Chapter 10
Thomas
Chapter Ten
Kinsley’s lips parted as she rested her back against the bookshelf. She looked surprised by my words. Relieved even. Maybe deep down I was, too, as I couldn’t hide my smile. It was frightening how easily I could let go of my control with her around. It wasn’t as easy to keep my distance as I thought it would be when she was right in front of my nose all the damn time. I felt my heart thunder in my chest, aching for just one touch of her smooth skin. Kinsley’s cheeks were flushed, and she was holding her breath as her eyes gleamed over my neck. I had to bite into the inside of my mouth to keep the smile off my face.
For a moment of weakness, I leaned down to her until our eyes were on the same level, and I gently brushed my lips against hers. It was a stupid thing to do, but I did it anyway. She sucked in a breath, her eyes widening, and I let a smirk form on my lips. She smelled like strawberries and vanilla, and I wanted nothing more than my sheets to smell like her. From her. Fuck.
I observed her and her reactions to the things I did. How her nostrils flared or how she scrunched her nose or rolled her eyes at me. She was fascinating. Rude and vicious in one moment and blushing in the other. I clenched my fists before I relaxed them again. I knew I should step back; that was the plan, but maybe almost five months of pushing away was all I could handle. Maybe I should just let go and see what happens, but the responsible part of my brain was shouting at me from a dark corner in my mind. So I let out a frustrated breath and took a step back.
It took me by surprise when Kinsley reached after me and grabbed the edge of my T-shirt, pulling me back. Her eyes glowed and my gaze flickered down at her parted lips. She looked too damn kissable. Before I could start overthinking it again, I reached down and ran my fingers through her soft hair, lowering my head to the same level as hers. My hands wandered down from her hair to her waist, and I could feel her shiver against me.
“Thomas?” My brother’s voice came from the other side of the door, and both of us froze. “Is Kinsley with you?”
I knocked my forehead against the shelf above Kinsley’s head. “Why?” I grumbled, turning my gaze toward the door.
“She has a visitor,” he answered, and Kinsley and I shared a confused look. “A girl from the party,” Connor added a moment later. I lifted an eyebrow at her, and she unlocked her phone, mouthing Oh shit. My brother knocked again. “So, is she with you? I couldn’t find her.”
I looked down at Kinsley. “Is she?” I asked, my hand still resting on her waist.
“Well, you should know,” came Connor’s answer from the other side of the door, and Kinsley chuckled.
“We arrived less than a day ago, how did you already make friends?”
“It seems like I’m more likable when I don’t have you attached to me.” Our short breaths melted against each other’s.
“Is that an insult, Sage?” I asked, the corner of my mouth twitching upward as I remembered last fall at college. When it was just the two of us.
“I don’t know.” She shrugged, readjusting her hair. “Is it?” She slipped away from me and hurried to the door, leaving me gazing after her. “Sorry,” she said to my brother as she stepped out of the room into the hallway, closing the door behind her.
I sighed and dropped my head against the bookshelf. The room suddenly felt cold and hollow. I walked to my bed and pulled open the drawer of my nightstand. The letter I showed Kinsley yesterday was lying on the top of a paper pile. It didn’t occur to me until this morning when I found the threatening note lying on the kitchen island to compare the handwriting of the two. I read the name on the envelope, grinding my teeth. Joshua Rhodes was not the man anyone would want as a father. He was a good but busy dad before my mother’s disappearance. After that, he was just busy. Always the businessman first. After I turned eighteen some things changed for a while. He started to make me go to his business parties to make connections and show me around. He wanted to leave his firm to me. Well, at least that was what he said, but Joshua Rhodes loved working too much to just hand over his firm.
It took me a while to figure out his real intentions. There was a company he wanted to unite with his own, and this merger would involve me marrying the owner’s daughter. Arranged marriage in the twenty-first century, I shook my head. What scared me was that I went along with it for a while. I let him manipulate me for almost a year. Then, when I started my fourth year at college, I sat in on my old American history class during one of my free periods. There was a girl sitting in the row in front of me. I remember telling the professor some nonsense, and she turned around to me with a cold gaze that basically told me what I said was bullshit—which I knew, but I still argued with her for the rest of the class just to see how she wrinkled her nose every time I said something she didn’t like. It was adorable. From then on, I only went back to that class to be around her. I enjoyed our debates a little too much. And then my father took that away from me too.
I clenched my jaw and grabbed the letter, opening the envelope for the thousandth time. I flipped the paper between my fingers and put it down onto my sheet next to the note from yesterday.
This letter, addressed to my father, was the reason I was here. I studied the forms of the letters and a smile curled on my lips. Interesting. Now I just had to figure out why the person who wanted to lure my father here would want us gone.