LITMIR.BIZ

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no way he would let her wash him off. No way and no how.

      That kiss they’d shared had pretty much sealed things, whether she admitted it or not. He had not only felt her passion, he’d tasted it. She was still upset with him, but that hadn’t stopped them from arousing each other. After the kiss, there had been fire in her eyes. However, the fire hadn’t just come from her anger.

      He stopped at a window and looked out, breathing heavily from the anger consuming him. Even at this hour the nation’s capital was busy, if the number of cars on the road was anything to go by. But he didn’t want to think about what anyone else was doing at the moment.

      Micah rubbed his hand down his face. Okay, so Kalina had told the truth about him not letting her get too close. Thanks to an affair he’d had while in college, he’d been cautious. As a student, he’d fallen in love with a woman only to find out she’d been sleeping with one of her professors to get a better grade. The crazy thing about the situation was that she’d honestly thought he should understand and forgive her for what she’d done. He hadn’t and had made up in his mind not to let another woman get close again. He hadn’t shared himself emotionally with another woman since then.

      But during his affair with Kalina, he had begun to let his guard down. How could she not know when their relationship had begun to change from a strictly no-strings affair to something more? Granted, there hadn’t been any time for candlelight dinners, strolls in the park, flowers and such, but he had shared more with her than he had with any other woman … in the bedroom.

      He drew in a deep breath and had to ask himself, “But what about outside the bedroom, man? Did you give her reason to think of anything beyond that?” He knew the answer immediately.

      No, he hadn’t. And she was right, he hadn’t told her anything about his family and he knew why. He’d taken his college lover, Patrice, home and introduced her to the family as the woman he would one day marry. The woman who would one day have his children. She had gotten close to them. They had liked her and in the end she had betrayed them as much as she had betrayed him.

      He lifted his head to stare up at the ceiling. Now he could see all his mistakes, and the first of many was letting two years go by without seeking out Kalina. He’d been well aware of what her father had told her. But he’d assumed she would eventually think things through and realize her dad hadn’t been completely truthful with her. Instead, she had believed the worst. Mainly because she truly hadn’t known Micah.

      His BlackBerry suddenly went off. He pulled it out of his pocket and saw it was a call from home. His oldest brother, Dillon. There was only a two-year difference in their ages, and they’d always been close. Any other time he would have been excited about receiving a call from home, but not now and not tonight. However, Dillon was family, so Micah answered the call.

      “Hello?”

      “We haven’t heard from you in a while, and I thought I would check in,” Dillon said.

      Micah leaned back against the wall. Because Dillon was the oldest, he had pretty much taken over things when their parents, aunt and uncle had died in a plane crash. There had been fifteen Westmorelands—nine of them under the age of sixteen—and Dillon had vowed to keep everyone together. And he had.

      Micah had been in his second year of college and hadn’t been around to give Dillon a hand. But Ramsey, their cousin, who was just months younger than Dillon, had pitched in to help manage things.

      “I’m fine,” Micah heard himself saying when in all honesty he was anything but. He drew in a deep breath and said, “I saw Kalina tonight.”

      Although Dillon had never met Kalina he knew who she was. One night while home, Micah had told Dillon all about her and what had happened to tear them apart. Dillon had suggested that he contact Kalina and straighten things out, as well as admit how he felt about her. But a stubborn streak wouldn’t let Micah do so. Now he wished he would have acted on his brother’s advice.

      “And how is she?”

      Micah rubbed another hand down his face. “She still hates my guts, if that’s what you want to know. Go ahead and say I told you so.”

      “I wouldn’t do that.”

      No, he wouldn’t. That wasn’t Dillon’s style, although saying so would have been justified.

      “So what are you going to do, Micah?”

      Micah figured the only reason Dillon was asking was because his brother knew how much Kalina meant to him … even if she didn’t know it. And her not knowing was no one’s fault but his.

      “Not sure what I’m going to do because no matter what I say, she won’t believe me. A part of me just wants to say forget it, I don’t need the hassle, but I can’t, Dil. I just can’t walk away from her.”

      “Then don’t. You’ve never been a quitter. The Micah Westmoreland I know goes after what he wants and has never let anyone or anything stand in his way. But if you don’t want her enough to fight for her and make her see the truth, then I don’t know what to tell you.”

      Then, as if the subject of Kalina was a closed one, Dillon promptly began talking about something else. He told Micah how their sister-in-law, Bella, was coming along in her pregnancy, and that the doctors had verified twins, both girls.

      “They’re the first on our side,” he said. Their parents had had all boys. Seven of them.

      “I know, and everyone is excited and ready for her to be born,” Dillon replied. “But I don’t think anyone is as ready as Jason,” he said of their brother and the expectant father.

      The rest of the conversation was spent with Dillon bringing Micah up to date on what was going down on the home front. His brother Jason had settled into wedded bliss and so had his cousin Derringer. Micah shook his head. He could see Jason with a wife, but for the life of him, considering how Derringer used to play the field and enjoy it immensely, the thought of him settled down with one woman was still taking some getting used to. Dillon also mentioned that Ramsey and Chloe’s son would be born in a few months.

      “Do you think you’ll be able to be here for li’l Callum’s christening?”

      Micah shook his head. Now, that was another one it was hard to believe had settled down. His cousin Gemma had a husband. She used to be a real pistol where men were concerned, but it seemed that Callum Austell had changed all that. She was now living in Australia with him and their two-month-old son.

      “I plan to be there,” Micah heard himself saying. “In a few weeks, I’ll have thirty days to kill. I leave for Bajadad the day after tomorrow and I will be there for two weeks. I’ll fly home from there.” Bajadad was a small and beautiful city in northern India near the Himalayan foothills.

      “It will be good seeing you again.”

      Micah couldn’t help chuckling. “You make it sound like I haven’t been home in years, Dil. I was just there seven months ago for Jason’s wedding reception.”

      “I know, but anytime you come home and we can get everyone together is good.”

      Micah nodded. He would agree to that, and for Gemma’s baby’s christening, all the Westmorelands would be there, including their cousins from Atlanta, Texas and Montana.

      Moments later, Micah ended his phone conversation with Dillon. He headed for the bedroom to undress and take a shower. The question Dillon asked him rang through his head. What was he going to do about Kalina?

      Just like that, he remembered the proposition she’d made to Major Rose. And as he’d told her, he had no intention of letting the man go anywhere with her.

      And just how are you going to stop her? His mind taunted. She doesn’t want to have anything to do with you. Thanks to her daddy’s lie, you lost her. Get over it.

      He drew in a deep breath, knowing that was the kicker. He couldn’t get over it. Dillon was right. Micah was not a quitter, and it was about

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