“For the inconvenience of leaving Kit,” she said. “I realize it will be a financial burden for you. But if you let me call you a cab now, there’ll be a plane ticket home waiting for you at the airport. And you can cash this at your leisure. You have my word that it will be honored.”
“But I don’t want to leave Kit,” I said, horrified at the thought that she was trying tobuy me off.
Behind her own son’s back.
“Still? Even though you’ve seen how difficult your life would be if you persisted?”
“Yeah, still,” I said, standing. “You can’t pay me to go away. There’s not enough money in the world to get me to betray Kit like that.”
Kit’s mom stared at me like I’d turned into a unicorn. If she hated unicorns with the fire of a thousand suns.
I took advantage of her surprise to scramble out of my chair, backing away from the table as quickly as I could without tripping over the area rug or breaking a thousand-year-old vase or something.
“I’m doing thisforKit,” she said. “You’ll only make his life miserable. If you really cared about him, you’d take the money and go.”
No I wouldn’t. Iobviouslywouldn’t. If I cared about him—and I did, I cared more about Kit than I could ever remember caring about anyone—then I wouldn’t sell him out for something as stupid asmoney.
I wouldn’t sell him out at all.
“Enjoy your tea,” I said as I made a hasty retreat, absolutely positive that she wouldn’t.
What thefuck?
* * *
I slippedinto the bedroom and closed the door behind me, relieved that I hadn’t run into anyone along the way. Blood was still pounding in my ears at everything that’d just happened.
The urge to burst into tears stuck in the back of my throat. I couldn’tbelievethat woman. I’d thought for a second there that maybe she was going to turn out to be a decent person, but no. No, she’d only been treating me like a human being so she could separate me from Kit, like she’d clearly wanted since the beginning.
“Hello,” Kit said, stepping out of the bathroom with a towel tucked low around his hips. He must’ve ended up covered in mud with the dogs. “Andy?” he asked, face falling.
I hadn’t hidden how upset I was fast enough.
“Hi,” I said, forcing myself to smile for him.
“Tea didn’t go well,” Kit said, sympathetic.
I crossed to the bed and sat heavily, watching Kit gather up clothes, water running over his skin and pooling in all kinds of interesting places.
“Tea did not go well,” I agreed.
I wanted a hug. Maybe a kiss.
And a quick grope.
Just so I’d know everything was okay. Just so I’dfeellike everything was okay.
Kit dropped his towel right in front of me—not in a sexy, deliberate kind of way, just casually, like it didn’t matter that I might see anymore.
That was sexier than if he’d been doing it to distract me. I loved the idea of beingcomfortablewith him. Comfortable like this, where I could watch him search for clean underwear in his suitcase, still damp from the shower, and it was no big deal.
“Hey, Kit?” I asked as I watched him pull them on, quietly admiring how nicely he filled them out in front. And in back.
Just. In general.
Okay, maybe I wasn’t atcomfortableyet. I was still hovering around super horny.
Kit looked over at me, and I remembered I’d been in the middle of asking a question.
