Unexpected Legacy

What would it be like to marry someone like Kate? Someone he cared for. He wanted. Not for any other purpose but because he needed her by his side.

Flooded with tenderness, he felt her squirm to get closer, and her T-shirt rode up to reveal...those purple panties that made his mouth water.

Just give me something to think about other than those long legs. Those sweet purple panties...

Her hair was still wrapped in a white towel, and Garrett gently unwound it and ran it slowly over her scalp, seeing her lashes resting on her cheekbones as she let him dry her hair, her skin pale in the sunlight.

He wanted to kiss those soft lips, which were natural and bare today, peachy in color. He wanted to slide his hands up her arms, touch her bare skin and memorize its texture, its color, its temperature. He wanted her eyelashes to flutter apart, so he could stare into her eyes and say something about the things roiling inside of him.

Instead, he finished drying her hair and tossed the towel onto the chair by the window. He shifted back to her side, noticing how she stiffened and tightened her hold on his collar until he wrapped his arm tightly around her again, and she relaxed.

He yanked off his tie and set it on the nightstand, and then wrapped his other arm around her waist and set his jaw on the top of her head. Her hair smelled of raspberries. He’d wanted to know? Yeah. He had his answer. And now his blood heated with one whiff. He grabbed the bed sheet and pulled it up over them both, not wanting her to notice his painfully pulsing erection if she opened her eyes.

She sighed and turned to him, snuggling closer. Her breasts brushed his ribs, and his body went crazy. He dragged his fingers down her shoulder and to her waist and stroked the little bit of skin exposed from her raised T-shirt.

He kissed her forehead. She didn’t stir. Sweet baby, she looked so vulnerable today. He knew she was strong, but he still wanted to coddle her. He looked at her lips and ran a hand down her damp hair. He’d never wanted anything more than to make this woman happy. And right now, he wanted to kiss her.

“You awake, Kate?” he asked, his voice barely recognizable, it was so gruff.

She was breathing evenly, which confirmed she’d fallen asleep. Garrett slid his hand up and down her arm, his heart pounding. He bent his head and kissed her freckles, a light, dry kiss, and then he stole a kiss from her soft, marshmallow mouth.

Intoxicating. Soft. Female. Perfect.

Coming undone, he drank in her expression. Her eyes remained shut, her lashes forming titian-colored half-moons against her cheekbones.

He stroked the back of one finger down her jaw. She was everything he’d wanted and never allowed himself to have, and she was breathing like a baby, sleeping like one. He heard his own haggard exhale as he tried to draw back. He bent down again, softly brushing his lips over her forehead, then her nose, her cheekbones, her jaw...until he fitted his mouth back over her lips and whispered, “Kate.”

She remained asleep, but sighed at her name and opened her mouth under his, her breath blending with his. Desire exploded in the pit of his stomach. The urge to splay his body over hers, open her lips wider, search her tongue with his, bury himself inside her, was so acute, he had to drag his jaw up her temple as he fought for control, completely infuriated with himself.

What was he doing?

Since when had he become a masochist?

He’d always known he couldn’t have Kate. He’d done everything in his power to stay away from her. He’d hurt her enough, and he didn’t truly feel he could ever make a woman happy when he had so many regrets on his shoulders.

It was hard to believe you were ever worthy when someone had died to give you your life.

But the thought of Kate leaving had set a beast loose inside him. He wanted to protect her and look after her, and just imagining that she could meet a man in Florida, a man she could have powerful feelings for, made him feel rabid to stake a claim.

Even now, when there were no states separating them and he was holding her snug in his arms, it just didn’t seem like he could get close enough to her. He’d spent years pushing her away, and now it felt like she wouldn’t ever let him back in.

And if she did, he didn’t even know what he’d do with himself or this wanting.

Four

More than a week later, Kate’s wood-paneled kitchen was a mess of cooking utensils as she, Beth and Molly fiddled around on the kitchen island. Kate and Beth had a looming deadline to cater a baby shower this afternoon. Worse, now only Beth would be going to set up, since Kate had had a last-minute change of plans.

Molly had been the one to deliver the plan-altering news less than an hour ago, when she’d casually mentioned that Julian had been asked to fill in for Garrett at the San Antonio Daily this morning. Garrett had come down with strep.

Kate had been floored. How could she not go and take care of him?

“You love that man like crazy, Kay. Just look at how you’re running to his side at the first sign of trouble! I just can’t see why you’re so determined to leave Texas,” Molly complained as she licked the remaining vanilla topping off a discarded spatula. Her cheek was smeared with a streak of red.

Since she was an artist, Kate’s little sister always had smudges on her clothes, hair or face, but it only enhanced her bohemian style and made her look even cuter—especially to Julian, who would always tickle and poke her whenever she was “messy.”

“You know, I thought you guys would bond over your strep throat,” Molly continued with a frown. “You still could now that you gave it to him. Did he kiss you?”

Kate clicked the oven light on and peered through the window to check on Garrett’s muffins. “Molly, please start supporting me a little more in my decision. I’ve told you I’ll fly over here to see you as much as I can. We can talk on Skype all the time, too. And of course we didn’t kiss. I’m not stupid! Who kisses a sick person?” Kate said in disgust.

“Someone who loves them.”

She snorted. “We’re not you and Julian.”

“Kate, the day Julian and I got back together, he and Garrett had a talk. Julian tells me that the man is severely and painfully in love with you and doesn’t even know it.”

Kate’s heart stuttered, and at that moment, her chest felt as spongy as the muffins she was watching through the oven window. She remembered the way Garrett had taken care of her the day she’d come home with strep.

He’d checked in on her every afternoon afterward, but that first day, he’d spent the night with her. A quiver raced down her skin when she remembered how they’d cuddled all night. He’d stayed dressed, like he had when he’d been drunk and crashed in her bedroom the night of his birthday, but he’d held her as if she was precious.

When she’d woken up in the middle of the night to realize he was holding her, she had been engulfed with such a feeling of happiness beyond what she’d ever felt before. On impulse, she’d stroked her fingers along his stubbled jaw, and he’d made a strange, groaning noise as he’d turned his face into her touch, his voice deliciously groggy. “You feel all right? Do you need anything?”

“Sorry. I’m perfect. Go to sleep.”

She’d cuddled back down to hear his heart beat under her ear, and she’d wanted to stay awake just to memorize its rhythm. She’d never, ever, felt so whole. Which only made her feel sorry for herself now. Because they hadn’t even kissed. Had he made her melt over some snuggles?

It wasn’t just the snuggling. It was also that they’d known each other for so long they didn’t even need to talk. When she’d woken up, he’d been awake and watching her with a smile on his handsome face, and his eyes had seemed to turn liquid as he’d run a finger down her cheek. “Fever’s gone,” he’d whispered.

And she’d almost swallowed her tongue and nodded. Because she’d known there was nothing she could do for the other kind of fever inside her. She’d had to remind herself that this was Garrett, a very stubborn, hardheaded Gage man, and that he wasn’t her lover or a Prince Charming. Garrett had some serious baggage to deal with, and Kate had once loved him—too hard, and for too long, and too painfully—to allow so much as a little flicker of hope to linger.

Julian might think that Garrett had feelings for Kate, but all he surely felt was the same thing he’d always felt. Guilt and responsibility.

Beth spoke up from her corner of the island, where she busily worked her artistic skills on a tray of cookies for the shower. “You’re shaking your head at me now, Kate, but now that I think about it, I also suspect Garrett has always had a thing for you.”

“No, he doesn’t. And I’m sick and tired of chasing after him like some tramp,” Kate countered as she dumped the egg shells in the trash and wiped the granite counter clean.

Molly laughed. “Kate, you’ve never chased after Garrett, at least not blatantly. Men are sometimes stupid about those things—you need to be frank with them.”

Frank?

All right, so let’s be frank.

Kate had stripped in front of him. She had almost kissed him in her bed when he’d dragged that cool cloth around her body. Hell, she was pretty sure if she hadn’t been sick, she would have thrown herself at him. And she’d done this with her plane ticket to Florida already sitting in her night drawer. That just couldn’t be good. Could it?

She’d lain there with her eyes closed as he ran that cloth over her, and she’d been shaking in her bones as she’d imagined what it would feel like to be kissed by him. She’d even had dreams about it all during the week. Heat had spread through her at one particularly erotic one, when she’d felt him touch her aching nipples, then kiss them....

That night in her bed, she’d wanted to dissolve into his strong arms when he’d held her, and when he’d dried her hair, she’d been so affected and felt such desire pool between her thighs, she’d almost released an embarrassing sound that only her raw throat—abused by the strep—had been able to stop.

No. If she stayed here, she wouldn’t be able to stay away from Garrett, and seeing him while not having him would be torment. It had always been so, but after the night of his birthday, when he’d cradled her face and tried to tell her he’d do anything to fix her “dilemma,” and after he’d nursed her when she was sick, it felt doubly so.

It.

Hurt.

The man might not love her as his mate, but he cared about her, and Kate knew this was exactly why she’d never be able to ever come clean with her feelings. He’d either feel awful about not responding, or feel pity for her and do something gallant like keep on sacrificing himself for her to make up for what he “took.”

She. Had. To. Leave!

And start fresh, without Garrett’s shadow tormenting and taunting her.

She knew it would be difficult. But she still had to leave. She had to give herself the chance, and Garrett his freedom.

Thinking about him, sick and bedridden today, made her stomach knot as she put on a floral-print oven mitt and bent over to pull the tray of muffins out of the oven. She’d made this particular recipe because it had lately become her favorite. The muffins were healthy and yummy, made of almond flour, with orange zest and black currants and walnuts. She set them on the cooling grill and prepared a small basket while the chicken soup finished.

“Food. That’s how you guys make love, I swear. Those sounds he makes when he eats your cookies.”

“Whoa!” Beth said from the corner, where she was now adding the decorations to the pacifier-shaped chocolate lollipops. “You’re getting wicked, Molls!”

Molly laughed, fairly radiating mischief.

Beth laughed and shook her head, but then turned sober as she watched Kate stir the chicken soup. “Kate, it’s not a bad idea. If you’re taking that over to his apartment, you could totally seduce him. I mean, clearly the man wants you. Every time you’re not looking, he’s staring in your direction. Maybe if you guys work it out, you wouldn’t be so determined to leave?”

“You’re confusing him with Landon looking at you, Beth,” Kate countered, turning off the stove. “Plus, I won’t begin with the way Julian looks at you, Molly—oh, Lord, that man loves you.”

“Does he?” Molly said with a cheeky grin, twirling the tip of her ponytail in one finger. “I don’t ever tire of him telling me he does. God, I can’t wait to marry him and make him all mine.”

Looking thoughtful, Beth followed Kate to the cupboard as she pulled out a glass container.

“Kate, if Garrett didn’t want you he wouldn’t spend all day taking care of you when you look like leftovers.”

Kate rolled her eyes. “Thanks, Beth. With friends like you, who needs an enemy?”

“Kate! Come on, listen to us. We’re dishing out good advice here.”

“Even if he ‘wanted me’ for one crazy night and I managed to get him to drop his guard,” Kate said, facing them, “I want love. If I can’t have what you guys have, I’d rather be alone.”

Molly sighed. For the first time since her Florida announcement, Kate could tell that the possibility of her moving to another state was truly sinking in. It hurt, too. To hurt them. She knew they didn’t want her to leave, but she also knew that deep down, they understood.

“I still think you could find love here in Texas.” Despite her words, Molly sounded more dejected now. “Garrett would make a great husband once he realizes everything that happened is not his fault.”

“Molly, please, I can’t talk about this anymore. I don’t love him anymore, and he’s not interested in me. When will you guys understand? Garrett always gets what he wants. He’s not a subtle man. If he wanted me, don’t you think he’d go for me?”

When Beth and Molly exchanged sad looks and fell silent, Kate’s stomach sank. Well, what had she expected? Had she wanted one of them to lie and contradict her? Maybe so, but the truth was the truth, and they couldn’t change it.

Molly attempted to lighten up the suddenly somber ambience. “I still think it’s sweet, you going over with soup and muffins.”

“Well, he’s obviously sick because of me. I have to repay the favor. I was thinking of doing something nice for him to say thank-you for taking care of me, anyway.”

For holding me and watching my fever break and just making me feel like he cares at least a little bit.

Even if the devil’s ultimate plan had probably been to remove Miami from Kate’s agenda.

She sighed as she glanced at the muffins. Without further hesitation, she put them in a small basket, then poured the soup in a large glass container. This might be the last time in her life she nursed Garrett back to health, so she had to make it count.

* * *

The doorman recognized Kate as she walked into the marble lobby with her goodies in her arms. She told him that she was here to drop the stuff off for Garrett, and he allowed her to go up to the penthouse.

Trying not to make noise, she entered the palatial bachelor pad. It was simple and modern, with dark leather furniture with chrome accents, glass tables and dark walnut flooring. But what she most loved was the stainless-steel, state-of-the-art kitchen. It almost seemed to be merely decorative, since she knew Garrett rarely ate at home, but it was still worthy of a five-star restaurant.

Heating up the hot drawer, Kate slid the chicken soup container inside, and then set the muffins on a covered cake stand. Satisfied with her work, she resisted the urge to go primp herself, but did take a peek at her appearance in the mirror over the entry console.

She looked...quite nice, actually.

Now that she was no longer sick, the color had returned to her cheeks. Her eyes had a nice shine, as though she were excited about something, and the soft cotton sundress with blue-and-white stripes almost made it seem like she was ready for the beach. She’d bought it specifically with Florida in mind, but, oh well, today she’d felt like wearing something he hadn’t seen her in before.

And she wasn’t even going to dwell on her reasoning either.

It was only that he’d looked extra good when he’d come to see her and she’d felt and looked like crapola, and now she wanted him to...well, to think she looked like a fresh piece of sunshine.

“Garrett?” She called his name softly down the hall, her stomach turning leaden at each tentative footstep she took toward his bedroom. She didn’t know what she’d do if she found him in bed with someone. Nothing, probably, but she would definitely cry about it later.

She knew he slept with women. A man like him had his choice of girls all the time. But Garrett had always been discreet about it and he’d never really paraded a lot of women in front of Kate. She couldn’t begin to imagine how much it would hurt if she saw him kissing someone, or lying in bed with someone, or putting his arm around someone....

She paused at his open bedroom door, holding her breath. The drapes were wide open, letting the sun inside. His bedroom was done in different shades of gray and black, the nightstands made of ebony wood with chrome accessories. It was all so manly, she couldn’t imagine any design more fitting to Garrett’s dark good looks.

Something warm flitted through her when she spotted his prone figure on the bed. Her heart almost stopped when she realized he was only wearing a pair of black boxer briefs, the rest of his body covered in his natural golden tan and nothing else. Suddenly he looked very large, very dark and very powerful.

“Garrett?”

He stiffened almost imperceptibly, but Kate couldn’t miss the tensing of the muscles in his back. “I’m going to kill my mother,” he growled into his folded arm.

“She didn’t tell me. Molly did.”

“Then I’m going to kill Julian.”

He rolled to his side and pulled the satiny gray bedspread up to his waist.

It was hard not to notice how beautiful his muscled torso was, and how sexy he looked with his dark hair all rumpled.

It was also hard not to notice his scowl.

Kate bit back a smile and stepped in with her arms up in feigned innocence. “Me. Come. In. Peace. Bring food. For. Grumpy. Man. May I pass?”

“Freckles, get away or you will get strep again.”

“I will not.”

“Get out of here, Katie.”

She shook her head. “Katie. No. Understand. What. Grumpy. Man. Says.”

“Grumpy man says leave,” Garrett said, but all of Kate’s maternal instincts had flared to life with just one look at him, and she couldn’t suppress the need to coddle this man like she had when they were younger and she’d helped Eleanor take care of him.

She kicked off her shoes, and before thinking about it, jumped onto the bed next to him, taking care not to touch any part of his body. “You’re not the only bed crasher, you know. I have full authority to crash your bed now that you’ve crashed mine twice.”

He sighed and closed his eyes, banging his head on the headboard. “Get out of my bed.”

“Not until you let me feed you. Starve the virus, feed the fever? Sound familiar? My part-time doc told it to me.”

“Docs are renowned for failing to take their own advice.”

“This one is special. Hey, have they medicated you?”

“I’m already drugged as hell. I don’t want to eat, Freckles. Just get out of here.”

Now Kate scowled, too.

“Garrett, why won’t you look at me? Are you in pain? You look like you are.”

“Yeah, I’m in pain.”

“What is it? Is it your head?” She felt his forehead and he was definitely hot. And she noticed he’d stiffened.

“Don’t,” he murmured, seizing her wrist and returning her hand to her lap.

Eyes widening at the lines of agony carved in his face, she curled her fingers into her palm because they tingled after his touch.

He inhaled long and deep before his lids finally lifted open, and her heart melted when he looked at her with that dark, tired gaze. His glassy look killed her, but something there, something she couldn’t decipher, made her stomach constrict. His pupils were fully dilated and his eyes held a strange awareness.

“Please just leave,” he said, and there was something very desperate in his voice that almost made her hesitate.

“Come here, Garrett.” She slid closer until her back was against the gray suede headboard, and she urged his dark head to rest against her chest and ran her fingers through his hair. “If you don’t want to eat, just let me keep you company.”

He groaned on contact, and wrapped his arms around her waist. “Kate, I don’t have the energy to do this with you today.”

“This what? I’m not planning to fight you.”

“This... Damn.” He made another deep noise when she lightly massaged his scalp. As her fingers twined in his hair and he pressed closer and tightened his hold around her, her body experienced all sorts of chemical reactions. He was adorable. She wanted to hug him. To tuck him into her suitcase and take him with her.

Crazy girl. The point was to get away from him, wasn’t it?

She continued caressing his hair until he relaxed against her, and her body also turned mushy. When his voice reached her ears minutes later, she started, for she’d almost been falling asleep with him.

“You used to bring me soup when I was sick.” He spoke in a murmur against her chest, and his warm breath slipped seductively into her cleavage. “I liked getting sick because of you.”

She laughed. “You’re a very troubled man, Garrett.”

“I was a very troubled young boy.”

He angled his face so he could peer up at her, then raised his hand and absently ran his thumb down the bridge of her nose. “And you? You weren’t Little Miss Perfect. When you heard the thunder and lightning and that huge storm one night, you lost your marbles completely. Do you remember?”

She dropped her hands as he sat up.

“I’m not sure, since I lose my marbles with all the storms.”

“The one that made both you girls run into the boys’ room. Before we knew it, Molly had jumped into Julian’s bed and you were in mine. But Jules tried to hide her under the covers, and you and I immediately went all around the house looking for Molly, thinking she was somewhere else.”

“Okay. Now I remember.”

He sat back with his temple propped against the headboard, his eyes suddenly warm with the memory. “You and I ended up splitting up to find Molly, and I found you asleep in the living room after I found out Julian had hijacked her and was hiding her in his bed. Do you remember what you said?”

Kate was so riveted by his retelling, by the way his smile flashed as he remembered, she’d lost all power of speech. He looked...happy. And also sad?

And devastating.

When she didn’t answer, he tipped her head back by the chin, and his voice acquired a strange note. It was deeper. Especially with that strep-throat rasp. “You asked me why I hadn’t hijacked you, too.”

A strange tingle was growing in the pit of Kate’s stomach, and she couldn’t stop it, couldn’t control it.

“I was probably more asleep than awake.”

The atmosphere around them felt heavy with something unnameable and untamable. She became fiercely aware of every point of contact of their bodies. Her knee against his thigh. Her shoulder against the side of his arm.

“Do you want me to hijack you now, Kate?”

Her stomach tightened at the question. “What do you mean?” She narrowed her eyes and told herself his husky tone was due to the strep throat, but it was too thick, too heavy, as heavy as those coal-black eyes.

He cupped her cheek in one huge, dry palm. “You always took care of Molly until she found Julian. You always put her first, before anything else. Didn’t you?”

When Kate could only nod, he continued.

“This is how I am with you, Kate. It’s instinctive in me. Putting you first. I’d never take advantage of you, that’s my number-one priority. But if I knew you might want something from me, I would like to give it to you. So...”