She wasn’t leaving. She couldn’t leave. “The country?”
“I’m going to Paris. If I can’t get into Le Cordon Bleu, I’ll find somewhere else to study.”
“But…Jade. The baby.”
“Jade understands.”
“I’m sure she does, but—”
“No buts. The decision has been made. I leave next week.”
“No. You can’t.”
“I assure you I can, and I will. Now if you’ll excuse—”
I stalked toward her, closing the space between us. Already the heat was building. I could feel it, hear the inaudible drumbeat it produced in tandem with the rhythm of my heart. Even see it, a pulsing red that enclosed us.
She dropped her mouth open, and I gripped her shoulders and swept into her with a kiss.
Her lips were already parted, and I thrust my tongue into her mouth. She resisted at first, pushing against me, but I was determined. Determined that, if she insisted on leaving, she’d know what she was leaving behind.
No more thoughts about how I couldn’t be with her. Only this kiss. This woman and this kiss.
She still felt resistant against me, but soon she melted, softly sighing into my mouth.
I kissed her and I kissed her and I kissed her, tasting her unique sweetness, letting it float on my tongue and infuse everything in me. If we had only this one last kiss, I’d make it count.
Oh, yes, she was responding. She was kissing me ba—
She pushed hard against my chest, breaking the kiss. “No! Damn it, Bryce.”
All rational thoughts fled, and only feeling remained. Feeling, so much feeling coiled within me, building up pressure and ready to break.
“You’re not leaving,” I said calmly. “I can’t lose everything. Henry, my mother, and now you.”
“What? What’s wrong with Henry?”
“Nothing. He’s leaving. He and my mother. I’m sending them away.”
“Why? Why would you do that?”
“I don’t have a choice. I need them to be—”
Shit. I stopped. Here I was, standing in front of my best friend’s home, and I was about to violate his trust.
“You need them to be what?”
I thought quickly. “My mom needs to get away, and I can’t care for Henry with the new job starting tomorrow, so she’s taking him with her.”
“Oh.”
Good. She seemed to buy it.
“You could get a nanny for Henry.”
“My mom won’t hear of it.”
She nodded.
“Please. You can’t leave too.”
“I’m leaving. It was a hard decision, but I have to do it. I have to think of my future.”
“Your future?”
“Yeah. I have a future. One without you, as you’ve made clear so many times.”
“No.”
She shook her head. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
“Do I look like I’m kidding?”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Marjorie
Fire laced his eyes. They burned the hot blue of a gas flame.
No. He wasn’t kidding.
Didn’t matter. I wasn’t staying around for more of this. When he wanted me, he kissed me, touched me, made love to me. When he didn’t want me? He tortured me with his poisonous words.
“None of this matters, Bryce. I can’t stay here. It’s too…”
“Too what?”
“Painful, damn it. Painful. You’re breaking me, Bryce, and I don’t deserve that. I thought I was strong enough to deal with everything, but I’m not. I need to get away, and I need to do it soon.”
He gripped me again, his gaze burning into mine. “Please. Don’t leave.”
“Why not?”
“Just don’t. I can’t promise you anything, Marj. You know that. But you… You’re the heart of this place. What would Steel Acres be without you?”
“Steel Acres functions just fine without me. I’m a silent partner, remember?”
“That’s not what I mean.”
“Then what do you mean? Because honestly, you’re not making a single bit of sen—”
His lips came down on mine once more.
Despite myself, I opened to the kiss. Here. Outside my oldest brother’s home. Joe and Mel only a wall away.
I opened.
And I poured all my love for Bryce Simpson into this kiss—our last.
It was hard. It was wet. It was perfect.
The perfect kiss.
The perfect goodbye.
Finally, when I was no longer convinced I’d be able to hold back tears, I pushed him away, letting our mouths part.
“Goodbye, Bryce.”
I walked to my car, not looking ba—
His arm yanked me back to him, and I let out an oof as I hit his hard chest. “No. I can’t let you go.”
“You have no say—”
Another kiss, this one even harder and more passionate than the last.
This was not a kiss goodbye.
This was a kiss of pent-up desire, pent-up passion, pent-up raw need for another person.
And this would not end with a kiss.
He broke the kiss quickly and pushed me into the passenger seat of his car.
“My car… Joe will wonder—”
“I don’t fucking