The Problem With Heartache (43 page)

Two days later …

I
LOOKED
at the gorgeous girl sitting across from me, and I smiled. It still felt too good to be true. To
incredible
to be real. She was sitting there, having greeted me at the door to her parents’ home when I’d finished rehearsing with Michael, telling me that she had ready the most amazing pasta dinner I’d ever eaten—who even knew she could cook? When did she have time to learn those skills?

Of course, that wasn’t what was really amazing about it. She could have made me toast and I’d still be the idiot sitting across from her with the lovesick grin on his face. Because that was what she made me do. Smile. All the time.

“That was amazing.” I pushed back from my chair and stood up, grabbing her plate and taking it to the sink. “And for all your hard work, I’ll now be a gentleman and wash up.”

“Well … about that …” Kate made a face, and I tilted my head at her. “What do you define as hard work?”

I narrowed my eyes. “Kate …”

She reached over and pulled out the drawer containing the bin where a takeout container marked La Fiamma Italian Eatery was clearly visible. “To be fair, I never said I cooked it, specifically …”

She hadn’t. I had presumed. But the idea of punishing her was far more fun than letting it slide.

I grabbed the tea towel from next to the sink and held it up, flicking it out so it whipped her gently on the ass as she turned around. “Ow!” she shrieked, clutching her behind.

“Trust me, I’m just getting started.” I gave a wicked grin and she screamed as she ran to the other side of the table. I chased her, darting from one side to the other, trying to predict where she would make her escape. Both of us had these super goofy grins on our faces, the kind that up until now, I thought only happened in chick flicks.

Turned out life could be like that, too. Because right now, I felt as if I were living in one giant big happy cliché.

Kate darted to the edge of the table and made it to the stairs before I could catch her but I followed, tea towel in hand. She giggled and squealed the whole way, and I swear, better sounds didn’t exist. They simply didn’t.

I took my time when I reached the landing, then I took the ten steps to her room slowly, with care. I was gonna make this punishment good. She was gonna—

Kate stood in the doorway to her room in nothing but her bra and underwear. Red. Lacy.
See-through.

I was a dead man.

“Put the tea towel down, Lee,” Kate ordered, and it fell from my fingers like a feather. I think my jaw might have joined it somewhere on the floor, as I took in her creamy-white skin, her delicious curves, the way her hooded eyes looked at me as if she wanted me to do all the bad things I was thinking of doing to her right this second.

I stepped closer and wrapped my hands around her waist, my fingers skating over her smooth skin as my lips met her neck, sliding up and down it, taking delicious, sweet tastes. “You know this is a bad idea,” I mumbled in between nibbles of her ear, even if my body disagreed with me.

“Relax.” Kate rolled her head to the left, exposing more of her neck to my amorous lips. “Mum’s going to be at the hospital with Dad for another few hours. And we don’t have to Skype Lottie and Jay until tomorrow.”

I grinned as I continued my trail of kisses, working my way across her jawline to her mouth. Because yeah. Lottie and Jay were Skyping with us the next day, and coming to visit us next week. Lottie had asked to fly in from the States the day after I’d left, and I’d booked the first flights I could find. Maybe, the four of us could be one weird, dysfunctional family.

It was just a start.

But it was a damn good one.

I reached my hand around Kate’s back and fumbled with the clip of her bra, determined to let it loose. She froze and fisted my shirt in her hands, pulling me closer and slamming the door shut behind me.

“Let’s not waste any time,” she hissed right before her lips met mine in a passionate frenzy. Our mouths parted and all the tension that seemed to constantly hang between like a wire fizzled and sparked, resulting in a passionate explosion of our two bodies.

“Kate,” I groaned against her lips, finally getting that stupid, idiotic bra off and freeing her breasts. I cupped one, teasing her nipple, relishing when she arched into my touch.
Yes. This.

She grabbed the buckle of my belt and made short work of it, unbuttoning my fly as if she’d been doing it all her life—
had she been doi
—I banished the thought before it could eventuate. This was Kate. Kate was my girl. And Kate and I, we had no secrets. We told each other
everything.

Soon we were flesh on flesh, bare skin on bare skin, and it felt like everything and the only thing all at the same time. We were the universe, and we were small, in it together.

I crushed her against the bed, pinning her hands in place above her head as I kissed down her arm and her neck, lowering my mouth to graze her nipple.

“Lee,” she moaned, and I sucked a little harder, relishing in her give.

She pulled one arm free from my grasp and her hand wrapped around me, stroked me, until I was so hard I worried I would burst before this was over, before we’d even gotten to the main event.

I stopped and pulled back, looking at her once more. I shook my head.

“What?” she asked, a half-smile playing on her lips.

“You are without a doubt the best thing that’s ever happened to me.”

I knew it was the best thing I could have said. I could see the effect my words had on her, the pink raising from her chest to her cheeks.

“Will you get a condom already,” she groaned, but I knew she was happy. I’d learnt it from Michael; ignoring or downplaying a compliment was just the Australian way.

I turned and grabbed my jeans, extracting my wallet and a condom from within. Before I put it on, I leaned back over her and joined my lips to hers again, pressing up against her as our lips bruised each other, and our tongues duelled.

I ripped the packet open and rolled the condom on, not breaking contact with her sweet, sweet mouth, not for one second.

“Please, Lee,” Kate breathed, her chest rising and falling rapidly. “Please, make love to me.”

And I did. I lowered myself until she clenched me tight, her body embracing me as her own. I shuddered, the feeling almost too much to handle, almost too great to bear.

Slowly, I started to move, and her body responded to my actions, much more readily than it had the first time. I reached my hand down and gripped her thigh, wrapping it up and around my lower back as my other hand found her nipple, and soon her body started to convulse and shake around me.

That was all it took to undo me. That and the woman I loved, screaming my name as she fell to pieces.

When our bodies stilled, she lay against my chest, her brown hair fanned out over my arm, her breathing laboured.

“That was …” She sighed.

“Good?” I breathed.

Kate lifted her body and pounced on me, her mouth possessing mine like a witch. “We work, Lee Collins,” she said, a big grin on her face. “We’re just … we’re meant to be.”

And I smiled.

Because we were. Maybe I was meant to meet Lottie, meant to have her in my life. But maybe it was because that was what had stopped me from trying to have serious relationships sooner. That was what made me put family first.

Maybe all of this was meant to be, so I could be with Kate. And
we
were going to live happily ever after.

I
SAT
at the grave, a bunch of flowers in one hand, a cup of coffee in the other. He would have wanted that. Lachlan was a big believer in the importance of caffeinating.

“Hey,” I said to the stone, as I had almost three months ago to the day. God, how things changed. How much difference time could make.

“So, I wanted to come and formally tell you that I’m seeing someone.” I bit my lip. “But I brought you flowers, so you know, things aren’t all bad.”

A light breeze whispered the trees, and a bird swooped low overhead. I smiled, certain he’d have appreciated my sentiment, even if it he wasn’t here to receive it.

Or maybe he was.

I didn’t know.

“I still miss you, Lach.” I bit my lip. The acrid taste of blood filled my mouth as I continued with the pressure. I needed the release. “I miss you like … God, I just miss you.”

I’d thought I could hold it together, but I was wrong. Big, fat tears ran down my cheeks, and I swiped them away with the heel of my hand, trying to get my emotions under control. “But the thing is … the thing is, I can love you. I can love you forever, and ever, and ever, and I never have to stop.”