Kate was going to kill him.
Footsteps sounded at the hallway and stopped at his door.
“Can we wake Colt up?” asked Olivia.
“Don’t think it’s a good idea, pumpkin,” Mac replied.
Thank you, Lord.
“Why?”
Colt stiffened.
“He was tired last night.”
“You overslept?” hissed the woman beside him.
He turned to look at crystal blue eyes and held a finger to his mouth. The door was unlocked. Any sound coming from their room and there’d be a lot of explaining to do before he and Kate were ready. Not to mention, they were very much naked under the covers.
“Ms. Kate’s not in her room either,” Josh said. “Her door was open. She came home last night. Where did she go?”
“Hmm, I don’t know?” Mac said, but there was laughter in his voice. “Tell you what, why don’t we go back to the bunkhouse and have breakfast with the boys.”
“I wanna eat Cap’n Crunch. It’s in the kitchen,” Josh declared.
“Let’s go to the kitchen then.”
As the footsteps echoed away, Kate scrambled from the bed and threw on Colt’s discarded tee. “Oh my God, oh my God. I don’t have any clothes here.”
“Calm down,” Colt told her as he threw the covers back and strode to the dresser and dragged on shorts and a shirt.
“You said you’d wake up before they got here,” Kate whisper-yelled, pacing the bedroom. “You’re not the one doing the walk of shame in front of the kids to get to your bedroom.”
“Let’s just be honest with them.” He shrugged. “We’ve been out as a family before. I’m sure they’ll be thrilled that we’re like normal moms and dads sharing a bed.”
“I’m about to tell them their father’s in town—”
“Sperm donor,” Colt corrected.
Kate’s eyes narrowed into slits. “You know what that makes me?”
Colt winced. “It’s not the same.”
“Isn’t it?”
“Let’s not fight about this,” he said. “You know how much I hate him.”
“Suck it up, Montgomery,” she snapped.
He stalked toward her and pulled her into him. “For the sake of the twins, I’ll lay off Romanov, but don’t expect me to do nothing if he makes a play for you.” He squeezed her shoulders tight. “You. Are. Mine.”
There was a hitch to her breathing. He braced for another argument. Going all caveman and mine, mine, mine on Kate probably wasn’t the best of ideas, but goddammit, he was done holding back for fear of scaring her off. If she couldn’t deal with his possessiveness—tough. She’d let him have a taste of her; no way was he backing off.
“Wow,” she whispered. “That was kinda hot.”
“You’re not mad?” He cast her a wary look.
“No.” She looked bemused. “Apparently, I’m not,” she said after a beat. “Weird, huh—when I was all prickle and thorns before?”
“I’m softening you up.” He smirked.
She patted his cheek. “Don’t get too cocky, cowboy. Now go distract the children while I sneak across the kitchen to get to my bedroom.”
Colt rolled his eyes. “Let’s go.” He grabbed her hand. “We’re not sneaking around.” She resisted for all of two seconds, but he tugged her firmly behind him. He was beginning to enjoy this more malleable Kate. Maybe it was the sex, maybe it was the multiple orgasms he gave her, but the possessive caveman in him was fucking pleased. He’d love to lock her away so he could go over every inch of skin he had yet to explore.
But … kids.
The twins were hanging at the breakfast counter rather than the table, so they witnessed the adults emerge from the bedroom together and make their way into the kitchen.
“You can catch flies with that mouth, Olivia,” Colt teased when the little girl stared at them with wide eyes and a wider mouth.
“I’ll, uh … be right back,” Kate mumbled. With her face flaming, she scooted past them and walked to the other hallway with as much dignity as she could muster while rocking his shirt, bare legs, and no panties. Damn.
“Why was Ms. Katie in your room?” Olivia asked, frowning at Colt. “Did she have a bad dream?”
Mac muffled his laughter somewhere in the kitchen.
“Why don’t we get you guys something to eat,” he said instead as he guided the twins to the table. Mac came over with the Cap’n Crunch box and handed it to Josh who poured some into his own bowl and sister’s.
“Well?” Liv demanded, situating herself in a chair.
“Liv, mind your own business,” her brother muttered as he left the table to grab the milk from Mac who had taken it out of the fridge.
“Ms. Katie is our business,” she informed him. “She’s our mom. And as our mom, she’s our business, right?” She stared at Colt again.
“You’re right,” he agreed. “But there are things Kate and I do that are our business.”
He cut a glance at Mac who had his hip against the counter and face etched in silent humor. Colt was fucking this up because the girl’s face had turned mutinous.
“Sooo …” Kate breezed back into the kitchen. “What’s for—no. You’re not eating that evil cereal for breakfast.”
“You let us have Pop-Tarts before,” Josh pointed out. “The sugar content is just as high if not higher.”
“You’re not really sure, are you?” Kate squinted at the boy.
Josh grinned. “I read food labels.”
“Why?”
“Because it gives me something to do while sitting around the table,” he stated matter-of-factly. He glanced at his sister. “Liv wants to tell you something.”
“What is it, sweetie?”
“I’m sorry for what I did at the festival,” Olivia said, her mouth turned down at the corners.
“Me, too,” Josh said. “Too many people freaking out. Well … they freaked me out.”
“What are they talking about?” Mac asked, frowning.
“Tell you later,” Colt said under his breath.
Kate walked up to them, ruffling Olivia’s hair and chucking Josh under the chin. “None of what happened was your fault, kiddos, but we’ll talk about that soon, okay?”
“Also, why were you in Mr. Colt’s room?” Olivia added.
Startled, Kate looked at him for guidance but he had none. “Um … ah … the doctor told him to keep an eye on me … um … to make sure I’m okay.”
Now why didn’t he think of that? Colt thought, groaning inwardly.
“You’re fine though, right?” Josh asked.
“I’m fine,” Kate assured them. “I do have something to tell both of you though …” She looked hesitantly at him again, but he gave her a brief nod to go ahead.
“I met with your father last night.”
“Papa?” both of them said almost in unison.
“Alex, yes.”
“He’s not taking us back, is he?” Josh asked sharply as both he and Olivia looked at Colt.
Kate frowned, a slight hurt crossing her face probably because the twins turned to him.
“If it were up to me, no,” he said tightly, not looking at Kate. The kids put him on the spot and it was the only diplomatic answer he could give without compromising how he felt about the whole thing.
“Then who … who is it up to?” Olivia asked, turning eyes back to Kate.
“Admiral Porter, but Colt and I will have a say in it.”
“You should marry Colt,” the child told her. “That way Colt can be our dad and you, you’re already our mom.” Her eyes lit up. “I can call you Mom!”
Shit, these kids. His chest was too full to process all this. Colt grinned and turned to Kate, but his smile fell when he saw the pained expression on her face. Was last night all about sex to her? Was marrying him really that distasteful?
Frustration, resentment, and anger reared inside him, but he kept his face neutral.
Kate pulled out a chair and sat facing the tw
ins. “Why don’t you want to return to your father? Did he do something wrong? Hurt you in any way? We need to know.”
The twins exchanged glances. It was Josh who spoke first. “We have more fun here. More freedom. I know we’ve been here only a little while, but Liv and I talked. We like it here. You, Colt, Mac, Ms. Millie… we feel like a family.”
His jaw clenched when Kate winced at the word “family.”
“Our nanny, Ms. Elisa, cared,” Liv added. “Papa also cares and we love him but he’s always busy. But we sure don’t like the white coats.”
Their mother’s face darkened at the reminder that Josh and Livy were experimented on. “Won’t you miss him?”
“He can visit, right?” Olivia asked.
Kate nodded. “He wants to see you.”
The twins exchanged worried looks as an anxious pall fell over their promising morning.
Olivia’s head bowed and peeked at her mother beneath her lashes. “He won’t take us?”
“What makes you scared that he’d take you?”
Josh hitched his shoulders. “He’s always surrounded by people with big guns.”
“Guards?”
Josh nodded. “Yes. He’s very powerful.”
A colonel with the Spetsnaz. He and Kate should never forget that the man who appeared so benign yesterday was still a high-ranking official of Russia’s special forces.
“You don’t have to see him, you know that, right?” Kate said.
“I want to see Papa,” Olivia said in a rush, turning to Josh. “I miss him.”
Her brother scowled. “I don’t want to see him. You got hurt because of him. He hardly visits us anyway. He only wants to see us so he can see Ms. Kate.”
“Papa wants to see us,” Liv said, her lips quivering, turning to her mother. “He does, right? And not just because of you.”
Kate nodded, her smile tight. “He really does.”
“See, Josh?”
“She’s lying.”
A stricken expression crossed Kate’s face at the uncharacteristic venom that laced Josh’s words. And his face didn’t look one bit repentant.
“I’m sorry you feel that way,” Kate said stiffly before Colt could say anything. “If you don’t want to see your father, that’s up to you. But don’t get mad at your sister because she does.”
“He hurt her!” Josh yelled and jumped out of his chair, shooting sparks of anger at his mother. “If he’s going to leave again, why see us? It’s only going to hurt when he’s gone.” Kate blanched and lost all color, but Josh wasn’t done and turned on his sister. “And you! You’re stupid to think Papa loves us.”
Colt was done listening. “Okay, bud, that’s enough. Apologize to your sister and mom.”
Olivia’s face was beet red. She was angry, breathing hard, but was quiet, probably because she was trying so hard not to let the tears that brimmed her eyes fall.
“For what?” Josh challenged.
“Never … ever … yell at your mother,” Colt said in a steely voice. “And never call your sister stupid.”
“Well, she’s really—”
“Enough!” Colt speared him with a hard stare and Josh clamped his mouth shut.
A stubborn chin lifted.
“Two seconds, bud.”
“Sorry,” he mumbled to Liv, then turning to Kate, he said the same.
Cap’n Crunch forgotten, they stared sullenly at one another.
Colt blew out a breath and glanced at Kate, wondering if she was pissed because he’d stepped in. He was their guardian, but she was their mother.
Her face was hard to read, but, if he were to guess, it was troubled. This parenting thing was hard and judging from Kate’s face she knew the honeymoon was over.
“Welp, gotta get to work,” Mac announced. Colt had forgotten he was there.
His manager walked to the door and glanced back at their quartet, appearing to want to tell them something. He pressed his mouth in a wry expression and tapped the doorframe with his fist. “Holler if you need me.”
“Thanks, Mac,” Colt said.
“Can I go help Mac feed the horses?”
“You haven’t eaten breakfast, Liv,” Kate told her.
“Not hungry.”
Colt waited for No-Nonsense-Mom to tell her daughter to eat her cereal before she could start her day, but Kate’s shoulders drooped and she exhaled a resigned breath. “Go.”
A prickle of alarm resonated in his consciousness. Something was terribly wrong with Kate. Even Olivia looked strangely at her, surprised she gave in easily.
Josh tried to be oblivious to everyone, but he stole a worried glance at his mother as well.
The earth seemed to have flipped on its axis because Colt didn’t recognize this family from the past two weeks.
Blame came fast and furious and it honed in on one man.
Romanov.
“Can I go to my room?” Josh asked.
Kate waved her hand absently as if she didn’t give a fuck anymore.
When Josh disappeared down the hallway she leaned forward in her seat, rested her elbows on the table, and pinched the bridge of her nose.
Colt laid his hands on her shoulders, but she stiffened and pulled away so he dropped his arms to his side. She wasn’t going to get rid of him that easily though.
Pulling out a chair beside her, he sat and dragged her chair closer.
“Colt …”
“Feel like talking?”
“No.”
“Okay, then I will.”
“Colt—” She looked everywhere but at him. The absence of her usual spunk and fire was bugging the fuck out of him.
“You’re not pushing me away,” he informed her. “Told you from the start, babe, we’re in this together. So the twins had a fight.” He paused until he had her eyes. “That’s. What. Kids. Do. They fight. They make up. We’ve been around twins enough, the bond is even stronger than with regular siblings. Are you saying you never had a fight with Matt?”
Anger flared in her eyes. “You try to be this rational adult. Yes. You’re Mr. Perfect. That’s why the admiral entrusted guardianship to you first, because apparently you can handle anything.”
Shocked at her outburst, Colt could only stare. He dared not speak because, apparently, he’d hit a nerve and if that was what was needed to get her to open up, then it was worth it.
Kate pushed back her chair, got up and started pacing. “You know what, though? Josh is right. Why should he love someone who’s going to leave him anyway? Why risk that hurt? Wouldn’t it be better if Alex cut off all ties now?”
Colt wanted to agree more than anything, but his own jealousy affected his perspective. “I don’t know, Kate,” he said quietly. “The welfare of the kids is our priority. Do you think meeting their father will do more harm than good?”
“I don’t know,” she whispered. “I don’t know anything anymore.” The way she choked on that last statement, the way her eyes fixed on him with so much regret, sent a fist of fear through his chest.
Suddenly, he knew.
“This is about us,” he stated flatly.
She nodded and swallowed. “You and the kids. I just can’t …”
“Then what the fuck was last night?” Colt cut in, surging up from his chair and stalking toward her. “What was last night about, huh? Some kind of goodbye fuck?”
“Don’t belittle what we had last night,” Kate snapped.
“Then why?”
She retreated from him, a canvas etched in anguish. “I don’t know …”
Her pain saturated the air between them and extinguished his anger. Something was horribly wrong. “Talk to me, babe … tell me what’s going on in that head.”
“My head?” Kate’s burst of laughter was near hysterical and full of mockery. Her lips twisted into a sneer. “That’s exactly the problem. My head is fucked up.”
Silence hung between them.
“Did Romanov say something more about your spindle?” Col
t asked finally. That had got to be it. But Kate was fine this morning, playful even. He wracked his brain about what could have triggered this change of attitude. The children’s fight? Romanov?
“Not your problem,” she said. “I need to get away from here for a while.”
“Kate … Goddammit!” He went after her when she spun away from him and scooped her messenger bag from the console table. She headed for the door without looking back.
He grabbed her arm and swung her around to face him.
“Let me go,” she bit out.
“No!” Colt growled. “Tell me what the fuck is going on?”
Kate stared at the floor, gave one shake of her head, before gently unfurling his fingers one by one from her arm. She held on to his hand as she stared up at him.
“Let me go this once, please?”
What is she asking of him? What the hell does she mean?
“Goldilocks …” His voice broke as she stood on tiptoe and touched a light kiss to his mouth.
With her other hand, she cupped his jaw. “If I were to fall in love, it would be with you, Colt Montgomery.”
His heart shattered at his feet as he watched his world walk away from him. Again.
22
Colt
Colt sat on the porch swing, staring at the empty space where Kate’s SUV should have been. He took a long pull of his beer as he contemplated the four days since he’d last seen her. He stayed out here because the alternative was locking himself in his study. Pretending to be fine when thoughts of losing Kate plagued his mind was exhausting.
It had taken all of Colt’s self-control not to physically stop her from leaving, but that pain in her eyes begged him to let her go. Choices had been taken away from her; he hoped it would be her choice to return to them.
He threw back the remainder of his beer and rested the empty bottle on his leg.
TAC kept him occupied during the day, but at night it had been a struggle not to rage or feel a bleak desperation at her absence. And as each day passed, the fear of losing her clawed at his insides, shredding him.
Her reasons for pulling back were her own then, but she couldn’t keep him and the kids in limbo forever.
Three more days.
Kate had three more days before he confronted her. It wasn’t about taking away her choices, but it was about trying to convince her to stay.
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