She shoved on his unmoving chest. “Let me by.”
Not a chance in hell. “Not until you talk to me.”
“Talk?” she blurted fiercely. “You want to talk? How about this, Luke. I didn’t want your help! Why can’t you accept that? I talked to Ron. He gave me an advance. The situation is handled. Done. There is nothing more to tell.”
Luke could barely believe his ears. “You asked Ron for help, but not me?”
“Yes!” she said. “Yes, I asked Ron and not you.” She shoved one more time on his chest. “Let me go, Luke.” When he didn’t budge, her features turned stormy. “Damn you, Luke. I can’t do this thing with you. I can’t do the caring, sharing, falling-in-love stuff. I can’t. I won’t. That wasn’t the deal. That isn’t what we were doing.”
He ignored the rejection, focused on the inadvertent admission. “You’re falling in love with me?”
She squeezed her eyes shut. “Why are you doing this?”
He moved his hands to the side of her face. “Because I’m falling in love with you, Katie.”
She sucked in a breath and blinked up at him, water clinging to her dark lashes, her brown eyes troubled. “I don’t want to feel these things.”
His chest tightened at what he saw in her face, what he sensed behind her words—she’d lost her parents. “I’m afraid of losing you, too,” he said.
She shook her head. “You don’t understand.”
“I do,” he said softly. “I remember what you told me about your parents, Katie. I know you’re worried about your sister. I know that asshole Joey screwed you over. I know you’re scared. But we can get through it together. I can’t promise something won’t happen to me. No one can make that kind of promise. I can’t even promise I’ll never be a jerk again, like when I jumped in the pool. But I can promise I will try and make every day we spend together memorable.” He pressed their palms together. “We’re good together, Katie. Damn good. I don’t want to lose that. I don’t want to lose us.”
“Luke,” she whispered, staring down at their palms for long seconds before her fingers entwined with his and closed down. Slowly, her gaze lifted. “I don’t want to lose us, either. Kiss me, Luke.”
His lips brushed hers, tongue moving past her lips in a gentle probe, a sweet caress, before he said, “I’m going to kiss you again. And again. I’m going to kiss every last inch of you. And then I’m going to start over and do it again.”
She smiled against his mouth. “What are you waiting for?”
***
HOURS LATER, in Luke’s bedroom, Katie and Luke lay together, naked, talking. She ran her hand over his chest, through the springy hair she loved so much. “I should be furious that you gave Josh that money.”
He leaned up, looked at her. “Come again?”
She rotated around to face him, onto her stomach, teasing him. “I’m not some kept woman, you know.”
“Oh, believe me,” he said, “I know.”
She smiled. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means you are the most independent, stubborn woman I have ever known.”
“Back at ya, mister,” she said.
“Hey, hey,” he said. “Are you calling me a woman?”
She laughed. He made her laugh so easily. After everything she’d felt today—all the emotions, the fear—Luke still made her smile. She climbed on top of him, straddling him, his heated stare warming her body. Katie leaned down and kissed him. “You are more man than any man I’ve ever dated.”
His hand slid to her face. “Then let me have all the woman, Katie. Don’t shut me out again.” And in true Luke form, he didn’t demand she respond. Instead, he kissed her, a soft, gentle kiss that reminded her, yet again, why she was falling in love with him. Why she probably already was in love with him. And why she had to take a chance that she might lose him in order to ever fully have him.
***
A WEEK LATER, the final at-home game before a month on the road had ended in a loss. Luke walked toward the locker room, his elbow wrapped with an Ace bandage, a bouncing ball having found him perfectly. To his right was Rick, to his left Conn, who stalked several steps ahead of them, pissed off as hell at Malone. “Son of a bitch,” Conn mumbled. “Ignored every other hand signal.” His voice raised. “Do you know what a hand signal is?”
Malone turned around and shot the finger at Conn. “Here’s a hand signal for you.”
“You shit,” Conn muttered, his New York accent getting stronger, which was never a good sign. “You just wait until you get into that locker room. I’ll show ya hand signals.”
“Oh, man,” Rick mumbled under his breath. “I’ll warn Coach.”
“He’s not worth a brawl that might end badly,” Luke warned, double-stepping to Conn’s side.