Secured Heart (Timberon Cat Book 1) Read Online Free Page B

along the back of the couch.
“ I don’t think I want to know. It’s probably embarrassing.” She rolled her top lip in and bit into it, holding back her mirth.
He shrugged. “Only if you consider dragging your friend out into the cold, in the middle of the night to find a store open that sold caramel sauce and heavy cream because I was out and you were going nuts about your Econ exam.”
Laughing loud and hard, she buried her face in her hands. “Oh, no. I remember that.” She lowered her hands. “That was after I discovered your secret and you kept apologizing for drinking all the cream. ‘Cats like cream, Lana. You just can’t keep leaving it around.’”
Chuckling, he confessed, “Well we do.”
She pointed at his glass on the table. “Maybe I should have brought you milk instead.”
“ Later.” He grasped a lock of her hair and played with it. “I miss laughing with you. Being with you.”
The mood around them became serious again.
She glanced away from his amazing amber eyes and stared down at her fingers brushing along the hem of her dress. “I’ve missed you, too, Kal. However, I don’t think that means we should take this to the next level.”
“ Do you love him?”
Her brows drew tight. “Ben? No. After Paul Stellar and losing my scholarship and my best friend, I kept my distance from men. Didn’t date. Then Ben happened and it was just so easy and comfortable I let it become serious. My fault entirely. All these years I used him just as Stellar used me. Instead of a cute young thing on my arm, I wanted companionship. Six years is a long time to be alone.”
“ But you broke it off?” His hand moved deeper into her hair, stroking along the waves her curling iron had created with an occasional brush of her scalp.
She wanted to purr, having someone play in her hair was one of her joys. “Over two months ago. However, I’ve given in too often when he wanted to talk when I should have cut it off permanently. Ben is a nice, sweet man, but a few months back he went away to Greece to study some lost writings of Socrates or someone that were discovered. During those three weeks he was away I didn’t hear from him. I didn’t miss him either.” She glanced over at the man beside her and kept her thoughts to herself.
The ones where she would confess to Kal how much she had missed and longed for him every day of the six years they had been apart. She wanted to tell him things that were funny that happened or curl against his chest and weep when sad events came around. But he hadn’t been there.
“ That’s telling if your life didn’t miss a step without him in it.”
“ I thought the same thing. When he called me from the airport on his way home, bubbling with excitement about his studies, I was happy for him. However my heart was filled with guilt because I realized in his tone how much he had missed me and I hadn’t given him more than a passing thought if someone asked where he was. It wasn’t fair to hold him in a loveless relationship.”
“ You did the right thing.” He took hold of one of her hands and held it on his knee.
“ At the wrong time. Ben believes that I was hurt he left or that he stayed away too long and that is why I ended it. So, the last few weeks have just been filled with him making irrational promises in hopes I will get back with him. Then tonight…” she shook her head recalling Ben down on his knee proposing.
“ You want me to meet with him and make it clear you’re mine?”
“ What?” She pulled her hand away. “No and no. I told you, Kal, I keep making wrong choices when it comes to men.”
“ And I keep telling you that you’re my mate.”
Shoving a hand through her hair, she blurted out. “What is it with you? Just find someone else.”
Grasping her hand again, he tugged on it until she glanced at him. “It doesn’t work that way.”
She held his gaze, not knowing what to say or ask.
“ Are you ready to listen? Hear how this is for me and my