Chapter 3
Chapter Three
DALLAS
I wasn’t thinking. At all. Raw need roared through me. All I knew was I wanted Audrey. Now.
Inside of a minute, our kiss went from a flash point of contact to hot and heavy.
With her tongue tangling with mine, it was all I could do to force myself to put a stop to it.
Thank fuck my phone rang. Tearing my mouth from hers, we stared at each other.
With her face flushed, her lips swollen and her eyes wide, it took enormous restraint to keep from kissing her again.
I supposed she expected me to say something.
I didn’t know what the hell to say. I spun away and snatched my phone off the counter, only to see her father’s number flash on the screen.
“It’s your dad. I need to take this. He asked me to come check on the house. I'm assuming you don't want me to let him know you're here,” I said quickly before answering.
She nodded tightly. I got through that phone call on the habit of manners.
I let Warren know all was well with the house.
He chatted about a few things and wondered whether I might reconsider and drive down to see them in the Berkshires for Christmas.
He couldn’t know I was riddled with guilt through the entire few minutes we were on the phone.
If he hadn't called, I couldn’t have stopped that kiss for anything. My cock was still throbbing.
As soon as I ended the call, I turned to see Audrey waiting. Her cheeks were flushed, and her lips swollen. Fuck. I should not have kissed her. I’d all but set my body on fire with need for her, and I needed to get a handle on it.
“Why did you kiss me?” she asked suddenly, her words clipped.
I leaned my hips against the dining room table, shoving my hands in my pockets. There was no sense in lying. “Because I want you.”
Her mouth dropped open, and it was all I could do not to snatch her against me again. But I needed to stay sane. Before I had a chance to formulate what I meant to say—whatever the hell that was—Audrey spoke.
“How can you say that? Last time…”
“Last time, I put a stop to it because you were barely twenty! You’re my sister’s best friend.”
The words flew out, and I knew I sounded angry. I was. Not with her though. With myself. I took a ragged breath and ran a hand through my hair. “Audrey, your father means a lot to me. I can’t…”
This time she cut me off.
“Oh my God! Okay, forget about how old I was then. I’m twenty-five years old now. I’m not some foolish young girl. I wasn’t then either. And what the hell does my father have to do with anything?”
I stared at her, my thoughts spinning.
Five years ago, I kissed Audrey in the stupidest, craziest moment I'd let myself give into. We’d both grown up here in Haven’s Bay, our families close for years.
Audrey was nine years younger than me, so all the way through college and until I moved away to Boston afterwards, I’d thought of her as nothing more than the young daughter of my parents’ friends.
She grew up and nearly knocked me over the first time I saw her when she was nineteen.
With her glossy dark hair, her flashing hazel eyes and curves for days, I almost hadn’t recognized her.
At a glance, you might think I'd been the lucky one. My family was wealthy, very wealthy, and had been for generations. My great-grandfather had made his money through shipping and timber. His fortune came from honest work and the luck of timing. Like many families generations ago, he came to the United States with not much more than what he'd scrabbled together for the ride across the Atlantic. He’d worked on the docks in Boston, worked on the ships and gradually worked up to buying his own and expanding it into a fleet. He’d invested his earnings from shipping in the timber industry here in Maine.
Haven’s Bay was roughly midway up the coast in Maine.
My family had a lovely home with a gorgeous view of the ocean within a mile of this cute, but much smaller home where Audrey had grown up.
This home had been a caretaker's cabin on my family's property many, many years back.
My grandparents had sold it to her grandparents.
Her mother was a teacher, and her father a lawyer.
Audrey was now a lawyer as well. Her family was nothing but respectable, smart and hard-working.
The long friendship her parents had shared with mine had been blown to bits a few years ago. Thanks to me.
I grew up in that gorgeous home on the windswept coast of Haven’s Bay.
Inside the walls of that home, my father was fucking asshole.
He’d been distant with me and my three younger siblings my entire childhood.
Love was hard to come by, if at all. Affection and approval were doled out in money only.
I figured I’d never know what happened between my grandfather and my father, but my dad was nothing like him.
Instead of believing in hard work, he believed he was entitled to wealth without any effort.
My specialty area within the FBI related to financial crimes.
I’d been heading up a regional case, chasing down lead after lead in a sprawling money-laundering case.
Unfortunately, one of those leads brought me straight to my father.
His preference for living off of investments eventually pushed him into creating a Ponzi scheme after a few investments went awry.
I’d had to completely step back and hand the case over.
He now sat in jail. What little relationship we had was severed, and he lost most of his friends, including Audrey’s parents.
What money my family had left had been confiscated.
Unbeknownst to me, my father had signed our family’s home over to me before everything blew up.
I was still torn with what to do with the home.
I loved it dearly, but I was furious with my father.
My mother had died years back from a stroke, so it fell to me to handle the logistical mess for my three younger siblings.
That was the ugly story for my family. Audrey's father was more of a father to me than mine had ever been. Hence, my guilt over the fact I wanted Audrey like I’d never wanted any woman.
Ever. My guilt wasn't that she felt like family.
Because she didn't. We had been nine years apart growing up.
When things went to hell with my father, her father had been a huge source of support.
I felt sick to contemplate what he would think if he knew I was harboring the secret of Audrey's presence here. He’d be heartsick to learn her engagement had blown up.
I had stifled my desire for Audrey and put it away behind lock and key.
I’d been a bit relieved and simultaneously disappointed when I learned she was engaged sometime last year.
If I couldn't have her, I wanted her to be happy.
The wedding was supposed to occur next summer.
The second my mind spun in that direction, a flash of anger coursed through me.
Fucking Matthew. I'd never met the guy. Now to learn that Matthew had been seeing somebody on the side, I wanted to make him pay.
Seeing as he was nowhere near, that was a problem for another time.
The problem at hand: the fact I wanted her so much I could hardly stand it, and she was here.
Now she was waiting for me to explain. “Audrey, you know how much your father means to me. I can’t…”
She rolled her eyes. “I’m an adult. I can be involved with whoever I want.” She paused and shook her head. “Look, I’m tired. I don’t have it in me to make sense of anything right now. I came up here to get away, but you’re here.”
I let my breath out slowly. I’d take the break on trying to discuss that crazy kiss. But I didn’t want her to think she had to take off just because I was here. “I doubt you figured your dad would ask me to spend the month here. Obviously, we can both stay here.”
As soon as I said that, I wondered if I was flat crazy.
Yet, I couldn’t exactly tell her to leave.
If I called her father and told him I was leaving, he’d wonder why.
In short, the easiest thing to avoid curious questions was to carry on as we’d respectively planned.
I just hoped like hell she didn’t plan to stay long.
She stared at me, her eyes weary, and I had to hold back from tugging her into my arms again. It wasn’t simply lust when it came to Audrey. Never had been. Yet, now wasn’t the time. I’d already mucked things up enough.
After a long moment, she nodded. “Fine. I’m crashing.”
She spun away without another word.
I walked down the stairs the following morning, relieved to find Audrey wasn't up yet. Making a beeline for the coffee pot in the corner of the kitchen, I quickly started a pot of coffee. I wasn't used to waking up in a house with anyone, much less Audrey. I’d kept my hunger for her locked in a tight corner in my mind and in my heart. After four years of conveniently not seeing her, I’d somehow convinced myself I’d moved past my response to her.
I didn't know what the fuck I was thinking last night when I kissed her. It had been a colossal mistake.
But damn it felt so good. Merely thinking about it now, I had to grip the countertop and will my thoughts off of the way Audrey’s lips felt under mine to keep from getting hard all over again.
Just like I knew from the memory I had saved and rarely allowed myself to think about, she was wild and unrestrained when she kissed.
So much of me wanted to take things as far as they could go with her, solely for selfish reasons.
I wanted her. All to myself. Yet, aside from the complications of my guilt because of her father, I wasn't a good candidate for any kind of serious relationship.
My life was my career. It left little room for what I knew I wanted with Audrey. I forced my mind off of her.