Sugar Daddy(215)

Someone came into the kitchen. I heard the door close. I held still, praying I wouldn't have to talk to anyone. But a dark shadow moved through the unlit kitchen, too substantial to belong to anyone other than Gage.

"Liberty?"

After that I couldn't remain hiding in silence. "I don't want to talk," I said sullenly.

Gage filled the narrow entrance of the butler's pantry. Cornering me. The shadows were so thick, I couldn't see his face.

And then he said the one thing I would never have expected him to say.

"I'm sorry."

Anything else would have bolstered my anger. But those two words caused tears to spill over the wind-stung rims of my eyes. I ducked my head and let out a shuddery sigh. "It's fine. Where's Carrington?"

"Dad's talking to her." Gage came to me in a couple of measured strides. "You were right. About everything. I told Carrington she has to wear a helmet from now on. And I just lowered the line a couple feet." A short pause. "I should have asked you before putting it up. It won't happen again."

He had an absolute gift for surprising me. I would have thought he'd be scathing, argumentative. The tightness left my throat. I lifted my head, the darkness thinning until I could see the outline of his head. The scent of outdoors clung to him. wind laced with ozone, dry grass, something sweet like freshly cut wood.

"I'm overprotective," I said.

"Of course you are," Gage said reasonably. "That's your job. If you weren't—" He

broke off with a sharp indrawn breath as he saw a glitter of moisture on my cheek. "Shit. No, no: don't do that." He turned to a set of drawers in the pantry, fumbled until he found a pressed napkin. "Damn it, Liberty, don't. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry I put up that fucking zip line. I'll take it down right away." Gage, usually so deft, was unaccountably clumsy as he blotted my cheeks with the soft folded linen.

"No." I said, sniffling, "I want the line to s-stay up."

"Okay. Okay. Whatever you want. Anything. Just don't cry."

I took the napkin from him and blew my nose and sighed shakily. "I'm sorry I exploded out there. I shouldn't have overreacted."

He hovered, paused, shifted like a restless animal in a cage. "You spend half your life taking care of her, protecting her, and then one day some asshole is shooting her across the yard on a line five feet off the ground with no helmet. Of course you'd be pissed."

"It's just...she's all I've got. And if anything ever happened to her—" My throat constricted but I forced myself to continue. "I've known for a long time that Carrington needs a man's influence in her life, but I don't want her to get involved with you and Churchill because this won't last forever, us being here, and that's why—"

"You're afraid for Carrington to get involved," he repeated slowly.

"Emotionally involved, yes. She'll have a hard time when we leave. I...I think this was a mistake."

"What was?"

"Everything. All of this. I shouldn't have taken Churchill's offer. We never should have moved here."

Gage was silent. A trick of the light made his eyes gleam as if with their own illumination.

"What?" I asked defensively. "Why aren't you saying anything?"

"We'll talk about it later."

"We can talk about it now. What are you thinking?"

"That you're projecting again."

"About what?"

I stiffened as he reached for me. My thoughts scattered as I felt his hands, the heat of male skin. His legs bracketed mine, the muscles hard beneath thin worn denim. I gasped a little as his hand slid around my neck. His thumb made a slow pass at the side of my throat, and the light stroke aroused me shamefully.

Gage spoke against my hair, the words sinking to my scalp. "Don't pretend this is all about Carrington. You're worried about your own damned emotional involvement."

"Am not," I protested through dry lips.

He eased my head back, bent over me. A mocking whisper tickled my ear. "You're so full of it, darlin'."

He was right. I had been so naive to think that somehow we were going to visit the

Travises' world like a pair of tourists, participating without becoming involved. But somehow connections had been formed, my heart had found purchase in unexpected places. I was involved more than I had ever dreamed possible.

I began to tremble. There was a low tightening in my stomach as Gage's mouth wandered to the edge of my jaw, the corner of my lips. I backed away from him until my shoulders came up hard against the cabinets, causing a delicate rattle of china and crystal. Gage's supporting arm forced an arch at the small of my back. With every breath I took, my chest lifted against his.