Chapter 6.

"Where do we go from here?" Kate asked over dinner on the patio. They'd whiled away the entire day in bed, emerging only when they couldn't go any longer without eating.

"I don't know exactly."

"You live here. I live in Nashville-when I'm not touring. I'm having a hard time picturing how this will work."

"How about I come to wherever you are when you're working. And when you're not working, we come here."

Kate stared at him, incredulous. "You'd do that? You love it here."

"Yes, I do." He reached for her hand and touched his lips to the inside of her wrist. "But I love it here even more."

The vibration of his voice against her skin made her s.h.i.+ver. "Are you sure that's what you want? You have a life here, friends and-"

"I'm very sure that's what I want."

"I've been thinking about cutting back on the touring."

"You keep a relentless schedule. I don't know how you do it."

"For so long, I felt like it was necessary to go, go, go and get out there so I wouldn't be forgotten or overlooked or some other terrible thing that would ruin my career."

"It's probably safe to a.s.sume at this point you won't be overlooked or forgotten, darlin'. Your fans adore you."

"I'm so lucky to have such faithful fans, and I feel obligated to make myself available to them."

"You have to think of your health. I don't like those dark circles under your eyes."

"They're so ugly. I hate them." Kate raised her hands to her face, self-conscious about the purple grooves under her eyes.

"You need some rest and some downtime to rejuvenate. What do you think about staying here with me for a while? And not just a week or two."

"Stay here?"

"That's what I said."

"I need to see Thunder. I promised him I'd be home, and he'll be wondering where I am."

"I could fly you home any time you want to go."

"You still have your plane?"

"I have a new one since I last saw you-a sweet twin-engine Cessna. It'll get us to Nashville in a few hours."

"So it could really be that simple? I stay here with you and go home once in a while?"

"It could really be that simple. You could rest, relax, write some new music, shop, sleep. Whatever you want."

Kate sat back in her chair and took a drink of her wine. "G.o.d, that sounds heavenly."

"Some St. Kitts therapy might be just what the doctor ordered."

"I don't know..."

"What don't you know, darlin'?"

"It'll sound stupid."

"Say it anyway."

Kate's face heated with embarra.s.sment. "I don't know if I'd feel comfortable staying with you in the place you shared with Mari."

"Then we'll get a different place. I rent month to month. I have for years."

"Oh. I figured you owned it."

He shook his head. "I didn't want to be tied here if I decided to move on. I spent so much of my life chained to that gigantic house in Nashville. I didn't want those kinds of obligations anymore."

His words stuck a chord of fear in Kate. What if they'd conceived a child? Would he want that kind of obligation after already raising a child?

"Kate? What is it?"

"You don't want obligations, yet you're committing to this whole life with me."

"I don't want real estate. That's a different kind of obligation." He reclaimed her hand and kissed her palm, her wrist and the inside of her elbow. "There're obligations, and then there is joy and pleasure and peace. Finally, some peace."

"You haven't been at peace here?" She gestured to their view of paradise.

"There was always something-or I should say someone-missing. Our relations.h.i.+p was unfinished, and that left me unsettled. I was content but not entirely happy. Now I have a chance to be both, so you bet I want to be obligated to you."

Without releasing his hand, Kate got up and went to him.

Reid guided her onto his lap and put his arms around her.

"That might be the sweetest thing you've ever said to me," she said, "and if I'm recalling correctly, you said some pretty sweet things to me way back when."

His laugh rumbled through her as his love surrounded her-steady and sure and as solid as it ever was.

She rested her head on his shoulder and ran a finger over his bare chest. "My life is very different than it used to be."

"Besides the obvious, how so?"

"I can't go anywhere in public without security, for one thing."

"That won't be a problem here. No one cares about celebrities."

"That'll be nice. I miss being able to go to the Bluebird or Mabel's to hang out and visit with friends and listen to music whenever I want to. I miss going to the mall with my sisters or walking into the movies like everyone else does, rather than getting there ten minutes late and leaving ten minutes early."

"It sounds like a bit of a gilded cage."

"In some ways it is."

"If you had it to do over again, would you have wanted the big career so badly?"

Kate mulled that over. "I suppose I would, since I've never been all that good at anything else. This is what I was meant to do. I never question that. It's just that sometimes I wish it wasn't so confining, you know?"

"I can see what you mean. Definitely."

"I sound like a jerk for complaining about a career in which I get paid millions every year to do the one thing I love to do."

"You don't sound like a jerk."

"You have to say that. You love me."

"Yes, I do, but I don't have to say anything." He kissed her nose and then her lips.

"Buddy tried to tell me. Back at the beginning, he said it would be crazy-and not always in a good way. But until you're in it..."

"You can't possibly know."

"Right." She ventured a glance at him. "You sure you want to step inside that gilded cage with me?"

"I'm very sure. One of the things I loved best about the time we spent together was that often it was just the two of us at home with the fire, your guitar and that angelic voice. What more did we ever need?"

Kate smiled, remembering the idyllic days and pa.s.sionate nights they'd spent together when she was too young to know that such things didn't come along every day and should be treasured. "Not much."

"I'll need to see Mari and offer the house to her if she wants it. A lot of the things there are hers."

The idea of him seeing his ex-lover struck another chord of fear in Kate. What if he took one look at the exotic dark-haired beauty and regretted his decision to leave her?

"Stop that."

Startled by his firm tone, she said, "Stop what?"

He traced the outline of her mouth with the tip of his index finger. "Stop thinking I'm going to see her and change my mind about you."

"I wasn't thinking that," she said, even as a flush of heat invaded her face, making a liar out of her.

Reid laughed and hugged her tighter. "Sure you weren't, darlin'."

"I can't help that the thought of you with someone else makes me a little crazy."

"How do you think I felt having to read about you with Bobby and Russ and Clint? I wanted to go find each one of them and kill them in the most painful, b.l.o.o.d.y way possible for daring to lay hands on my woman."

Kate's mouth fell open in astonishment as her mild-mannered lover showed his jealous side.

His s.e.xy mouth quivered with amus.e.m.e.nt. "Didn't know I had murderous tendencies, did you?"

Zeroing in on his sensual lips, Kate shook her head. "I had no idea, and I'm truly shocked. You were always such a kind Southern gentleman."

"There was nothing kind about my thoughts toward the other men in your life."

"I'm sorry if I caused you pain. I never would've wanted that."

"With hindsight, I supposed your relations.h.i.+ps with other people-and mine-served to show us where we really belong, so it was all part of a grander plan."

"That's very philosophical."

"It's what I told myself so I wouldn't actually find them and kill them."

Kate threw her head back and laughed. Her laughter became a moan when he took advantage of the opportunity to place kisses on her neck that made her s.h.i.+ver with desire. "Let's go back to bed," she whispered.

"I have a better idea." As he spoke, he gathered her in close to him and stood. He surprised her when he opened the gate that led to the sand.

"Where are we going?"

"You'll see."

The moonlight was like a mirror on the calm water. Kate's senses were filled with the scent of sand and sea and Reid's endlessly appealing cologne. She buried her nose in his neck and breathed him in. It was all she could do not to let out a giddy squeal of delight as he carried her to the beach. She couldn't believe she was finally with him again and apparently got to keep him this time. It was too good to be true.

Under the cover of palm trees, Reid put her down and ran his hands from her shoulders, down her back to her bottom where he lingered for a minute before continuing farther south. He found the hem of her cotton dress and eased it up and over her head, leaving her bare before him.

She could see him just well enough to watch his eyes flare with heat as he cupped her b.r.e.a.s.t.s and teased her nipples until they were hard and tingling. "Whatever are you doing, Mr. Matthews?"

"This," he whispered as he ducked his head and took one of the turgid peaks into the heat of his mouth, sucking hard as he pinched the other one between two fingers.

Kate gasped and clutched his head to her chest, wanting him all over again, wanting him forever and always. The warm air on her fevered skin, the fear of being caught naked on the beach, the heat of the sand under her feet and the silk of his hair against her chest overwhelmed her senses. She was about to beg him to lay her down right there and take her when he let go and unb.u.t.toned his shorts.

After he dropped them to the sand, he took her hand. "Come swim with me."

Kate hesitated. Life in the bubble had taught her to be cautious. "What if someone sees us?"

"No one will. We've got this part of the beach all to ourselves. Desi a.s.sured me of that." He gave her hand a tug. "Come on."

Kate stepped into the moonlight and let him lead her into water so warm it might've been bathwater.

"Doesn't it feel good?" he asked, drawing her against him.

"So good." Kate straddled him and wrapped her arms around his neck.