“Why now?” she asked. “Why are you back now?”#p#分页标题#e#
Because you’re in danger, he thought. But he couldn’t say that. He simply tucked her thick, wavy hair behind her small ear, wishing he could bend and place a kiss there. But he needed to go slow for now.
“It was the right time,” he said. “I wasn’t busy.”
Her face tightened as she started to turn away. He caught her gently by the shoulders, being cautious because she was so soft, so small compared to him. Though, she had an inner strength that far surpassed his. “Wait, Carrie. Can you just trust me? Please?”
She blinked up at him, pursing her pink lips. “I don’t know.”
“You know me,” he said, lifting her chin, making her look at him. “You know I won’t let anything happen to you.”
She pushed away from him with a bitter laugh. “Nothing is going to happen to me. I’ve been fine so far.”
His expression darkened as he folded his arms and leaned against the wall. “Oh, so you don’t mind being harassed by the Aces and having someone like Harv coming on to you?”
She gave him a mean glare. “Maybe not? Maybe I should be his old lady. He’s persistent at least.”
Cage’s jaw twitched and his teeth clenched together, hard, but he tried to play it cool. She was trying to bait him after all. “Interesting. Maybe I should just back off, then.”
Her eyes widened in surprise, but she tamped it down quickly. Was this how it was going to be? Them running circles around each other?
She finally walked to the couch and slumped onto it, hand over her eyes as she let out a harsh, broken breath. “I don’t know, Cage. I don’t know what’s going on with me. You being back here… it’s doing something to me.” She dropped her hand and wearily looked him over. “I never thought you’d be wearing that leather.”
“They aren’t that bad,” he said, feeling bile rise in his throat as he said it. Why was he defending them when he wasn’t even really a part of them?
He guessed the problem was he’d been born to that life, it was in his blood, and deep down, he’d always felt unworthy of her as the dirty son of the head of a biker gang.
No matter where he went or what he did, he never felt like he washed that stink away, like he’d ever be good enough for her. Perhaps that was why he hadn’t come back sooner. Because he was waiting to be good enough.
But if her safety were in jeopardy, and his sources said it was, then he had to come regardless of whether she was ready for him.
“I just wanted to see you,” he said. “I’ve been waiting so long. When I was deployed, and after, you were all I thought about.”
She folded her arms, pushing up her generous breasts. “Apparently not, because you haven’t spoken to me in years.”
“I know,” he said. “I didn’t know what to say. I didn’t know when to come back.”
“But why the gang?” she asked.
He bit his lower lip and let it drag painfully over his teeth as he let it go. “I just need you to trust me for now. Even if I’m in the Aces.”
“I don’t know what you want,” she said, throwing up her hands. “You’re here. I get that. You want to kiss me, take ownership, I guess. You want to come and go as you please. But, Cage, I can’t let you break my heart again.”
Something inside him was shattered by that. “What do you mean break your heart?”
“You stopped writing,” she said.
He stared at her, words frozen on his tongue. I didn’t know what to say. I was being a coward. I didn’t know how to come back.#p#分页标题#e#
“I didn’t mean to.”
She sighed and stood, stretching, and he tried not to look at her body. “I have to go over to Willow’s today.” She frowned. “I guess I can’t take you over to see her, not when you’re wearing the patch. I don’t want the kids there to get the wrong idea.”
He raised an eyebrow. Willow was the one who had contacted him about Carrie possibly being in trouble. She’d been the closest thing he had to a mother, after he’d gotten to know her through his frequent visits with Carrie. “She still taking in kids?”
Carrie nodded. “Of course. And I help her. I can’t keep any here. I work too much and I’m not foster approved, but I help support her. And I go see the kids a lot.”
“You support her?” he asked. “How? The bar?”
She nodded.
Damn. He’d hoped maybe just letting go of the bar would be the best way to keep the Aces’s attention off her for now. But she couldn’t.