Outside The Lines (Love Beyond Reason Book 2) (15 page)

“David.”

The old man waved him in, and he felt a lump forming in his throat. He’d been so busy with work, gaining the next level, the next rung on the ladder.
Liar, you just avoid personal connection, asshole
.

He was paying a price by shutting the people he— Damn it. He could hardly think the word, much less say it.
Love. Love, love, love.

“Been a long time.”

“Yeah.” David cleared his throat. “I’m really sorry, Grandpa.”

Grandpa patted his shoulder. “Come on in.”

The front door opened directly into the kitchen. His grandfather had wanted it that way, stating there would be less traffic on the pretty carpet his wife wanted in the living room. Grandpa thumbed to the living room. “She’s in there.”

David crossed the friendly space, the aluminum table with its red top and the matching chairs. The old Frigidaire sat in the corner with a chest freezer next to it along the wall. And rough-hewn cabinets lined the floor and ceiling all the way around.

His grandfather ate what he hunted and his freezer was always full for the winter. Since Grandma had passed away, he’d taken to buying canned vegetables and storing them in the dirt cellar. But when summer came around, his garden would be the envy of every family in town.

David crossed the threshold into the formal living room.

And there she was, sitting in the rocker next to the fireplace with an old afghan wrapped around her shoulders. She held a mug in her hands and there was fire in her eyes.

She drew him in with that fire.

But he hesitated to cross the room. He’d wanted no strings, no emotions, no hurt. She’d been hurt.

“You left. You shouldn’t have left without telling anyone.” What was wrong with him? He wanted to grab her, hold her, feel her in his arms. Instead, he was picking a fight.

“I—” She cut herself off, as if trying to control some overpowering urge, and bit her lip. “I’ll do what I please.”

“The woods can be dangerous this time of year—” He stopped. What the fuck was he doing? He needed to mention the photos, apologize.

“Dangerous,” she growled, setting her mug on the stone hearth next to her chair. The blaze he’d noted in her eyes seared him as she rose from her seat and came towards him. “I walked straight here, thank you very much. I didn’t get lost or wander around. No one
found me
, David March. I can take care of myself.”

“I came home and you weren’t there.” He was starting to sweat a little. Her statement could have been a foreshadowing, and he didn’t like it. He didn’t want her taking care of herself. “I was worried, God damn it!”

He turned away. “Shit,” he whispered. He hadn’t wanted to lose it.

“You were?” The disbelief in her voice knifed through him.

“Hey, kids.” Grandpa broke through the tension. “David, can I get you some coffee?”

He looked at her then, never taking his eyes from her. “Can you give me a few minutes, Grandpa? And I’d love a cup of joe.”

His grandfather looked from one to the other. “Take it easy in here. That’s your grandmother’s nice furniture, hear?”

David smiled, because for as long as he could remember, Tanner had been saying the same thing every time he visited.

Her shoulders fell a little, her eyes had that awful glistening of tears.

“Yes, Maria.” She was surprised he would worry? “I was worried. Do you know how many people wander off in the woods up here? Get lost? I thought—”

She dropped the blanket and hurried to him, threw her arms around him. And he circled her with his own arms and laid his cheek on the top of her head. “Maria. Please, don’t ever scare me like that, again.”

“I’m sorry,” she whispered against his chest and sniffled, but he could tell she was regaining her composure as she stepped back. “You have a grandfather,” she stated.

“Yes.”

“He’s a very nice man. Fortunately, I met him at the bank yesterday, so when I came across the cabin, he welcomed me with a friendly smile and an offer of tea or coffee.”

“I like him.” David eyed her warily. She was going somewhere... and there was anticipation because he could see her feisty spirit coming through.

“Do you?”

“Of course, I do. What’s that supposed to mean?”

She wrung her hands in front of her. “Why wouldn’t you have invited him to our wedding? I don’t know how in the hell he knew who I was or how I was married to you, but he seems genuinely caring, and I like him.”

“Small town, Ree. He probably heard from the judge who married us. They hunt together sometimes. And my grandpa does get into town occasionally.” His gaze went to her hand. “Plus, you’re wearing my grandma’s wedding band.”

“What?” she gasped and quickly pulled the ring from her finger. “I knew it was special. And he saw me wearing it yesterday when we were at the bank. That’s probably why he stopped to say hello.”

When the tears starting falling, the beginnings of panic fluttered against his spine.

“How could you, David?” She thumped his chest, and he stared down at the spot and rubbed it. She was betrayed and angry, and magnificent, but so small. It was like a mouse pounding an offensive wall. He wanted to lift her into his arms and kiss her anger away.

And boy, was she angry, brows furrowed, eyes blazing. “I didn’t even use your name when I introduced myself. He’s probably been wondering who the thieving
spic
is, robbing people of their valuables.”

“Hey,” he barked, as her use of that word sparked his own temper. “Don’t say that.”

But she was on a roll. “Your dad already thinks I’m a gold-digging, hussy tramp.”

“You’re not—”

She grabbed his hand and flattened her palm against his own with the ring between them. The touch sent a jolt through his system.

“Please don’t—” He took the ring and grabbed her hand right back. David shoved the ring right where he wanted it, right where it belonged. “Don’t take that off, ever again.”

The tears fell. “You don’t even love me.”

He dragged her against himself, and she struggled for a moment before surrendering the fight. He dug his hands into her hair, palmed the contours of her head, and kissed her.

This was what he’d wanted when he came home. To touch her. Love didn’t matter, not when he felt this way, felt this desperate. He just needed his world right and until he’d gotten his fill of her, he was sure he’d never be right again.

He broke from her mouth and trailed kisses down her cheek, to the soft skin at the base of her neck. “God, I missed you.”

“What?” she said, all groggy and disoriented. “Wait. No.” She gripped his shirt and pushed back. “This isn’t right.”

He rested his forehead against hers. “Why not?”

“You were with her, David. In Florida. I can’t—”

“I was never with Tammy.”

A sad look came to her eyes. “I saw the photos.”

“I can explain.”

“I don’t want explanations!” Her voice thickened but her hands gentled on his shirt. “We had a deal—safe and simple.”

“I didn’t know she was going to be there, Ree. My dad—”

She sucked in a breath and frowned.
That man.
What did he have against her? She turned out of his arms. “But you took her to a room.”

“Because she was starting to make a scene, because I needed a private place to tell her no.”

Maria looked back at him, a glimmer of hope in her eyes. And something else. Compassion? Sympathy? “What happened down there, David?”

He hadn’t planned to tell her everything. Might have told her nothing if those photos hadn’t shown up. All his life he’d taken the easy road and avoided anything that smacked of emotional or messy. But Maria, she drew it all out of him anyway by just being here.

“It was like having a mirror shoved in my face and being forced to look. I didn’t like what I saw.” His throat tightened as unexpected emotions flooded through him.

“Oh, babe.” She wiped at the tears.

David turned to away and rubbed at the tension in his neck. “She thought I’d be seduced by her offer of a relationship with no strings. By the idea of a business arrangement.”

“She’s right, though, isn’t she? Isn’t that what we’re doing? No strings?”

He needed to think. “I don’t know. I thought so, but I didn’t like what she said, Maria.”

“She was mean.”

“Yes.” How did she know all this? Like with intuition. “She suggested crazy things.”

“She thought she could get you to sleep with her and that you’d be finished with me.” She sounded so matter-of-fact, like she was reading from a manual, and it was starting to bug him.

Heat rose on his neck as he frowned. “Am I that easy?”

“Did you sleep with her?”

“No,” he denied.

“Then I’d say you’re not that easy.” She tilted her head, thinking. “Do you remember our first time?”

His gaze found hers and saw that she seemed calm but there was so much in there, roiling around. “Of course.”

“I almost had to rip your clothes from your body. I about begged when you kept putting me off.”

And there it was…

He cleared his throat as evidence of that attraction began a slow throb. “You were different from anyone else I’d ever been with.”

“A virgin?”

He couldn’t take his eyes from hers. He wanted to drown in them. “Maybe that. Sheltered, for sure.”

“Having a big, overprotective family like mine will do that to a girl.” She smiled then, almost shyly. “I needed you.”

“No way. I needed you.”

Her mouth fell open. “Now, that’s not true, either.”

“Just a couple of needless people?” He really liked seeing a smile on her face.

“Needy people.”

They smiled at each other, her gaze dropping to his lips. “I wanted you then. So badly. And I’d never stepped over the line in my whole life.”

“When you do things, you do them big.”

She laughed, her gaze dropping even further to his waistline.

“I didn’t mean that the way it sounded.” The sound of wood being chopped had David looking from her to the doorway. “I should help Grandpa.”

“Okay.” Maria hesitated. “Of course.” She followed him into the kitchen. “Are you going to be okay?”

He nodded and knew, as long as she was with him, the chances were very good he would be okay for a long time to come. She forgave like no one he knew.

His heart felt too big for his chest. When had he ever brought a woman here? Never, not even Tammy. David took Maria into his arms, leaning against the counter and pulling her to that spot between his legs. He liked her there.

She pulled back and squeezed his arms with a smile before getting on her tiptoes and kissing him. “We can’t be rude. Go.”

She went for a big pot on a hook above the island

“Maria?”

She stopped mid reach. “Yeah?”

He pulled the pot down and handed it to her. “I don’t think I deserve you.”

Her grin zapped his libido, giving it a boost he didn’t need at this exact moment.

“You can make up for it later.”

~*~

He might not know it; he might worry over his past and what people thought of him, but David was not a cheater.

Years of break room talk at the hospital or out with girlfriends for another freedom party—friends breaking up, another deadbeat boyfriend or husband to toast—had skewed her vision.

He had this perfect plan—a life without pain. That, she didn’t understand. Pain brought life, as far as she was concerned. Life was meant to be felt. Her David did not like to feel. And for a time, she agreed to his plan, because…

Well, hell. She’d wanted the independence he teased her with. And maybe she still wanted that…but even more, since being here, she wanted him.
Some strings don’t have to chafe
.

The chopping outside went double time.

Maria sidled over to the small window over the sink. A huge pile of wood covered the side of the cabin, and the men had taken off their jackets and were splitting logs in the flurry of snow. They both wore flannel shirts and jeans.

Tilting her head, she made out similarities in their movements, hands, and faces. She wondered that they hadn’t been two peas in a pod while David was growing up. He’d have come here, just to get away from whatever was bothering him at home.

She shook off the speculating thoughts and dug into dinner, finding stew meat thawed in the fridge and an array of vegetables in the drawer at the bottom. She opened a cabinet next to the stove and picked out a few herbs and seasonings for a nice hearty stew.

And she cooked, letting her mind go, letting the worry of her and David sit on the back burner so that she could enjoy the break-through they’d had today.

Her movements were automatic and routine. Comforting.