Falling for the Enemy, page 4
She chewed her lower lip...just watching him.
Waiting to see what would happened next. But then Kit cleared his throat and handed her phone back to her.
“Where are these blackberries I’ve heard so much about?”
“That way,” she said, pointing toward the left.
She took her time putting her phone away, trying to calm the disappointment that was coursing through her. She wanted to kiss him. Had almost given in to the impulse but had stopped herself. One thing at a time.
But thinking about Kit and his firm mouth that was smiling at her as he waited for her to start walking toward the blackberries was a distraction. The best kind of distraction. Her body was alive in a way that it hadn’t been despite all the months she’d been out of her coma. Those butterflies were back in her stomach and they made her feel warm and fuzzy all over.
It was like how she’d felt when she’d walked for the first time without the Zimmer frame or how it had felt when she’d eaten ice cream and realized how much she loved it.
But this time it was Kit giving her all the feels. Making her hum and vibe to something that she didn’t really understand but she craved more of.
There was still so much that she hadn’t realized she’d been missing until this moment.
Until Kit.
* * *
Nothing was going according to plan, and he knew that when he got home Aunt Mal was going to expect a report. But he realized he wasn’t going to share this with her. This afternoon had made him feel like...well, in a way he hadn’t in a very long time.
Kit was experiencing something with Rory that he hadn’t with anyone else before.
He needed time to reassess and figure out how he was going forward...but not now. A small smile flickered on his lips as he watched Rory. She’d taken a folded cloth bag from the crossbody she’d been carrying and they’d put the blackberries in it as they picked them. Then she brushed one on the skirt of her long dress before putting it in her mouth and closing her eyes.
“Perfect. Sweet but with just a tiny bit of tartness. Try one,” she said, brushing another one on her skirt and holding it up to him.
Her fingers grazed his lips as she put the berry in his mouth. He stood stock-still, willing his body not to react to her closeness, but it took every ounce of his control and he didn’t entirely succeed. He chewed the berry while looking at Rory and noticed her blush when he winked at her and said, “Tart and sweet just like you.”
She turned away slowly and they continued picking berries. “I can’t remember, but Dash and Con said we used to do this on our property when we were growing up.”
“Is that why you wanted to do it again?”
“It is. But when I asked to go recently, Dash said no.”
“Does he say no a lot?”
“He does. But the truth is it was just him alone for so long after the accident, and I don’t think he’s sure how to handle both myself and Con being healthy and functioning.” Rory collected more berries, her silence filling in the blanks of Dash’s and Conrad’s lingering guilt.
“What happened to Con?” he asked. He had heard a brief report from his aunt that there were injuries, but Aunt Mal had only known that Rory was in a coma.
“He was thrown from the car because he wasn’t wearing his seat belt and he broke every bone in his body and was covered in cuts from the glass. Apparently, it took multiple surgeries and then months of recovery.”
Kit turned away. Slightly shocked to hear how badly injured Conrad had been. Why hadn’t he ever been told about that? Kit had come back for Declan’s funeral and then flown back to Berkeley to withdraw. By the time he’d returned, his father had started drinking heavily and had been living with Aunt Mal. Dash and his grandfather Lance had crushed all of his family’s prospects.
“I never knew the Beast had gone through anything like that,” Kit said, referring to Conrad by his celebrity chef name.
“He’s better now. In fact he said I should pick blackberries, but then he and Dash got into it and I dropped it,” she said.
“Why?”
“Because I don’t like to see them fight. We’re all each other has. Plus I knew I was moving out and I’d eventually go on my own.”
A shot of fear went through him at the thought of her trying to come down here on her own. “Promise me you won’t come down here alone until there is a handrail.”
“I won’t. That’s why I have you, Kit.”
Hearing her say she had him made him feel...fuck. He wasn’t sure he could do this. He was in some sort of muddy water here with her. Since the moment she’d looped her arm through his and said, “Pretend we’re old friends,” he’d been spinning out of control. He’d been pretending to make up some plan on the fly but he had to face facts right now that the was lying to himself.
He was totally at Rory’s mercy. Hard as he tried to fight it, he was enchanted by her and he couldn’t allow himself to fall for her. She couldn’t be his weakness.
He had to get back on track.
“You mentioned making a pie. Have you made one before?”
“Maybe before the accident. But Conrad recently showed me how to make a crust that wasn’t too complicated, but then Indy showed me a refrigerated one I could buy. So I have two in my fridge. I had been planning to pick blackberries this week.”
“Why did you say you weren’t sure when I asked at the coffee shop?”
She chewed her lower lip for a moment. “I thought you might not want to. But then when you said something so tame as walk down Main Street I realized that if I didn’t start saying what I wanted I’d never get it.”
“Yeah, took me a while to learn that one as well. But with me, Rory, you don’t have to hedge. Whatever you want, if it’s in my power to help you with doing it, I will.”
She turned and put a handful of berries into the canvas bag and then tipped her head to the side, looking over at him. “Anything?”
“Anything.” He was pretty sure that even at her wildest, there wasn’t anything she’d request that he wouldn’t want to do. “Well, nothing illegal.”
She giggled at that but then got serious again. “What about dangerous?”
“More dangerous than coming down here?”
She nodded slowly.
“Definitely.”
“Good. I want to see you push yourself,” he said. “I love watching the joy on your face. It’s like...well, you come alive when you try something new. I love that I get to experience that with you.”
He expected her to ask him for this dangerous thing but she simply shook her head and turned back to her canvas bag. They finished picking the berries and went back to the path. He stood behind her this time, putting his hands lightly on her waist to steady her as she climbed up. She was moving slowly and her legs started shaking at one point, so he was tempted to offer to carry her.
But when he started to, she glared at him. “I want to do this on my own.”
“No rush.”
But he was still worried for her. She took about four steps and then had to rest. He was beginning to see Dash’s side of things. Rory seemed to not want to acknowledge her limitations. But when they finally got to the top and she smiled at him, he realized it was worth it.
She hugged him, pulling him close and pressing her body against his. He held her in his arms, desperately wanting to claim a kiss, but knowing that he needed to figure out a few more things before he did that.
Four
That almost kiss lingered in her mind for the next few days. She wasn’t able to forget about it or how it had made her feel. What she felt around Kit was a sharp contrast to the feelings she could recall from that night ten years ago. She remembered flashes of moments from the night of the crash. When Declan—the man she’d been dancing with all night—had pushed for more than a few kisses in the upstairs hallway. She’d ripped her gown and he was in the process of clawing at her panties and trying to tear them off when she screamed.
Luckily for Rory, both Dash and Conrad had heard her. Conrad had gotten to them first. Rory wasn’t sure of all the details of that moment. She’d heard Conrad yelling and punching her date. She’d sort of cowered there against the wall, trying to hold the bodice of her dress together over her breasts.
Dash had arrived and offered her his jacket and then things got fuzzy. The next thing she remembered was her grandfather admonishing her, Dash and Conrad to conduct themselves with more decorum and Conrad telling Grandfather to fuck off. Then they’d gotten in the car and...nothing.
Those memories were still so vague. She wished she couldn’t remember her date’s name or his face but she remembered it all. And as she stood in the kitchen waiting for her blackberry pie to bake, she wondered if the details she forgot, the details about why her date did what he did, were important. If unlocking that information would bring her closer to healing.
She knew there must be more to the story than she remembered, and if she was being completely honest with herself, she knew that she didn’t want to linger in that memory. In a way she wished the events of that night had never come back to her.
It was sort of annoying to think that she had to relearn so many things but that one thing she wanted to forget wouldn’t go away.
Her phone pinged. She still wasn’t used to her cell phone. Everything was on there. Adjusting to technology was an entirely different challenge. She picked it up and saw she had a text from Dash asking for more details of her “friend.” She sent him the angry face emoji as a response. Though she wasn’t really angry.
She could appreciate that he loved her and worried about her. But her therapist had pointed out that unless she put some boundaries in place where Dash was concerned, Rory might never be able to stand on her own.
He texted back a thumbs-up.
She looked around the kitchen. Conrad had been over to look at it and recommended the appliances that Rory had purchased and installed before moving in. But the rest of it was in okay shape—dated and in need of work, but okay. The linoleum on the floors was faded and torn in a few places. The cabinets had been white originally but had faded to a dusty, dirty version of it.
The mansion she’d grown up in had been perfect. Everything was kept pristine by the housekeeping staff and the kitchens had been renovated every three years so they were always current and modern. But it had been the sort of perfection found in showrooms or magazines rather than a home, which was what she wanted her place to feel like.
Every room that she made over in her house was deliberate and she made choices that appealed to her, not because it was a room worthy of the Gilbert name.
Indy had helped Rory set up an inspiration board for the kitchen, and between Indy and Lulu they had indicated the projects that they thought someone with Rory’s nonexistent DIY skills could master. Lulu and Indy were best friends and had a TV show they did together.
She decided to bake the pie before she started on the first project. Her legs still ached from the climb up the embankment after they’d picked blackberries. It had been raining for the last day and a half, so Rory had been inside.
Partially because of the weather and partially because there were times when the outside world felt too big and too much for her. Her phone pinged again and she glanced down, ready with the girl-with-her-hands-up emoji for Dash, but her heart skipped a beat when she saw the message was from Kit.
Sorry I had to run the other day. I’m back in town. What’s next on your adventure agenda?
Glad you’re back. I’m about to take the blackberry pie out of the oven. Next up is removing the doors from my kitchen cabinets. So adventurous...
For a slice of pie I’ll be your helper.
She grinned as she typed, Done.
On my way, came his reply.
She couldn’t help that giddy feeling in her stomach as she went to the hall mirror and checked to make sure her hair wasn’t too messy. Rory sighed. She looked...well, like her. She hadn’t been out in the sun, not that that would have made a difference since she’d always been extremely pale. She’d pulled her hair back into a ponytail when she’d been baking, because as Conrad had succinctly told her, no one liked hair in their food.
She wore a pair of skinny jeans and a Hello Kitty T-shirt as she went to open the door. All the design pictures she’d seen of these long, wooden-floored hallways had area rugs on them, but Rory wasn’t ready for that yet. She had a hard time walking on surfaces as they changed so she’d kept the hardwood.
Her doorbell rang. She felt another swell of excitement in her stomach as she undid the dead bolt and stepped back to open the door.
Kit stood there, his dark hair damp from the rain. He had on a leather jacket, black jeans and a tentative smile.
“I’m all wet. Sorry I should have grabbed an umbrella.”
“That’s okay,” she said, gesturing for him to come inside.
“I don’t want to ruin the wood,” he protested.
“You won’t. There are some towels in the powder room if you want to dry off and the kitchen is in the back. Join me when you’re done,” she said.
Rory linked her hands together and turned away to keep from touching him. She wished she’d stroked his face when they’d been so close the other day, but she hadn’t. Now with the rainwater on his face, his thick eyelashes had stuck together and he looked starkly masculine with that water dripping off him. She’d wanted to put her hands on his face and kiss him.
Feel that strong mouth against hers.
But she wasn’t sure what he wanted. Maybe that was why the memories of the past had been swirling around in her mind. She would never want to force herself on anyone.
* * *
After two days away from Rory he’d told himself he could come back, do the recon he and Aunt Mal needed and keep his perspective. When his brother was killed in the car accident, their family had lost everything. Lance Gilbert was no help and Dash was even worse, punishing their family while they were still grieving the loss of his brother.
Aunt Mal had been the one to keep them together as his father turned to drinking, and Kit, who had switched colleges and was still going to night school, tried to get up to speed on starting their own business. Returning from Berkeley had been a sort of wake-up call and he’d gone from frat boy to the one everyone relied on in what felt like a heartbeat.
The days away had sort of helped to clear his head. There was no way Rory could be as...enchanting as she’d seemed. And he knew that there wasn’t another person on the planet that he’d describe that way.
But Rory had left him with that impression. He’d almost convinced himself that he’d been wrong until she’d opened the door to her cozy cottage on this cold, fall day. She’d smiled at him like she was happy to see him and invited him into her home that smelled of vanilla and blackberries.
She’d been so chill, not like women he’d dated in the past would have been after two days of total radio silence.
But of course he wasn’t dating Rory. Was he? He’d come back for more Gilbert family secrets. That was all.
Except he knew that wasn’t the truth. He hadn’t been able to stop thinking about how she’d felt in his arms. Hadn’t been able to talk himself into staying away from Rory Gilbert. Or Gilbert Corners. Hadn’t been able to stop regretting that he hadn’t just leaned down and kissed her after they’d picked those blackberries.
So here he was in her powder room, staring at himself in the mirror after having toweled off most of the water, trying to convince himself that he was cool with letting go of his need for revenge if it meant hurting her.
And the thing was, he didn’t buy it.
Lying was such a slippery path. He could justify going after Gilbert International—after all Lance Gilbert had made promises to Declan that he’d reneged on when he’d sold the factory. He knew there had been a big fight at the winter ball between his brother, Dash, Conrad and Lance. But the details...well, no one on his side of the family knew them. But Aunt Mal and Kit assumed it had to do with the closing of the factory. Declan had been a hothead and there was no doubt the loss of the factory would have set him off. Had their brother tried to stand up for the family? Or had anger dominated him that night, making him do something rash? They’d never been able to get any answers and Kit feared they’d never know the truth. It had died with his brother in the accident.
What a mess.
He opened the door to the powder room, left his boots near the door and put his leather jacket on a hook before heading toward the kitchen. Stopping in the doorway, he realized that Rory was singing along to “Helena” by My Chemical Romance.
When she tipped her head back and screamed, “What’s the worst that I could say,” he realized that whatever lies he might have been trying to convince himself with were just that. He wanted this woman. He wasn’t here for any other reason than that she was enchanting him.
Kit shook his head and started to sing along with her. He had already decided he wouldn’t do anything to harm Rory and he was going to have to trust himself not to. Because he couldn’t walk away from her. And he wasn’t going to pretend otherwise.
Her eyes flew open and she gave him a huge smile. “You know this song?”
“Love the band,” he said, offering her his hand and pulling her into his arms.
She leaned into him for a second, and he felt her hands flutter against his chest as she looked up at him. Their eyes met and everything masculine in him went into overdrive. There wasn’t a part of her that he didn’t want to claim.
He skimmed his gaze down her face, over her pert nose to the pink of her cheeks to that sweet mouth that he had spent way too many hours thinking about. Kit started to lean down, not wanting her to feel pressured in anyway, and she came up on her tiptoes, her eyes closing. He felt the brush of her breath against his lips just as his brushed hers.
