the length of her spine.

A murmur of pleasure rumbled up from his throat. “You look incredible.”

A week had passed since they’d announced their engagement to their parents. Tonight was the engagement party. His mother insisted. After tonight, whoever was after her would have more fuel for their fire.

“Is it too much?” Cat turned back to the mirror, smoothing her hands down her dress. Boat necked with capped sleeves, the dress hugged her curves, the fitted skirt falling to her knees. The bust and neckline contained an elaborate Aztec design done in soft yellow, purple, brown, and black. It was the fanciest dress she owned. She’d spent two weeks’ salary on it back when she dated Nick and had never worn it. Seeing the hunger in Michael’s eyes now suddenly made the splurge totally worth it.

He stepped into the bathroom behind her, his warm palms sliding over her hips and around to her stomach as he wrapped his arms around her and bent his head to her neck.

“Way too much. Take it off.” He murmured against her skin as his lips skimmed across her shoulder, sending a delicious little shiver sliding down her spine, then lifted his gaze, meeting hers in the mirror. His voice lowered to an appreciative murmur that matched the tenderness in his eyes. “You look incredible.”