10 Ways to Steal Your Lover (13 page)

 
      
The tense moment strung out until Kane
was sure he felt it in his nuts, his gaze sealed to the older man’s. Finally,
the oxygen screaming in his own lungs, the Colonel blew out his breath in a
huff and spun away.

 
      
“Oh Kane, I like you so much right now,”
Rainbow murmured into the silence. “Welcome to our gene pool!”

 
      
“Shut it, Rainbow.” The Colonel barked
and too her credit, Rainbow finally did. But she still smiled like a cat that
ate the canary.

 
      
“You didn’t have to do that for me,”
Delilah whispered, for his ears only. “He won’t forgive you for it anytime
soon.”

 
      
“Yes, I did.” Everyone else in the room
disappeared as he brought his hand to her cheek, his fingertips stroking her
jaw. “Remember rule one?”

 
      
She smiled, turning her cheek into his
touch. “What if I want to claim rule one for you?”

 
      
His heart clenched. “I’d love it if you
tried.”

 
      
“Do the two of you mind?” The Colonel
broke the spell. “We are still in the room.”

 
      
Delilah looked away first. “I don’t see
what you being here has to do with anything.”

 
      
Craig finally entered the conversation.
“I think he’s talking about me, Del.”

 
      
All eyes turned to the windows, where
Craig stood with his hands in the pockets of his jeans. He didn’t look angry,
which would be a relief if he wasn’t staring at Delilah so intently. “I think
we need to talk, kiddo.”

 
      
Every instinct Kane had told him not to
let her do it. Not to let her go. He might have listened to it if it were
remotely his choice. Delilah worried at her lip for just a second, squeezing
his hand gently once, then she slipped away and Kane had the horrible sense
that this wouldn’t be the last time he’d have to feel her disappear from his
grasp.

 
      
Craig thankfully didn’t reach for her
hand or put his own on the small of her back as he led Delilah to the sunken
dining room. She hadn’t investigated this part of the suite yet, so it felt
strange pulling out the black padded and high-backed chair and slipping over
its firm surface. Craig pulled out the captain’s chair cattycorner to her and
sat, his handsome face somber, black hair falling over his perfect brow and his
dark blue eyes searching her face for…she didn’t really know.

 
      
She should be feeling something, looking
at him. She’d lived with him for three years. Planned to tie her life to his.
At least a throb in her heart. Even her sense of guilt was little more than a
shadow in her mind. No matter how she spun it, waking up this morning with Kane
had felt like freedom and waking up the day before, preparing to marry Craig,
had felt like a life sentence. It didn’t take a genius to add up what that
meant.

 
      
“I’m sorry you had to find out like this,
Craig, I really am.”

 
      
“Find out about what, exactly?” Not a
harsh question. Soft. Almost musing. “That you’re in love with my best friend
or that you married him?”

 
      
Delilah gaped, not remotely able to
formulate an answer to that.

 
      
Finally, Craig’s familiar smile creased
the dimples in his cheeks. “You really don’t remember anything, do you? About
the church?”

 
      
She clamped her mouth shut with an
audible click and Craig actually laughed softly.

 
      
“You can’t imagine what it was like
getting a call from Jesse this morning that Kane had kidnapped you and was
holding you ransom.”

 
      
“He said what?” God, she was going to
have to do something about that horrible shriek of hers. How is it that she’d
never heard herself make that noise before today and now she couldn’t seem to
stop?

 
      
“Your mother must have warmed up to her
story by the time she got to Jesse.”

 
      
“You think?” She would not bang her head
on a table again. She wouldn’t.

 
      
He leaned in conspiratorially, “How
exactly did your mother get a hold of Jesse. He never gives that number away.”

 
      
As if he couldn’t guess. Her father had
more contacts than LensCrafters. “If you don’t know, trust me, it’s best for
everyone involved.”

 
      
Craig gave that a few seconds
consideration before shrugging. “I tried to tell them that Kane would never
kidnap you but by then Jesse had already mentioned

 
      
Kane’s Gramps old story and the hunt was
on. We’ve been to at least a dozen casinos looking for you. We’d just about
given up when someone sent Jesse a link to a video of TK Hughes getting knocked
on his ass by a guy at a roulette table.”

 
      
“I never thought of Jesse as this helpful
before.” Funny and a little irresponsible with himself, sure, but not helpful. Especially
not to authority figures like her parents. In fact, she kinda figured her
parents would give him hives on principle. She’d have to help him back with a
gift basket full of X-lax chocolate muffins. Or better yet, one of Rainbow’s
special teas.

 
      
“That’s only because you’ve never had to
spend more than a few days at a time with him. Trust me, Jesse takes a sick
kind of pleasure out of helping us get caught when we do something stupid.”

 
      
“And when he does something stupid?”

 
      
Craig shrugged again. “Jesse’s too slick
to get caught doing stupid things.”

 
      
“But you’re not,” she surmised and his
smile turned faded.

 
      
“No, I’m not.”

 
      
“What happened, Craig? How’d we end up
like…this?”

 
      
“Pretty simple, really. I saw a beautiful
girl and I wanted to keep her, as long as I possibly could.” He took her hand
in both of his. “I think I knew about ten seconds after I introduced the two of
you that there was something there, even if I didn’t want to admit it to
myself. On paper, we fit so well together. We were everything the other person
was supposed to want or need. It should have worked. But the longer we were together,
the less happy you were. Except when Kane was around.”

 
      
Delilah fit her palm over his, bowing her
head. “I did love you, Craig.” Once, though it seemed a very long time ago.

 
      
“Just not enough. Not like you love him.”

 
      
It was hard, but she shook her head.

 
      
“You know what really sucks? Most guys
only have to go through this once.” He scrubbed a hand over his face like he
was exhausted. “You’re rough on the ego, kid.”

 
      
She shook her head at him. “I don’t know
what you’re talking about.”

 
      
“I’m talking about the truth. I realized
it finally last night over a bottle of whiskey.”

 
      
“Oh Craig…”

 
      
“I’ll admit, it wasn’t what I planned to
be doing on my wedding night, but it did give me a lot of time to think about
what I was doing with my life. What I should be doing with it. The truth of it
is that I didn’t love you enough either. I care about you. I love you, but not
like he does. Like he will.”

 
      
The scoff escaped completely without
thought. “How do you know that? I’m not even sure I know if what’s happening
between us is going to last.”

 
      
Craig’s stare this time was almost painfully
intense. “Yes, you do. You knew it yesterday. And I know you do because you called
me into your bride room and gave me back my ring so you could be with him. Because
you trusted him that much.”

 
      
Delilah lifted her head, studying his
face for a lie, but it wasn’t there.

 
      
“You said you couldn’t face a future
where you felt like—”

 
      
“—someone’s knick knack instead of his
partner,” she breathed, the haze in her mind parting just the tiniest bit.
She’d felt so sure then, for the first time in her life, that she was making
the right decision. She’d turned to the dressing table for the ring he’d given
her, looking up at Craig’s sad—but oddly not surprised—expression in the
mirror. “Because when I’m with you, I’m just something. But when I’m with him,
I’m someone.”

 
      
“Someone who matters, if I remember
correctly.”

 
      
Delilah could only nod. Like Kane had
said earlier, everyone on his ranch had a purpose. She’d be a necessary part of
his world, his life. And he’d be a necessary part of hers. Truthfully, he
already was…

 
      
“I can’t even be mad at you for picking
Kane. If you’d met him first, it wouldn’t even have been a question. The two of
you practically snap in place when you’re together. You always have. I feel
kind of dumb for not letting myself see it before. If I hadn’t gotten in the
way, you’d probably be on your second or third kid by now, living happily ever
after on his ranch.”

 
      
It took serious effort not to blush at
that, her mind automatically remembering how fast Kane could set her on fire.

 
      
Craig dropped her hands like she was a
hot coal. “Okay, well, I don’t want to know about that. It’s one thing to know
you’re with him, I don’t want to know how happy you are to be there.”

 
      
Delilah couldn’t help a laugh. “Sorry.”

 
      
“No, you’re not.” But he didn’t sound
angry.

 
      
The masochist in her couldn’t help but
ask, “Why aren’t you mad at us, Craig?”

 
      
His shrug wasn’t what she expected.
“What’s to be mad about? You were faithful right up until the end. Just because
you ran off with my best friend less than ten minutes after you dumped me…”

 
      
She narrowed her eyes at him. “I’ve known
you a long time, Craig. Too long for you to think I’d believe that lame excuse
for a guilt trip. Try again.”

 
      
His self-derisive chuckle was a little
more realistic. “I’ve known things weren’t right between us for a while. At
least a year. Last night, I finally admitted why. On some level, I think I knew
you were in love with Kane. Or at least suspected it. But I didn’t want to let
go. The illusion of being in love almost meant more to me than my best friends.
Once that illusion was gone, the only thing left was the truth. You can’t be
mad at the truth.”

 
      
“That’s not possible. I haven’t been in
love with Kane for a year.” She wasn’t that horrible of a person, was she?

 
      
Craig didn’t seem to agree. “I said at
least. When you two weren’t avoiding each other like the plague you were
staring at each other. It got to the point where I felt like I was the third
wheel.”

 
      
She picked at an imaginary speck on the
table. “I’m so sorry, Craig. I really am. I never realized…”

 
      
“You can’t help who you fall in love
with, Delilah. Any more than you can help who you don’t fall in love with.”

 
      
Looking up, Delilah caught something in
his expression she’d never seen before. Regret. She’d never known him to look
back at anything and think he’d made any mistakes. “You don’t have anything to
apologize for, Craig.”

 
      
“Neither do you. We wanted to love each
other. We tried. Some things just aren’t meant to be. I can be good with having
tried.” His forced chuckle made her chest ache. “Eventually.”