Compass (Second Chances 1)

My heart was already in tender hands by then.

“I’m doing everything I can to see her.” His voice quakes. “I won’t stop until I can tell her face-to-face how much I love her.”

“I’m sorry that Madison won’t let that happen,” I offer, fighting the urge to call his ex-girlfriend a bitch.

“Perry’s threatened by my relationship with Kristin.” His jaw clenches. “He petitioned the court to have his name added to her birth certificate. Madison hasn’t admitted it, but I know he was behind my arrest when I tried to see Kristin in London.”

He was arrested trying to see his daughter?

What the hell?

How can any parent cut off contact with a person who raised their daughter? What is the reasoning behind removing a loving caregiver from a child’s life?

“I’m sorry, love.” The endearment leaves my lips before I realize what I’ve said.

I haven’t called him love in forever.

Gage shifts until he’s right next to me. His hand darts to my cheek. “You can’t know what that does to me, Katie. Hearing you call me that.”

I stare into his eyes. “I want to help. Tell me how I can help you see your daughter.”

“We will see my daughter,” he says assuredly. “I want you to meet her.”

I want that too, more than I realized until this very moment.

“I should have explained about the complications with her custody the day I told you about her.”

I quiet him with a soft kiss to the lips. I hold him against me, my breath melding with his.

As desperately as I want to confess my secret to him, I can’t. Not now. Tonight I need to comfort him.

Chapter 46

Gage

I curse under my breath. I don’t know what the fuck I was thinking when I agreed to host this bachelor party.

Katie is waiting for me at her apartment.

We made love early this morning after I told her that I wasn’t Kristin’s biological father.

It was Katie who urged me back into bed.

She dropped my shirt on the floor and wrapped her body around mine.

I was hard instantly.

After taking me in her mouth, she took me inside of her.

I was sheathed and wanting. I fucked her slowly, but the need to hear her come drove me to up the pace.

With wild, frantic fucks I took her over the edge before I emptied myself into the condom with long, heavy breaths.

She kissed me goodbye before she left for work and made me promise that once Myles’s bachelor party was over, I’d be in her bed.

It’s after midnight.

Cases of beer have been emptied. Money has exchanged hands at the pool table and the ball game that was blaring from the television was over hours ago.