Change of Heart - By S.E. Edwards Page 0,60

once more. He shakes his head, his dark red hair swinging back and forth. “I’m no better than my dad.”

A light sparks in my head, and I understand. That is what all his reservation is all about. Rich’s unresolved issues about his father.

“Rich,” I say softly, coming up to him and laying a hand over his tattooed arm. “You are nothing like your dad. I promise you.”

“Oh? Like you would know.” Surprisingly, there is no venom in his words.

“I do.” I take his hand in two of mine and hold it between us, turning him toward me. “You’re loyal, and caring. You value your family. Look at everything you’ve done for your sister.”

“At your expense.”

“And I can see how it tears at you. I can see how much you regret it.”

“You…can?” There’s a very sweet, very endearing mix of uncertainty and relief in his voice. “Really?”

“Yes,” I promise.

“Penny.” He looks at me hopefully. “I… I can’t help the way I feel about you. That’s why we need to be apart. That’s—” he grunts all of a sudden as I hit him hard in the ribs. “What was that for?”

“For your idiocy,” I tell him, rubbing my hand. I had no idea how much it would hurt. It felt like punching a steel wall! “For having the audacity to keep pretending you know what’s best for me. For thinking I want to be left behind while you run off.”

“It’s the best thing for you.” He pulls his hand out of mine and picks up his shirt. Regret and disappointment fills me as he tugs it over his head. I feel disproportionately exposed in nothing but the blue bra he’d bought for me. Rich continues. “You saw the type of people who want my sister. You know they want me now, too. If I take you with me—” he grunts and shakes his head, “—and I can’t even believe I’m entertaining the possibility—but if I do, and if they discover the way I feel about you, your life will be at risk. Your life, Penny! I can’t do that to you.”

“And how is that?” I ask.

He looks at me quizzically. “How is what?”

“How is the way you feel about me?”

Rich makes a vague, empty gesture around him. “You know.”

“No,” I say. “I don’t know.” I step up to him and look him in the eyes. His beautiful, misting silver eyes. “Tell me.”

He stares at me for a long time. In the quiet moment, I feel the connection between us. It’s more than lust. More than mere attraction. It’s something deeper, more profound. I can see it in the way he looks at me. The concern hidden behind his eyes, the conflicting emotions raging in his head. I can feel it in the way my skin tingles when I stand this close to him. In the way my heart beats louder and my breaths become fluttery.

He breaks off by turning away. “I can’t. I can’t put it into words, Penny. And even if I could, I wouldn’t.” He lowers his voice. “Because then I’d be afraid you might never let me go.”

My heart melts at the unwavering sincerity in his words. He really does care for me, I realize. “Rich?” I say softly. “Answer me this. If I were any other girl, would you still have come back for me?”

He looks back over his shoulder at me. His eyes seem to soak me in. They run over my face, down my body, and back up again to meet my eyes. “How can you even ask that, Penny? I came back for you, and you alone. No. If you were anybody else, I would never have returned.” He grunts in a half-laugh. “You can see how much shit that little decision has gotten me in.”

“Rich—”

“No.” He points a finger at me. “Don’t start again. Don’t tempt me.” His voice becomes hard. “Put your sweater back on. If Amanda comes home and finds you like that, she’ll make assumptions.”

“Let her,” I say, emboldened by what he’d just told me. Rich came back for me. Not for anybody else. Just for me. “I want Amanda to see us like this.” I start toward him in my best impression of a sultry walk. “I don’t care what she thinks.”

I step into him, leaning my bare body against his. Rich stands still as a statue. “I never got to thank you… properly… for what you did.” My hands go back to his jeans, resuming the work they’d begun