“What other option do I have?” I snap.
“You can stay,” he says. “You can give us one more night.Please.”
38
SULLIVAN
“I don’t know.”
“Please, Tate,” I beg. “Just one more night.”
“What will you tell Molly?”
Her voice tears my soul from my body. She’s holding it together, but the tremor is there, beneath the surface.
She blinks at me, tears pooling along her lower lashes. I hate myself for being the reason they’re there. I should have kept away from her. I could have prevented all of this from happening. I could have spared her the inevitable outcome that was always going to come if she got involved with me.
“I’ll tell her you went on an adventure.”
She sucks in a sharp breath.
“Tate,” I murmur, reaching for her hands.
She yanks them away.
“No. Don’t say my name like that. Don’t you dare make out you’re doing this for me.”
“I’m sorry,” I rasp, meaning it down to the very core of who I am. I lean closer, reaching for her again, taking her hands and running my thumbs over the back of them. “I really am.”
“This can’t be real. Tell me you don’t feel this between us.” She searches my eyes, but I can’t answer her.
Of course I fucking feel it. I feel it so much my heart wants to burst out of my chest when I think about what I have with her.
“Tell me you don’t feel this,” she repeats with more determination, climbing into my lap and straddling me.
She crushes her lips to mine desperately.
“If you were sorry, you wouldn’t be doing this.”
I deepen our kiss until I’m groaning into her mouth and gripping her hips like my life depends on it. I don’t want it to be this way anymore than she does.
But I don’t want to keep lying to her.
And Ican’ttell her the truth.
She pulls away and rests her forehead against mine. “I know you feel this.” She places her hand over my thundering heart.
“It doesn’t matter what I feel. This is the way it’s got to be.” I run the backs of my fingers down her cheek. “I am so sorry, Baby,” I whisper, my voice hoarse.
She pushes away, hands flattened against my chest.
“Don’t call me that!”
She shoves at my chest over and over as I wrap my arms around her and pin her to me. My head pounds at the thought she’ll walk out the door like this. Hating me.
“Get off!” she snaps, wriggling in my hold and shoving at me harder.
But there’s no real strength behind her attack. She isn’t trying to hurt me.
