you say or do would make me want to take you back.”
“How about this?” He grabbed her by the arms and pulled her in for a kiss that punished more than it soothed or coaxed her to see his side.
Because he held her arms pinned to her sides, she struggled to back away. Panic swept through her and made it hard to think and act appropriately.
Fear gave her the strength to fight. She turned her face away and kicked him in the shin.
He shoved her away. “What the hell, Liz?”
She should have known better than to confront him. It only gave him the attention he craved. She should have made her intention to stay away from him clear, by not giving him the time of day.
Lesson learned.
She swiped the back of her hand across her mouth. “Don’t ever touch me again.” She didn’t wait around to hear any more of his declarations that they belonged together. She didn’t give him a chance to hurt her again. She ran back across the street, straight to the Almost Homemade booth.
Trinity stood staring at her, concern and a hint of suspicion lighting her eyes. “What was that?” Anger filled her words.
“He just showed up. He’s been watching me.” She raked her shaking fingers through her hair. “Why won’t he just leave me alone?”
Trinity responded to Liz’s distress and hugged her. “I don’t like this.”
Liz didn’t either. Clint gave up his plans to watch a game at his place with his friends to come all the way downtown to the farmers market just to spy on her.
“Hey, did you guys sell out again?” Tate startled her.
She hadn’t seen him walk up behind her, but just hearing his voice, knowing he was here, eased her thrashing heart. She turned away from Trinity to him and threw her arms around his neck and held on.
Tate’s arms wrapped around her. “Hey now, I’m happy to see you, too.”
“Clint is stalking her,” Trinity announced.
Liz tried to pull away from Tate, but he held her close and rubbed his hand up and down her back to soothe her. “What happened?”
She pressed her face into his neck, then raised her head and looked him in the eyes. “He just showed up. All day I’ve felt like someone’s been watching me. I thought I was just being paranoid because of what happened, but then I saw him across the street. He motioned for me to come over.”
Tate’s eyes narrowed. “And you went?”
This time she stepped away from him, needing a chance to stand on her own again. “Yes. To tell him to stay the hell away from me. To let him know that I don’t want him anywhere near me ever again.”
Tate took her hand. “Okay. I take it he didn’t want to hear that.”
“He thinks he can convince me that we belong together and you’re just . . . pretending. Or something. I don’t know.”
Tate pulled her into his chest and kissed her softly. His hand came up to the side of her face, warm and protective. His lips brushed against hers, then settled for a moment. Her heart melted and settled into a rhythm that seemed to match his pressed against her chest.
Tate kissed her again, then leaned back just enough to look her in the eye. “Does that feel like I’m pretending?”
“No.” She dropped her forehead to his chin.
He kissed her head and buried his fingers in her hair. “Don’t let his lies get into your head. He wants you to question me, us. If you do, this is never going to work. If all I’m doing is trying to convince you I mean what I say and I want to be with you, how long before you start really thinking I’m trying to convince you because it’s not real?”
He had a point. When he left last night, she thought they’d taken that fork in the road that led them down a path where they ended up together, happy and in love. Eventually. She didn’t delude herself it would happen all at once, but she believed there was something there on Tate’s part. He’d finally opened the door on his feelings and the possibility of what they could share.
And here she was not even a full day later and all the ground they’d made toward turning their friendship into something more got derailed because Clint made her think Tate’s intentions weren’t real or based on his true feelings for her.