Set In Stone

by K. M. Scott

  I hadn’t been able to think of anything but her since. If I didn’t know better, I’d swear she’d possessed my mind. The memory of how she felt beneath me and how she sounded when she whimpered right before she came haunted me.

  And yet she was able to not call me at all. She knew I’d called and she’d gotten the flowers. What was with this woman?

  I tried to call her again, and again I got that damn away message. Pacing back and forth across my living room, I forced myself to think of anything but Tressa Stone. The first game I played in the pros. The day I was drafted by Miami. My first game in college. Those were the memories I always went to when I needed to focus. All showed I was a winner who’d been blessed time and again in life.

  Yet this time, none of those helped. My mind kept drifting back to the other night with Tressa at her penthouse. Why the hell was I so obsessed with this woman? She wasn’t the most beautiful woman I’d ever been with. For fuck’s sake, I’d dated supermodels, actresses, and beauty queens.

  I stopped in front of the glass doors that led out to my balcony and stared out at the lights of the city. This had nothing to do with how she looked. Tressa was a knockout from head to toe. She rivaled any of the women I’d been with.

  No, this had to do with something else she had that other women didn’t. I could find a woman who wanted me anywhere I looked. She made me work for every second I got with her, but even though I loved a challenge, this was beginning to piss me off.

  Fuck. I needed to get my mind off her or I’d end up going crazy. Needing something to distract me, I called Sherilyn. As usual, she answered immediately. If only Tressa was like my publicist that way.

  “I was just about to call you. I need an answer about that premiere for Athena’s movie. I was supposed to tell her people if you were coming two days ago.”

  Athena’s new movie. I wanted to fly out to LA and spend the night with my ex at some stupid premiere for another one of her movies like I wanted to rip my arm off and beat myself with it. The first few times were sort of fun, but after a while, movie premieres all became the same.

  “When is it?” I asked, wondering if a quick trip out of town might help me clear my head.

  “Tomorrow night. I know it’s Athena, but you know how she loves having you on her arm at these things. It doesn’t hurt you either to have the public see you at events like this. I know you’ve got a lot going on here in New York with the team, but it would only be a quick flight out, a few hours at the premiere and after party, and then a quick flight back.”

  New York to LA was never a quick flight, no matter what she wanted to say. Even worse was flying out there and then practically turning right around and flying back to the East coast.

  Then again, I could use a change of scenery. I was supposed to go to that event I told Tristan about, but since Tressa clearly had no intention of attending, I didn’t feel like showing up either.

  “Fine. Tell them I’ll escort her to the premiere. I don’t want to spend more time than I have to out there, so forget the after party and be sure to get me on the first plane back after the premiere. Make sure she knows I can’t stay too.”

  Sherilyn beamed a smile and nodded. “Of course. I’m so glad you’re attending this premiere, Killian. I think it’s a good promotional move for you. It keeps you in the public eye, and it shows you and Athena are still close.”

  “We aren’t still close,” I said, rolling my eyes at the thought that Athena and I felt anything now. “She just knows I make her look good since her last two boyfriends were drugged up wastes of space. If she had a decent man in her life, I’d never hear from her again.”

  My explanation of the true relationship between my ex-girlfriend and me seemed to disappoint Sherilyn, and she twisted her face into a grimace. “Well, it keeps you in the public eye, so that’s a good thing.”

  “Make the arrangements and send me the information.”

  “Great! I will. By the way, how did your date go with the woman who won the auction the other night?”

  Sherilyn’s chipper voice suddenly irritated me. I opened my mouth to vent my frustration but decided against it and simply ended the call. Even though she knew me better than nearly anyone else in the world, I didn’t need her trying to make me feel better about the whole situation. That would only make things worse.

  I returned to pacing for another fifteen more minutes and then tried Tressa one more time. At the first sound of her voice on that fucking away message, something snapped in my brain, but instead of tossing something through the TV, I decided I needed to take matters into my own hands.

  After a quick knock on her door, I waited for Tressa to answer it, reminding myself to stay cool and not let her see how much she’d gotten to me. The fact that I’d taken the chance and come over even though I knew she was avoiding me already made me look a little more eager than I liked.

  She opened the door a crack and glared at me with a look of disgust. Not exactly the response I’d hoped for after the night we’d shared.

  Without saying hello, she said, “How do you make it past security? I pay people to make sure no one gets up here.”

  “Your security guard is a football fan. I was on his fantasy team last season and made him a fortune. I could have talked him into selling his mother for that,” I said with a smile.

  “Ugh. I’m really busy, Killian.”

  I noticed she hadn’t returned to calling me Mr. Brenton anymore. That was progress. Not that she should after the all night fuck session we’d had.

  Leaning in toward her face, I asked, “Did you like the flowers?”

  She drew her eyebrows in and sighed. “Yes, I did. Thank you.”

  “I just wondered since I never heard from you after they were delivered.”

  Looking down toward the floor, she mumbled, “I was busy.”

  We stood there in silence for a long moment before I finally said, “I feel sort of stupid standing out here in the hallway, Tressa. Can I come in?”

  “No.”

  Suddenly, jealousy filled me, and I craned my neck to look around her to see if she had another man in there with her. “Why?”

  “Because I can’t spend another night with you like last time. That’s why.”

  Her answer made all the worry ebb out of me. Smiling, I said, “Another night like last time?”

  “Please, Killian. This isn’t going to work. I’m not really the kind of woman to just have one night stands with men, and I’m definitely not a woman to have a relationship now.”

  The way she pouted when she said that made me want to kiss her through that tiny crack in the door. “That doesn’t leave much room for you to relax and have a good time.”

  “I don’t have time for either, to be honest.”

  “I get it, Tressa. You have a world to conquer. But there has to be some time when you leave work and let yourself have fun. Trust me, I had to learn that the hard way.”

  She didn’t answer me, so I nudged the door open a bit more. “You know you like having fun, Tressa.”

  For a moment, I waited to see how she’d react and then gently pushed the door open a little more. She didn’t fight me and reluctantly stepped back to let me in.

  “This will never work between us.”

  Stopping just inside the door, I kissed her. “It already has worked pretty damn well. Neither one of us is looking for forever, so why can’t we enjoy ourselves for a little while?”

  “Because a little while turned into an all-night marathon last time,” she said with a skeptical look in her eyes.

  “I was doing my best to impress you since it was our first time together,” I said, chuckling at how hard she wanted to make this on the both of us.

  Tressa closed the door and turned her back to me to walk away. “I don’t know why you keep trying with me. We’re as opposite as opposite could be. Polar opposite, actually.”

  Following her into the living room, I found her sitting on the couch. Nothing that indic
ated she’d been working sat nearby, like a tablet or computer or even her phone. I didn’t see any paper or a pen either.

  “Busy, huh?”

  She scowled and folded her arms across her chest. “Why are you here, Killian?”

  Leave it to Tressa to cut to the chase and jump right over all the sweet talk I had planned. Fine. Somehow we’d returned to being blunt, so that’s what she’d get.

  “Because it’s not nice to receive gifts from people and not say thank you, Tressa.”

  My scolding tone irritated her even more, and she stood up to walk away from me. “Don’t speak to me like I’m a child. That might work on other women you know, but it won’t work on me.”

  “Then don’t act like one. That might work on other men, but it definitely doesn’t work for me.”

  Even though I enjoyed this kind of verbal sparring with her, the way she spun around and glared daggers at me told me she didn’t like it as much. Without any emotion, she pointed toward the door and said, “I’m really busy, Killian. I think you should go.”

  Fuck. With every word she spoke, it was like I could see another layer of the wall around her going up. What the hell was wrong? We’d had a great time together the other night. What had changed since then?

  Maybe verbal sparring wouldn’t work tonight. Maybe I needed to use another tactic with her.

  I walked up behind her as she stood staring out the window and gently wrapped my arms around her. Resting my chin on her shoulder, I said, “You’re clearly not busy, Tressa, so what’s going on?”

  She took a deep breath in and blew it out in a rush before her entire body sagged beneath me. “I’m not the right kind of woman for you. I don’t know why you don’t see that.”

  “Isn’t that for me to decide?”

  Closing her eyes, she hung her head. “We’re too different. Why won’t you admit that?”

  I squeezed her in my arms and nuzzled her neck. “I’m not worried about our differences. I like our similarities a lot more.”

  Tressa turned in my hold and looked up at me with worried eyes. “What similarities exactly are you talking about? The only thing we have in common is that we’re good together in bed.”

  “You say that like it’s a bad thing.”

  My joke fell flat, and she returned to scowling at me. “I’m not the kind of woman to be some guy’s fuck toy. Sorry. It doesn’t fit with my personality.”

  “That’s not what I think of you, Tressa.”

  Folding her arms across her chest, she shook her head. “Then what do you think of me? You said you couldn’t stop thinking about me ever since you saw me at the auction. What does that mean? You saw a woman you wanted to sleep with and that was your goal? Well, you achieved the goal, so why do you keep coming around?”

  I took her face in my hands and knew I had to tell her what I’d realized on the ride over there. I didn’t really understand it myself, but it needed to be said and she needed to hear it.

  She looked up at me with fear in her eyes as I tried to find the right words for what I wanted to tell her. I had a feeling she’d heard a lot of bullshit lines from guys before me. Maybe that explained why she ran so hot and cold. She’d figured out from them that letting a man know she cared for him got her hurt, so she intended to hurt first so she never had to deal with that pain again.

  “Have you ever thought one thing, but then when the time comes and you’re given everything you want, you see that you wanted something else?”

  Talk about saying nothing in as many words possible.

  Her eyes grew wide as what I wanted to say came out all wrong. “What?”

  I’d gone from verbal sparring to verbal fumbling in just a few sentences. I needed to find the right words before she slapped me across the face and threw me out of her life forever.

  “Wait. That wasn’t what I meant. Let me try again. I thought I couldn’t stop thinking about you because you were gorgeous and the way you looked at me that night made me want you. Then I thought I couldn’t stop thinking about you because you wouldn’t even call me to say thanks for sending you flowers. Neither of those are true, though. I don’t know why you’ve gotten under my skin, but you have and I can’t think of anything else but you. And I don’t mean just sex with you. I mean you, Tressa. The way you look when I joke around. That cute way you blush at things. The way you giggle at things I say.”

  “So this isn’t about you just coming here because you want sex?”

  I shook my head, still pretty amazed at that fact myself. I’d never been the decent guy type when it came to women. Tressa was different, though. I didn’t know why, but unlike her, I didn’t feel the need to examine that question.

  “No. I’m not going to lie. The sex is phenomenal, but that’s not the only reason I want to be around you. Now if you’d stop fighting me at every turn, we could have a good time, sexually or non-sexually.”

  The look on her face told me she still didn’t believe me, so I took her hand and led her back over to the couch. I expected some kind of resistance, but thankfully, she didn’t argue. We sat down and I moved her so she could lie back against my chest while we talked.

  Leaning forward, I moved her hair over her left shoulder so she wasn’t resting on it. “Comfortable?”

  “I guess,” she answered tentatively, like she expected me to begin undressing her at any moment.

  Not that I wouldn’t have been all for that, but instead, I wrapped my arms around her and leaned back against the couch cushions to relax. I couldn’t remember the last time I just sat and talked with a woman once we’d slept together, but it felt nice to be there with her and not have the expectation of anything but some conversation.

  “So how was work today, dear?” I asked with a smile.

  Tressa sighed. “Horrible, but thanks for asking.”

  Moving my hands up, I began massaging her shoulders, which were as tight as drums. As I attempted to ease the stress out of her body, I said, “Horrible isn’t good. Want to talk about it?”

  Another sigh made her body sag against my torso. “No. Maybe. I don’t know. I’m sure you have no interest in hearing about the problems I’m having with a designer who thinks she knows best and who’s being overpaid for having taste in her mouth and that’s it.”

  “I’m all ears. We’re just hanging out here trying to relax, and if that means telling me about this horrible designer, then do it. Whatever makes you feel better.”

  Tressa turned her head to look up at me. Still suspicious, she narrowed her eyes and asked, “Is this some kind of new seduction technique of yours?”

  “Nope. Just me giving you a chance to vent after a bad day. Want me to start first? I sent flowers to a beautiful woman and do you know she never even sent me a message to say thanks?” I said with a smile.

  Her expression softened and her eyes grew wide. Smiling, she said, “She sounds like a complete and total bitch. You should forget about her. You know, other fish in the sea and all that.”

  I shrugged and shook my head. “If only I could. I don’t know what this woman has, but I can’t get her out of my mind. It’s maddening, to be honest. I’m just going to have to keep trying to convince her that I’m a good guy.”

  “Maybe she doesn’t deserve you. I mean, if she isn’t even polite enough to say thank you when someone sends her flowers, maybe she isn’t worth it.”

  Pressing a kiss to the top of her head, I felt her soft hair caress my lips. “She’s worth it.”

  For the first time since we lay down, she squeezed her arms against mine and smiled. “Well, if that’s the way it is, I’m sure she’ll warm up to you eventually. Some people just take longer than others.”

  “That’s fine. I’ve got nothing but time.”

  Looking away, Tressa asked in a voice barely above a whisper, “What about all the other women, though? Maybe you’ll want to spend your time focusing on one of them instead.”

  So that was the problem. Or part of it. I had a feeling a w
oman like Tressa Stone had layers of resistance to someone like me.

  “As much as I’m sure it would surprise the world, there aren’t other women to focus on. Just the beautiful woman who seems to hate my flowers.”

  She didn’t respond for a long time until she finally said, “She doesn’t hate them, and she doesn’t hate you. She’s just difficult.”

  “I’m not sure difficult is the right word. I have another word for her. I think of her as challenging, and there’s nothing I like more than a challenge.”

  I felt her body tense up against mine and knew I’d said something wrong. A second later, Tressa pushed herself up off me to stand up. I didn’t know why she was running away since we’d been having a pleasant conversation, but I planned to find out.

  Following her into her bedroom, I found Tressa standing near the window that overlooked the city. I walked up behind her and tried to slide my arms around her, but she pushed me away.

  “What’s wrong?”

  She shook her head and wouldn’t look at me, turning her back so I couldn’t see her face. The truth was I had no idea what I said, but at least I knew I’d said something wrong. Silently, I gave myself points for that.

  “I don’t know what I said or did, but can you at least tell me so I don’t have to spend the rest of my life wondering how I fucked up?”

  “I’m not interested in being some goal for you to reach, Killian. That just makes me sound like another notch on your bedpost.”

  “I don’t have a bedpost, and even if I did, I can’t imagine cutting a notch into it even once, forget multiple times.”

  My lame joke meant to get a response did just that, and she turned around to face me, her expression twisted into a look of disgust. “This isn’t funny to me. Why do you have to make a joke when I’m being serious?”

  “Because I want to see you smile.”

  “I don’t want to be a challenge to you, Killian. Challenges are things you overcome.”