by Joss Wood
Linc turned back to her and placed his hands on her biceps, and suddenly Tate was inhaling his cologne, looking into his smoldering eyes. She was home...
“Did you mean that?” he demanded. “About staying?”
Tate lifted her hands to rest them on his chest.
“Yes, I’ll stay.” Tate pulled her bottom lip between her teeth. “If you want me.”
“I’ll always want you, Tate.”
She released her lip, and Linc swiped his thumb across the skin to ease the sting. He pulled her closer and slid his hand around the back of her neck, using his thumb to lift her face up. “We need to talk, but we’ll get to that. But first, this.”
His mouth covered hers, and Tate felt his cool lips on hers. His sigh hit her mouth, and she instinctively opened hers, and his tongue slipped inside, a hot, slow slide. She’d missed him, missed his clever mouth and his ever-changing eyes, his big body, both clothed and naked.
She’d felt adrift these past couple of weeks, more alone than she’d ever felt in her life. Her world had faded to grayscale, to wishy shades of gray. Life with Linc, with the kids, his and hers, infused her life with color. She felt alive with him; just sitting next to him made her feel like the best version of herself.
God, she loved him. She could stand here, on her tiptoes, and be kissed by him for the rest of her life. If that was all she could have of him, she’d take it.
Linc pulled away from her and rested his forehead on hers, his hand cradling her cheek. “That was about fifteen days, eight hours and ten minutes overdue.”
“I have no idea what’s happening here, but as long as you keep kissing me, I’m good.”
Linc grinned, and his smile had her heart doing backflips. “FYI, I plan on kissing you for a long, long time. In fact, that talk is going to be delayed for a while, because I plan to kiss you for the rest of the night.”
Tate allowed Linc to lead her to the stairs, her hand firmly clasped by his uninjured one. “Just kiss me?” She mock pouted. “Nothing else?”
Linc stopped and turned around to look down at her, and Tate’s heart hitched at the pure emotion she saw on his face. “Tate, I’d give you the world if I could, right now. Seeing you standing in my hallway is all my Christmases and birthdays rolled into one. The only time I’ve ever come so close to feeling as happy was when Connor showed me the adoption papers stating that I was officially a Ballantyne. There’s nothing I wouldn’t give you.” Linc squeezed her hand. “Come upstairs with me.”
Didn’t he realize that she’d go anywhere, do anything for him, with him? Tate slowly nodded and ran up the stairs with him.
Thirteen
The smell of good coffee pulled Tate from a heavy sleep, and she woke up slowly, immediately looking for the source. As her eyes focused, Linc sat down on the side of the bed, Ellie on his knee, her beautiful face full of smiles. Having been the focus of Linc’s exquisite attention for most of the night, Tate was full of smiles, as well.
Tate pushed herself up and leaned over to nuzzle Ellie’s cheek. “Mornin’, baby.”
Linc raised an amused eyebrow when she leaned back. “And where’s my ‘morning, baby’?”
Tate overexaggerated her sigh and hooked her hand around his neck to pull him down for an open-mouth kiss. “Mornin’ baby,” she said, her voice husky with laughter.
Linc grinned. “Much better.”
“Where’s Shaw?” Tate asked, placing her hand over her mouth to hide her yawn.
“Still asleep.” Linc pushed the cup of coffee into her hand. “Drink this, have a shower and I’ll wake Sage up and tell her that she’s on kid duty for a little while. Last night was amazing, but we really need to talk.”
Oh, God, he looked and sounded so solemn. Had he changed his mind? She couldn’t bear it if the happiness, the hope she’d been feeling, was suddenly snatched out of her hands. Fear and insecurity, hot and hard, bubbled up her throat. “Yes, okay.”
Tate pushed her hair back as Linc stood up. Tate took a moment to admire her sexy man dressed in a berry-colored sweater and dark pants. She couldn’t wait... She couldn’t stand the tension for one more minute, so she pushed a nervous hand into her hair and sent him a troubled look.
Tate spoke, and the butterflies in her stomach took flight. “Did you mean what you said, on the stairs?”
“Are you doubting me? This?”
Tate gave him a quick nod. She looked at the door and fought her instinct to run. “A little. I’m feeling hopeful and happy, and I’m scared it’s all going to evaporate.” Tate looked into her coffee cup and told herself that running was no longer an option. Yes, she was risking her heart and her future, but Linc was worth it. She had to talk, to lay it on the line; she had to trust him with all that she was. Her hopes and her fears. “I’m scared that you are confused about what you want, I’m worried that you might change your mind about me—” Tate gestured to Ellie “—about us.”
It wasn’t one person walking into his life and hoping to stay; it was two.
Linc sat down again, rested his chin on Ellie’s head and sent her a steady look. “I’ve been up for hours, Tate. So far, I’ve contacted my lawyer to get the paperwork started on all the adoptions that need to happen to make us a proper family—me to adopt Ellie, you to adopt Ellie and Shaw. I’ve contacted an agency to find an experienced nanny. I’ve also spoken to Jo, told her that you’re back, have asked her to look after the kids for a couple of hours here and there so that you and I can have some alone time. I think we deserve that. I had to run to my office to get something out of my safe—does all that sound like I’m confused about you and what I want?”
Tate, unable to take in all the implications of his speech, just stared at him. Linc leaned down, Ellie in his arms, and brushed his lips against hers. “What about what you want, Tate?”
She swallowed, desperately looking for some moisture in her mouth. “I want it all, Linc. I want you and the kids and...”
“And what, honey?”
Tate tapped her finger against her coffee cup and forced herself to be honest. “I want my career. I love what I do, but if the choice was between you and the kids and my career, then I choose you. I can live without my career. I can’t live without you and the kids.” She wrinkled her nose. “But a part of me still wants to take this work opportunity even though I understand that might not be possible or feasible or realistic.” She bit her bottom lip. “Or not what you want.”
“Because you think that I want a stay-at-home mother for my wife, a wife who knows her place?”
Tate, not sure how to respond, just shrugged and stared down into her cup of rapidly cooling coffee. She felt Linc’s finger pushing her chin up, and she gasped at the emotion blazing from his eyes. “I thought that was what I wanted, Tate, but I was so damn wrong. All I need is for you to be happy. If taking the job makes you happy, then do it. Take it. In fact, I insist that you do.”
God, he made it sound so simple, but it wasn’t. “Linc, if I took the job, I’d be away from home a few days every week for a good six months. That’s a lot of time away.”
Linc looked stubborn. “Our relationship is not about sacrifices, sweetheart. It’s about compromises and being organized. And I have enough money at my disposal that I can organize the hell out of any situation.”
“Tell me what you are thinking,” Tate begged, utterly amused by the idea that she could have her man and her kids and her career.
“I meant to tell you that I never intended for you to give up your career. If I can have mine, you can have yours. That’s why I mentioned that I contacted an agency to find us a nanny. We’ll find someone we all like, and some weeks the nanny and the kids will travel with you, some weeks I will. Maybe with the nanny, depending on my work load, maybe without. Some weeks, depending on your work load, the kids will stay here with me. It’s all figure-o
utable.”
It was, Tate thought, her heart expanding with excitement and delight. Together they could do it all. Tate curled her hand around the back of Linc’s neck and pulled his head down so that she could brush her lips against his.
Before they went any further, she had to apologize, to ask for his forgiveness for making such a massive mistake by running when she should have planted her feet next to him and stayed. “Linc, I’m sorry I left. So sorry.”
Linc tipped his head. “Do you plan on doing it again?” he asked, his voice heart-attack serious.
“No.” Tate placed her hand on her heart and shook her head. He had to believe her, she couldn’t bear it if he didn’t. “God, no! I promise.”
Linc’s eyes filled with relief, and the corners of his mouth quirked upward. “Then we’re good.”
“Thank you.” Tate breathed the words against his mouth, desperately wanting to thank him for making all her dreams come true. “Thank you for being wonderful and thoughtful and sensitive to my needs. Thank you for giving me my career. Thank you for forgiving me for running away.” Tate’s eyes filled with tears.
“Thank you for loving Ellie. For loving me,” she said, her voice choked with emotion.
Linc wiped away a tear with his thumb before dropping his forehead to rest it on hers. “I’m going to spend the rest of my life loving you, Tate. Because you, more than anyone else I know, are so worthy of being loved.”
Linc pulled back and tapped her nose. “Take a shower and I’ll see you downstairs. We’ll start planning the rest of our lives over breakfast.”
“Sounds good,” Tate murmured. “Actually, no, that’s the sound of all my dreams coming true.”
* * *
She hadn’t told Linc that she loved him yet.
The thought hit Tate as she walked down the stairs twenty minutes later. How could she have neglected such an important detail? She did love him, with every fiber of her being. She hoped he knew that, but in case he didn’t, she’d tell him as soon as she saw him.
He’d given her so much, yet she still hadn’t given him the words he needed the most. God, she sucked at being in love, but she would learn. She was as determined to make Linc as happy as he made her.
On an impulse Tate sat down on the bottom stair and looked around the hallway, her hand running over the polished step next to her thigh. She loved this house, she realized, and it wasn’t because it was situated on one of the best streets in Manhattan or because it was worth a fortune. She loved it because all the people she loved lived here. Tate looked up at the portrait of Connor on the wall opposite her, taking in his patrician face and his merry blue Ballantyne eyes. She was sorry she’d never met Linc’s father, but she thought she would’ve liked him. So many generations of Ballantynes had grown up in this house, and it sounded like Linc had plans for Shaw and Ellie to do the same.
Love, she felt, had seeped into the bones of this house, into the walls, into the foundations. Sometimes she felt that she could hear whispered laughter, hot spots of warmth, the suggestion of spiritual energy. She didn’t think the place was haunted, but she did feel like the previous occupants had left a little of their happiness behind.
Jo had been right when she’d said that this house had the ability to heal. In this house, around the Ballantynes, she felt happier, centered, more focused. She felt like she was home.
Tate heard footsteps behind her and twisted her torso to look up the stairs. Linc stood at the top of the stairs staring at her with a strange look on his face.
“I thought you were downstairs.”
“I took Ellie up to Sage and grabbed something from my room.”
The odd look on his face remained as he looked at her.
“What’s the matter?” Tate demanded. “Are the kids okay?”
Linc shook his head as if to clear it and half jogged down the stairs. “Shaw is still asleep, Ellie is cuddling with Sage.”
Tate started to stand up, but Linc’s hand on her shoulder kept her butt glued to the stair. “No, stay there,” he said. “This spot is as good as any.”
“To do what?”
“This.” Linc sat down next her and immediately pulled her to him and started to kiss her, his hand going to her breast. Tate laughed and pulled back.
“I’m fairly adventurous, Ballantyne, but your sister is upstairs and might need to use these stairs,” Tate drily told him. “And your siblings all have a key to that front door, and they frequently use it, and at odd times, too.”
Linc grinned, and then his face turned serious. “Does that bother you?”
“Does what bother me?”
“Does it bother you that The Den is Grand Central Station? I love this house, but if it doesn’t suit you, if you want something more private, then we can move.”
“I love your house, Linc. I don’t want to live anywhere else.”
Linc smiled. “I want this house to be ours, Tate, the kids will ours, that we do this together as equal partners. We can have it all. It’ll be crazy trying to juggle two careers, the kids, but I’m convinced we can fuse it all together into one glorious mess.”
“Yours, mine...ours.” Tate pushed the words out between her lips, stunned once again by his generosity, love bubbling in her stomach. She placed her hand on his hard thigh and rested her forehead on his shoulder. “Yeah, I think we can do that. But The Den, this is where I want to live.”
She heard Linc’s relieved sigh and felt the kiss he pressed into her hair. Tate didn’t want to move; she just wanted to sit here, listening to the house and inhaling Linc’s sexy, citrusy cologne.
“I love you, Linc,” she whispered, pushing herself over the last barrier between them.
“You, Shaw and Ellie and the kids... What we have together will always be the center of my world, the reason the earth spins for me,” she added, her voice low and intense. So much emotion swirled between them, but Tate finally embraced her passionate feelings instead of bolting from them. “I don’t love often, Linc, but when I do, I love with everything I have. I’ll always love you.”
“I love you, too, sweetheart,” Linc replied, his voice husky. “Come here.”
Tate scooted onto his lap, straddling him, his thighs hard under hers. She held his face in her hands and looked into his mesmerizing eyes, happy to see laughter and contentment brimming in those stunning gray depths.
“Love you,” she murmured, desperate to tell him again.
Linc jerked her toward him, and his mouth covered hers, demanding that she translate that emotion into her kiss. Tate was more than happy to oblige, and within minutes she was chest to chest with Linc, rubbing the juncture between her legs against his rock-hard erection. Her hands pushed under his sweater and shirt, needing his skin on hers, desperate to show him how much she loved him, desired him, how much her body had missed his.
The door behind them opened, and Tate heard an outburst of laughter as far too many Ballantynes crowded into the hallway. Tate pulled back and lifted her eyebrows at Linc.
Linc sent her a half amused, half sour look. “They thought I might need help talking you into staying.”
“Guess we weren’t needed after all,” Jaeger stated.
Tate looked over her shoulder. Yep, the entire clan, Jaeger and Piper, Beck and Cady and Reame were standing in the hallway, watching them with open amusement.
“Have you guys heard about this new thing they’ve invented?” Beck asked, shedding his coat and throwing it on the pile that was building on the settee. “It’s called a bedroom. And you have impressionable kids in the house.”
“And Sage is here,” Jaeger added.
Tate looked from one sibling’s face to the next, and in the eyes of each, she saw that they were happy for Linc, that she was now part of this crazy, extended family. They liked her, they approved of h
er, and they might, in time, come to love her. Her eyes collided with Reame’s, and he winked at her.
Tate turned back to Linc, and, staying on his lap, she decided to mess with his cocky siblings. “Linc, does the conversation we’ve just had mean that I am the de facto mistress of The Den?”
Linc, because he knew her so well, immediately picked up on the teasing in her voice, but he kept his face bland. “Yep. Pretty much.” He pushed his hand into his pocket and pulled out Connor’s ring, the color a deep, happy green. “Though if you agree to wear this ring, we’d make that, and a bunch of other things, legal.”
Tate ignored Cady and Piper’s squeals, keeping her eyes on Linc’s beloved face. “Is that a proposal, Linc?” she asked, amused.
“Sure is.” He smiled. “If you agree to marry me, to stay with me for the next sixty or so years, it comes with the added bonus of becoming mistress of The Den and bossing that lot around.”
So happy, Tate thought. She didn’t know she could feel this full, so blissful.
“Only sixty years? I think we can do better than that,” she replied with a radiant smile.
“Is that a yes?” Linc asked with a catch in his voice.
“Yes, that’s a yes! I love you, and I can’t think of anything more I’d like to do than spend the rest of my life with you.” Tate said, dropping a soft kiss on Linc’s mouth. She lifted her head and grinned. “But bossing your siblings around holds a certain appeal.”
“Go away,” she told Linc’s family—no, her family—smiling as she tossed a look over her shoulder toward their audience. “I have plans for your brother.”
Nobody was more surprised than her when all of them picked up their coats. Reame grabbed the door handle, and Tate watched, utterly astounded as they started walking out of The Den.
Tate immediately felt bad. She’d been joking, dammit! She started to call them back when Linc clapped his hand over her mouth, his face suffused with laughter. “Good job at getting rid of them, sweetheart.”
“I was joking!” Tate wailed. “Make them come back!”