She laid her hand over her stil galoping heart.
Damn if he didn’t know how to kiss and touch her.
She’d thought she was going to go up in flames. She wanted Kish, and she was certain he wanted her.
He’d practicaly eaten her alive. Hel, she’d wanted him to. The heat of his hard body pressed against her, the way he’d held her against the wal as if she weighed nothing, the way his mouth tasted her . . .
She shuddered and traced her fingers along her lips.
They stil tingled from his kisses.
Now there will probably never be any more kisses. But why was he so sensitive about the scars on his face? True, she’d only gotten a quick feel, but the scars hadn’t seemed al that bad to her. Even if they had been, it would have made no difference to her. He was a stunningly gorgeous, sexy man.
She shrugged off her clothing and found an old Tshirt and some sweats to wear to bed. “How am I going to patch things up with him now, Lucy?”
She couldn’t simply take it back. She couldn’t say she hadn’t felt the scars. She couldn’t say they didn’t matter because though that was the truth on her end, it was obviously far from the truth with him. But why had it mattered so much to him that she not see them?
If she had her sight, she would have noticed the scars right away.
She climbed into bed and puled the sheet and blanket up to her neck. “Come up, Lucy.”
Lucy jumped up onto the foot of the bed and curled up on Georgia’s feet.
“Good girl.”
She had to figure out a way to make this right with Kish. She didn’t want him to be upset with her or to think that she’d taken advantage of the situation.
She’d simply gotten lost in the feel and taste of him.
Chapter Eleven
Kish made his way through the living room and to the front door.
“Where the hel are you going?” Brady asked from the couch.
“None of your fucking business.” Kish was not in the mood.
“Al right. Al right. Don’t get your panties in a bunch.”
Fury swept through Kish and he spun around. He lunged at Brady, grabbed the front of his shirt, and twisted before puling him close.
“Stop fucking with me.” He ground through his teeth.
“Good God, man. I was just giving you some shit.
What the hel?”
Kish wasn’t usualy overly aggressive. True, he was a dominant male, and could be provoked into a fitting rage at times, but Brady hadn’t done anything that he wouldn’t normaly overlook.
He took a deep breath and let Brady flop back on the couch.
Georgia had just gotten comfortable when she heard the commotion in the living room. She flipped the covers off and tiptoed to her door where she cracked it open as quietly as she could. She turned her ear toward the opening and listened.
“Are you always prone to going bat shit crazy on random people, or do I have a knack for bringing it out in you?”
Brady’s voice was a bit muffled by the time it made it down the long halway to her ears, but she could clearly make out his words.
“I’m having a bad night. I didn’t mean to go bat shit crazy on you. But, seriously. Lay off the smart ass comments.” Kish’s voice was gravely, low, and harder to hear.
“Woman problems?”
“As I said before, none of your fucking business.”
“Look, I know you don’t know me, but I’ve been through some shit too, man. I’l be glad to listen.”
Georgia felt uneasy about eavesdropping on Kish and Brady’s private conversation and was about to shut the door and go back to bed. That was until Kish’s next sentence nearly floored her.
“I love her, but it can never be.”
Was Kish talking about her? He couldn’t be. Then her heart sank. He was in love with another woman.
“Why? Doesn’t she love you?”
“Love me? She doesn’t know shit about me.”
“So? Love isn’t perfect. Hel, love is never perfect.
If it is, it usualy isn’t love. True love? That shit wil fuck you up.”
“Just forget it.”
She heard a shuffling as Kish walked around. It most certainly wasn’t Brady unless he had miraculously recovered from his injury since she’d gone to bed.
“Forgetting it is no option where love is concerned.
If it’s true love, it wil never be forgotten. In fact, it wil whittle its way into every Goddamned cel of your being and eat away at your soul until the day you die.
Don’t ever think forgetting it is an option or you’l be in for a world of hurt that’l make torture look appealing.”
Georgia swalowed hard at the pain that was evident in Brady’s voice. He’d obviously been in love, but what had happened? It certainly didn’t sound as if it had worked out in his favor.
“Look, let’s just put aside the fact that she has no idea what the hel I am. Let’s for one moment pretend I’m a normal person.”
What the hel was Kish talking about? What was he if not a normal person? Did he have mental issues?
Was he a spy? A mobster?
“Okay. Then what is it?” Brady asked.
“Look at me.”
“Yeah. I’ve seen far uglier mugs than yours.”
“That’s just it. If I change her, and she sees the scars, she’l get sick of them eventualy. They al do.”
She stifled a gasp of pain. Then just as quickly, she became furious. Other women had hurt him because of some stupid scars? What kind of shalow twits had he been with that they focused on physical imperfections and not what was inside?
Then she frowned. What did he mean by change her so she could see him?
“I’ve only just met her, but she doesn’t seem that shalow to me. Don’t you think a woman who’s been blind her entire life is capable of looking past a few superficial flaws?”
“Georgia deserves better than me. She’l get tired of the stares and whispers when we are out.”
“For Christ’s sake, man. Give her a chance to prove she’s not a shalow nincompoop. Besides, knowing our nature, you wouldn’t be out in public al that much anyway.”
Oh my God. He’s talking about me. Kish loves me. While her heart sang in sudden joy at that realization, her mind was putting the breaks on her happy mojo. It didn’t sound as if Kish was wiling to trust her. How could she convince him that Brady was right? She didn’t care about scars. She cared about Kish.
But if he did get over al of that, and they were to have a relationship, would he expect her to live out here with him? It wasn’t that she’d mind living in the woods in the middle of nowhere. She loved nature, but her blindness would impair her in a place like this like it didn’t in a smal city. In the city, she had sidewalks, landmarks, public transport, familiarity.
Here? Here, she could get herself in trouble real quick if she didn’t pay attention to everything around her, especialy while outside.
Nonsense! You could do it. Yeah. She probably could, but she’d be lying if she didn’t admit the prospect frightened her. Then the answer came as clearly as a cloud free spring day. She would live here with Kish if he wanted her to. She’d go anywhere with him.
“You aren’t hearing me.”
“Al I hear is blah, blah, blah, and a lot of bul shit, insecurity, and excuses.”
A low rumble that sounded much like the growl Kish said was him clearing his throat earlier resonated easily down the halway to her ears. No mistaken this time. It was definitely a growl, and it wasn’t a growl of frustration. It was a growl much like a predator would make when cornered.
“Look, man, I’m teling you. I’ve been around a lot of women. A lot. And Georgia is not shalow. She’s blind. Don’t you think that’s had an impact on any discriminatory urges she might have felt? She’s not going to fault someone for their handicaps. She’d be damning herself if she did.”