A Beautiful Distraction(98)

She was caving . . .

• • •

She really shouldn’t have come. She should’ve listened to her gut. Did she know it would hurt to see him? Did she know seeing him would ignite fire in her body like it always did? Yes.

But she didn’t know that it would be so hard to keep herself upright. Hard to keep herself from latching onto the back of his head and yanking his mouth to hers. That damn flawed mouth that could inflict so much pleasure.

“Hey,” she said, drawing his attention back to her eyes. “I’m gonna get going.”

Once again he’d managed to steal her control. He owned her body—that she knew. It was her weakness.

“First Sergeant Murano?”

The voice that penetrated the safe haven Rafe had unknowingly created for her slimed across her skin.

His head popped up, looking to the man behind her. She shouldn’t have come. She really shouldn’t have come. “Yes, sir?”

“You want to introduce me to this beautiful lady you’re with?”

Rafe’s palm remained flattened on the small of her back as she turned around. “There’s no need for false introductions here. Don’t play games. I know you recognize me,” she hissed.

She saw Rafe’s face contort in confusion from the corner of her eye, but she kept her eyes on the man in front of her, holding his gaze with the strength she wished she possessed all those years ago.

“I almost didn’t recognize you, Lynn. I had to do a double-take. You’re all grown up now, aren’t you? Can I cut in?”

“No. I was just leaving.”

“Fallon? How do you know Captain Green?” Rafe asked, stepping closer to her.

Ignoring Rafe, she narrowed her eyes. “You’re an officer, I see. I guess West Point worked out well for you.”

“I see you’ve gotten a little sassy with age.”

“Okay, I don’t know what the fuck is going on here, but you’re gonna want to watch the way you’re talking to her.”

“Rafe?” she asked, feeling the prominent tension forming in his muscles. “Can you give us a minute?”

His eyes flashed to hers in warning. “Babe,” he said in a way that told her he didn’t like that idea whatsoever. In a way that said there was no way in hell he was going to leave her.

“I just need a minute to talk to him,” she insisted. But he didn’t budge. Smoothing her hands along the fabric of her dress, she turned from his hands and walked toward the nearest empty table.

She knew the fluid, leisurely steps that followed behind her weren’t Rafe’s. They were nothing like his strong, determined steps.

She turned swiftly, her butt bumping against the table as he stood right behind her. Pulling oxygen into her lungs, she stared up at him.

Ever so slightly, he smiled. Her stomach churned. “So it really is you. Fallon Kelly. I’ll be damned. It’s been, what? Seven years?” Reaching out, he brushed his fingers down her arms, chafing her skin with his grating touch.

There was nowhere for her body to retreat to. He was so close, the coolness of his medals that hung proudly below the ribbons on his uniform chilled her. It was as if she were a scared seventeen-year-old again, standing in front of the person she was hoping would come to her rescue. And it infuriated her. How could he possibly think she would want to see him, talk to him, after everything that had happened between them? After he’d cowardly turned his back on her?

“Eight,” she replied, forcing herself to meet his eyes.

“When I saw you walk onto that dance floor, I thought there was no way in hell you were my Fallon. But here you are.”

“I was never ‘your Fallon,’ Curt. Let’s face it, we were kids thrown together by our awful parents. I was never yours. I was merely a piece of their game until I changed the rules.”

“You broke the rules, Fallon. Everything was right on track. I’d been accepted into West Point; you were starting your senior year in high school. But you stirred the pot. You knew I wouldn’t get into West Point with legal obligations to a child. They would have pulled my acceptance, given someone else my spot. There was no other way. If you had stayed and I’d given up my parental rights to secure my spot at West Point, what would that have done to my name? I would’ve become the villain, the deadbeat. And if you’d stayed and lied, said it wasn’t mine, think of what that would have done to your family’s reputation. There was no other way, Fallon.”

“I know, in your opinion, there was no other way. I get it.”

“Good.”

“I get that you’re an asshole who thought of no one other than himself. You didn’t for one minute think about how terrified I was, Curt. I was a kid! I was pregnant. I didn’t care what people thought of me or my family or your precious reputation. I was scared and I needed my parents. I needed you. All I wanted was for someone to be there for me so I could figure it out. But no one was!”