So this was sharing, she thought. Her home, her brothers, the memories of her father. Frankly, it sucked.
God, what a day. She'd had enough.
Sage yanked open the door and stepped into the dark, tossing a cool, general good-night over her shoulder. She'd barely made it to the wrought iron gate when she felt Tyce take her hand. She immediately jerked her hand away and shoved it into her coat pocket.
"I didn't give her the ring, Sage."
"You brought her into our life," Sage whipped back. Direct hit, she realized, but she took no pleasure in the color draining from his face, the danger sparking in his eyes.
Tyce swallowed and looked away, and Sage knew that he was trying to control his temper. "I realize that this has been a tough day for you. It's not easy having someone come into your life, your family, and turn it upside down."
"This is all your fault," Sage said, her temper roiling and boiling. "You sought me out years ago as a way to connect with my family-"
"I explained that," Tyce said in a tight voice.
"Then you slept with me and bought millions of Ballantyne shares."
"You slept with me too."
Sage ignored him and dived deeper into her anger, knowing that she was lobbing accusations at his head when she most wanted to yell at him for not being able to give her what her brothers gave their wives.
Not that she could accept his love...
Sage knew that she was being irrational and that he was a handy target. It wasn't fair or right but if she didn't vent, she'd explode.
"Then you got me pregnant!" Sage shouted, her chest heaving.
"You forgot to blame me for poverty, climate change and the price of oil," Tyce said, gripping her biceps. He pulled in a slug of cold air and when he spoke his voice was calm. "Connor conceived Lachlyn so blame him. We are equally responsible for the pregnancy. This is all new, Sage, and you're scared. I get it. We're all picking our way through a minefield right now but yelling at each other isn't going to help.
"We've got to find a way to deal with this, with us, with the situation," Tyce added.
Sage desperately wanted to allow her tears to fall, to place her head against his chest and weep, taking strength from his arms. She wanted to kiss him, allow him to sweep her away from the here and now, to take her someplace where she didn't have to think of the baby, about the fact that she'd never have the emotional security that being in a committed relationship gave a person who was strong and brave enough to take that chance. She wasn't strong and she wasn't brave and she probably never would be.
"Just give Lachlyn a chance. Give this situation a chance. Let life unfold and trust that we'll all find our way."
Feeling sick and sad and still so very pissed off-anger was so much easier to deal with than fear-Sage lifted her chin and nailed Tyce with a sardonic look. "Get out of my head, Tyce. I never gave you permission to walk around in there. And keep your opinions about my family to yourself! You don't know us and you don't know what makes us tick. You don't know jack about what having a real family means!"
Tyce jerked his head back, clearly shocked. She couldn't blame him; she sounded like a bitch on steroids. Her words had been designed to hurt and so unnecessary. Sage closed her eyes and held up her hand. Before she could apologize, Tyce turned around and started walking away.
Crap. Sage reached out and grabbed his elbow and he stopped.
"Tyce-"
Tyce's granite like expression killed the words in her throat. "I understand that you've had a rough day, Sage, but that doesn't mean that I get to be your verbal punch bag. I lived with a mother who was far better at that than you are but, as an adult, I no longer have to take the hits."
Dammit, she'd really angered him but, worse, she knew that she'd also hurt him. God, she felt ugly.
Tyce started to walk down the street, to the corner. "Where are you going?" Sage asked him.
"I'll hail a cab on the corner." He gestured to the cab that had pulled up next to them a few minutes before. "You take this one." Tyce nodded to her arm. "Your arm is fine and you don't need me hanging around all the time. We could probably both do with some space."
Tyce opened the cab door and gestured her inside. "Go home, Sage. We'll talk." He pushed his hand into his hair, his face expressionless.
"When?"
Tyce's smile held absolutely no warmth. "Oh, sometime between now and the baby's birth. Because, you know, I'm just the guy who knows nothing about anything, especially family."
Tyce slammed the door closed and Sage looked at him through the wet window. He turned his back on her and walked away, his broad back ramrod straight.
Sage felt a tear slide down her cheek and rested her temple on the glass of the window as the cab pulled away.
Her anger had nothing to do with Tyce and everything to do with her issues and her insecurities. She'd lashed out at him, projecting all her unhappiness in his direction. Had it been another subconscious attempt to push him away?
Probably, Sage admitted. But, because she'd been ugly and vicious and unfair, she'd hurt him. Sage felt humiliation and remorse roll through her.
And more than a little self-disgust.
Ten
Heavy rock blasting through the bottom floor of the warehouse, Tyce pushed up his welding helmet and frowned at the flicker of lights that was his version of a doorbell. It was past ten on a cold March night and, since few people knew of this address or that he lived here, he had no idea who was leaning on his doorbell. Dropping his welding rod and whipping off his helmet, he shoved his hands through his hair and walked across the cold concrete floor toward the small side door that stood adjacent to the huge roller doors.
Whipping the door open, he frowned at the small bundle of clothes stamping her feet on the sidewalk outside.
All he could see was big eyes and a pink nose. "Sage? What the hell?"
He opened the door wider and she hurried into the warehouse. She pulled her hands out of her pockets and started to unwind her scarf but he shook his head. "Upstairs. It's a hell of a lot warmer up there than it is down here."
Sage took the hand he held out and he pulled her toward the steel staircase that led to the second floor, which he'd converted into an apartment. Once inside, he started to unwind her scarf and helped her shrug out of her coat. Sage kept her eyes on his face and he wondered if she'd hoofed it across the Brooklyn Bridge to continue fighting with him. God, he hoped not. He didn't have the mental energy an argument required.
Tyce tossed her coat and scarf onto the chair next to the door and watched as Sage walked over to his fireplace and put her hands out to the fake flames. She sighed, slim shoulders lifting and falling. She turned around slowly, her eyes miserable when they met his.
Tyce tensed, waiting for the next blow to fall.
"I'm sorry. I was ugly and irrational and you have every right to be angry with me."
Tyce rubbed his lower jaw, stunned. An apology was the one statement he hadn't expected.
"Change scares me. Losing control terrifies me. Meeting Lachlyn was difficult and then we had the dinner-"
"You're a gorgeous, successful woman. Why would meeting Lachlyn, who is as normal as can be, freak you out?"
"I keep people at a distance and if I feel like there is a chance of them getting closer than I feel comfortable with, I get anxious. And stressed. And then, as you saw, I freak out."
So that explained a thing or two. "Did you pick a fight in an attempt to push me away too?"
Sage nodded. "Yeah, probably. It's what I do best."
For the first time, Tyce saw her as she truly was, stripped down. She wasn't Sage, the Ballantyne princess or Sage, the wealthy, successful jewelry designer. She was just Sage, a woman who was facing incredible changes, whose life had been flipped upside down and inside out. Yeah, she'd been a bitch of epic proportions earlier but her insecurity, her churning emotion and her fears made her seem more real, more authentic.
Humbled by her apology, touched by her honesty, Tyce ducked his head and slapped his mouth across hers. He heard her intake of breath, felt her fighting the instinct to pull back and to step away from him but when he gently suckled on her bottom lip she fell toward him. Tyce wrapped his arms around her and hauled her in. Through the silk and cotton of their T-shirts, he could feel her hard nipples digging into his pecs and air rushed from his chest. Needing to feel her skin while he explored her mouth, he pushed his hand beneath the band of her leggings and his knees nearly buckled when he held her round but firm bottom in his hand.
He was kissing Sage and she was kissing him back, her tongue sliding into his mouth, tangling with his. Despite them making love frequently over the past two weeks, he still couldn't quite believe that she was back in his bed and his life. Tyce pulled her into him, his fingers sliding into the space between her legs and he could feel the moist heat from her core flowing over his skin.