Millionaire Magnates: Taming the Texas Tycoon

“Can I get you a drink?”

“A beer would be great,” Lance said. She noticed he had the picnic basket in his hands. “Have you eaten?”

“No, I haven’t,” she said.

“I’ll set this up while you go get my beer. I am starved. It has been a really long day.”

“Yes, it has,” Kate said. Sleeping with the boss took a lot out of her. She didn’t like the way that sounded—even to herself. She found a Coors Light in the fridge and brought it out to Lance. He smiled at her as he took it.

He took a long draw from the bottle, then set it on the coaster on the coffee table.

The food he’d put out was a cold pasta and chicken salad. It was exactly the kind of dinner she liked on a hot July night and she didn’t kid herself that Lance hadn’t planned it that way.

He was a man who noticed things.

“Thanks for dinner,” she said, as she sat down beside him on the couch and picked up her fork.

Kate steered the conversation to work and to Mitch, who was due back from DC by the end of the week. She did her level best to make sure that they didn’t have a chance to talk about her confession of love.

But then they finished their meal and Lance leaned back against the couch, stretching his long arms along the back of it. “So you love me?”

Lance had thought of nothing else during his drive over to her place. No woman had ever told him she loved him. And that included his fiancée and his mother. He wasn’t a man who went out searching for the softer things in life. He took what he wanted and let the devil take the rest.

But he wanted Kate’s love.

Now that she’d said she loved him, he wanted to hear her say it again. And he wanted to take her and have her say it while he was buried hilt deep in her sexy little body.

“I… yes, I do love you, but that doesn’t mean that I’m going to just let you walk all over me.”

“I didn’t think for a moment that it did. Actually I have no idea what it means.”

“What are you saying?”

“Just that love isn’t something I’ve had a lot of experience with.”

“Well, you’re the only guy I’ve ever loved so I guess neither of us knows much about this,” she said.

But Kate knew love better than Lance did. He knew she’d come from the kind of family that people liked to complain about but was filled with love.

“And I’m not sure that’s a good thing,” Kate said.

“Why not?”

“Because love shouldn’t be one-sided. It’s not healthy.”

“Listen, Kate, I’m not about to promise you something I can’t deliver.” Losing Kate wasn’t something he was prepared to do. Having had her, he didn’t know if he’d ever be ready to let her walk out the door.

“I appreciate that, Lance. But I have to do what’s healthy for me, too. I just can’t keep loving a man who never puts me first.”

“That’s not fair. I’ve put you first.”

“Yes, but in the privacy of your office or your home,” Kate said quietly.

She was tired of being hidden from the world, which suited him fine—he got that. But he didn’t want Kate to think she could manipulate him into doing whatever she wanted. It was important to him that she let him take the lead in their relationship.

“What can I say?”

She bit her lip and then leaned forward so that her face was turned away from him and her arms rested on her knees.

“If I have to tell you, then I guess that means there isn’t anything to say.”

Lance wasn’t sure what she wanted. Hell, that was a lie, he knew exactly what she wanted. “I’m not going to say I love you, Kate. I just told you I have no experience with that emotion.”

“I don’t understand how you can say that. You have dated a lot of women.”

“None of them have loved me.”

“Well, your mother did and your father, too, right? And Mitch loves you.”

Lance shrugged. The devotion his brother and he had didn’t fit into the mold of what he’d call love. It was just a bond that had been forged in the fire of their upbringing. And there was little in the world that would change that. “I don’t know. What’s between Mitch and me isn’t like you saying you love me.”

“Why not?” she asked.

“Because I want you to love me. That feels right to me, Kate. A part of me thinks you belong to me. Right or wrong, that’s the way I feel.”

“Belong to you?” she asked.

He nodded. What would he do if she said to get out? Not just out of her house but out of her life? He’d just told her that she was his. And she was. That was as much as he could feel for a woman.

“I like the thought of being yours, Lance. But I’m confused.”

“I can appreciate that. What would it take to clear things up for you?”

“You are still engaged to Lexi,” Kate said.

“I’m ending that, Kate. I can’t marry another woman when I’m involved with you.”

Lance realized in that moment that he’d do whatever she asked if it was in his power. He needed everything in his relationship with Kate to be resolved. It was past time for him to figure out what he wanted as a man.

And everything kept pointing to Kate.

“I guess I need some time to think about that,” she said. “I feel like I’ve been loving you forever and maybe it’s time to figure out what that really means to me—and to you.”

Lance didn’t like the sound of that. But he wasn’t about to beg for her affection. He’d heard too many fights between his parents that had gone the same way.

“I’m not going to play games with you, Kate. If you want to be with me—if you love me—then I think you can put a little effort into being with me.”

Kate crossed her arms over her chest. She looked at him and he knew he’d said the wrong thing. “I’ve been loving you for a long time, Lance Brody, and you never even knew I was alive. So you do what you have to. I’m not playing games with you. I’m just standing up for myself. And I don’t like you trying to push me around.”