Love and Always (A Pound of Flesh #1.5) (8 page)

The fact that her mother had seemingly accepted the news without expressing her opinion was disconcerting to say the least and, although Kat hadn’t aired her worries to Carter, she had been on edge since they’d shared their news on Christmas Eve. The fact was Eva Lane was
never
quiet about such important matters. And, Kat knew, her marriage to an ex-con was a
very
important matter. Kat suspected the rare quiet had been the dangerous calm before the inevitable storm.

“So what’s up?” Kat asked after taking a huge gulp from her wineglass.

Eva looked up from her hand on the table, startled. “Nothing’s up. I haven’t seen you since New Year’s and I simply wanted to have lunch with my daughter. Is that a crime?”

Kat’s brow furrowed. “I guess not.”

“I’ve been thinking about your engagement party.”

Of course she had.

“Carter and I haven’t discussed anything in detail yet,” Kat replied. “I know we want something small. Besides, Carter wants to wait until Max is home before we start to plan everything. He’ll be the best man after all.”

Eva patted her lips with her napkin. “Max? The . . . fellow who . . . the one in—”

“In rehab, yes, Mom,” Kat interjected, never lifting her eyes from the menu the waiter had handed her. “And don’t sound so judgmental; half the women in your social circles over the years have been in rehab a time or two.”

Both women knew it was true, and the silence that settled over them was heavy with words unsaid. Kat sighed and set her menu down. “Come on, Mom. What is it? Was it just about the engagement party? I’m not going to be able to enjoy my food if you don’t tell me.”

Eva cocked an eyebrow.

“Come on,” Kat continued expectantly. “Spit it out.”

Eva licked her lips and adjusted her position in her seat. She was uncomfortable. That wasn’t characteristic at all.

Kat was instantly wary. “Mom, whatever it is, tell me. Are you okay?”

Sitting in her seat, straightbacked with an unflinching stare, Eva paused. Kat swallowed hard. Whatever it was, it wasn’t good news.

“Shortly after Christmas, I had a meeting with the family lawyer,” Eva said.

Kat’s shoulders dropped from their tense height. She blinked. “Family lawyer?”

Eva nodded and sipped her water.

Kat rubbed the bridge of her nose with her finger, utterly flummoxed. “Okay, and why are you speaking to a lawyer?”

Her mother’s eyes flitted away while her mouth pressed into a taut line before she began speaking. “I wanted to start the ball rolling with your prenuptial agreement.”

All the oxygen in Kat’s lungs left her in a huge whoosh. For a couple of minutes, her voice eluded her, replaced with gusts of air and strange astonished noises. Kat shook her head gently. Surely, she’d misheard.

Prenup? Was she serious?

Glancing at her mother’s no-bullshit expression, Kat knew the unequivocal answer.

Kat cleared her throat. “And why the hell would you do that?”

Eva put down her glass. “Because
you
won’t.”

Kat’s blood thundered furiously in her ears, heating her face and causing her hands to shake. She crossed her arms over her chest defensively, knowing the answer before she even asked the question. “And I need a prenup because?”

The small laugh that Eva coughed was entirely humorless. “Because you have to protect yourself, Katherine. Protect your interests. You have to protect what is yours.”

And there it was. That word again.

Her mother’s continuing need to shelter, to keep Kat safe, despite her outward approval of Carter, still ran silent and deep. Yes, she was a mother; the need to protect would never fully go away, but this was beyond that. This was personal. Kat sat back in her seat, deflated, hurt. Christ, hadn’t her mother learned anything? Despite all that’d been said, all she’d learned about Carter, all that had happened, her mother still didn’t trust him, still saw him as a threat.

“I can’t believe you,” Kat said quietly.

Eva was immediately impenitent. “Don’t be silly, Katherine. You need to make sure these things are in place before you marry him.”

Kat’s teeth clenched. “
Him
being the man who saved my life, the man who has done nothing but bend over backward to satisfy you and everyone else who doubted him.”

“Katherine—”

“The man who’s CEO of a billion-dollar company and has so much more to lose than I do. The man who I love with my whole heart, who I want to be with for the rest of my life, who cares nothing for money, for status, for anything but my love.”

Kat’s fury was momentarily appeased when Eva dipped her chin.

She looked far from contrite, but she was listening. “Carter being in business is all the more reason to have an agreement,” Eva argued. “He can protect himself, too.”

“And start our marriage off by worrying about its failure?”

“Nonsense, Katherine. A prenuptial is there to protect you—”

“Bullshit,” Kat barked.

Eva’s mouth snapped shut.

“This is all about
you
and
your
trust issues,” Kat growled, sitting forward. “He is my
fiancé
.” She held up her left hand, the diamond sparkling brilliantly under the restaurant’s lights. “I’m
marrying
him. I will be Mrs. Carter! Everyone else gets it. Everyone.”

Eva’s gaze dropped from Kat to the pristine linen tablecloth. She breathed deeply but remained silent.

Kat’s voice softened. “You need to understand this is happening. I will not sign a prenup. This is real. Forever. No matter what.” She exhaled heavily and sat back in her seat, suddenly tired. “I’m the happiest I’ve ever been. I wish you could see that and just . . . stop fighting this.”

A small smile flittered over Eva’s lips. “I’m not fighting anything, Katherine,” she insisted. “I learned quickly that you and Carter are a force to be reckoned with. And I can see how happy you are. You’re glowing, in fact. I was simply thinking about your future.”

Kat reached a hand over the table, gently taking her mother’s wrist. “
Carter
is my future.”

Eva nodded minutely. “You understand I had to try.”

The anger that had boiled under Kat’s skin started to recede. “Yes, I do. But you have to understand that, without Carter, everything else would be worthless to me anyway.”

The late-January sun was losing the battle against the dark clouds that loomed heavily over the coast, and the sharp wind bit at Kat’s face as she climbed out of her car outside the beach house. After slamming the car door and grabbing bags of provisions from the trunk, remnants of her conversation with her mother still gripping her temper, Kat hurried up the decking to the house.

She and Carter spent as many weekends as they could at the beach house, away from the city, away from work and other people. It was their way of reconnecting, of coming back to each other when other things started to get in the way of the two of them. Ordinarily, they arranged their weekends midweek. This weekend, however, had been impromptu.

In truth, Kat hadn’t been surprised when she received a text from Carter asking her to meet him there. He had left early that morning to go visit Max for the first time at the rehab center in Pennsylvania. Carter had decided to drive the three and a half hours, taking his brand-new custom-made Maserati GranTurismo MC Stradale instead of Kala. Its legs needed stretching, apparently.

Seeing the car outside the beach house, all black, sleek, and sexy, she could definitely see why he’d chosen it. Driving it would no doubt be an extraordinary experience, which was just what Carter needed to occupy his anxious mind.

Kat knew that the visit to Pennsylvania had to have been difficult for both men. They hadn’t seen each other since Max’s admittance and Carter had been distant and fidgety all week. His friendship with Max was strong and, whether they both admitted it or not, they loved each other very much.

Carter had missed Max; he’d fretted about his friend ever since he’d left him at the center all those weeks ago. He’d never said it in so many words, but a part of Carter blamed himself for Max’s descent into drugs and depression regardless of how much Kat tried to suggest otherwise and, as far as Carter was concerned, leaving his friend in his hour of need was another black mark on Carter’s friend card. Kat was helpless against his self-deprecation.

The house was quiet except for the crackling of the wood burning on the open hearth in the sitting room, which looked decidedly bare since the Christmas tree and decorations had been put away. Kat put the food and drink she’d brought into the fridge, stealing two Oreos from the snack cupboard for her troubles.

Turning to walk back through the house, assuming Carter was upstairs, she noticed the open lock on the back door. Narrowing her eyes, Kat peered through the window that overlooked the beach. Sure enough, standing alone on the sand, arms wrapped around himself, lost in thought as he looked out at the gray ocean, was Carter.

Grabbing her coat, scarf, and two more cookies, Kat opened the door and made her way down the decked path to the sand. Carter turned his head slightly as she approached, sensing her presence without her making a sound, causing her to smile. With a deep breath of the fresh air, Kat stood at Carter’s side, watching the waves with him, not speaking for a few minutes until, eager to pull him from his somber mood, Kat bumped his shoulder with hers and lifted her palm, showing him the two Oreos. The smile he gave was small, but he took the cookies anyway, eating them the way Kat always loved: licking the cream in a way that should be illegal. He pocketed the parts that were left.

“So,” Kat began when he still hadn’t spoken, “I was thinking. I’m going to run a nice, relaxing, hot bath before dinner.”

Carter dipped his chin in understanding, still watching the water.

“For the two of us.”

His eyes snapped to hers. They flared briefly with lust but the melancholy in them was just too strong for it to be overcome completely.

Without another word, Kat took his hand and led him back to the house.

The water of the bath was bubbled and hot while the wine Kat had poured for the two of them was cold and soothing. Always insistent about watching her take her clothes off, Carter undressed once Kat had, kissing her mouth softly before he climbed into the bath and motioned for her to join him, which she did, sitting between his legs, her back pressed to his chest, head back against his shoulder, waiting patiently for him to speak. Her hands rubbed down his shins and back up to his hard thighs, while his arms wrapped tightly around her waist. He kissed her neck and sighed, but still no words came.

“So lunch with Mom was interesting,” Kat offered. “She’s had a nice, cozy chat with our family lawyer. About a prenup.” Carter didn’t react. “A prenup for
us
. Let me tell ya, that shit went down like a lead balloon.” Carter huffed a breath of laughter. “I swear she’s losing her damned mind.”

“Let her do it if that’s what she wants,” Carter uttered into the skin behind her ear.

Kat stilled. “What?”

His hands meandered from her waist to her chest, where he cupped her breasts and shifted behind her. “If that’s what she needs to do to know that you’re okay, let her. Without you, all the other shit would be pointless anyway. It’s you I want—everything else just falls away.”

Turning her head, Kat kissed his jaw. “That’s exactly what I told her.”

Carter’s lips sought out hers. “Then tell her it’s fine.”

Reaching back, Kat cupped the back of his head and kissed him deeply. As the kiss slowed, he leaned his forehead against hers, his distress palpable.

“Talk to me, sweetheart,” she urged softly. “It’s okay. Tell me. How was it today?”

Carter closed his eyes and exhaled. “It was . . . Seeing Max there—he seemed all right, but . . . he isn’t. Does that make sense?” Kat nodded. “He’s trying so fucking hard, and I know it’s killing him being there away from what and who he knows, not being in control.” Looking at her, he rubbed a wet hand down his face and then through his hair. “He knows he’s where he needs to be, but he’s still . . . so lost. Truthfully, it was weird seeing him sober. I’d gotten so used to that wide-eyed manic look of his.”