At his sober words, Keely pushed her spine into the vinyl booth, every muscle in her body suddenly as tight as a newly erected barbwire fence. She kept her eyes on his somber face, on the disappointment in his eyes.
“Maybe we should go back, but not to sex. Maybe we should go all the way back to when we were lawyer and client, casual acquaintances,” Dare said, his voice cool. Keely placed a hand over her heart, hoping she could stop her heart from ripping in two.
“Dare...” She didn’t want that. She couldn’t bear it.
“I’ve tried with you, Keely, done my damn best to show you we could be good together, that we could build something.” Dare stood up and jammed his hands into the pockets of his jeans, his jaw rock hard and his eyes narrowed. He had his courtroom face on, was wearing his don’t-mess-with-me look.
He was going to walk away...
“But this isn’t a one-way street and I need something, too. I’m thirty-five years old and I want a partner, a friend, someone I can lean on. But you’re determined to believe I’m going to hurt you. You are throwing away something with the potential to be amazing because you’re scared.”
Of course she was! Didn’t she have a right to be?
“I’m scared, too, but I’m done with being the only one who is fighting for us. I’m tired of being the only one who believes in us. I don’t believe in soul mates. In a world of eight billion people there has to be more than one person I can be happy with. Since you don’t want to join me on this ride, I’m going to find someone who will.”
His words were like a punch to her heart, a Taser to her soul. Keely opened her mouth to speak but couldn’t find air, her tongue unable to find the words. After a minute of staring at her, Dare yanked his wallet from the back pocket of his jeans, fished out some bills and tossed them on the table. “Right. Thanks for nothing.”
Keely wrapped her arms around her stomach and watched him walk away, wishing she was brave enough to call him back, wishing she could throw caution to the wind and love him.
He was walking away, but this time, and unlike all her previous lovers, she’d pushed him to do exactly that.
Unable to sleep, Beah, dressed in Finn’s shirt, walked out of his bedroom onto the smooth deck and leaned her forearms on the railing, looking down onto the harbor. It was chilly, sure, but Beah welcomed the icy breeze on her bare legs. She’d always liked the cold, liked how alive it made her feel.
Hot sex with Finn Murphy had the same effect on her. She’d been in Boston for a while now and she’d had a lot of sex, and all of it was fantastic. While she kept a few items in her room at Mounton House, most of her clothes were hanging in Finn’s closet, her shoes were mixed with his on his rack, her toiletries cluttered the surface of the bathroom cabinets. She’d all but moved in.
It was going to be hard to go back to London and her empty apartment. She’d never considered herself to be particularly lonely in London, but she suspected she would be when she returned. In Boston, she’d become—because Finn was close to his brothers and their partners—friends with his sister Tanna, his brother’s significant others, Joa and Sadie, and she’d met the Brogan twins and their partners. She’d been invited to lunch and to girls’ nights out, or to join them for a “before work” cup of coffee. They were smart and funny and, despite being Boston’s A-listers, very down to earth.
She had friends...and she liked it.
Work was also, currently, fun. She liked working out of the Boston office, being down the passage from her direct boss, Ronan. Email exchanges and telephone calls had worked but she liked being able to pop her head into Ronan’s office, to chat face-to-face about a client or a pitch. Working out of Murphy headquarters made her feel less isolated.
Yep, going back to London was going to suck. But she’d soon be moving into Michael’s upmarket offices in Kensington and she’d have a new challenge, new clients, and would be too busy to think and feel.
And that was how she liked to live her life...
Wasn’t it?
Beah heard Finn step out onto the deck and smiled when he wrapped his arms around her and rested his chin on the top of her head. Beah lifted her hands to hold his wrists, sighing as his heat warmed her back, butt and the backs of her thighs.
Finn, big and bold, gave the best hugs. He made her feel treasured and safe and protected. The way she did ten years ago before they fell apart.
Don’t get used to it, Beah. This isn’t a long-term thing.
“It’s freezing out here, Bee.”
He’d never been a fan of the cold. “Just a few minutes more.”
“Don’t blame me if our fingers fall off from frostbite.”
“Stop being dramatic, Murphy,” Beah replied, amused.
She looked across the harbor, sighed at the luxury boats. “Do you sail? I can’t remember.”
“Levi, Tanna’s fiancé, owns a marina and a couple of boats. I go out with him occasionally, but it’s not something I’m passionate about.”
Beah dropped a kiss on his wrist below the cuff of his sweatshirt. “And you still love risky sports?”
Finn hugged her closer, shivered, and Beah took pity on him. Stepping out of his arms, she walked to the sliding door and back into his warm bedroom, the covers messy from their lovemaking.