Текст книги "Katherine in Gold"

Автор книги: J. B. Hartnett

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Текущая страница: 6 (всего у книги 15 страниц)

Katherine

The door was wide open, the bed unmade, because I’d been up before the sun that morning. I’d been nervous, because it was Bear Claw’s first day. I lived alone; I could be a pig if I wanted to. But at the moment, I didn’t care about my bed. I didn’t care that I was being carried in the arms of this man, my business partner, an acquaintance who I’d just shared my deepest, darkest secret.

Part of me wanted to scream each and every emotion I was finally allowing myself to feel for the first time in years, but all I could do was weep.

He laid me in the middle of the bed with such care, so gentle, his touch feather-light as he carefully undressed me. I had no energy to fight him, and, more importantly, I didn’t want to. I was so tired of carrying this burden, this pain…

Tired of being alone.

“Holst?” I asked, the raw sound of my voice sounding foreign to my ears.

He stood at the side of my bed and undressed. His shoes and jeans first, followed by his boxers. As he pulled off his tee, starting at the bottom and lifting it over his head, the evening summer light bathed his naked body in a warm, pink glow.

“Shh,” he cooed softly.

“Mark…I mean, Goya…he’s a good man. Despite the attitude he gives off, he really is a good guy. I knew he was in love with me. I pushed him to say those cruel things.”

He kneeled on the side of the bed and situated himself beside me, lifting the sheet over us both, brushing his knuckles over my cheek.

“No, baby,” he said, letting his fingers drift through my hair. “He wasn’t what you needed, and you knew it. Even worse, so did he, but instead of admitting defeat, he threw it in your face, and his aim was true.”

I didn’t acknowledge what he said, but he was right.

“Why are you here, Holst?” I asked quietly.

He pressed his naked body against mine, the feel of him, strong arms, lean body, muscular thighs…just enough hair on his chest to make him the ideal man for me, and the beauty of his cock the answer to my hedonistic prayers…it was as if I’d found the perfect fit.

He pulled my hand from under my cheek and laid it against his chest. I let my fingers slide through his hair, feeling the planes of his body when he said, “It isn’t just that my cock gets hard when I see you; it’s not just sex. It’s that my heart starts beating faster. Probably for the first time ever, just the thought of you makes my heart beat faster, Katherine.”

“You hardly know me,” I replied to his amazing statement.

He lowered his forehead to mine and took a breath. “I have to ask you something, baby, and I need you to tell me the truth.”

“Okay,” I nodded and closed my eyes.

“How much older was he?”

For the first time ever, I felt shame about my past when I told him, “Fifteen years.”

I felt his heart begin to race, but outwardly, he remained calm. “This man had you at fourteen. That would’ve made him about thirty?”

“Yes,” I confirmed.

“Did he tell you he loved you?”

“All the time.”

“Do you understand he was a predator?”

I didn’t answer him.

“Katherine, he preyed on a girl—”

“It wasn’t like that, Holst.”

He moved his head to look at the ceiling and then came back to rest against my own again.

“I’m a thirty-six year old man. The idea of taking the virginity of a fourteen-year-old, no matter how close she is to fifteen,” he breathed. “Jesus. Imagine for me…and I need you to look at me…now.”

I didn’t do as he asked.

“Open your eyes so I know you hear what I’m saying.”

“Please stop,” I begged quietly.

He then requested calmly, “You opened the door for me, now let me the fuck in.”

At those words, I opened my eyes.

“Imagine,” he began quietly. “Imagine we’re at the shop and a group of girls come in after school. Imagine I say to you, ‘See that girl? She’s probably a freshman. I bet I can get her to fuck me. All I have to do is tell her she’s beautiful, earn her trust, tell her I believe in whatever the adults in her world don’t. Daddy issues? Even better. I can train her to do and say and obey my every word.’”

“Stop,” I sobbed.

“To understand a predator, you have to think like one, and I might be able to appreciate the beauty of a younger woman, but I would never fuck a child, Katherine.”

“I can’t…let him go,” I sobbed, and when I did, he wrapped his arm behind me and pulled me even closer.

“Listen to me,” he said gently, taking care, being firm when he needed to be, because he knew it was the only way I’d hear him. “This is you, and this is me. We have an obstacle standing in the way of an ‘us.’ I want this, whatever’s happening here, I want it, and I believe you do, as well. Am I wrong?”

“No,” I replied. “You’re not wrong.”

“Then you should know, I will be relentless in my pursuit of you and in the destruction of that obstacle.”

“Why?” I whispered again.

“Because I’m about to claim you, to make you my Katherine,” he whispered against my mouth. “I’m going to slide inside your body, and when I do, there’s no turning back. I tasted you and plan to do it again…often…and I will not abide any other man to eat you, to fuck you, or make love to you as I plan to do right now.”

“Oh my God,” I whispered.

“Tell me you understand,” he demanded.

“I understand.”

“When the time is right, you say the words, and you do so without fear and without that other man in your bed. I will not share you with his ghost.”

I swallowed as my body shook against him, but I nodded my consent.

“And when that time comes, if you let me fall in love with you, Katherine, you have my word I will never leave you.”

“Fuck me,” I begged.

“Not tonight,” he replied. “Tonight, I show you how a man makes love to a woman.”

His hand moved between my legs and slowly spread me open, his thigh coming to rest against my pelvis as his fingers explored every dip, every curve, until his hand reached my mouth, his thumb sliding across my lips, and he said, “When you come, you say my name, always.”

“Yes,” I said, kissing the tip of each finger as they played against my lips, his thigh pressing against me in a slow steady grind. “I ache,” I told him.

“Are you ready for my cock?” he asked, but he didn’t do it smugly, there was no ego.

“Yes,” my breath shuddered.

I opened my legs and propped my knee on his thigh, inviting him in. The hard tip of his cock slid between my folds as he pushed inside me, a little at a time, a slow, languid advance until he pushed himself to the root, and that was when he took my mouth, pulling just that little bit away so he could whispered the word “mine” and connect to me again, our mouths, our tongues, our hands, him buried inside me, claiming me, and I felt, for the first time…not just in the last thirteen years…but the first time ever, I felt like an equal. He gave me everything and did it facing me, both on our sides until I cried my orgasm into his mouth, and he groaned his into mine.

Together.

Katherine

The next morning, I woke when I felt movement beside me. Holst had showered, the fresh scent of my soap on his skin. I’d almost forgotten he brought a bag to spend the night.

“Baby,” he said at my neck. “I told Frodo you were sick. He’s going to cover your shift. I need you to do something today. Can you guess what that might be?”

“Rid myself of the domineering fuck-buddy I just landed who’s a God in the sack, but a pain in my ass?”

He chuckled at my way of saying Good Morning.

“Your ass and I will get acquainted eventually, but for now, I need to go to work. We have Monday’s off, eventually we’ll hire someone to run Sunday’s so we can have a weekend.”

“I…” I hesitated, but felt I better come clean before things progressed to the point where I might have to, I don’t know, buy a gun and shoot him with it.

“What’s on your mind, Katherine?” he asked with a smirky grin.

“I think I told you before, this isn’t me. I’m not all weak-girl, needs-a-man-to-rescue-her sorta thing.”

He looked around my bedroom for some weird reason, then said, “Baby?” He dipped his head so he was right against my ear. “You aren’t weak, and I’m sure you can take care of yourself, but I think it’s time you let a man help who will make sure, when all is said and done, you have someone to walk out of battle with at your side.”

Fuck, I was gonna fall in love with him, that dirty, sneaky, big-dicked, perfect-mouthed, motherfucker.

Apparently, he got all that from the look on my face and smiled. “At least you didn’t say what you were thinking out loud.”

“I’ve never called in sick to work.”

“Would you rather me tell him I fucked you so hard and so thoroughly you needed a day to recover?”

“Yes!” I snapped, but couldn’t hide the fact his statement forced a giggle from me.

“I’m sure Frodo and Zack will love that.”

I settled into the pillow and closed my eyes. “I’m going back to sleep until the planet crashes into the sun. But feel free to come over and fuck me whenever you want.”

“Katherine.” He chuckled.

“I’m a cock-whore. I could live on a solid diet of cock.”

“Good to know, but remember…” He leaned down and kissed my cheek. “You’re my cock-whore. Okay?”

I mumbled my response and tried to hide my face and the huge smile on it, but he kissed me again. “I’ll take that as a yes.”

When I heard him moving toward the door, I called out, “Hang on…what am I supposed to do today?”

He walked back to me and smoothed the thin sheet over my naked body. With one hand slowly drifting down between my breasts to below my belly button, he said, “Something that’s just for you, my Katherine.”

***

I fell back to sleep, which was glorious, but woke up feeling like I’d just finished army boot camp. Not just regular soldier stuff. I was training for special secret ops. I had people depending on me. I had to determine which wire was the detonator and save the world with less than twenty-two seconds left on the digital display…

And I needed to talk to Tori.

On my way to her, I stuck my head in the front door of Bear Claw. Our second day, a decent number of customers inside and a smiling Holst taking orders while Frodo—a man who seemed to have a multitude of skills—made coffee.

Zack was walking toward me with two take-out cups and said, “Hey, heard you and the Holster got it on.”

“Yeah,” I confirmed without argument. No smartass comment from me because, when Holst saw me, his face immediately softened, and it was him and me. No Zack, no Frodo, no customers. He gave a nod to Frodo and came out from behind the counter and straight to me.

He moved us out front to the sidewalk. The door closed behind him, and he stared down at me. “Hello, Katherine,” he greeted.

“Hello, yourself…Holster.” I chuckled.

Zack walked away, giving us privacy—strange for him since he was kind of in your face and obnoxious in an endearing sorta way—‘and even though cars whizzed behind us down Pacific Coast Highway and pedestrians walked past, it was still, only the two of us.

He put his hands on either side of my face and asked, “Are you…” He shook his head and tried to find whatever word he was looking for.

I saved him the trouble and declared, “I’m in.”

“You’re in,” he confirmed.

“You’re going into battle with me?” I asked. “Because I woke up and had this vision of myself, like I was in an episode of 24, and I had to diffuse a bomb with minimal time on the clock, and not only that, I had, like, the lives of thousands of people in my hands.”

“That’s a great deal of pressure on one person.” He chuckled.

“It totally is. And he never even stops to pee! When does he pee?” I moved my eyes toward the green gate at my right. “I need to talk to Tori. I opened up to you. Now I need to tell my best friend all the shit I kept from her.”

“She’ll understand, baby.”

“You seem pretty sure about that.” Though, I didn’t doubt it at all. Tori got me, she was patient, and she was sweeter than anyone I knew.

“From what I’ve observed, the social dynamic between you all…there’s a bond that goes beyond friendship. Blood doesn’t make a family, Katherine.”

He leaned down and kissed me…deep and slow and so deliciously hot, the world around us once again melted away.

He pulled back and said, “I’d like to take you out tonight.”

“Okay,” I agreed in a daze.

“Katherine.” He said my name with a seriousness, like I was being scolded, but it definitely got my attention.

“Yep?” I replied, but I was distracted, so much going on in my head, thinking about what I would say to Tor…

“There’s more to know about me.”

That sounded ominous. “Did you do time?”

“No.” He grinned.

“Then I think we’re good here.” I glanced around him into the shop. “Frodo doesn’t need you, but I need to get this done before I lose my nerve.”

“I’ll see you later.” He didn’t let me go, but I moved out of his hold to put some distance between us.

“Yeah, you will. But I’m walking away now. I can’t think when you kiss me.” I smiled.

“Good to know, Katherine.”

***

I didn’t find Tori at home. She was at work, and when I walked in, it wasn’t just her. It was Dee, it was Ruby, and in the middle, like a girl gang ready to beat the shit out of me, was Tori.

“You slept with Holst and didn’t even tell me?” Tori accused.

“Hang on—”

“No, no, no! You’re supposed to tell me these things!”

I might have misjudged my bestie and her potential for being a bitch. But I had to assume this was the baby talking.

“Give me a fuckin’ break.” I smiled, bringing my own skills of deflection to the conversation. “I just got out of bed, like, forty-five minutes ago.”

“Nice,” Dee chimed in with a wide, knowing smile.

“Yeah.” I smiled back in agreement and announced dramatically, “It looks like I’m entering into a relationship with Holst.”

“You make it sound…so formal,” Dee commented.

“I’m new at this. Cut me some fucking slack,” I countered, but again, I did it with a huge grin. “Can I steal Tori? I’m not trying to leave you ladies out, but it’s kind of…”

I hated to be a bitch, and maybe I shouldn’t have stormed into Tori’s shop and put her on the spot in front of our friends, but I was…I couldn’t narrow it down to one feeling since I was experiencing so many at the same time.

“Go,” Dee said gently.

“Come on, whore,” I beckoned my bestie.

“Who are you calling a whore?” she said and moved past me, grabbing her purse and shoving sunglasses onto her face. “Call me if ya need me, Rubes.”

“No worries,” she said back.

“Hey,” Tori said as I followed her down the steps to Pacific Coast Highway, Coastal Ink and Bear Claw just below us. “I know this great little coffee place that just opened and—”

“Keep walking.” I chuckled. “Beach. Sand. Then we’ll eat. I haven’t had lunch, and since you’re eating for two now…”

“Oh, ha, ha, ha,” she laughed, but this was us. We always had a good time, she was my girl, and I was hers, but when I spilled my guts about my past, I didn’t know how she was going to react. Therefore, the beach was a better option.

Twenty minutes later, Tori was staring at the surfers, and I’d just finished telling her everything…from the man who destroyed me, to the man who wanted to give me the world. He hadn’t said it, but I knew he intended to do whatever he could to make me believe in happily-ever-afters.

“Kath…”  She said my name long and drawn out, like that one syllable was too painful to utter. “Your parents have no idea?” she asked.

“I didn’t have any friends, I was a straight-A student, and my dad was a dick. I think they just thought I was an introvert. They didn’t even ask where I was going or what I was doing.”

“I need to do some fact-checking on this, but I’m pretty sure that what he did to you…age of consent and crap like that…”

“It doesn’t matter now,” I told her, looking out at the waves.

She moved and knelt right in front of me. “He took something that wasn’t his to take, Kath. He made promises he had no intention of keeping. I remember what it was like to have a big crush at fourteen, how intense those feelings are to a teenage girl. I didn’t have anyone to talk to about it, but I wasn’t being groomed by some pedophile to pick up the slack when my dad was an asshole. He knew everything about you, and I think he took advantage of that.”

“Holst pretty much said the same thing,” I told her, holding back tears, because I didn’t really want to start crying. Again. “I needed to let him go. I get it; I know what he did was wrong and only started coming to that conclusion myself after things with me and Mark ended. I know I was too young to have that kind of relationship, and, if anything, he should’ve waited until I was old enough to deal with it when it ended. But that’s not what happened, and I can’t just go back and change it. It’s done.” That sounded convincing, even to my ears.

“I kinda think…maybe…” she began.

Edgewise, sideways, or on the freaking moon, I couldn’t let her get a word in. She knew I wasn’t someone who shared, and I needed to get this all out. So she did exactly what I needed her to and didn’t speak another word.

“This thing with Holst…I mean, it’s been, like, five minutes, but if it works out…I know it’ll be bigger than what I had with that man. If it goes bad…” I shook my head and looked her in the eyes. “I drank and fucked my way through my twenties, just enough to dull the pain, to make me forget, but it’s been getting harder. When I had you…”

“Kath,” she whispered.

“Honey, I’m a grown woman. It wasn’t and isn’t your job to distract me from reality. I don’t care about the shop failing or my dad being pissed at me because I invested in it. I mean, I do, of course. But none of that’s gonna matter if, for the first time since I was twenty years old, I let a man into my heart and it fucks me up.”

“He won’t.” She smiled. “Dee hears everything from her kitchen. And since she ended things with Frodo—”

“She is nuts,” I interrupted.

“We’ll get her head screwed back on right. Anyway, he called you…My Katherine.”

“My Katherine,” I whispered.

“Yeah, like proper proprietary Mr. Darcy style.”

That’s when I started crying and admitted, “I thought I’d already had the great love of my life.”

“Kath.”

“I thought he’d come back for me, Tor.” She held me as I let it all out, a mess of snot and emotions. “I asked him, point blank, if he’d ever come back. ‘If I said yes, you’d spend your days waiting, not living.’ Then he was just…gone. I lied to everyone. I had no friends at all, because I couldn’t and keep seeing him.”

“Come on,” she prompted and pulled me up by my hands

“Where are we going?”

“I’m taking you to the great distraction of tacos and huge iced coffees before I need to get back to work.”

“Honey,” I said, gripping her hands tight to keep her at my side. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you. It wasn’t you, Tor. I just needed to come to it in my own time, and, apparently, that time is now.”

“I know,” she said, giving me a huge hug. She was going to be a great mom, great at the listening, the hugs, the reading stories, and rocking them to sleep, so I told her exactly that.

“You’re gonna be a great mom, Tor.”

“I know.” She giggled. “And you, someday, are gonna make a great wife, Kath.”

I didn’t argue with her. I just smiled with sand between my toes, the sun on my back, and my best friend at my side.

Holst

My BMW had belonged to my mother. She now lived on a new estate, with her new husband, and new BMW.

She gave me the car for free.

After being a single mom for years, living with my grandparents in San Clemente, she began dating again, and, about ten years ago, she met Alan. He was a farmer, they met online, and when I met Farmer Alan, I did not expect he was going to be “Al” of “Alpaca Orchards.” His company was part of a citrus co-op, struggling at the time, but when my mother suggested a small side business of candied fruits, preserves, and lemonades in fancy jars and packaging, he felt she was on to something big, and now, Alpaca Orchards was international.

Mom was quite proud.

Alan offered to help Chelle and me when we bought our house. He also offered me a job, but I wanted to be my own man, which meant working my ass off. Somewhere inside me, whether it was possibly to prove I was nothing like my father—the jury was still out on that one—or simply to see if I could, I wanted to achieve as much as I was able without asking for help.

But I never felt at ease. Something in my prior relationships was never quite right. I was an affectionate man, sometimes too intense, according to Chelle. That became a part of me I denied and quelled through being active. But from the moment I met Katherine, I did not hold back. She responded positively to it, and that was when I knew, I’d found the right woman at last.

I opened the screen door of her apartment and called out, “Katherine?”

She appeared before me, the woman I knew I was going to fall in love with: long legs, lithe arms, bronzed skin, and beautiful blonde hair spilling over her shoulders. I could tell she tried to look understated, but with her, it was simply not possible.

“Hey.” She smiled, but didn’t move.

“I fear if I move closer, I won’t be able to control myself,” I said, returning her enthusiastic smile.

“I think you should face that fear,” she encouraged.

“Do you?” I grinned and slowly moved forward as she stood with her feet planted.  When I reached her, I could see her chest rise and fall with her quickening breath.

“You have got to know what it does to me when you look at me like that,” she said.

“Like what?” I asked, only inches from her body.

“Your eyes go all weird and intense.”

“And how does that affect you?”

“I think if you put your hand between my legs, you’d find out,” she invited.

“Katherine,” I whispered against her neck, just below her ear, and lifted my hand to cup her breast. I found her nipple through the thin fabric of her tee and pinched it between my fingers, quick and rough, and listened as her breath caught and she gasped. “You like a rough touch?” I asked.

“So far, I like everything you do,” she breathed.

“Excellent news.” I chuckled and stepped back from her.

“Damn, it was just getting good.”

“I think…for us, perhaps…considering your recent revelations…we should probably talk more. If you recall, it wasn’t that long ago you found me irritating…to say the least.”

“Are you gonna keep throwing that in my face?” She laughed.

“No, Katherine. I will not. But with the enormity of what I’m feeling for you, I want to ensure I’m doing all I can to keep what’s happening between us…balanced.” I smiled.

“You don’t want to fuck it up,” she surmised, a sexy little grin playing at her lips.

“Correct.”

“Is your cock hard?” she asked, but instead of waiting for my response, she cupped her hand over my crotch and discovered the answer herself.

I closed my eyes and exhaled as her grip tightened.

“You like it rough, too.”

“Yes,” I confirmed as every muscle in my body tensed at her tight grip.

“Awesome.” She grinned wider and pulled me by the waistband of my jeans to her front door.

***

I took her to a wood-fired pizza place downtown. The wait was always long and the prices astronomical for dough and canned sauce, but it meant we were in a crowd, surrounded by people with time to kill.

And there was nothing boring about the company.

“So,” she asked just as appetizers of deep-fried cheese arrived. “How about twenty questions?”

“Good idea. Your suggestion, so please, ask away.” I smiled and took a drink from the beer I ordered.

“Do you want kids?”

“I was recently asked this same question. My answer was, if my partner wanted them, then I was fine with that.”

“Doesn’t sound like an answer. It sounds evasive.” She laughed.

“The answer is yes, I would like to have children. I’m just not sure I should. And you?”

“Totally didn’t think it was even in the cards for me, so I never really let myself entertain the idea.”

“And?” I asked.

She laid her hands flat on the table and stared at the heavily lacquered surface. “So, I guess I’m answering this question then.” She thought for a minute, and I gave her the time, letting her absorb all the new possibilities her future now held when she replied, “I’d like a little boy and…I’d call him Ryan,” she declared.

“Any particular reason why you chose that name?”

“The Tom Clancy books. Jack Ryan. He took on the Russian Navy, the Irish mob, and a dirty president. Ryan is the name of a baby-badass in the making.”

I couldn’t stop chuckling, but she hit me with another question, one I wasn’t expecting. “Why didn’t you ever try to make peace with your dad?”

I took a long, deep breath. Then I took a long, drawn out drink. Then I replied, “When I was eight, my mother was heavily pregnant with my sister. My father tended to get quite violent when he drank. Never with me, but always with my mom. He pushed her, and she fell on her stomach. She told me years later that when the police came, he kept shaking his head and repeated over and over again, ‘I never touched her belly, only her face. Never the baby. I would never hurt the baby.’”

“Holst,” she whispered. Her fingers threaded through mine and held on tight. “I knew there was something heavy there. That’s why I asked the way I did. I thought it would somehow be easier to tell me while we were happy and laughing. I didn’t think—”

“Baby, you didn’t know. This was one of the things I was going to tell you tonight. My sister was in distress. My mom was so badly beaten, the stress on her system…but my mother was never the same. Not until she met Alan. They’ve been together for over twelve years now.”

“Is that why you think you shouldn’t have kids? Because of your dad?”

“Not exactly…”

“Are you rescuing me, Holst?” she asked, never taking her eyes from mine.

“I’m rescuing myself,” I replied.

“From what?”

“Solitude.”

She chuckled lightly. “So, you’re afraid you’re gonna die alone?”

“No, Katherine. I’m afraid I’ll miss the opportunity to live, love, and die without regrets, all in the knowledge I had the most incredible woman with the purest heart to share my life with.”

“Damn,” she whispered, her eyes glittering. “That was a great fucking answer.” And just when the pizza slid onto the table, a familiar voice accompanied it.

“That didn’t take very long. How are you, Kath?” The unwelcomed guest pushed his way past the waiter.

She turned her eyes to her former boyfriend, Mark “Goya,” and acknowledged him with a nod. “I’m good. You?”

“I miss your mouth on my dick. Have you had your mouth on his dick yet?” he asked, clearly drunk, then turned his attention to me. “Has she done that thing where she practically swallows it whole?”

I moved out of the booth, thinking my presence would be all the warning this asshole needed to leave, but he continued.

“Amazing shit right there, Kath. You have some real talent. But with the amount of dicks you’ve sucked over the years…hell, let’s look around the room. I’m sure it’s not just me and this guy.” He laughed, and that’s when I turned to face him, but before I could open my mouth, with her hand on mine to stop me from taking action, Katherine did.

“I’ll tell you what I don’t miss,” she returned. “I don’t miss fucking a woman. I’ve had pussy, don’t get me wrong. I have no problem taking a dip in the slit for something to break up the Fiesta of Cock I’ve had all these years, but yours was the first pussy that left a bad taste in my mouth. You might want to head on down to the police station and file a missing person report on your cock and balls, Mark.”

His face was set in a smirk, and I knew he had more to say. He would do whatever it took to wound her like she’d wounded him.

That was not going to happen.

I squeezed her hand, let go, and said, “Shall we go outside, Mark?”

“Is that your way of challenging me?”

“No, that’s my way of saying I can kick the shit out of you in front of all these people, or we can talk to each other, man to man, without the audience.”

“Fuck you, man.”

The manager had now come to join us.

“Your belligerence will not win her back, Mark. She believes you to be a good man, and your behavior sullies that belief. Not only that, you have a standing in this community. Do you really want to fuck that up?”

“Sir?” the manager asked.

“Hang on,” Mark said to the man. He lowered his head to Katherine and said loud enough for myself and the manager to hear, “Puta.”

“Sir,” the man warned, and it was apparent he knew exactly what that word meant, and so did I.

“Consider this your only warning from me,” I said, meeting his stature as I equally met his glare. Then, leaning close to his ear so only he could hear me, “You’re obviously drunk, and, knowing what I know of her, I get why you’re upset over losing her, but Katherine is my future, and if you cause her any further pain or come near her again, I will glory in besting you physically, not because I’m stronger…but because I’m smarter.”

Mark gave me a departing arrogant lift of his chin, a smug smile and walked away in silence, the manager escorting him to the door. When he was gone, the manager returned and informed us that dinner was on the house: beer, pizza, everything. We both tried to argue, but he wouldn’t take no for an answer.

“Well, that could’ve been worse.” I grinned.

“I feel terrible, Holst,” she admitted.

“I’m sure I can find him and beat the shit out of him. And enjoy it.” I smiled.

“No, not like that.” She shook her head. “I feel guilty. I hurt him.” She looked out the windows, but I took her hand and forced her to look back to me.

“If I had to guess, he’s been spoiled, skated on his looks and talent, and never matured beyond the selfish, macho stage he’s in now. There was a painting at his show,” I began, but regretted as soon as the words left my lips.

“Which one?” she asked. “The creepy one with the forked tongue?”

I knew exactly the painting she spoke of. “No.” I chuckled. “There was one at the end of the exhibit of a woman. I thought it was composed by someone else, but it was his. I told him he should paint like that. He’s trying to be someone else, because he’s scared to be who he is. But if he embraced that specific ability, Katherine, I have no doubt his fame would outgrow this community.”

“I wish I’d seen it,” she said as I finished my beer.

I was glad she hadn’t.