Secured Heart (Timberon Cat Book 1) (4 page)

Seeing Kal, who was practically looming over him caused her ex-boyfriend to topple to the side, landing on his butt with a hard thud. “What in the hell?”

Silent, Kal stood there, statue-like as he kept his gaze locked on the man.

“
You-you shouldn’t sneak up on people like that.” Ben stuttered, but managed to rise to his feet. Snapping the small box closed in his hand, he puffed out his narrow chest. Ben, at five nine, was seven inches shorter than Kal and slim. However, he took martial arts classes and she was sure he believed he could take Kal. “Thanks for giving my fiancé a ride home from the event, but she is fine now. You can go.”

Kal shot a look past him to her, piercing her with questions.

Questions she didn’t want to answer now. Maybe never. “Ben, I need you to go.”

“
What?” He faced her. “Why me? He’s just your ride, right?” He gritted out between clenched teeth.

“
Please. We can meet for lunch tomorrow or something. But, we are done. I was serious.” She kept her tone even. Ben could be a little thick headed when it came to opinions that weren’t similar to his. As a philosophy professor at the local college it worked, as a boyfriend it didn’t.

He shook his head. “We will never be done.” Ben peered over his shoulder at Kal as he declared, “I will give you space now, but we will discuss this at length tomorrow.”

Frustrated, she ran a hand through her hair, not caring if she messed it up. “Fine. Whatever.”

Ben stomped off across the street to a visitor parking spot were his blue BMW was parked. Had she been paying attention to her surroundings instead of the man in the car with her, she would have seen Ben’s vehicle. Her mind locked on the man who had driven her home, Kal.

Walking back to her door, she unlocked it. Glancing over her shoulder, she met his gaze. “You coming in?”

“
Am I invited?” There was an edge to his voice.

Lana didn’t need to be told he had questions about Ben. Men.

“
Yes.” Not looking back, she walked into her home. She removed her shoes in the foyer and picked them up. “Would you like something to drink? Wine or coffee?”

He followed her example and removed his leather Chukka boots, but left them against the wall by the door. “Water, please. Shifting makes me thirsty.”

Starting toward the kitchen she paused. “You shifted?”

“
While you were still at the event. I went to run at the Botanical Gardens down the road.
“It was closed, so that gave me the solitude I needed until I can get up to our pride lands.”“

“
When we were in college you said it was a risk for you to shift in city limits.”

“
No worries, I kept to the shadows on the way.” He winked at her, even though his features were still stoic.

He hadn’t let go of the encounter with Ben.

“
Take a seat. Let me get you that water.” Crossing the gray-carpeted floor she went into the spacious area of her kitchen and set her purse on the island. Opening a cabinet she took out a glass and filled it with ice and water from the refrigerator.

Lana hadn’t had anything to drink all night to ensure she’d stayed alert while on the job. She poured herself a goblet of dry red wine that she had in her cooler. She took two healthy sips before going back into the front room where Kal was.

“
Is that guy why you are keeping me at arm’s length?” He hitched his head toward the door as he stood by the living room window.

It didn’t have to be said who Kal was talking about.

“
Yes and no.” She passed him the water and went and sat down on her couch. It had been a long night and her feet—and mind—were both tired.

He arched an eyebrow and drank his water.

All his silent macho attitude was beginning to grate on her nerves. “Look, Kal, it has been years since I’ve seen you. Years.” She threw up a hand. “Hell, we were friends then. Just friends. You made sure I understood tha-t.” She swallowed down more wine trying to cover up her emotions.

Moving closer to her, he sat down on the center cushion as he set his empty glass on a coaster on the coffee table. “Back then it was important for me to keep you at a distance.”

“
It doesn’t matter. We are friends. Have always been friends. Maybe that should be how it stays.” She stared down into her wine. It broke her heart.

“
The hell it should.” His words were calm, blunt, lacking in vehemence but not intensity.

“
What is the difference between now and when we were in college? You have a lack of women chasing you?” Her glass clinked against the wood of the table as she set it down.

“
No.” He didn’t even crack a smile.

She figured that meant that he wasn’t settling for her and in some weird way that made her feel good and warm inside. Maybe it was because in college she always felt like he would never consider her or look in her direction with anything other than fondness until he’d screwed every co-ed at the university. So, knowing that he was sniffing around her when he could be with someone else did make her a little giddy. A little.

This wasn’t college and she wasn’t a silly little girl anymore, waiting on a man’s crumbs.

“
Well, it doesn’t matter. This…” she pointed from him to her. “Is not going to happen.”

Never taking his gaze off her, he leaned back against the couch appearing comfortable. “Talk to me, mate.” He covered one of her hands resting in her lap.

Unable to keep from staring, she glanced down at their hands, different in their complexions and size. As a small-framed woman, her hand seemed dwarfed by his larger one. He had a wide hand, with blunt nails and a few faded scars from God only knew what. She knew that he’d provided defense in Afghanistan for a couple years, but she was sure there was a lot more story and history there. With Kal, there always was.

She had to push away the security and joy she experienced in his touch. Not wanting to be rude and because she did miss her friend, she didn’t pull her hand away. Instead she
suffered
through his touch.

Glancing up at him, she said, “Don’t call me that.”

“
Mate?” He linked his fingers with hers.

Too late to pull away now without making a big production of it. “Yes. Mate. That’s not me.”

His chuckle was low, it rumbled. “Oh, but you are.”

Shifting so that her back was in the corner of her couch she stared at him. “I don’t plan to debate this with you.”

“
Then tell me about this Ben guy. Where did you meet him?”

“
At a coffee shop, believe it or not. It was one of those days where everyone in the world gets up for coffee. I was standing in a long line and made a comment about something that was going on during the state election. Ben responded with an opposite opinion. I didn’t know he was behind me. I turned and asked him about his thoughts on the subject. An hour later we both had our drinks, his an herbal tea and mine—”

“
Caramel espresso, heavy cream.”

Slowly she closed her gaping mouth. “That’s right.”

A crooked smile tilted his lips as he brushed the back of her hand with his thumb. “During midterms and finals you wanted to study at my apartment because of my espresso machine.”

She scrunched the bridge of her nose. “Oh, gracious…”

“
Oh, there’s more.” He teased as he released her hand and turned his body so that he was fully facing her. His knee was bent, almost touching her hip and he rested his arm along the back of the couch.

“
I don’t think I want to know. It’s probably embarrassing.” She rolled her top lip in and bit into it, holding back her mirth.

He shrugged. “Only if you consider dragging your friend out into the cold, in the middle of the night to find a store open that sold caramel sauce and heavy cream because I was out and you were going nuts about your Econ exam.”

Laughing loud and hard, she buried her face in her hands. “Oh, no. I remember that.” She lowered her hands. “That was after I discovered your secret and you kept apologizing for drinking all the cream. ‘Cats like cream, Lana. You just can’t keep leaving it around.’”

Chuckling, he confessed, “Well we do.”

She pointed at his glass on the table. “Maybe I should have brought you milk instead.”

“
Later.” He grasped a lock of her hair and played with it. “I miss laughing with you. Being with you.”

The mood around them became serious again.

She glanced away from his amazing amber eyes and stared down at her fingers brushing along the hem of her dress. “I’ve missed you, too, Kal. However, I don’t think that means we should take this to the next level.”

“
Do you love him?”

Her brows drew tight. “Ben? No. After Paul Stellar and losing my scholarship and my best friend, I kept my distance from men. Didn’t date. Then Ben happened and it was just so easy and comfortable I let it become serious. My fault entirely. All these years I used him just as Stellar used me. Instead of a cute young thing on my arm, I wanted companionship. Six years is a long time to be alone.”

“
But you broke it off?” His hand moved deeper into her hair, stroking along the waves her curling iron had created with an occasional brush of her scalp.

She wanted to purr, having someone play in her hair was one of her joys. “Over two months ago. However, I’ve given in too often when he wanted to talk when I should have cut it off permanently. Ben is a nice, sweet man, but a few months back he went away to Greece to study some lost writings of Socrates or someone that were discovered. During those three weeks he was away I didn’t hear from him. I didn’t miss him either.” She glanced over at the man beside her and kept her thoughts to herself.

The ones where she would confess to Kal how much she had missed and longed for him every day of the six years they had been apart. She wanted to tell him things that were funny that happened or curl against his chest and weep when sad events came around. But he hadn’t been there.

“
That’s telling if your life didn’t miss a step without him in it.”

“
I thought the same thing. When he called me from the airport on his way home, bubbling with excitement about his studies, I was happy for him. However my heart was filled with guilt because I realized in his tone how much he had missed me and I hadn’t given him more than a passing thought if someone asked where he was. It wasn’t fair to hold him in a loveless relationship.”

“
You did the right thing.” He took hold of one of her hands and held it on his knee.

“
At the wrong time. Ben believes that I was hurt he left or that he stayed away too long and that is why I ended it. So, the last few weeks have just been filled with him making irrational promises in hopes I will get back with him. Then tonight…” she shook her head recalling Ben down on his knee proposing.