The chop was so tender he was able to slice it with his fork. After eating a couple of large bites, along with some mashed potatoes and butter beans, he rinsed it down with iced tea.

“Seth stopped by the office today,” Jack told her.

“Did he say or do anything that he shouldn’t have?”

“Get that worried mother-hen look off your face. Seth behaved himself.”

She sighed.

“He told me that if I hurt you, I’d have to answer to him.”

Cathy’s eyes widened. “He didn’t.” The corners of her mouth tilted upward in a hint of a smile.

“Oh, he did. You’d have been proud of him.”

“I am. It’s just-”

“He knows about us, about the fact that I spent the night here last night.”

Cathy’s lips curved into a closed-mouth smile. “Oh, yes, he knows. My guess is that everybody in Dunmore knows. It seems I have at least one nosy neighbor who thought it was her Christian duty to call my mother this morning and tell her.”

“Son of a bitch,” Jack grumbled. “Did you have to deal with your mother today?”

“Sort of. She stopped by Treasures, and before she opened her mouth, I told her, in front of several customers, that I was thirty-four years old and that my personal life was no one’s business but my own, and that included her.”

“Have you talked to Seth?”

“He came to see me this morning. I’m pretty sure that’s why he confronted you. You see, I told him that you and I are going to be seeing quite a bit of each other and that I didn’t know what the future held for us, but we had a right to find out.”

Jack released a long, low whistle. “So how’d that go over?”

“He wasn’t thrilled,” Cathy admitted. “About our dating or…or about our sleeping together.”

“You admitted to him that we-”

“He’s fifteen, Jack, not five. He knew you spent the night. Besides, I told him that who I have sex with is no one else’s business and that I don’t care if everybody in town knows you and I are lovers.”

Jack let out a loud, guttural laugh. “Damn if I don’t know where your son gets his brass balls. Lady, you amaze me. What happened to that sweet, shy, people-pleaser you used to be?”

“She grew up. And like you said, she grew a set.”

Jack shoved back his chair so quickly that he almost toppled it over. He rounded the small kitchen table where they’d been eating the delicious meal Cathy had prepared and yanked her out of her chair. Startled by his sudden, unexpected actions, she shrieked, but when he hauled her up against him and gave her a resounding kiss, she kissed him back.

They broke apart, both of them laughing.

He tugged on her hand and nodded toward the door.

“But I made banana pudding for dessert,” she told him.

“It’ll keep. We can have it for a midnight snack.”

“Midnight snack? But it’s only seven o’clock. Do you plan to keep me in bed for the next five hours?”

“Yep. We’ll make love for five hours, take a break and eat banana pudding, then make love again.”

She didn’t hesitate another second. She followed him out of the kitchen, down the hall and straight to her bedroom.

Chapter Twenty-five

Griff had handled this situation all wrong from the very beginning. He had kept the truth from Nic, telling himself that he was protecting her. That had been as good an excuse as any, and a partial truth. He did want to protect Nic. She was the most important thing in the world to him. He’d kill to protect her. He’d die to protect her.

His first allegiance should always be to his wife, but…

Nic had known when she married him that secrets from his past haunted him, that he had shared only a small portion of the truth with her. There were things he never wanted her to know, things that he would pay any price to forget. And he had sworn an oath to Yvette and Sanders, as they had to him. He was bound by that oath, as they were, and only when the three of them were in complete agreement were they free to share any portion of their traumatic past with anyone outside their survivor’s trinity.

Yvette and Sanders had allowed him to tell Nic the bare facts of the ordeal they had endured as Malcolm York’s captives. He had even warned Nic that the brutal savage York had turned him into during his years on Amara still existed inside him. And now more than ever, that knowledge worried Griff, because he knew how easily he could revert to the inhuman beast he had once been.

If it turned out that the rumors whispered in certain sections throughout Europe had any basis in fact, they were all in mortal danger: he, Sanders, Yvette and anyone they loved. Nic would be in great danger, and just the thought ignited a fierce anger inside him that he hadn’t felt since she had almost died at the hands of serial killer Ross Everhart.

He had chartered a plane for Meredith Sinclair and Luke Sentell, who was acting as her bodyguard and keeper, and they had returned to Griffin’s Rest before Griff. He had taken his brief stopover in San Francisco to pick up Nic and Maleah into account when planning for Meredith to return to Tennessee ahead of him. Nic would have asked far too many questions had Meredith and Luke accompanied them, questions he wasn’t prepared to answer. Not yet. Not until it was absolutely necessary.

Griff had hated using Meredith the way they had, but she had cooperated of her own free will, even though they all knew that she’d done it only out of obligation to Yvette. The poor girl was cursed with an amazing ability even greater than her mentor’s, an ability that a man such as York would have used in the most diabolical ways. But in this case, she was working against the kind of evil Malcolm York had inflicted on the world.

As he stood by the balcony doors, Griff glanced back at Nicole as she lay sleeping peacefully in their bed. He worshipped the ground she walked on. He had never loved anyone the way he loved her. She was his life. But because of the secrecy surrounding his actions recently, she had begun pulling away from him. And she blamed Yvette and even suspected Yvette of coming between them. How could she ever think that he would betray her with another woman, even Yvette, whom he also loved? But his love for Yvette was that of a comrade, a fellow soldier who had survived the same grueling war. She and Sanders were his best friends. They were his sister and brother of the soul. He owed them his life, and it was a debt that he intended to continue repaying for as long as he lived.

Trust me, Nic. Believe in our love. Know that whatever I do, I do to protect you.

The Ice Palace ice-cream parlor on the corner of Main and Fourth Streets in downtown Dunmore had become one of the favorite family hangouts on weekend nights, especially during the summer months. But even in the coldest weather, residents often stopped by after dinner or a movie or bowling for a cup of gourmet coffee, delicious lattes and to-die-for hot chocolate. And their home-baked desserts were favorites of adults, teens and children. This Friday night appeared to be no exception, and even with summer weekend hours extended to make closing time at eleven, there was still a line to get into the parlor.

“If they didn’t have the most delicious caramel ice cream this side of heaven, I wouldn’t wait in line.” Lorie shifted from one foot to the other. “My feet are killing me.”

“If you hadn’t worn four-inch heels tonight, your feet wouldn’t be bothering you,” Cathy said. “You’re the only woman I know who wears heels to the movies.”

“I’m short, but in heels I’m tall.” She sighed, and then admitted, “Well, in heels, I’m not as short.”

“We could get ice cream over at the Dairy Dip a lot faster,” Seth said, then looked at Cathy. “Would you let me drive? I promise that I’ll be very careful. Please, Mom.”

“We’re not going to the Dairy Dip,” Cathy told him. “Not after we’ve already stood in line for fifteen minutes to get in here. But maybe I’ll let you drive when we leave.”