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.