Climax by Lauren Smith Page B

that had made him likable. Tristan hadn’t given this change much thought, but now it stirred at the back of his mind, worrying him a little. What had changed his father into the hard-hearted man?
    Tristan sighed. “He was a better man back then, not so cold. Distant, yes, but not cruel,” he told Kat as he settled a hand on her hip and met her gaze. “What about you?”
    She bit her lip, making him want to kiss her, but he needed his answer.
    “It’s when I was ten, two years before Mom left. She was out running errands, and I snuck up to the attic and found her old wedding dress.” An unguarded smile curved her lips. “I don’t know how I got it on, but I did. She came home and found me wearing it. I thought she’d be mad, but instead she spent the next hour playing dress-up with me. We got out all her jewelry and we did our hair. It was a mess, but it was fun. We laughed so hard it made my stomach hurt.”
    Seeing the flash of bittersweet pain in her eyes called out to every instinct inside him to protect her. Losing her mother had hurt Kat so much. He still had his father in his life, but she’d been abandoned.
    Tristan lay beside her and pulled her flush to him. “Promise me you’ll always remember you deserve to be loved.” He twined a lock of her hair around his finger, focusing on her lips, then her eyes. “We are not our parents. We don’t carry those sins and burdens. We can choose to love. No matter what happens tomorrow, don’t ever forget that.”
    She nodded and pulled her head down to his.
    There beside the warm fire, Tristan fully surrendered his heart to the only woman he would ever love. It would all shatter come the dawn.
    But wasn’t that how love was supposed to be? A wondrous risk that not all hearts survived? And Kat was worth it.

Chapter 11
    K at couldn’t breathe. The moment had come to say good-bye.
    She and Tristan sat inside his car, parked in front of Lizzy’s town house. The air between them was charged with tension thick enough to fog the windows.
    They’d barely spoken since they’d left Cambridge earlier that morning. Part of her desperately wanted to believe this was all a dream and that they were still in bed, bodies entwined as they shared dreams.
    The time for dreams was over.
    “Tristan,” she whispered, his name scraping across her vocal chords.
    He furrowed his brow and clenched his jaw, his hands white-knuckled on the steering wheel.
    “I’ll walk you to the door.” Tristan finally unbuckled his seat belt and got out of the car.
    She followed him as he carried her duffle bag up to the front door of the town house. He set the bag down and shoved his hands into the pockets of his knee-length black coat.
    I hate good-byes .
    Tears were already forming in her eyes, burning and cutting like daggers straight to her heart. Kat was taking every memory of him with her, burying it safe within her. Someday soon they would cross paths again, but they both knew this thing between them could never be. Doomed from the start. She would always love him. Something this deep, this powerful, could never be undone.
    Tristan pulled his hands from his pockets and reached for her cheek hesitantly, as though afraid to touch her. When he finally did, she tilted her head into his palm, closing her eyes for a few seconds.
    “I won’t say good-bye. I know you don’t like them. But know that wherever I am, whatever I’m doing, I’ll love you with every breath, every heartbeat. Always. You can’t say good-bye to the one who owns your heart.” He smiled, but it made her eyes flood with tears.
    “No good-byes,” she vowed. God, I’m not going to survive this . She couldn’t breathe. Her lungs squeezed every breath out of her.
    “Every night I’m going to close my eyes and remember our last night at Fox Hill.” His eyes were dark and deep, like a northern sea in the coldest winter. Emotions churned in their depths and he blinked, swallowed hard, and continued, his voice rough,