Chapter 6 #2
Lord knows he’s a freaking god in bed. He’s smart, financially secure, in perfect shape, and has a fantastic dick. Which again, begs the question, why isn’t there someone standing next to him?
Why do I care?
Why am I now remembering his dick?
Oh, I know, because I want him to come out here, strip me naked, and make me forget my name again.
“You’re going to get eaten alive,” a deep voice says from the darkness.
I scream causing my laptop to fly in the air, which clatters on the ground, and I nearly leap out of my skin. My heart pounds so loud it drowns out all sense of reason.
“Easy, it’s just me.” Killian steps into the light, his hands raised. “Sorry, I saw a light and the motion detectors went off, so I came to check if everything was okay.”
“Right. No. Sure, I’m just…having a heart attack.” My hand is gripping my chest as I try to get control, but I’m shaking.
“Please don’t do that. I can’t handle the press claiming I did something to my publicist.” He leans down and grabs my laptop off the ground.
“Did I kill it?” I ask.
He checks it over. “No, it looks fine. I had no idea you’d throw the laptop.”
“Well, it’s late, dark, and all of a sudden someone was here.”
He grins, handing my computer back to me. “I didn’t want to scare you by just walking onto the porch in the middle of the night either.”
I’m not sure which would’ve been better since I’m…in my freaking pajamas. Great.
I hold my laptop against my chest, hoping to hide the lack of bra under my tank top. I remind myself that he’s already seen me naked, but still, we’re not doing that again. “I was just going over my notes.”
He shakes his head. “Did something change?”
“No, no. I just wanted to make sure I didn’t miss something. Sometimes, after a little time has passed, we’re able to see things better, you know?”
Not that I didn’t already spend three hours doing exactly that.
“Did you have an epiphany?”
I smile and laugh. “I felt one coming on, but then this creeper came on the porch when I was thinking about things and scared the shit out of me.”
“I’m sorry about that, Tessa.” He grins.
Again, my body reacts to the way he says my name and a shiver runs through me. No, that’s the wind. At least, I’m going to tell myself that.
I clear my throat and step to the swing, grabbing the blanket to cover myself.
“Don’t be. It’s your house after all. But I do think we’ll figure out what’s going on.
I’m sending an email to a friend who knows some guys who can do some digging to find Travis.
Thankfully, my laptop didn’t break in my mini panic attack, or we’d have another issue to deal with. ”
“Yes, but that would be the least of our worries since I have a laptop you could use,” Killian jokes and then walks closer. “Can I sit?”
“Sure,” I say, hating that I ever got out of bed. At least then I would be able to pretend I’m not at all attracted to him. That last night was just a dream and I didn’t love every second of just being with him—in and out of bed.
I liked our talk, the way he took care of me with food—and the other way.
Killian sits on the swing, and I shift, keeping to the corner with the blanket securely around me.
The two of us stay in the silence for a minute, staring up at the sky. It’s so beautiful and I feel so nostalgic sitting here. “This is the part I miss the most being in New York City. There are no stars.”
His eyes meet mine. “Boston isn’t much better.
” I’m sure it’s not. All the cities have this as their one great flaw.
“It’s why I come here so much. Life is simpler here.
People are kind, we care about our neighbors, no matter where they came from.
If someone needs something, we’re there to lend a hand. ”
“My childhood was like that,” I say with a smile.
“I grew up in a small town, and I remember a time when we didn’t have—well, anything.
We were struggling, and all of a sudden, a neighbor came with a casserole, then the next day, another one came.
For a week, there was a stream of food delivered and then someone would offer us a ride when Momma’s car broke down.
Since we didn’t have the help we should’ve had, we had our community. ”
He shifts in the chair, his leg just brushing against mine. “I’m sensing there’s a story there.”
I laugh once. “You have no idea, but…things work out the way they’re supposed to. Anyway, my favorite thing to do with my mom was sit out at night and talk to the stars.”
“Did they talk back?”
I smile. “I think they did. I would ask for things, wishes and dreams and hopes. I think they came through for me.”
At least parts of them did. I wanted out of the town, away from my past. I needed a fresh start and college allowed me that.
“Maybe that’s what I need to do then, wish for this nightmare to be over,” Killian says with a laugh.
“If only it were that simple.”
Killian chuckles. “If only. This farm, it means the world to me. I love the horses, the land—this is where my heart is.”
I glance at him from the side, our knees now completely against each other’s. “Did you suspect anything was going on with Travis?”
He sighs heavily. “I keep asking myself that same thing. I keep trying to find a moment in time where there was a shift, but I can’t.
Travis was tough, he trained those horses hard, and that was often an issue between us.
He produced a lot of winners, though. That allowed us to get much better prices on each horse we sold.
Other than that, I thought we were great partners.
He was running things here, selling horses, which made me happy.
I didn’t push back on much, so he seemed pretty content.
The only thing I ever questioned was why so many of the horses that were sold stayed here to be trained.
Travis was great, don’t get me wrong, but his costs were astronomical, and he’d always been a one-horse trainer. ”
“What does that mean?” I ask. “A one-horse trainer.”
“He only worked with one winner at a time. It was his entire motto. Then suddenly he started training anyone who bought from us. It was weird, and when I asked, he said money was money and we needed the brand awareness. I should’ve known something was weird.”
I reach out, resting my hand on his. “Killian, it’s not your fault.”
“It’s my ranch. Of course it’s my fault. I should’ve been more involved, but I was so damn busy in Massachusetts. I had to work, sell more properties and I just let Travis do his thing because it was working.”
“Well, tomorrow we’re going to buckle down again and keep looking. Hopefully I’ll get an email back and maybe my contact can uncover something.”
“You really think we’re going to figure this whole thing out?”
I nod. “People don’t usually disappear without a trace. They always leave some kind of clue—we just have to find it.”
“I don’t know that I agree with that,” Killian says, looking up at the sky.
The way he says it leads me to think we’re not talking about the ranch.
There’s a softness, almost an ache to his voice.
One that says we can’t erase last night either.
“When I was a teenager, I had someone disappear and it took me over two decades to find her again.”
“It’s always a girl,” I say with a smile.
“You are beguiling creatures. Men can’t seem to resist the pull.”
I wish that were true because I’ve been alone a very long time. “The downfall of humanity.”
Killian chuckles. “That and money.”
“Very true, but you kind of made my point.”
“How?”
I grin. “You found her again.”
His smile is bright, and he leans close to me. So close I can smell the mint on his breath. My throat grows tight, and the warm air now feels stifling. I need to walk away before I do something stupid like kiss him.
“It’s late. I should…sleep.”
“What time do you need to be at Penelope’s tomorrow for your meeting?”
“Early. I set up a meeting at eight so I could be back here by ten and we can work again.”
Penelope wanted to do earlier, but I really don’t want to show up at the meeting looking ill-prepared.
His emerald eyes find mine. “I hope your meeting goes well. Goodnight, Tessa.”
“Goodnight, Killian.”
“Sleep well.”
Fat chance of that happening.