Playing For Keeps (20 page)

“Why do you fight what we could have?”

Her jaw almost dragged the ground. “You proved my worst fear true, and you have to ask? I told you how I lost my father, Eric, and I almost lost you the same way.”

She slammed the door closed, and when she turned to face him, tears were in her eyes. “When we were in that coffee shop and I had that towel pressed to your shoulder, the only thing I could think was ‘Please don’t let him bleed to death on me. How will I explain this to his family if he does? How will I go on without him?’”

Her voice broke, and closing her eyes, she shook her head in anguish. “I thought you were my father happening all over again, and let me tell you, Eric, that was the worse feeling in the world. To sit there and wonder if those were the last moments I was going to spend with you and how would I go on if they were.”

She barely managed to hold herself together as the emotions began to overwhelm her at the memory. “I don’t want to have to sit at home or work and constantly think about if I am going to get the call that tells me you aren’t going to come home to me.”

Leaning against the counter she shook her head. She knew she couldn’t do it. She had almost gone insane waiting for him in the waiting room of the hospital. Deep down, she knew she couldn’t be with Eric. The worry would kill her.

“Can you guarantee me you won’t run into another crazy person who decides to put another hole in you? Because, believe me, you have enough in you to last me a lifetime.”

He shook his head. Stepping closer to her, he trapped her against the counter.

“No, I can’t, but I can give you myself for as long as it lasts.”

She shook her head. “That isn’t good enough for me. I can’t settle for that. I won’t settle for that.”

He gave her a quizzical glance. “Do you want me to give up the job?”

Keirra laughed. “No, because you can’t, you won’t. Being an officer is in your blood, like it was in my father’s. Even if you don’t have on the uniform, you are still a cop as you proved in Atlanta.”

He leaned closer to her, and when he spoke, his voice was barely above a whisper. “Then what will be good enough? What will it take to convince you?”

Keirra smiled sadly at his pleading look and wanted to give in but knew she couldn’t.

“Unfortunately, I don’t think anything will. You have a hero complex, Eric. You always have to come to the rescue. You always will, and as long as that is true, your regard for your own life will always come second.”

She brought her hands up to put some space between them, trying to be careful of his injured shoulder. His proximity was making it hard for her to think, to be strong, but she had to be. This was one thing that she couldn’t give in on.

“I just can’t, Eric. You can’t change, and there isn’t anything you can do to convince me you can.”

Eric shook his head. His expression told her that he didn’t believe her. She knew Eric wouldn’t give up easily, which was why she had been dreading this reunion. She had hoped she would have more time to prepare herself. It was hard to say no to him because she had let her guard down. She had let him into her life, her heart, but she had to say no. Cutting her ties to him was the only way she wouldn’t have to worry about the constant fear of losing him. She couldn’t take another chance on him.

“Would my love be enough?”

Her eyes widened briefly before she closed them. She immediately thought of him in the hospital bed recovering from his surgery. Keirra opened her eyes again, and he spoke softly.

“Do you love me?”

Her mouth opened, but no sound came out. Finally she nodded, knowing she had to be honest. Put it all out there so that there weren’t any regrets. Nothing left unsaid.

“Yes, but—”

* * * *

Anything else she was going to say was cut off by his mouth because she had just told him she loved him, and that was all that mattered.

When he pulled back, there were tears in her eyes. He brought his hand up to her face.

“I can’t promise you I won’t be injured again, but I can promise you that I will do my best to remain safe and not always play the hero.”

He placed another brief kiss on her lips. “With a woman like you waiting at home for me, I have a lot of motivation to stay alive and uninjured. I would have a lot of motivation to come home.”

He wrapped his good arm around her as tightly as he could and breathed in her scent, a scent he had missed.

“How is your shoulder?”

He pulled back and smiled at her concern. Through accounts from his family, he knew his ordeal had been hard on Keirra. His mother reported that Keirra had cried most of the time. The rest of the time, she had spent in shock. He would do everything in his power not to do that to her again.

The irony of the situation was he had only been injured while on duty once. The rest of his injuries had been obtained when he was just getting off duty or out of uniform. A fact he wouldn’t bring up because it would only feed into her fears of his hero complex, something he would work on because he never wanted to scare Keirra as he had three weeks ago. It had been hard when he had awakened to find her not by his side. His entire family had torn into him for worrying all of them in such a fashion, but none more so than Keirra.

He had felt horrible knowing he had upset her so, especially since he knew what she had been through with her father. Hearing her tell that story had put clarity on the reason why she had avoided him in the beginning. Still, she had been willing to take the risk of giving him a chance. That was something he would never take for granted. Brushing her cheek with the back of his hand, he smiled.

“My shoulder is fine, but it would be a lot better if you could kiss it.”

Keirra laughed at his suggestive statement. “Well then, we had better go upstairs and let you lie down. We wouldn’t want to risk you falling and hurting yourself while I am checking on your wound.”

Eric leaned forward until his mouth was near her ear. He whispered softly what risk he was willing to take, some of it in English and some in Spanish. The important thing was he told and showed her just how much he loved her.

* * * *

When Kayla came into the house half an hour later, her lips curled upward. Moans of passion reached her ears, and that was a good sign. Eric and her sister had made up a lot quicker than she had expected. She had honestly come back expecting to have to clean up wreckage, but Eric was more suited for her sister than she originally thought.

Stepping back outside the house, she closed the door. She would give the two an extra hour, maybe two. They had a lot of catching up to do, and who was she to get in the way? She had won the bet of who was going to fall in love next, but now it was inevitable that it was her turn. Now she just hoped her experience of falling in love would be as adventurous as it had been with Kristen and Keirra. She also knew that there would be hell to pay for everything she had put her sisters through, but if she ended up as content as her sisters were, it would be worth it.

The End

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Stephanie Morris resides in Fort Worth, Texas. She has no children of her own, but has three nieces and one nephew and is proud to call Rocky, her three-year-old dog, her child. In her spare time, she enjoys reading, traveling, dancing, cooking, and spending time with her friends and family. She has been writing for several years now and has written several works in erotica and romance. This is her first published work, and she is looking forward to several more. She can be reached on MySpace at www.myspace.com/stephaniemorrisbooks or at http://www.stephaniemorris.webs.com.