“No,” he snapped, then ran one hand through his hair. “It wasn’t about you. I lost a bet and had to work a job site. Your job site. Then I met you and found out you hated all the Kings because of what this moron did to you—”
“Hey!”
“—so I didn’t tell you who I was. I wanted you to get to know me. To like me. Then I was going to tell you the truth, I swear it.”
“That was your plan?” Cordell asked. “And you call me a moron.”
“Be quiet, Cordell.” Katie shook her head in disbelief and gave her full attention to Rafe again. His eyes were flashing with emotion, but she couldn’t read them and wouldn’t have bothered if she could. She was beyond caring what he was feeling. Her own emotions were too wild. Too tangled and twisted to be able to make sense of them. All she knew was that she was hurting and, once again, a King was at the center of her pain. “You were going to show me that I was wrong about your family by lying to me?”
He scrubbed one hand across his jaw and muttered something she didn’t quite catch. Then he said, “Katie, let me take you home so we can talk this out.”
Cordell snorted a short laugh.
Neither of them so much as glanced at him.
“I’m not going anywhere with you, Rafe,” she said quietly. Looking up into his beautiful blue eyes for the last time, she silently said goodbye to her hopes, her dreams and the love she had so recently discovered. How could she love a man she didn’t even know? And that knowledge made the pain in her heart much more fierce. “Just leave me alone.”
She started walking and only paused when he called out, “You need a ride home.”
“I’ll call a cab,” she said without even looking at him.
Katie couldn’t bear it for another minute. Couldn’t look at him one more time, knowing that he’d lied to her every day they were together. None of it had been real. None of it had meant a thing.
She had fallen in love with a stranger.
And now she was alone again.
As the restaurant valet called for a taxi, she realized that she had been right earlier. Tonight was a night she would always remember.
“So,” Cordell asked, “you want to get a drink?”
“Sure,” Rafe grumbled, “why not?”
The two cousins headed for the restaurant bar and Rafe didn’t miss the fact that Katie’s gaze locked on them both as they walked past her. He could almost feel the fury radiating off her and damned if he could blame her for it.
Amazing, he thought, just how fast a perfect night could go to hell. As they stepped into the restaurant, Cordell shivered.
“Did you feel those icicles she was shooting at us?”
“Felt more like knives to me,” Rafe said and led the way into the wood-paneled bar. A dozen or more people were scattered around the glass-walled room at tiny round tables boasting flickering candlelight. Rafe ignored everyone else and headed directly for the bartender. He took a seat, ordered two beers, then turned to look at his cousin as Cordell took the stool beside him. “This wasn’t how I saw tonight ending up.”
“Guess not,” Cordell said amiably. “So how long have you been seeing Katie?”
“A few weeks.” Rafe picked up his beer and took a long swallow.
“A few weeks? Hell, I dated her for three months and never got past her front door.”
Rafe smiled to himself. That was good to hear. If Cordell had said something about sleeping with Katie, then Rafe would have had to kill him and there would have been hell to pay from the rest of the family.
As it was, he was fighting down an urge to hit Cordell again just for the heck of it. But what would be the point? Katie had made it all too clear that it wasn’t just Cordell she was angry at anymore. Seemed there was plenty of outraged fury to spread over the whole King family.
And he’d brought it all on himself.
Rafe rubbed the back of his neck and gritted his teeth against the urge to howl in frustration. Ironic that just when he’d decided to come clean and confess all, he’d lost everything before he had the chance. He should have told her sooner, he knew. But he hadn’t wanted to risk what they had.
Now, it no longer mattered because what they had was gone.
His cousin nudged him with an elbow. “So why’d you lie to Katie?”
“Why were you a jerk to her?”
Cordell shrugged. “According to most of the women I go out with, that’s what I’m best at.”
“That’s just great,” Rafe said, nodding grimly.
“You’re avoiding the question,” his cousin said. “Why’d you lie to Katie?”
“You heard me explain it to her,” Rafe said, studying his own sorry reflection in the mirror across from him.
“Yeah,” Cordell agreed. “But I’m thinking it was more than that.”
Listening to his cousin was making Rafe bunch his fists again. He didn’t want to be here with Cordell. He wanted to be with Katie. Wanted to make her understand…what? What could he possibly say now that wouldn’t paint him as the same kind of ass as Cordell?
She had lumped all the Kings into one bad basket and as it turned out, he told himself, she was right.
“What’re you talking about, Cordell?”
“Only that you really liked her. And once you found out she hated all Kings—”
“Thanks to you,” Rafe added.
Cordell shrugged and nodded. “Thanks to me, then you decided that you didn’t want to blow it by telling her the truth.”
“Wrong. I had a plan. I was going to tell her.”
“Sure you were,” his cousin said on a snort of laughter.
“If there’s something funny about this,” Rafe muttered, “I wish you’d share it. Because I just don’t see it.”
“I know.” Cordell took a long pull of his beer and looked into the mirror, meeting Rafe’s gaze with a smile. “And that’s the funniest part. Man, if your brothers could see you now.”
“You want to step outside and finish that fight?”
“Nope,” Cordell said, “and hitting me won’t change a thing for you anyway.”
“Meaning?”
“Meaning, you’re in love with her.” Cordell laughed, took another drink of his beer and shook his head. “Another King bites the dust.”
“You’re wrong.” Rafe looked into the mirror, met his own gaze and assured himself that Cordell couldn’t have been more wildly off base. He wasn’t in love. Had no wish to be in love.