Set In Stone

by K. M. Scott

  God, my mind was racing! This man made me crazy. None of that mattered. All that mattered was Killian getting those damn reporters with their cameras out from in front of my hotel.

  “You’re not paying attention, Killian. I don’t care who you do or what she looks like, goddess or gargoyle. I only care about the reporters outside my hotel waiting for me to comment on what you told them, so tell them the truth right now.”

  He leaned back away from the camera and folded his arms behind his head like this was a casual talk we were having. “I’ll tell you what. How about I come over and tell them in person? That way no one can misquote me. What do you think of that?”

  Hanging my head, I sighed as the frustration began to make my head pound. “That will only make them think we’re together, which we aren’t, Killian. There are a million other ways to let them know we aren’t dating. Use one of those.”

  “I don’t know if there are a million. Maybe a dozen. That might be an overestimation, actually.”

  Clearly, he wasn’t taken this or me seriously, so there was no point in continuing this conversation. “Fine. Goodbye, Killian.”

  Before he could utter another idiotic syllable that would only make my head hurt more, I turned off the videophone and the screen went black. I stood there staring blankly into space as my frustration and misery overwhelmed me. Covering my face with my hands, I tried not to be upset with everything that had happened—seeing Killian with that women named after a Greek goddess, having to travel to London and back in three days, coming home to a swarm of reporters waiting for me, and finally dealing with the man who had been the cause of all my misfortune since the moment I saw him—but it was no use.

  My life was a mess, and it was all his fault. I hated him. Loathed him. Yes, that was better. Loathing sounded more righteous, and if anyone had a reason to be righteous about Killian Brenton and the havoc he wreaked on people, it was me.

  Since I was now trapped in my own home, I had to do something to relax before the stress of all of this made the top of my head blow off. Stomping into the bathroom, I ran a bath and poured nearly an entire bottle of bubble bath into the tub.

  Just as I stripped down to my bra and panties, I remembered I hadn’t put the away message on. Fuck. I didn’t want to have to deal with Killian calling back, or even worse, my parents asking about my love life.

  Which I didn’t have with Killian Brenton anymore, as much as that made me even more miserable to think about.

  So I marched out to the living room and fixed the only problem I could before stomping back to the bathroom and slamming the door behind me. I tossed my bra and panties aside and slid into the tub to cover myself with bubbles up to my chin, and when the water nearly came up over the sides of the tub, I stretched my foot out to turn off the water with my toes.

  “God, give me the strength to get through this madness and come out the other side still standing strong,” I mumbled as I sank under the water completely.

  An hour later, I still loathed Killian, but at least my headache had subsided. Hoping to take my mind off him and everything about him, I sat down on my bed and closed my eyes to do that yoga thing Summer claimed helped relieve stress. It had never worked before for me, but I was desperate, so I slowly breathed in and held the air inside my lungs before letting it out slowly and counting to ten each time. I couldn’t deny that it calmed me a little, but every thought that filled my empty mind was about Killian.

  And people wondered why I rarely dated. This was why. Romance meant nothing but misery for me. Always had and always would. I just needed to accept that and acknowledge that I’d be alone for the rest of my life.

  That idea made me wince, throwing off my breathing and making my stress come rushing back. I didn’t enjoy living alone. That morning when I woke up and saw Killian there with me in bed hadn’t been bad. It had been sort of nice, actually.

  But maybe some people were meant to be alone. I freely admitted to being a difficult person to deal with. Perhaps that meant being alone.

  I didn’t want to think about any of this tonight.

  A knock at my door tore me out of my thoughts. Hopefully, some food would make me feel better. It had taken the kitchen long enough, though. As I walked toward the door, I told myself not to bark at the person with my dinner. I wasn’t angry with them, and the restaurant was busy at this time of night.

  I opened the door and there standing in front of me wasn’t a member of the hotel staff but Killian smiling at me.

  “Oh, my God! I’m going to have to fire that security guard. Do you realize you just made that man unemployed?” I asked as I moved to shut the door in his face.

  Killian stuck his foot into the space to stop me from closing the door. “I’m here to take you away from all the madness. And you can thank the security guard because he’s making sure the reporters stay out front while we sneak out the back.”

  This man had lost his mind, and if I wasn’t careful, he’d make me lose mine too.

  “I’m not going anywhere with you. Go away. You’ve lost your mind if you think I’m going to spend another minute with you. Goodbye.”

  He leaned in toward my face and said, “You keep saying that word, but I’m not hearing that you really want me to go.”

  The way he looked at me made it difficult to focus my justifiable anger at him, but I had to. Avoiding his gaze, I said, “I do really want you to go. Since I first laid eyes on you, you’ve been nothing but trouble. I don’t need this in my life. I had a perfectly good life and now it’s all upended because of you.”

  Killian propped himself against the door frame and smiled confidently. God, he was cocky. “You do need this in your life. Admit it. You and I have a good time together.”

  Now I had to look at him because he was clearly not understanding what I was saying. Maybe if he saw my true feelings in my eyes, he’d finally get it. “We do nothing but have sex, Killian. Do you think you’re the only man on Earth who can give me that? Your ego needs a check.”

  Lifting his hand in front of my face, he lifted one finger and then two. “One, that’s not true. We had a great time just hanging out and talking the last time we were together. And two, while there are other men with cocks on this planet, they aren’t me and my cock.”

  “You’re ridiculous. Stop talking about cocks. I’m furious with you, so the last thing I want to think about is any of your body parts.”

  “I had a fan tell me once that I had great calves. Maybe you want to think about them instead?” he asked, clearly making fun of me and how upset I was with him.

  “Enough!” I yelled before walking back into my room. “I can’t do this with you anymore. You’re driving me crazy.”

  Killian followed me and came up behind me to wrap his arms around my shoulders. Nuzzling my neck, he said, “I want to drive you away from this place. Come with me.”

  He certainly didn’t lack focus or persistence.

  “I can’t.”

  “Yes, you can.”

  I turned in his hold and looked up at him. As much as he made me crazy, I couldn’t deny that I liked having him around. And my body had already kicked into overdrive with just a single touch from him.

  But I couldn’t forget why I’d been so happy to fly away the other night.

  “I don’t want to feel things for you, Killian. Do you understand that?”

  Hurt flashed in his eyes, and he shook his head. “No, I don’t. Why do you want to deny you like me as much as I like you?”

  “Do you know what it felt like to sit here on my bed and watch you and that woman walk down that red carpet the other night? I know I had no right to be upset by that, but I was. I don’t want to feel that way, and you made me feel that.”

  He stroked my cheek and leaned down to kiss me softly on the lips. “Athena is just a friend. Actually, she’s not even that. We used to date but broke up a while ago. She needed someone to walk the red carpet with her at that stupid premiere. That’s all it was. I
flew out just in time to do that and flew back the same night on the red eye. What you saw on that stupid show was literally all we did together.”

  None of what he said sounded like a lie, but the problem was worse than him possibly not telling me the truth. Just feeling that way meant there was the real risk he could hurt me.

  I hung my head as all the frustration of the past few hours ebbed out of me. Pulling me into his arms, he held me to him, and as much as I hated to admit it, I felt good for the first time in days.

  Killian kissed the top of my head and whispered, “I’m sorry you had to see that and you thought I was just another asshole guy. I didn’t know if we were at that place where we told one another things like when we’re leaving town.”

  Looking up at him, I said, “We weren’t, and that only made what I was feeling worse.”

  “Well, I’m sorry anyway. Let me make it up to you. Come with me tonight.”

  My defenses melted away as he stared down at me with those beautiful eyes and smiled like I was the most important person in the world to him. “Where are you taking me?”

  “Anywhere. Everywhere. I’ve got a car, and we’ve got the open road.”

  “I have a job, Killian. Don’t you have one too?”

  “I do, but I can take a few days away with the only woman I want to spend time with. As for your job, you’re an executive at your family’s company, so I can’t imagine you can’t take a few days off too.”

  Nothing seemed to tamp down his enthusiasm for this plan of his to get away. “I don’t have any makeup on and my hair’s a mess.”

  He shook his head. “Doesn’t matter and no it’s not. Anything else?”

  “It does matter to me. I have nothing packed.”

  Killian kissed me on the forehead. “Then you put on some makeup, and I’ll pack you a bag. Don’t be surprised if all I pack are socks, though.”

  I looked up at him and rolled my eyes. “You’re insane.”

  “You have five minutes starting now.”

  When I didn’t move, he leaned down to kiss me and whispered against my lips, “Four minutes and fifty three seconds.”

  This was crazy. I couldn’t believe I was going to run off with Killian for a few days. I’d never done anything like this in my entire life, but something about how carefree he was made me want to do it.

  And my gut wasn’t telling me no. I just prayed it wasn’t making a mistake this time.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Tressa

  Just before midnight, we drove up a long driveway to an enormous old pale blue house on a secluded road in the Catskills. All the way there, we talked about what Killian had done in his career, and I found myself giggling at more of his silly jokes. I’d driven upstate countless times, and never before had I enjoyed it so much.

  He parked the car and leaned forward to look out the windshield at the old house. “I hope it has running water.”

  “I wouldn’t worry. You’d be surprised at what these older homes have going for them,” I said, knowing from my childhood how houses like this held great possibilities.

  Killian looked at me in surprise and then nodded. “That’s right. You’re an old fashioned girl. I forgot.”

  “I don’t necessarily like houses like this more than my penthouse, but I grew up in one of these older homes. They have some really interested things to them.”

  “Since I grew up in an apartment above a grocery store in Nebraska, I wouldn’t know about that kind of thing,” he said with a wink.

  “Well, look for cold spots in places and creaky floorboards that make sneaking up on people next to impossible.”

  “Aren’t cold spots signs of paranormal activity or something like that?”

  The serious look on his face told me he hadn’t been joking. Rolling my eyes at the idea of supernatural cold spots, I laughed. “Not that I know of. Mostly it just means that the house is old and poorly insulated.”

  He shrugged at my purely logical answer and leaned over to kiss me. “Well, if we find one, I promise to keep you warm. Of course, it is May, so I don’t think there will be a lot of cold spots tonight.”

  “I guess I’ll be on my own to fend off any chills then,” I teased.

  Shaking his head, he kissed me quickly before turning to get out of the car. “No way. I’ll be on the job keeping you warm. Don’t you worry.”

  I moved to follow him and saw he had other ideas. Racing around the front of the car, he opened my door and bowed. “You have to give me a chance to be a gentleman,” he said with that sexy smile of his.

  He took my hand and helped me out as he explained whose house we were looking at. “It’s one of my teammates’. He’s one of those people who’s all about old things. Houses. Cars. You name it. He bought it last year and offered it to me when I said I wanted to get away. He didn’t say anything about what it looks like on the inside, so brace yourself. It could be rough.”

  I scanned the outside of the blue Colonial style home and had a feeling the inside would be beautiful. There was something about houses like this that held up against the test of time.

  “You might be surprised. People pay good money for homes in this area. I’m guessing this has at least four bedrooms and at least a couple acres of land. But I’m a little surprised one of your teammates bought a house all the way out here. It’s not exactly a place for a young guy.”

  Killian took me by the hand and walked toward the front door. “Darius mentioned something about liking how quiet it is here. From what I can see, there’s nobody nearby, so it’s probably deathly quiet most of the time.”

  As we walked into a dark entryway, I nudged him in the side. “I’m guessing you aren’t a big fan of silence since you called it deathly quiet.”

  “Not in a pitch black house where I can’t seem to find the damn light switch I’m not. Every horror movie I’ve ever seen has had this exact scene. If I can’t turn on the light in about three seconds, we’re out of here. We can stay at that motel we saw on the road on the way up.”

  I clung to his arm as the two of us walked in tandem toward the wall and Killian felt his way in search of the light switch. I hoped he found it before the time was up because by the looks of that motel, I had a feeling we’d be spending the night with a family of roaches sleeping on top of a bedspread that likely had stains from someone’s murder still on it.

  “Found it!” Killian yelled out just before a light above us turned on and brightened up the beautiful foyer we stood in.

  “Hey, this is nice. I like all the wood,” he said as we swiveled our heads to look around at the home we’d walked into.

  “Let’s see the rest of the place. I bet it’s beautiful.”

  We walked into a room to our right that looked like a sitting room or living room. Killian’s friend hadn’t furnished it with much other than a grey couch and a white wingback chair, so it looked pretty empty. The lack of even a rug highlighted great hardwood floors, though. Like in the foyer and hallway, woodworking all along the walls with wainscoting decorated the room, but in here, it had been painted white instead of remaining the original dark wood.

  Killian looked around and said, “It feels like a farmhouse. Or what I think a farmhouse would feel like since I’ve never been in one. Let’s find the kitchen and get a drink.”

  After walking through what seemed like a dining room that had nothing but a single old wooden chair placed in the corner, we reached a kitchen that instantly took my breath away. Unlike the other rooms we’d seen so far, this one had been completely modernized with stainless steel appliances, including a chef’s stove, and a black granite countertop that made the white painted wood cabinets stand out stunningly.

  I stopped just inside the doorway as Killian headed directly for the refrigerator. “Wow.”

  Peeking his head around the door, he smiled. “Now this is what I’m talking about. I can do old if a house has a kitchen like this. And even better, Darius made sure the fridge is stocked. Check it o
ut!”

  Killian hadn’t exaggerated. Looking in, I saw enough food to feed an army. “Are we going to be joined by other people? That’s a lot of food.”

  He turned around holding a bottle of red wine in his hand and flashed me a devilish smile. “No one but the two of us for as long as we want to stay. Time to find a corkscrew and get this getaway started.”

  “I thought it already started. You know, with the drive up?”

  As he rummaged through drawers to find the corkscrew, he laughed. “No. That was getaway foreplay. This is the real thing. Where the hell does he keep the damn corkscrew? He has wine but nothing to open it.”

  I began opening cabinet doors to help in the search, but a minute later he announced he’d located the all-important corkscrew, lifting it high above his head as he said, “Found it! It was in a drawer with those holder things you use to hold ears of corn and are shaped like ears of corn.”

  Killian poured us both a glass of wine and as the first sip slowly eased its way down my throat, I felt my body warm. I didn’t know Darius, but he knew good wine.

  “So, tell me where did you fly out of when you went away?”

  I hadn’t expected that to come out of Killian’s mouth after he took his first drink of wine. What a strange question. “That’s odd. I don’t think I’ve ever been asked that.”

  Killian leaned against the countertop and took another sip of wine. “Well, I like to think I offer firsts in a number of areas.”

  “Teterboro. My company’s private plane always takes off from there. Why?”

  “Because my publicist couldn’t find any flight plan for any plane from Stone Worldwide flying out of the New York area. Where’s Teterboro?”

  “I have to tell you that’s got a very strong stalker vibe to it that right there. Why would she want to know that?”

  He took a sip of wine and placed his glass on the countertop. “Because I wanted to know it and I asked her to find out.”