Chapter 16
16
Liam
W hat was this feeling? This half-sinking sensation like I’d scored on my own net. This was new for me. Uncharted territory. I watched Kit walk away and it almost felt like I was the bad guy.
Wait? Was I the bad guy? How in the world was that possible?
I brought everyone on an awesome beach vacation.
And didn’t tell Nick I was coming.
I was forgiving Kit’s debt.
After punishing her for weeks and demanding a kiss.
I turned toward my old mentor and friend who was scowling at me.
“Hey, I am not the bad guy here. Am I?” I said, my hands pressed to my chest. “I mean…she’s the one who stole-”
“How about this?” Dillon interrupted me and smacked a hand over my shoulder as if to remind me I had a young, curious audience. “You come by the One-Eyed Gull tomorrow morning and we’ll have a chat.”
“Sure,” I said. Dillon gave Tess a fist bump and walked off, leaving me to fend for myself with this sinking sensation in my gut.
Tess and I got a bag of falafels, which smelled amazing, as well as some pitas and dips. I thought falafels came as a sandwich, but Tess had some serious feelings about all those things touching, so we got it all separately.
One thing I didn’t mess up.
On the way back to my truck, I pulled up the address for Dillon’s house. It was his late grandmother’s house, that he kept available for friends and out of town family. Former teammates too, I imagined, looking to get away.
According to the map on my phone, the house was right on the beach in the next cove south. When we got back in the truck, Kit sat in the passenger seat like a statue.
She was so upset it felt like she was vibrating.
“We got hot sauce!” Tess cried from the backseat, ignoring the tension filling the truck. “But it’s separate in case it’s too hot.”
“Good thinking,” Kit said, not looking at me.
“We got pita. I love pita.” Tess continued. “And brown pop.”
“You got her a Coke?” Kit asked, her head tilted slightly my way, which was the only way I knew she was talking to me.
“My brother and I lived off Pepsi when we were kids. She’ll survive a little sugar.”
Kit sniffed and went back to looking out the passenger window.
“Hey, I’m sorry,” I said. Trying to nail down what I was sorry about.
It occurred to me, just like I should have given Nick a heads up before showing up in his hometown, I should have given Kit a heads up about Dillon. Obviously, they knew each other. Dillon was a witness at her dad’s trial.
“There’s nothing to be sorry for,” she said.
“I should have warned you we might see him. That he’s the one who owns the house where we’re staying.”
“It doesn’t matter,” she said.
“Well, it does matter, because you’re obviously upset. So this is me apologizing,” I said, which seemed to make her flinch.
She looked over at me, with her pale lips and her big glasses. “You have been mean to me for months,” she said. “Do you honestly think I’m going to believe you’re sorry I’m embarrassed?”
All at once, I saw the way she must have felt every Sunday bringing me that money. Yes, she gave me tons of attitude back, but I’d also given her plenty of hoops to jump through.
I thought of the way I dropped that money at her feet at the bar and I was sick to my stomach.
Fuck. I was the bad guy.
“No,” I said, sadly. “I don’t suppose you are.”
She turned to me, again not lifting her glasses, so I couldn’t really see her expression, but everything about her was buttoned down tight.
“You know what else you could have warned me about?” she asked. “That you have a half-brother. Who apparently is not a fan. That’s some pretty big news.”
Right. Yeah. “It was just weird luck that we saw him right away.”
“Weird luck,” she said with a laugh. “I think what you mean to say is a shit show.”
A laugh barked out of me. “I don’t know, he threatened to beat me up. So… I think we’re really bonding.”
I grinned, waiting for her to laugh, but she gave me nothing.
I turned left down the beach road and then right into the first cove. There was a cul de sac filled with three homes. They were probably once grand, but now they looked weather beaten.
“You said this was Dillon’s house?” Kit asked.
“His late grandmother’s. He said it was charming.”
She made a sound in her throat full of doubt. Charming could cover a lot of ground. It could be amazing. Or it could be a doily-covered, terrifyingly doll-filled, mice infested nightmare. These two-story old saltbox houses with the one-sided sloped roof and giant chimneys looked like they could go either way.
“There it is,” Tess said. “Number 81.” I’d told her the address before we climbed in the car.
“Nice one,” I said, happy someone was excited.
I pulled into the gravel driveway and parked out of reach of the sap-dropping giant pine tree that covered half the parking area. The house was dark blue with bright white trim. There was a small front porch and a plain white door. Six dark windows looked down at us.
This was feeling more and more like a mistake.
“Let’s go!” Tess cried and jumped out of the truck, clutching her little brown bag of falafels. I got out slightly slower and immediately ran into a giant spiderweb, that crisscrossed my face and got caught in my mouth.
“Oh shit!’ I spat, pulling invisible strings off my face and brushing off my head. Hot and cold chills chasing each other across my skin. “Did I swallow it? Am I covered in spiders?”
“Stop,” Kit said, putting her hands on my shoulders. The light weight of her hands on my body, made me stop on a dime. She lifted her glasses and ran her hands over my hair and down my neck. I got chills again, of an entirely different kind.
“Oh no, Liam,” Tess said, looking up at my head with her eyes wide.
“What?” I cried. “What? There’s a spider on me, isn’t there?” I frantically shook and jumped, trying to knock whatever creature was clinging to me off my body.
Tess giggled. “I’m just kidding, but that means you’re afraid of spiders and bees.”
“You’re afraid of bees?” Kit asked and I glared at Tess.
“Uh huh,” Tess said.
“Let’s just say I’m not a fan of bugs in general. Or little girls who try and trick me,” I cried and then lifted her up and tossed her over my shoulder.
She shrieked and squirmed and laughed as I pretended to use her legs to clear away any spiderwebs as we walked to the front door.
I set her down on the front stoop and gave her the code to the keypad that had clearly been recently installed. On the second try she got it right and the old door creaked open, revealing a gigantic interior.
“Oh my gosh,” Kit said in awe.
The house was charming in the good way.
There was a massive stone fireplace with plenty of wood stacked beside it. There were two comfortable chairs cozied up in front of the hearth. A chess table between them. There was a huge harvest table that had seen years of use. A hutch with a hodge podge of China and dish ware. A long L-shaped couch that looked as new as the key pad. The wood floors were dark, wide panels, a reminder that this house was built using giant trees that had probably been cut down by hand two hundred years ago.
There was a kitchen with a modern gas stove and a dishwasher and a wall full of brass bottomed pots and pans.
A wooden doorway led to a screened in porch surrounded by trees, so looking out the screens it seemed like we were up in a tree house. The screened in porch was filled with comfortable older furniture and Tess immediately laid claim to a squishy couch, where she would undoubtedly try and spend hours reading.
Kit walked up to the big windows that faced the ocean. There was a stone patio with a barbecue and some reclining chairs. A dining room set that had seen better days. And from there a sandy path through the brush, over a small dune and down to the beach.
“Wow,” I said. “That’s some view.”
“Yeah,” she said. “It’s really something.”
“Bunk beds!” Tess cried and Kit turned, smiling. She was about to go find Tess and admire the bunk beds, but I caught her arm.
She stiffened.
I knew I was doing this wrong too, but sometimes, when everything went to shit, there was no point trying to pull out. You had to commit. Throw your weight behind the disaster. There came a point in every bad game when you realized you couldn’t save it, you could only race to the bottom. This was that time.
“I really am sorry,” I said. “I could have said something about Dillon. It honestly just didn’t occur to me. I get why you have no reason to believe me, but it’s the truth. I’m not interested in hurting you.”
“Anymore,” she said softly. “You’re not interested in hurting me…anymore.”
I nodded in acknowledgement of the pain I’d already caused.
I’d wanted revenge. I’d wanted payback. I’d wanted to see her squirm. I’d also wanted to see her struggle with her attraction to me. There was no point in lying about that either.
It all came down to one simple truth.
“You broke my heart that night,” I said with a smile that made it seem like I wasn’t serious. “In Nashville.”
“That can’t be true,” she said.
For once I didn’t make a joke. I didn’t grin. I just stood there and tried to be honest.
“I understand you had ulterior motives for coming up to my room. But I went up there because I wanted you. I wanted you more than I’d ever wanted another woman in my life.”
This was as honest as I’d ever been with someone outside of my brother.
She swallowed and turned away, but I wasn’t ready for this to be over. I wanted to get us back to that place. Before the whole day fell apart running into Nick, then Dillon. Back to the moment it felt like she was melting towards me.
I looked in her eyes and for once she didn’t try and look away. Or make some sarcastic comment. I’d laid down all my weapons and here she was doing the same. It was like being naked on center ice at an away game. Terrifying and exhilarating.
“This…can’t happen,” she said.
“It was happening before we ran into Nick and Dillon. You can lie all you want, but we both know the truth. If I’d kissed you outside that bookstore, you would have let me.”
She was breathing fast, like a little animal caught in the trap of a bigger, more dangerous animal. I didn’t want her scared. I wanted her turned on and trusting. I wanted her as into me as I was into her.
“If I kissed you now, you’d let me,” I said. Perhaps taking my life in my hands, but I was beyond caring at this point. I had to have her.
She shook back her hair and looked up at me, her eyes the color of steel. “So, why don’t you?”
It was a dare. A challenge. She was building her walls as fast as she could, trying to keep me out. Telling herself she was only doing this, because I’d bargained for it.
Telling herself she only agreed to my bargain to finally be done with me, but I was coming to know Kit better. She’d agreed to kiss me, because she wanted it. Like I wanted it.
I was about to call her bluff, but decided to let her have her way. Because I’d been dreaming of this kiss for five years.
On the ice I was known for my instincts and reflexes. There wasn’t a defense I couldn’t break.
I kissed her.
The words she swallowed went down with a grunt. A startled oomph. I caught her vulnerable and tender.
It was soft, the kiss. I cradled her face in my hands like she was made of sugar, like I had to be careful. And I didn’t push the way I wanted. The kiss I ached to give her was there, but only in hints. In the careful touch of my tongue to her lips. The way I groaned in my throat at the taste of her, coffee and toothpaste. The way I couldn’t control my fingers sliding from her cheeks into her hair. I kissed her with restraint, but what I wanted was right there, prowling the edges of my control.
I wanted to ravage her. Hold her down and make her scream my name. I wanted to make it so she could never look at me with that distance in her eyes again.
Except, I wasn’t an idiot. If I pushed now, I’d push her away for good. It was a miracle she was letting me kiss her at all. I had to play this just right.
I stroked her cheek with my thumb and I licked at her lips like I had all the time in the world to kiss her. No agenda but this. I could stand here in the sunlight coming in through the windows chastely kissing Kit Barrington all damn day.
But then, she opened her mouth with a soft exhale and lifted her hands to my waist where she clenched the t-shirt in her fists. Like she was holding on for dear life.
Game fucking on.
I stepped closer, my cock pressed up against her belly, and I didn’t try to hide it. I couldn’t. Part of me wanted her to know what she did to me. What she’d always done to me. She gasped when she felt it and went so still against me I was sure I’d gone too far. Just as I was about to ease off, she groaned and pressed harder against me.
Fuck. I mean. Fuck .
What was it about this woman that I could make a meal out of the tiniest crumb she gave me? Her slightest surrender felt like victory. The minute I got this woman coming against my tongue, I would die from it. I would. Who could withstand her submission?
Just the thought made my dick pound.
She opened her lips wider and I took the invitation seriously, plundering her mouth. I made it mine. I traced her teeth. I licked her. Sucked her tongue until she was sagging against me.
Yes. Fuck yes. I wanted to ease her up against the wall, lift those strong legs around my waist and grind this rock hard cock against her until she saw stars. Until I came in my pants like a teenager. Until she came so hard I ruined her for other men.
The thought, once thought, couldn’t be unthought.
Now I had a goal.
I was going to ruin Kit Barrington for other men. I was going to fuck her so well and so hard and so right, she’d be mine.
I was a pro athlete. I liked goals. Stats. Achievement.
And I really liked winning.
I was going to make a power play for Kit Barrington. She had no idea what was coming for her.
I lifted my lips from hers, delighting when she moaned in her throat. She lifted a hand to the back of my head, like she could hold me still. I grabbed her hand and pressed a kiss to the palm.
“What is this, Kit?” I asked. “What is this crazy chemistry between us?”
It was there five years ago, it was there now.
She blinked at me, desire making a mess of her. Fuck. I wanted to put my hand down her pants and see just how wet I’d made her.
“It doesn’t…” she shook her head, her voice raspy like she’d been screaming. “Mean anything.”
Oh, the harder this woman wanted to deny this, the harder I wanted to make it undeniable. Let her pretend she didn’t want me while I was stroking her clit until she came, trembling and screaming in my hand.
“We’ll see about that,” I said.
She stepped back and put her hands on her waist. Her nipples, rock hard, pressed against her dark tank top. She could deny all she wanted, but her body told the truth. I grinned at her and she crossed her arms over her chest.
“I’m serious,” she said. “This is crazy. With our history? Nothing is going to happen between us.”
Except something already did. It was still happening.
“Okay,” I said. She blinked at me and her eyebrows crashed together over her cute little nose.
“That’s it? Okay?”
“I’m not in the business of pressuring women. We made a deal. I got my kiss and my answer,” I said. “Next one is on you.”
“What does that even mean?”
“Next time we kiss, it won’t be because of any bargain. Next time we kiss, you’ll kiss me.”
She laughed and I smiled at her. She could pretend all she wanted, but I tasted the truth. She’d go to bed tonight thinking of me. She’d read that romance novel and think of me. When she put those fingers of hers between her legs, it would be my kiss she would remember.
I was a professional athlete. I knew when I was in someone’s head.
Kit opened her mouth to argue with me but from the other room there was a thunk and a scream. We looked at each other in panic before sprinting to the bedroom where Tess had found the bunk beds.
She was pulling herself up off the floor when Kit and I burst in.
“Are you hurt?” Kit cried.
“Don’t move,” I said and sat her down on the bottom bunk.
“I’m okay,” Tess said quickly. “Honestly. I just jumped off the top bunk.”
“Jumped or fell?” Kit asked,
“Both,” Tess said. I checked her feet and legs for anything broken or bleeding or swelling. But there was nothing.
“I think it’s the bottom bunk for you, kiddo,” Kit said, patting the pillow on the freshly made bed.
“No!” Tess cried. “I’m big enough for the top. I can do it.”
“No way,” I said and stood up. “There’s no railing up here.”
“That’s what makes it fun!” Tess cried.
“You could roll off in your sleep,” Kit said and I nodded enthusiastically. Honestly, my heart rate was just coming back down.
“That’s not a thing,” Tess said.
“It’s totally a thing,” I said. “When my brother and I were kids we had bunk beds. One time my brother tried to get off the top bunk without using the ladder and he fell and broke his arm.”
“Are you lying just to make a point?” Tess asked, her eyes narrowed. I pretended outrage even though I’d been doing just that. The falling part was true, but he hadn’t broken anything.
Kit looked on with laughter in her eyes like she was on to me. I wondered when these two started to know me so well.