He lifted an eyebrow. “Why what?”

“Why did you kiss me?”

Releasing her, he shoved his hands into his jeans and she wished he hadn’t done that. Doing so made the solid and enlarged shape of his erection that much more defined and pronounced. The area between her legs twitched in response to seeing it.

“You might want closure, Bryce, but I’m not sure that I do.”

She frowned. “B-but you said we could never go back to being the way we were.”

“No, you said that.”

Yes, she had. “But you agreed.”

“What I did was go along with what you wanted, but that kiss was a game changer.”

Her frown deepened. Game changer? Lifting her chin, she said, “Nothing has changed, Kaegan. We will never be anything more than friends.”

“Okay.”

Okay? She lifted an eyebrow. “So you agree with me, right?”

He shook his head. “No, at the moment I’m going along with what you’re saying.”

At the moment? “I think we need to talk about this.”

He shrugged massive shoulders and she noted his erection hadn’t gone down—not one iota. “What is there to talk about? We want different things. You want closure and I want you.”

She placed her hands on her hips. “So, is that what this is about, Kaegan? Sex?”

It seemed her question made something snap within him and he pulled his hands from his pockets and took a step closer to her. She could feel anger radiating out of his every pore. What was he mad about when she’d spoken the truth?

His eyes were flaring fire and his jaw was twitching. Then he said, “Let’s get one damn thing straight, Bryce. I’ve never had sex with you. Every time I entered your body it was to make love to you, to cherish you as my mate. Don’t try and cheapen what we shared together, no matter how things turned out between us. Don’t ever do that again. Now let’s go.”

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

KAEGAN PULLED THE boat up to the dock. Turning off the boat’s ignition, he offered his hand to Bryce to assist her out the boat. Instead of taking it, in a brusque voice, she said, “I can manage. Thank you.”

“Don’t mention it,” he said with the same gruff tone as he watched her climb out of the boat onto the dock.

He watched her leave, which was fine because he needed a few minutes to himself to reflect on the kiss they’d shared. A kiss he knew would keep him up at night thinking about it, reliving the moment. Whether she realized it or not, that kiss had told a story of its own. She might want to deny it, but he’d felt her response. And she wanted closure? Well, he had news for her. If she thought the kiss was one-and-done, then she needed to think again. And he intended to do just that—give her time to think without crowding her. She needed to finally accept he wasn’t going anywhere. Their lives were entwined. She belonged to him and he belonged to her.