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I get the impression that she wants me to agree with her. To see her as the collected, capable woman she usually is. But we all have cracks in our armor. She’s no different because no matter what others call her, she’s human.
“I didn’t want to be up there in the first place,” she confides softly.
Pleasure spears through me. It’s a tiny thing, this small show of trust. I want to know all her secrets, and this is just the start. But then her words sink in.
She didn’t want to be in the auction?
Interesting. “Why’d you sign up?”
“I didn’t.” Her upper lip curls slightly. It’s so fast I almost wonder if I imagined it. “My mother signed me up.”
The censure in her tone is unmistakable.
“And I’m guessing you didn’t ask her to.”
She shakes her head. “I told her not to. But she never listens to me. I don’t know why I thought she’d start now. Silly of me,” she murmurs like she’s talking to herself.
So there’s bad blood between mother and daughter. I’m guessing that blood was boiling last night.
That familiar prickle tingles along the back of my neck. It’s the sixth sense I’ve learned to trust over the years. There’s a story here, something to pay attention to.
“I’m sorry if we made it worse for you,” I say, shoving my free hand into my pocket.
I’m not sure I’d change anything, though, even knowing what I do. She’d been exquisite on that stage. And I’d wanted her.
I wanted to claim her and for everyone in that room to know it. The possessiveness roars in my chest even now, and it’s hard to keep my hands to myself when I’m so tempted to reach for her. To touch her. To feel her against me again. Her soft skin, the thump of her pulse. I’ve got to play my cards right because I can’t spook her.
Katherine Montgomery is the type of woman you only get one shot with.
She shakes her head, and all that gorgeous hair shimmies around her shoulders. “I was glad someone was bidding. For a minute there, I thought it was going to be crickets.”
It’s my turn to huff a laugh. “Not a chance.”
“You’re kind to say that.”
She glances out at the ocean again, almost as if she’s embarrassed. Or shy. How can she not understand her lure? Has she really had so little interest? That seems unlikely. Does she not believe my interest is real? Sincere?
Fuck that.
I can’t have her doubting herself.
Or me.
Or how much I want her.
“It’s not kindness, Katherine.” I turn toward her.
She purses her lips. “Wha—what happened to Katie Bird?”
“Katie Bird.”
Her lips curve. She likes having a nickname. It makes me wish I could give her a thousand.
I cup her cheek.
I shouldn’t. I should back away, but I can’t. She’s like an inescapable magnet. And I can’t stop hearing her voice in my head.
Not yet.
