by Kait Nolan
Kyle’s footsteps drew closer. He cupped her cheek, his voice soft and urgent. “Abbey, what else did it say?”
She swallowed and opened her eyes, wanting to see his face as she told him this part. “That you were already handicapped enough by the secret of your parents, and you couldn’t afford the burden of maintaining connections with anyone from Eden’s Ridge. You needed a fresh start, and we weren’t truly your family, anyway.”
With every word, the blood drained out of his cheeks. “I didn’t write that. I didn’t send that. I would never. Your family… I would never in a thousand years besmirch your family. They did so much for me. I’m not—I didn’t—Oh fucking hell… all these years you’ve thought… No wonder you hate me.”
She didn’t. Hadn’t, though she’d tried.
He took her hands, and Abbey felt him shaking. “I didn’t know. I swear to God, I didn’t know. I was coming to meet you. I told him as much. He hated you. Thought you were distracting me from my career. He was furious I chose you. But he said, fine if I was going to tank everything I was building, we might as well have a drink first. The next thing I knew, it was two days later, and I’d missed our meetup. When I tried to contact you, you wouldn’t talk to me. For weeks, months after. But I never… I… Abbey. Fuck, I should have tried harder. I should have done… something.”
It hadn’t been Kyle. All these years, her memories of him had been tainted by this lie. He hadn’t betrayed her, hadn’t rejected her family. Her brain was spinning, rewriting history so fast she was all but dizzy with it. She had so many questions, but she could only zero in on the most salient point. “You were coming? You chose me?”
His hands tightened on hers. “Yes. God, yes. I wanted everything you were offering because I was in love with you, too.”
The tears overflowed. He wasn’t the man she’d believed he was. He hadn’t changed, hadn’t thrown away a lifetime of friendship and the chance for more. She’d done that herself because she’d been ruled by hurt and stubbornness. All this time they’d lost because she hadn’t trusted the voice deep down that knew him, knew he’d never have said those things.
“I thought… I thought… Oh, God. Kyle, I’m so sorry. I should have given you the chance to explain. After everything we’d been through, I owed you the chance to do that, and instead I…” A hiccupping sob tore free. “I broke us.” And now… now he’d said “was.” He was in love with her. Past tense.
“No.” Kyle framed her face, his own twisted with pain. “No, baby, you didn’t.”
“But the things I believed of you. The way I cut you so completely out of my life. You should hate me.”
“I could never hate you. You were hurt and misled, and I was so ashamed of my own mistakes, I didn’t fight for you the way I should have.”
Neither of them had fought the way they should have. “I don’t blame you for giving up on me.”
“I didn’t.” He dug into his pocket, held something out.
She stared at his palm, at the plastic ring she’d sent back to him a decade ago. “You kept it?”
“I carry it everywhere. It was the only piece of you I had left.” He brushed gently at the tears still streaming down her cheeks. “Abbey, I’ve been in love with you all my life. And I know I don’t deserve it but, God, if you could find it in you to give me another chance—to give us another chance—I won’t let you regret it.”
This was the answer her heart needed. With it, the shadow that had stretched over a third of her life vanished in a blaze of joy. There were so many more things to talk about, details to clear up, but none of that mattered in this moment. She had the truth, and no more reason to hold back.
Chapter 9
At long last, the truth had come to light, and it was so much worse than Kyle had known. Him not showing up was bad enough, but Abbey thinking he’d actively thrown away her friendship, her family—almost nothing could have hurt her more.
She believed him. There was no question of that, not with the tears and instant self-recrimination. God, he hated that. Hated that she’d blame herself for believing someone else’s lie. He’d needed to comfort and soothe. And he’d needed to ask for a second chance, even if she needed time to consider, to work through the views she’d held on to for so long.
But that wasn’t his Abbey. She made swift, definitive decisions based on the information in front of her. Right now, that was him—humbled, desperate, and aching.
She launched herself at him, her arms wrapping around him, her lips colliding with his. Kyle staggered a step before he caught them both, hauling her closer and meeting her fevered kiss with his own as relief pulsed through him. There was no hesitation, none of the trepidation they’d both felt in the past about whether changing things was the right move. They’d both lived with years of regret. Now was the time to seize the moment they’d been given.
Spearing his hands into the silk of her hair, he slanted his mouth to take the kiss deeper. Tasting the salt of her tears, he vowed never to give her reason to shed them again. He’d do anything, everything, to make himself worthy of this woman.
Her hands tugged at the tails of his shirt, tunneling beneath the layers to skate over the muscles of his back. He shuddered at the touch, wondering how he’d survived all these years without knowing the feel of her hands on him.
Abruptly, she tugged away.
Kyle’s heart plummeted. She’d changed her mind. Come to her senses.
But Abbey didn’t let him go. Instead, she took his hand and towed him across the room, toward the bed.
He wanted her more than his next breath, but he hesitated, needing her to be sure. Dragging his feet, he tugged her to him. “Abbey. Slow down. We don’t have to—”
Eyes molten, she lifted her chin in challenge. “Do you want me?”
“Yes.” The word tripped off his tongue without hesitation. He’d always wanted her.
“Then please...” She rose to her toes, her lips a whisper away from his. “Don’t make me wait.”
Seeing the certainty shining in her eyes, he reached for the buttons on her shirt. Her hands lifted to do the same. They knew each other so very well, but this was uncharted territory for them both. They undressed each other, a dance of fast movements and long pauses to touch and taste each inch of newly exposed skin. Every moment was a gift he wanted to savor.
When she stood in her bra and panties, he urged her back, following her down onto the bed. She arched up as he covered her, as if she couldn’t get enough skin-to-skin. He certainly couldn’t.
“Let me,” he murmured, kissing his way down her torso, nuzzling the valley between her breasts, stroking his hands along the flare of her hips.
He lingered over the scar on her thigh from a fall crossing a barbed wire fence when she was thirteen and the thin line along her collarbone from trying to make friends with their surly old barn cat when they were eight. Physical signs of the history they shared. But he’d never seen them like this.
“Kyle.” His name was a plea as she moved restlessly beneath him.
Shifting, he reached beneath her to open the clasp of her bra, drawing it away to free her breasts. A rosy flush bloomed on her chest as he stared. “So beautiful.” They filled his hands, warm and firm and perfect. He bent to take one budded nipple into his mouth, loving the way Abbey gasped at the contact, threading her fingers in the hair at his nape to hold him in place. As her hips began to circle, he moved again, pressing a knee to her heated center. On a grateful moan, she began to move, seeking her release as he worshiped her breasts with his lips and hands.
The drawn-out cry of his name as she crested was the sweetest music.
Kyle kissed her again, long and slow, easing her down from the peak. She’d barely stopped shuddering before she reached for his jeans, yanking down his fly and reaching in to close her hand around the pulsing length of him.
He swore, part bliss, part frustration. Then they were both lost in a storm of frantic touching and tasting, rolling, graspin
g, gasping, until they were naked, and he had her pinned again, his crown just nudging at her entrance.
“Now,” she begged, arching her hips to take the tip of him inside her.
Kyle froze. “Condom.”
Abbey lost some of the dazed expression but none of the desperation. “Please tell me you have one.”
“I… somewhere. Hang on.”
Scrambling off the bed, he raced for the bathroom.
“Don’t you have some in the bedside table?”
“I’ve never brought a woman here.” Let her make of that what she would.
Yanking out drawers, he dug through toiletries until he located an unopened box. If there is a God, these won’t be expired.
He checked the date and breathed out. “Hallelujah.”
Fumbling the box open, he pulled out a packet, ripped it open, rolling it on as he hurried back to her.
Entirely unselfconscious, she sprawled on the mussed blankets, her hair spread out in a halo of gold, her body flushed and waiting like his most prurient fantasy. Kyle forced himself to slow as he came back to her. He wanted to memorize this moment and all the moments after as he stretched out over her, settling in the cradle of her hips. She reached between them, guiding him back to her entrance.
Kyle fixed his gaze on hers as he slipped inside her in one long, slow slide. Joy radiated in her smile, in the hitch and release of their synchronized breaths. All the desperation faded and time slowed down. Everything took on the honeyed hue of perfection because this feeling, with her, was what he’d been searching for his whole life. This was home. She was home.
“Abbey.”
Bending, he captured her sigh as he began to move, losing himself to pleasure and the glide of skin on skin, in the heat they made together, until she quickened around him, and they both fell over the edge of delicious madness.
In a haze of post-orgasmic bliss, Abbey lay wrapped around Kyle, heart thudding, breath beginning to slow as she stroked her fingers through the soft hair at his nape. He’d collapsed on her, taking just enough weight on his elbows to keep from crushing her. She could still feel him twitching inside her as her body fluttered with aftershocks.
She’d just made love with her best friend. Former best friend? She didn’t quite know what they were now. More. For the moment, that was all she needed.
He turned his face to kiss the side of her throat. She tipped her head back to give him better access, humming in pleasure and stroking a foot along his calf. How long it would take to rouse him enough for a second round?
“Be right back.”
He pulled away, and she felt bereft at the loss of his heat. But the view of his naked ass as he strode into the bathroom couldn’t be beat. She’d seen it once, back in high school, when he’d stripped down after a sweaty day of work to cool down in the pond on the farm. That glimpse of well-toned backside had inspired a number of fantasies over the years. The adult reality was so much better.
On a sigh, she collapsed back against the pillows, feeling loose and used and deliciously relaxed for the first time in… she had no idea how long. Her mind lazily circled back around to what he’d said about never bringing a woman here. She wasn’t under any delusion that they’d waited for each other, but she liked the idea that no one else had been in his bed, his private space. The last several days had given her a much clearer understanding of how important that privacy was to him. There was a very clear line between Public Kyle and Real Kyle. How often did he get to be really himself anymore?
The bed dipped as he came back, sliding in next to her and pulling her against his body. Abbey went willingly, snuggling in as he flipped the blankets over them both. The stroke of his hand along her back made her melt a little more into him, and she struggled against the pull of sleep. How delicious it would be to just give in until tomorrow? That wasn’t on the table. There were responsibilities waiting back in the Ridge. But she wasn’t going to think about that just yet.
“You okay?” His voice was a rumble against her ear.
“Mmm. I’m happy. And I’m sad. We lost so much time.”
He brushed a feather soft kiss against her temple. “No more of that. We aren’t wasting any more time on regrets. We’re here now. It’s just as you said—love brought us back together at the right time.”
She couldn’t stop herself from snorting. “I don’t know if it was love so much as your big mouth. This whole cockamamie plan to get the press off our backs isn’t going to work, is it?”
Unperturbed, he shrugged. “Probably not. But you were talking to me, and I was desperate not to lose that. Can’t argue with the results.”
Abbey sobered, struggling not to descend into regrets again. The questions she’d pushed off came flooding back. Better to ask them here, now, when they were certainly alone than to save them for later. “What really happened that day?”
He sighed. “I was packed and walking out the door when Davis found me. He’d booked another gig. I told him I couldn’t do it, that I already had plans. He wouldn’t let me just leave it at that, so I told him I was on my way to meet you. That we were eloping. Back then, he tried to maintain this kind of avuncular, I-know-best kind of attitude. He tried to talk me out of it, but when I didn’t listen, he got more forceful, insisting that a marriage then would stall out all the momentum I’d built and ruin my career. I was on the cusp, and I couldn’t afford to take my eye off the prize. I didn’t care. What good was any of it without you? So he said, fine, we’d have one drink before I left. I figured that was the least I could do.”
“You said the next thing you knew it was two days later. Was it really one drink?”
“I only remember one. It was weird. I’ve never been one to drink until I was blackout drunk. I remember toasting to our happiness and then…nothing.”
Abbey could think of only one way that made any sense. “What if he drugged you?”
The hand he stroked along her skin went still. “What?”
She pushed up on one elbow so she could look into his face. “What if you were roofied? He didn’t want you coming to me, and then he came himself with a letter he forged, ensuring I wouldn’t be open to talking to you. Take me out of the equation and nothing distracted you from doing whatever it is he thought you should do. I don’t imagine I’m wrong in thinking he’s made a significant amount of money off you over the years.”
Kyle arched a brow, considering. “I mean...yeah. Regardless of what kind of man he is, he is largely responsible for my career.”
“No.” Abbey shook her head and laid a hand over his heart. “You built your career. Your music. Your talent. No amount of marketing or connections can change that. He’d have had nothing without you, and he knew it.”
“He pushed me to do a lot of things I wasn’t exactly comfortable with. Nothing illegal, just taking some chances, getting outside my comfort zone. And it worked. But if he went so far as to drug me and lie to you, manipulate us both…what else did he do in the name of advancing his investment?” Obviously the idea didn’t sit easy with him.
“It’s something to look into. Will you confront him about today? Is there anyone else who could have leaked something about your parents?”
He hesitated before lifting his gaze to hers. “My mother is out of prison.”
Abbey jack-knifed up on a gasp. “What?” She should have had more time left on her sentence.
“She showed up after my last concert.” He said it calmly, but she knew it would have rocked him.
“Could she be responsible?”
“She doesn’t have the connections. And if she’d told the story, it wouldn’t have stopped with one question trying to get a rise out of me. She’d have told everything. Or her version of everything.”
It was a reasonable assumption. But how long before she came back again, pressed him for… something?
“What did she want?”
He shook his head. “I don’t know. I had Davis deal with her.”
And this w
as probably part of what had ensured Kyle’s loyalty to the man for years. He’d taken the burden of that ugliness off Kyle’s shoulders so he could focus on his music. But with Davis fired, there was no one standing in front of him now. He’d have to deal with it sooner or later.
“She’s not likely to stop trying to contact you.” Twyla knew who he’d become. She’d want something. Restitution. Payback. Just to screw with him. “What will you—”
He cut her off. “I’ll figure it out later. Right now, we need to get cleaned up and get on back to pick up Granddaddy.”
Understanding the topic was closed for the moment, Abbey reached out to cup Kyle’s cheek, bringing her lips to his in a gentle kiss. “I won’t let you face her alone. Whatever’s coming, were in this together.”
He pressed his brow to hers, holding her close. “Thank you. Everything’s better when I’ve got you by my side.”
Chapter 10
The house was quiet. Granddaddy had been so hyped up with excitement about his day on Athena’s Misfit Kitchen, it had taken a while to get him to bed. Abbey had gone up to get ready for bed herself. Kyle wished he could join her, but he was too wound up to sleep, and no matter what had happened between them in his loft today, it didn’t seem right to share her bed in this house. Not yet, anyway. They were still at the start of this… thing between them. And even though her folks were out of town, he couldn’t stop imagining her father shooting off a glare of disapproval.
Hell, for all he knew, Abbey’s father was sending one from the Caribbean. Or maybe not. Out to sea or not, if they’d seen the news of the engagement, he felt certain they’d have managed a phone call or an email demanding to know what was going on. Kyle no longer knew the answer to that question. This had started off as a fake engagement. But that was before they’d cleared the air, gotten on the same page. Fallen into his bed. They were unquestionably together, at last. But that on its own wasn’t enough to make this engagement real. So he had no idea what they were going to tell her parents when they got home. Or exactly what they’d tell his own family, for that matter.
