CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
R OSE
The rest of the day moves slowly, giving me way too much time to think.
My gut feeling was right about Arlo, and with Kier’s warning about Torrence, I can’t stop wondering if I’ll end up being right about him, too. But I want to support Ruby, and part of that is trusting her gut feelings. If she still thinks Torrence is a good guy for her, then I need to let her act on that.
Right?
Damn it. This is why we never bug into each other’s love lives. It’s so hard to walk the line between support and protection. If this is what it’s like to have kids, maybe I don’t want a big family after all.
Ruby and I slowly empty the sample box from Goblin Market throughout the day, and none of the food tastes bad to me this time. But none of it seems to have that addictive burst of flavor it did the first night, either. If it were just me, I probably would forget all about Goblin Market in favor of any other decent local place.
“How much did we make today?” I ask as Ruby closes the door after the final customer leaves.
“Eleven sales! I’d have to do the math, but I think that’s freaking awesome for a first soft opening day. It’s not even season yet.”
She bounces over to give me a big bear hug, and I rest my chin on top of her head, willing the numbers to be enough. She allows it for a second, then squiggles out from under my arms.
“So, I texted Torrence a little bit ago. I’m gonna go see him in a few, so let me know your final picks on the food.”
I purse my lips, holding back the warning that wants to bubble over. There’s no way I can actually take Kier’s word over Torrence’s, or especially Ruby’s. I barely know him.
“I say stick with what we wrote down earlier. You have a good feel for this stuff.” It’s a cop out, but she doesn’t seem to notice. “What are you guys going to do?”
“I’m hoping for another picnic? Actually, a hike would be better. I’m super full. But we met up the other night and had this gorgeous thing under the stars and it was so freaking romantic, Rosey. Here, let me show you the pics.” Ruby pulls out her phone and swipes through a few photos of the dark woods, a blanket spread with tiny white containers of food, and finally a cute selfie of her and Torrence, with the moonlight reflecting off her pale skin. She looks really happy.
But wait.
“What the hell?” I snag the phone from her, tilting it in the light. There’s something about Torrence’s face...
“What?” Ruby asks, peering over my shoulder.
I don’t answer, trying to figure out what is bothering me about the photo. Then I get the angle just right and see it again. Like a holographic image, when I tilt the screen into a certain amount of light... I shudder and nearly drop the phone. His handsome features are the same, but now he looks like a fucking demon. Hollow cheekbones and sunken eyes that burn like fire. Sharp teeth like a row of fangs. A pale blue tint to his skin, like he could be made of ice.
Ruby takes the phone back and frowns at the photo. “I thought I look pretty good here.”
“You look great, Ru,” I choke out, my stomach rolling with nausea. Suddenly, it feels like every one of the snacks I’ve had all day long is going to come right back up, and I bolt for the bathroom in the back.
Dry heaving over the toilet, I try to force myself to calm the fuck down. It was just my imagination. There’s no way the picture could show two faces like that. I’ve been wrapped up in too many fantasy stories lately, and Kier’s warning hit me weird, and...
But a tiny part of my mind knows what I saw.
“Rose?” Ruby stands in the doorway of the bathroom, her brows drawn together in concern.
“I-I’m fine.” I straighten up and splash a little water on my cheeks and neck. The urge to vomit has passed, but the nausea still echoes in my gut. “You know, we could just hang out here tonight. Order pizza. Celebrate our first day together.”
Ruby looks torn, a sad frown pulling her ruby-painted mouth down at the corners. “That sounds good.”
But there’s more to what she wants to say, and I know it. She wants to see Torrence. She feels guilty, but deep down, she wants to choose him tonight. And can I really blame her?
“Never mind. I know you already made plans.” I summon a weak smile. “We have so many nights like this that we’ll be able to celebrate.”
Ruby hesitates, still not saying anything, but her body turns slightly away from me. It wants to go to him, and I’m starting to feel a little dumb, begging her to stay in like we do all the damn time. She deserves to be happy, and I know she really likes him, even if I don’t. My heart stutters as I remember his words - Ruby will pick me if I want her to.
I know it’s not true. But the echo beats in my brain like a hollow knock on a door at midnight. Out of place. Unexpected. And terrifying.
“Just... are you sure? Are you sure he’s a good guy?”
Ruby sighs, and there’s an edge of annoyance in the set of her jaw. “I feel safe with him. I like him, Rose, even though I don’t know him well yet.”
And because she calls me Rose, and not Rosey, I know it’s time to back off or risk some hurt feelings. If I really want to stay true to our besties before boys promise, I can’t be the one picking at the problem. Most likely, I’m just making up more reasons not to be happy again.
“I’ll check in with you, though. Drop a pin or whatever.” Ruby is trying to sound reassuring, lighten the mood, but I can still sense her frustration. These last few years when I lived in the city and she was at home, living alone after her mom died, I know she got used to doing whatever she wanted without anyone questioning her.
We both did. Sure, we always gave each other advice and opinions over dozens of phone calls and texts. I certainly don’t need to act like a parent now, helicoptering over her.
“Okay. I hope you have fun,” I say, giving her the best smile I can scrounge up.
“I’m sorry about Arlo. Maybe Torrence has another friend-”
I hold up my hand. “It’s fine, I don’t need that. I’ll meet someone when it’s the right time. I just had a weird feeling about Torrence the first night I met him. And Kier seemed so... I don’t know. There’s bad blood there.”
“He was kind of an asshole.”
I can’t help the glare that crosses my face, and Ruby raises an eyebrow, the corners of her mouth edging up.
“I guess I won’t say anything about your asshole if you don’t say anything about mine.”
“Girl, I want nothing to do with your asshole,” I say, the giggles beginning as the tension between us starts to unravel. Ruby laughs, and I start to feel better.
Until she says, “Good, because I was beginning to think you were just jealous of Torrence.”
“Jealous?” I bite down on my lip as soon as the word snaps out. Ruby’s gaze cools, and the mood goes heavy and uncertain again, like the sky before a thunderstorm.
“I won’t abandon the store, Rose. But let me have this. Him. Let me be happy, and maybe you can let yourself look for happiness, too.”
She turns on her heel and is up the stairs to our apartment before I can even process the words.
Fucking hell. Is that really how she feels? I need to reel it in, no matter how suspicious I am about Torrence. My friendship with Ruby is everything to me. Maybe she’s right, and I’m afraid to let her have something that I don’t have. Something I’m not sure I’ll ever have.
Deep down, I’ve always been afraid that Ruby will outgrow our friendship. That she’ll sink into a relationship with a man that eclipses everything we’ve built together.
We say besties before boys, but when it comes down to it, people get married, have kids, move on. Sometimes the world really does ask us to choose.
I don’t chase after Ruby, though. We both need some time to cool off. If she’s into Torrence, the best thing I can do now is support her and be here later if he breaks her heart. And absolutely, positively refrain from saying, I told you so .
I grab a sparkling water and settle into one of the plush velvet armchairs that overlooks the street beyond our wrap-around porch, and I don’t move an inch when I hear Ruby’s footsteps on the stairs. I watch her head outside and down the sidewalk, and I try to smile a little at her back and wish her happiness, even if my heart doesn’t want to trust Torrence to be the one to give it to her.
Dusk falls on the street, and still I sit in the window, letting my mind wander safely over ideas for the store. My stomach settles from the nausea and eventually reminds me that I never ate a real meal today, but before I can decide whether to cook or order in, a dark shape on the sidewalk catches my attention.
I instantly recognize the long-legged stride and sloped shoulders, and a little thrill skips through my chest.
Kier steps onto the porch, not seeing me in the side window, and cups his hand over the glass in the front door. He’s looking for me, and he has a handful of flowers.
I hurry to the front door and smile at him through the glass.
“Need more books already?” I ask, opening the door and gazing up at his handsome face.
“How could I possibly read when all I could think of was how rude I was earlier?” he says, his faint Irish accent coming out much stronger than before as he holds out the flowers. They’re a kind I haven’t seen before, with large vibrant petals and a heady smell like lilacs. I gather them to my nose and feel the smile stretch my face.
“I’m sorry, Rose. I don’t want to rehash what I said and spoil the apology, but I hope you can forgive me for being an ass to you and your friend.”
“I’ll think about it.” I step back, silently inviting him inside the empty store.
He accepts, closing the door behind himself and leaning against it, his green and gold eyes washing down my face to my neck, then lower.
I want to ask him so many questions - how does he know Torrence? What’s really wrong with the restaurant? And is he really nothing more than a playboy on the prowl?
But instead I head to the back kitchen office to find some water for the flowers.
I set the pitcher full of flowers on the checkout counter and find Kier in the local history room again, which Ruby and I worked hard to put back in order after the storm broke the window. He’s thumbing through a volume so old that the leather binding has flaked off in places, and my bookworm heart squeezes with how carefully he’s holding the book. There were several books that were too damaged by the storm to put back on the shelves, and I’m protective of the ones left.
“William always did have an eye for valuable books. You should start a rare book cabinet, away from light and dust,” he says, gesturing to the crumbling book.
I raise my eyebrows. “How do you know it’s rare?”
“First edition. Original cover. It’s not by a well-known author, but it’s important to Clearwater’s history.” He hands me the book, and I see it’s about the town’s founding.
“It’s a bit embarrassing to say, but I don’t really know much about old books. Ruby and I have a lot to learn.”
“You said you kept everything, right?”
I nod, and Kier smiles, setting the book on the windowsill.
“Then your heart is in the right place. William wasn’t meant to be a bookseller. He wanted to keep them all.”
“Were you friends with him?”
Kier shrugs. “Nothing outside of the shop, but he’s a good man.”
“Are you a good man?” The question spills from my lips without permission, and I try to cover it with a smile and a playful shove at his chest.
He catches my hand, pinning it against his mouth. “In all the best ways, I am not.”
His breath is hot against my palm, and my body goes a little liquid with the brush of his lips over my skin. Our eyes hold for a long beat, and I see so many delicious thoughts dancing there in that ring of golden fire. My fingers curve down, cupping his jaw, and suddenly I’m being backed into a bookshelf, Kier’s body pressed solidly against mine.
“You are a gorgeous, tempting woman,” he murmurs in that sexy goddamn lilt, releasing my wrist and sliding his hand to the small of my back. I feel my body curve instinctively into his, like I no longer have any say at all.
But damn me to hell, I find Torrence’s words from earlier are swimming up through the lust in my mind. The accusation that Kier fucks anyone willing. That used to be exactly my type, but something broke in me with Arlo.
I’m not sure I want purely casual flings anymore.
“And you are my favorite new person in Clearwater. But I’m more in the mood for slow-burn today,” I say, ready to gauge his reaction as I slide sideways out of the heat of his gaze. I turn toward the shelf, idly scanning the titles I’ve spent hours cataloging, while every bit of my body keeps tabs on Kier’s closeness.
He leans one shoulder against the shelf and brushes a few of my curls back. I don’t look up, but I can feel his smirk. “Slow-burn? I’m not sure I believe you, Rose petal. Why on earth would you want to take things slow, and deny yourself the pleasure of blooming?”
“I have a habit of loving and leaving when I go fast,” I admit, my eyelids fluttering closed as he strokes his hand along the curve of my neck, moving his body again so he’s pressing against me from behind. My stomach and thighs touch the shelves, and I’m breathing in the layered scent of old books and fresh paint, at the same time as I feel his body crowding against me.
“And you’d rather stay close this time?” Kier murmurs, his hand sliding around my shoulder and down, fingertips barely grazing the curve of my breast as he reaches for my hand again. “What makes you think I’d let you run from me?”
“History,” I manage, shoving down the painful memories of the men I tried to keep around. The few who made me feel desperate and needy, before I hardened my heart and decided I would always be the one to leave first.
“I don’t know your history, and I certainly can’t tell the future. But I do specialize in the moment,” Kier says, bending his lips to the shell of my ear and grasping my other hand. He brings both arms above my head and pins my wrists there as he grinds lightly against my ass. I could tell him to stop. I could easily pull my hands free.
But instead I tilt my head back and arch deeply, pressing my ass backward into him as he ducks his mouth to meet mine. The softest of teasing kisses brushes my lips, and then he’s nuzzling my head to the side and kissing along my jaw.
His tongue teases a moan from deep in my throat as he sucks at my stud earring, the tiny sharp pull of it causing a thrill of pain and pleasure woven tightly together. He makes an appreciative growl against my temple, and I know I’m not going to hold out much longer.
Slow-burn isn’t really my style, anyway.
Then he lets go of my wrists and steps completely away, the chill of his absence like a slap that makes me whirl to face him, open-mouthed with something between shock and need.
One side of his mouth is hooked up in a cocky-ass smirk as he leans one arm on the bookshelf over my head, staring down at me.
“Fast or slow, it doesn’t matter to me, petal. All I want is the chance to erase every other man from your memory.”
A laugh slips out of my mouth at his audacity. “A little full of yourself, aren’t you?”
Kier leans forward, inch by tortuous inch, until his lips are brushing my ear again, and a desperate need sears through my body at this tiniest touch. “I never leave a woman unsatisfied, no matter how long it takes. And if my tongue isn’t enough, my ladder piercing always is.”
“Your...” My voice trails away as I realize exactly what he’s talking about, and my brain gets busy imagining all the ways those piercings could feel good. Goddamn it, that’s on my bucket list.
Kier’s smirk stretches a little farther, like he’s reading my exact thoughts. “Worth it every time, just to see the blushes,” he says.
“Just a bluff, then?” I snip, sidestepping him as I give myself a mental slap for being too easy to read.
Kier only gives me that knowing grin. “Absolutely not a bluff. I have five rungs for you to climb, anytime you’re ready.”
He doesn’t even look back at me trying to swallow without choking as he swaggers into the next room.
And me? Fuck it, I’m trying not to touch my upper thighs to see if there’s a wet spot on my jeans, because my panties are soaked.
This man is trouble, and I’m about to get tits deep into it.