Page 54

“How can I go back to a cage now? You’re poisoning me with a peek at a good life.”

The corners of his masculine lips curved upward. “If I had it all to do again, I would poison you again.”

A strange fluttering sensation took over her stomach, and she rubbed the scar on her hand. “Do you have regrets on the Promise?”

He surprised her by nodding. “I have a few.”

“Oh. I understand.” She didn’t understand, so she didn’t really know why she’d told him that.

“I wish I would’ve taken you out of there. Before all the stuff went down with Tanner and Samuel, I wish I would’ve figured out a way to get us both out of there.”

“I don’t,” she admitted in a whisper. She dared a glance up at the confusion swimming in his eyes. “If you would’ve pulled me out of there, I would’ve wanted to go back. I didn’t know enough yet. And you wouldn’t have gone to Cold Foot, and gotten time to yourself to figure things out, and Wreck and Damon would’ve pulled someone else out of that prison, and from where I’m sitting, I think you ended up in a pretty cool place.”

And there was that smile again. “Well, when you put it that way, maybe I wouldn’t change a thing either. I wouldn’t have had the chance to listen to you screeching out Friends in Low Places at karaoke tonight—”

She smacked him gently on the arm. “It’s called harmonizing,” she joked, knowing damn well she couldn’t sing worth a hoot. “Besides, the whole bar was singing with me, so I’m pretty sure you were really the only one who heard me, and that’s because you were sitting right in front of the speaker.”

“Cash got video of the whole song. He’s already posted it in the Crew loop with like a thousand pictures. Freaking paparazzi.”

She fell over cackling just imagining how awful that video probably sounded. “Hey, I was trying to seduce you. Did it work?”

And that handsome-boy smile faded again. “Yes,” he admitted softly. Truth.

The laughter died in her throat, and she sat up straighter. “You can’t be falling for me, Kade. There are rules.”

“What rules?” he asked, and he was just a foot away from her.

“I can’t fall in love with you, and you can’t fall in love with me.”

“Why not?”

“Because you will get hurt.”

“What if I don’t mind getting hurt?” he asked.

“If you got hurt because of me, I would never be able to forgive myself. I would go on just like my mother, living a half-life, finding anything I could to numb the guilt.”

“And what if it’s too late?”

“Too late for what?” she asked on a breath.

“What if I’ve already fallen?”

“We can’t.”

“We can.”

“No, Kade. You don’t understand the curse. We can’t.”

“We can.”

“You’ll die—”

“Then I’ll come back to you—”

“Kade!—”

He leaned forward in a rush and his lips crashed onto hers, quieting her argument. Jess froze completely. This was wrong. Right? This was against the rules. This was against…this was…this…