Falling for the Enemy, page 1
“There is so much I’ve missed...”
“What if I helped you out?” Kit suggested.
“With driving?” Rory asked, because it was the safest thing to suggest.
“And other things,” he said. “I have to be honest with you. I want you.”
He wanted her.
She swallowed and felt her eyes widen and then realized that she had no idea what to do next. “I...I...”
“You don’t have to say anything. Do you want to spend more time with me?”
She nodded.
“Do I make you nervous?”
She shook her head. “You should. You’re a stranger and a man... I am not sure why you don’t.”
“Well, I’m glad to hear that. What if we date? We can take things at your pace. I’ll teach you to drive and whatever else you have on your list,” he suggested. His voice was that low rumbly tone...and it made her feel like she was back in his arms.
Dear Reader,
It’s bittersweet to be writing this particular letter to you. This is the last Harlequin Desire novel that I will be writing and the last book in the Gilbert Curse series. Some of the very first books I read as a thirteen-year-old were Harlequin Desire novels by Elizabeth Lowell, Joan Hohl, Stephanie James, Joan Johnston and Peggy Moreland. I loved this line from the moment I picked up my first one in the used bookstore.
I was addicted to the strong heroes and the feisty heroines who were more than their match. Their love stories were so deeply emotional and shaped in me the kind of relationship I wanted as an adult. I was never willing to settle for a man who couldn’t be everything that those heroes had been. Loving, supportive, sexy and willing to bend and meet the heroines halfway.
I am so happy that I’ve been able to write seventy titles for Harlequin Desire and I loved every one of them. Thank you so much for reading my books and enabling me to keep telling stories that embodied so much of what I learned to love about romance as a teenager.
I’m pretty excited that Rory Gilbert’s story is my last one. She was such a fun heroine to write. My first attempt at a Sleeping Beauty–inspired story. I love how fierce and brave she is and wish I could face the world with that kind of courage every day—I do sometimes, but not always.
Kit was great too. A man conflicted by his past and what he’s always been told and truly believes and this woman who has knocked him off-kilter.
Thank you for reading the Gilbert Curse series and all of my series since my first book, The Bachelor Next Door. I have truly loved sharing this ride with you.
Happy reading,
Katherine
Falling for the Enemy
Katherine Garbera
Katherine Garbera is the USA TODAY bestselling author of more than 120 books. She lives in the Midlands of the UK with her husband, but in her heart she’ll always be a Florida girl who loves sunshine and beaches. Her books are known for their sizzling sensuality and emotional punch. Visit her on the web at katherinegarbera.com and on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.
Books by Katherine Garbera
Harlequin Desire
The Gilbert Curse
One Night Wager
It’s Only Fake ’Til Midnight
Falling for the Enemy
Texas Cattleman’s Club: Diamonds & Dating Apps
Matched by Mistake
The Image Project
Billionaire Makeover
The Billionaire Plan
Billionaire Fake Out
Visit the Author Profile page at Harlequin.com for more titles.
You can also find Katherine Garbera on Facebook, along with other Harlequin Desire authors, at Facebook.com/HarlequinDesireAuthors!
To my Harlequin Desire friends who have made
the journey so much fun, especially Karen Booth,
Joanne Rock, Joss Wood and Reese Ryan.
Our monthly chats are the best and I’m lucky
to call you all my friends.
To all of the authors who wrote
for Harlequin Desire—for the great reads,
inspiring characters and stories that lingered
long after I closed the books.
Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Excerpt from Stranded with the Runaway Bride by Yvonne Lindsay
One
The Gilbert sister was the key.
Somehow when Kit Palmer referred to his teenage crush, the woman whose life had been ruined by his older brother and a family grudge, it was easier to pretend she was a stranger. Like there was distance between them despite their tragic connections.
If he was brutally honest with himself, he knew that there was no putting distance between Aurora Gilbert and himself. When she, her brother and her cousin moved to Gilbert Manor and he saw her for the first time, he’d fallen.
Hard.
It hadn’t mattered to his eight-year-old self that he and his family lived in the old factory houses on the outskirts of Gilbert Corners or that his father was the shift manager at the old factory. As a child he hadn’t seen that they were in any way different, and at that summer party where all the kids from Gilbert Manufacturing families played together, he’d found himself alone with Rory for the first time.
She’d been brave and fearless, and when the older kids, including his brother, had walked across the river that surrounded Gilbert Manor and flowed through the town, Kit had hesitated. He didn’t know how to swim and didn’t want to be left behind but... Rory had held out her hand to him. Taken his palm in hers and said, “We can do this together.”
And they had. And in that moment, his life had changed.
Which was why he was referring to her as Dash’s sister and not his childhood heroine. She was the key to reckoning with his past. As long as she was a Gilbert, nothing else could matter.
Kit’s family hadn’t stayed in the factory houses for long. His father and his brother were ambitious and started moving up in Gilbert Manufacturing, until old Lance Gilbert promised Kit’s brother, Declan Orr, the position of CEO of Gilbert Manufacturing. Finally, they had arrived and would be a force to be reckoned with in Gilbert Corners.
But the car crash had changed all of that. The factory had closed down, and in his grief his father had bought up shares in Gilbert Manufacturing, mortgaging their house and selling assets to take over the company and the position that had been promised to Declan. Something that Dash Gilbert had gotten wind of and had used to lure his father deeper into debt until all that was left of their assets was the deed to that crappy, run-down factory-provided duplex.
Now as he sat in front of the house that held too many mixed memories, watching as his new neighbor Rory Gilbert moved in, he couldn’t help but think that he might finally have everything he needed to destroy Dash Gilbert, cure the bad karma that the Gilberts had passed on to his family and at long last get over the woman who was at the heart of his plan.
There was a rap on his car window and he turned, surprised to see Rory Gilbert standing there. Her hair had darkened over the years from that white blond she’d had as a child to a dark honey-blond. She had a heart-shaped face and pretty blue eyes. Her mouth was full, her nose delicate and she quirked her head to the side as she waited for him to open the window. He turned off the car and got out.
“Can I help you?”
“Yes, that’s what I hired you for,” she said.
Hired him. “I think you’ve got the wrong guy. I’m not a mover.”
“Oh, I know that,” she murmured. Her voice was as he remembered, light and lilting, sweetly melodic. “But you are here for the thing that I hired you for, right?”
He had absolutely no idea what she was talking about, but before he could tell her so, her brother, Dash, walked out of the house with a sour look on his face.
Rory looped her arm through his. “Just pretend we’re old friends and don’t mention what you are really doing here. I hate lies but I can’t take another minute of having my older brother and cousin telling me I am too fragile to do anything.”
Her touch on his arm was electric and sent through him a pulse of awareness that he tamped down. He had no idea what Rory was up to, but if it meant irritating Dash then Kit was all in.
“Sure. My name is Kit, by the way.”
“Kit. Great. Just follow my lead,” she said.
He intended to do just that. He had been trying for years to come up with a plan to find something to use as leverage against Dash Gilbert, and he had known in his gut that the sister was the perfect ammunition, but nothing had come of it. Rory had been in a coma, and after his engagement had been broken almost eight years earlier, Dash had become a recluse.
“Dash, you heading off?”
“Not yet. Who’s this?”
“This is one of my old friends, Kit,” she told him. “Kit, this overbearing dude is my brother, Dash.”
Kit hadn’t met Dash Gilbert before. He’d been eighteen on the night of the ball that had culminated in the car crash that had taken his brother’s life. He held his hand out to the man that Kit had wanted to destroy for the last ten years. However, when their eyes met, instead of the pure evil he’d expected to find, he saw an easy smile and a semi-exasperated look.
“I’m not overbearing,” Dash said. “Well, not too much. This one thinks that six months from waking up from a coma she can climb Everest.”
“Not Everest yet,” Rory replied.
“Then what?”
“Well, I’d settle for being on my own and trying all the things I missed in the last ten years.”
Dash stiffened. “I agreed to you living here but the other stuff—”
“Too late,” Rory said. “That’s why Kit’s here.”
“Why am I here?”
“To help me experience all the things I missed in the last ten years,” Rory explained.
“The hell he is,” Dash said.
* * *
Rory wasn’t going to argue with her brother in front of Kit. He wasn’t at all what she was expecting but she’d hired him from a website that had offered discreet help for anyone experiencing extreme anxiety or problems leaving their home. Everything from the everyday stress of ordering a coffee to sex. Rory wasn’t sure what she’d need, so had checked all the boxes. Frankly, after ten years in a coma, there was so much she didn’t know. Like, did Lizzie and Gordo stay together? But also stuff like social media. The solutions, according to what she’d read, were designed to push her out of her comfort zone.
And she needed that.
As much as she’d been saying she wanted Dash and her cousin Conrad—who was like another older brother—to stop treating her like she was made of spun glass, a part of her had no idea how to do it.
Ten years in a coma had been hard to recover from. Physically, she was still stretching her limits and trying to regain her strength. If she overdid it and was on her feet for too long she had to use a cane. But those physical limitations were somehow easier than the mental ones. Rory had found it too easy to stay holed away in her suite of rooms at Gilbert Manor, with the staff eager to cater to her every need. She had started to really live in what she couldn’t help but think of as her cushy tower. And, in many ways, she knew that she’d let herself fall into a second coma of sorts.
But no more. She’d used some of her inheritance to buy this half of the duplex and was determined to fix it up and make it into something that was hers. And as part of her grand plan, she’d hired Kit. But he was a bit more handsome than she’d been expecting. Okay, more than a bit. He had dark black hair that he wore short and spiky on top, and he had a light dusting of stubble that made him look stern until he smiled. A sigh escaped her as she continued to drink him in. He had a full, firm-looking mouth, which indicated that kissing him wasn’t going to be a problem.
In fact, she couldn’t help wondering what his mouth would feel like on hers, which stirred feelings that a twenty-eight-year-old woman should be able to handle. But while that might be her actual age, mentally she still felt like she was eighteen. Rory hadn’t been sexually active before the accident, so she had a lot to catch up on.
So she’d hired Kit.
He was going to teach her everything she needed to know about modern dating and help her get over her fears of being touched. He was going to just help her do those things she was afraid of doing. Like going into Lulu’s crowded coffee shop and ordering a coffee. Or going into the city to eat at Conrad’s exclusive kitchen.
She’d tried to do it on her own, and knowing she’d see her cousin had gotten her out the door. But then she’d frozen. Part of it was the walking stick she still had to use. It was hard not to feel like everyone was staring at her. Which in Gilbert Corners was a very real fear since she was a Gilbert and everyone was aware she’d been in a coma for ten years.
She knew that fear had dominated her for too long, so when Dash made it clear he did not approve of her plans with Kit, Rory felt her hackles go up.
Pulling her arm from Kit’s, she squared her shoulders and faced off with her brother. “Dash, I know, in your eyes, I’m still that little sister who was sleeping for too long. So I get that you want to protect me, but you are slowly smothering me. I need someone who will help me embrace all of the things that I’m a little bit scared to try but that I know I have to do.”
“And you think this guy is the one?” Dash asked stiffly.
“I do,” Rory assured him. “He’s not a stranger. As I said, we’re friends.”
She glanced back at Kit. His mouth was a firm line and when their eyes met for a moment, she wasn’t sure what she read in his gaze. But then he gave her a nod and a wink.
He turned to her brother. “I give you my word that I will not let any harm come to her,” he promised.
“That’s not necessary,” Rory said. If she’d learned anything from Elle and Indy, her soon-to-be sister/cousin-in-law, it was that women didn’t need a man to back them up. Rory was doing this for herself. That said, it was nice to have Kit along for those panicked moments she knew would come. Case in point...she’d already had an anxiety attack as she’d entered the house that she planned to make over.
As a coping mechanism, she’d stood there, doing box breathing and then singing that one song that always cheered her up. “Island in the Sun” by Weezer. She’d just sung it over and over until she’d heard the moving truck outside. Then she shoved her anxiety into a box, like her therapist had said to, flashed a smile and met the movers.
She hoped that doing stuff with Kit, living in this house on her own, finding her voice and strength again would slowly start to feel normal. That maybe she’d be able to face her fears and not worry about crying or shaking or having to sing “Island in the Sun” over and over again.
“Fine. But I’ll be keeping tabs on both of you,” Dash warned. “And, Kit, I’ll need your full name.”
“No, you won’t!” Rory protested. “He has nothing to do with you.”
Dash gave Kit a tight smile as he took Rory’s arm in a firm but gentle grip. “Will you excuse us for a moment?”
He didn’t wait for Kit to answer but just led Rory out of Kit’s earshot. “You’re a Gilbert and a very wealthy woman,” he whispered. “It’s irresponsible for you to spend time with someone we don’t know. Just let me have him checked out.”
“No. Dash, I mean it. You know I wanted to move across the country so I’d be forced to stand on my own. However, I stayed here in Gilbert Corners because I love you and I want us to be the family I remember. But you have to let me do this my way.”
It would be easy to give in to Dash’s demands and stay locked up inside Gilbert Manor for the rest of her life. She’d have a nice, safe life, one where everyone took care of her, but Rory was beginning to realize she wanted more.
When she’d first awoken from her coma, she’d felt eighteen, scared and unsure. But over the last few months, she’d started to realize she wanted to be a twenty-eight-year-old woman. Not that frightened, protected girl.
“I hate this,” Dash bit out.
She hugged her older brother, knowing that as much as he might not want to let her do this on her own, he was going to.
“Thank you.”
He just sort of grunted and hugged her back, and when he walked away, past Kit, he said something to the other man that Rory couldn’t hear. Then he got into his car and drove away.
And she was left with this stranger whom she was counting on to help her find herself.
* * *
Kit smiled at Rory as her brother walked past him, pausing to warn Kit that if he hurt Rory he’d come after him, and then left.
Now what? He had no idea what exactly the person that Rory had hired was meant to do, and as much as he had wanted to use her to ruin Dash, it felt wrong now. Rory’s smile sort of melted away as soon as her brother was gone and he heard her muttering what sounded like a Weezer song under her breath. And in that moment, he realized that using Rory wasn’t going to be something he could do.
