She moved across the room toward the entrance. She had to get him out of her penthouse before she fell apart in front of him. “I don’t love you and I can’t be with you.”
He grasped her arm as she passed and looked down into her face. “You keep mentioning love. Are you trying to convince me or yourself?”
She tried and failed to pull from his grasp. “Stop.”
“I’ve tried.” He placed one big hand on the side of her face. “I can’t.” He lowered his forehead to hers. “These past few days, not knowing if you were okay, have been hell.”
“I’m okay.”
“I’m not.”
His lips touched hers and she sucked in a breath. “Ty. You have to go.”
“Not yet.” His mouth opened over hers and she felt his kiss everywhere. It poured through her, starting fires in her chest and belly. She held as still as possible, careful not to touch him or kiss him back. “I need you,” he whispered.
She raised her hands but dropped them to her sides before she gave in to her desire to touch him one last time. A sob broke from her throat.
He raised his free hand to the other side of her cheek and he held her face as he kissed her, long and deep, and after several long torturous moments, she placed her hands on his arms and tilted her head to the side. She could not stop herself. She could not stop the pounding in her heart or the fiery need racing through her veins, and she gave in.
He groaned deep in his throat, a sound of pleasure and possession. His tongue slid into her mouth, the kiss feeding all the hungry places in her starving heart and soul. All the places that loved him and longed to be with him. When he lifted his head, he looked into her eyes. “Why don’t you start over? Why have you been avoiding me?” His thumbs softly brushed her cheeks. “The truth this time.”
She loved him too much to tell him. “I can’t.”
“You can tell me anything.”
She shook her head. “It’s bad.”
“Have you found someone else?”
“No!”
He closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, he looked relieved. “Then w
hat?”
“It’s best that you don’t know.”
“Why don’t you let me be the judge of that?”
Again she shook her head as tears filled her eyes. “Can’t you just leave it alone? Can’t you just take my word that you’re better off not knowing?” Where was Layla when she needed her? The tough one. The one who could resist interrogation and come up with believable lies.
He folded his arms across his chest, the belligerent hockey player. “I’m not leaving until you spit it out.”
Once she told him, he’d leave. He’d go away. Perhaps angry, but he’d have his answer. “Landon has pictures of us,” she relented.
His arms fell to his sides and one brow rose up his forehead. “Virgil’s son?”
She nodded. “I have to sell him the team or he’s going to send them to the newspapers and put them on billboards, like our PR photo.”
“You’re selling him the team?”
“I have to.”
A fire replaced the relief in his eyes and he said, “Like hell.”
She recognized that fire. She’d seen it on the jumbo tran when he faced an opponent in the corners. “I don’t have a choice.”
He stepped back and took a deep breath through his nose. Pebble threw herself against the glass and he walked to the door and let her in. “You have a choice. I’ll think of something.”