Not moving, Kennedy allowed Tim to take her hands in his. His thumb grazed the backs of her knuckles gently. The urge to pull away was still great, but she resisted, hoping that if they could get through this conversation, he’d let her go.
“Tim, what are you doing?” she asked, knowing damn well what he was doing but hoping he wasn’t going to go through with it.
He didn’t answer her, instead, released one of her hands and reached for her head as he leaned forward. Knowing he was about to kiss her, Kennedy put her hand up between their faces and when his nose touched her palm, she pushed him back.
“Not gonna happen,” she told him.
“Just one kiss, Kennedy. For old times’ sake. I just want you to remember how good it can be.”
Kennedy shook her head. “Tim . . .” She wasn’t sure what to say to him, but she definitely didn’t want to kiss him. Hurting his feelings wasn’t exactly in her plan either, especially if he was acting like a crazy man with the whole abduction thing and all.
He finally got the picture and withdrew, leaning back in his seat and once more looking out the window toward the lake as he asked, “Are you seeing Sawyer Walker?”
Well, that was blunt, but she answered just as directly. “Yes.”
“Why?” he asked, his tone rough with anger.
“I’m not sure that’s a topic I’m comfortable discussing with you, Tim. I’m all for talkin’, but not about Sawyer.”
“Your father hates him, you know that?”
“No, he doesn’t,” Kennedy retorted, heatedly. They’d had a falling-out, but as far as she knew, no one else was aware of that. Unless of course her father had mentioned it, which she highly doubted.
“I heard them arguing, Kennedy.”
“When?”
“The night Sawyer got on his high horse and tried to take on half the town again. Somewhere along the way, he nominated himself as the gay police and he sticks his nose in even if it’s not warranted.”
“And why would my father care?” Kennedy asked, warning bells going off in her head.
“He and Mack have a thing, right?”
“What are you talking about?” she asked, feigning ignorance.
“I saw them, Kennedy. I saw them together.”
“Where?”
Tim was silent for a moment, but then he muttered, “Nowhere.”
“Tell me,” she said, twisting in her seat to face him.
“At the resort, damn it. I saw them at the resort.”
“It was you!” she exclaimed. “You’re the one who leaked the details. You’re the one who outed Mack.”
“I . . . er . . .”
Kennedy couldn’t believe it. For such a stand-up guy, Tim had violated trust on a level that was unforgiveable. And on top of that, he was letting Sawyer take the fall.
“How’d you get in there? It’s by invitation only.”
“I . . . uh . . . I was doing a security check.”
“AI has its own security,” she snapped. “You snuck in there.”
“Fine,” he huffed. “I saw your father go in there and I was curious. I convinced the girl at the front desk that I’d been called to check on something. I went in. That’s when I saw them.”
“Why would you tell someone?”
“I hadn’t planned on it, damn it. I was upset because I’d been wanting to talk to you and you wouldn’t hear me out. I’d thought about going to your house to try again, but I ended up at Moonshiners. Greyson was there bitchin’ about Sawyer. It just came out.”
Holy shit. And Sawyer thought Greyson was the one who had leaked the information. And it all made sense. Greyson seemed to be in the wrong place at the wrong time on more than one occasion.
“So you thought it was all right to try to ruin my father’s life because you were pissed.”
“I wasn’t tryin’ to ruin anything. I was angry. You haven’t been willing to talk to me and then I heard you were seein’ Sawyer. What did you expect me to do?”
“Act like a grown-up for once,” Kennedy snapped, slamming her mouth shut as soon as the words came out. Fighting with Tim wasn’t going to help the situation. “So what does this have to do with me?”
The silence engulfed them once more and Kennedy sat patiently waiting for Tim to answer. She could sense that he wanted to say something.
Finally, after a couple of minutes, he began to talk.
“I love you, Kennedy. I’ve loved you since the first day I met you. I know that you loved me, too. And I just . . . I want us to try to work things out. When you broke up with me, those were some of my darkest days. I was about to propose to you. I don’t have a clue what happened, either. One minute I thought we were happy and the next it was just . . . over.”
It wasn’t just over, but Kennedy didn’t say as much. Their relationship had been deteriorating over time, falling apart until she couldn’t tell a difference between the relationship she had with Tim and the relationship she had with her friends. “I’m sorry if I hurt you,” she told him. “It wasn’t anything you did.”
She knew the it’s me, not you spiel wasn’t going to work with him. It wasn’t fair to him either, but Kennedy really didn’t know how to explain it. At least not without hurting his feelings. Looking over at him, she knew she had no choice but to come clean.
“You know this isn’t gonna work, right?” she asked him, hoping the guy at least understood that much.
“I know,” he stated reluctantly, his eyes not meeting hers. “But it was worth a shot.”
“I don’t know about all that. You really freaked me out. Telling me my father’s in the hospital was not the best route to take.”
“I . . . Aww, hell. I’m sorry, Kennedy.”
“I know.” She did know, even if she didn’t like it. Kennedy wasn’t sure Tim had an evil bone in his entire body, so clearly his motives were fueled by emotion. “And I’m sorry for plenty of things as well. It really wasn’t you. I broke up with you because . . .” Kennedy reworded her thoughts in her head, trying to make them as kind as she could. “I think we just grew apart.”
“We did,” Tim admitted. “But that doesn’t mean—”
“It does, Tim. It so does. We can’t work this out. There’s nothin’ there anymore.”
Tim didn’t respond. Even if he’d had the words, the fact that a shiny black Cadillac CTS-V pulled up behind them would’ve cut their conversation short anyway.
“Shit!” Kennedy threw open her door and jumped out, practically running to Sawyer. “It’s okay. I’m okay,” she assured him. The murderous rage she saw in his eyes only scared her a tiny bit. She knew it wasn’t directed at her, but she definitely didn’t want him to cut loose on Tim. There was no doubt Sawyer would beat the shit out of him and then he’d end up in jail.
Sawyer looked her over from head to toe as though he didn’t believe her, his big, strong hands gripping her forearms. “What the hell happened?”
“He . . . uh . . . Tim wanted to talk.”
“So he thought that kidnapping you was the way to go? Christ, Kennedy.”
And then there were more.
Kennedy rolled her eyes when her father’s car pulled up behind Sawyer’s. And then Braydon’s truck.
By the time her father, Braydon, and Jessie had made their way over, Tim had joined the group. He didn’t look anywhere except at the ground and she knew he was embarrassed. He should be, she thought to herself.
“You’re under arr—”
“No, Daddy,” Kennedy interrupted. “It’s fine. It was a mistake, okay?”
“He kidnapped you!” Jeff exclaimed.
“Well . . .” When he put it that way, technically Tim had kidnapped her, but she really didn’t want him going to jail for it. “Can we just let it go? I think he realizes his mistake.”
Tim nodded, looking completely distraught, which made Kennedy feel only a little better. He had gone about it the wrong way entirely, but . . . he was human. She got that.
“S
o, you’re really okay?” Sawyer asked, still looking at her.
“I’m fine,” she said, glancing over at Jessie and giving her a small smile. She knew if it hadn’t been for Jessie’s quick thinking, no one would’ve come looking for her. Maybe the girl needed a raise.
“I’ll take you home,” Sawyer insisted.
“And I’ll take you up on that, cowboy.” Kennedy sighed and glanced over at Tim. “I’m not gonna let them arrest you for this,” she told him. “However, I do have to tell my father and Sawyer what you told me. It’ll be their decision on how to handle things from that point.”
Tim met her gaze and nodded, but Kennedy really didn’t think he knew what he was signing on for. When she told her father and Sawyer that Tim was the one responsible for leaking the details about Mack . . . well, he might want to get out of town now.
BY THE TIME Sawyer got Kennedy back to her house, he was champing at the bit for details, but for the entire ride back, she’d been silent. Aside from holding his hand, she hadn’t shown any sort of reaction to what had happened and he still wondered whether or not Tim had hurt her.
She didn’t look to be hurt. At least not physically.
“Mind if I stay the night tonight?” he asked. He wasn’t sure what he was going to do if she said no, because leaving her wasn’t an option for him. He wanted to be by her side, to hold her and touch her and assure himself that nothing bad would happen to her. Not that he could protect her from everything, but those things he could, he damn sure intended to.
Honestly, his life had changed that day, when Jessie had delivered the news that Kennedy had gone missing, and he hadn’t taken a full breath until his eyes landed on her again.
“Sure,” she mumbled as she unlocked her door and stepped inside.
“You think you’ll be okay by yourself for a little while? I’m gonna go pick up Buster and grab some food, bring it back.”
“I’ll be fine,” she told him. “I’m just gonna take a shower.”
Sawyer nodded and then kissed her softly on the lips, pulling her into his arms and holding her tightly, his fingers twining into her silky hair. If there’d been any question about his feelings for her, there certainly weren’t now. He was pretty damn sure he’d lost at least a decade off his life after this little debacle. The fact that Kennedy seemed so calm only worried him a little. She was tough, he knew that much.
“All right, I’ll be back in a little while.”
Sawyer headed out the front door and to his car, looking back several times before he managed to back out of her driveway and point his car toward town. It wouldn’t take him long, but leaving her was harder than he thought it would be.
He was halfway home when his cell phone rang. He glanced down at the screen and then hit the Bluetooth in his car to activate the speaker. “Hey.”
“How is she?” Braydon asked, his voice echoing through the interior of the car.
“She seems okay for now.”
“Sheriff Endsley’s pretty pissed.”
“Can’t say I blame him,” Sawyer stated. “I’m pretty pissed myself.”
“I bet. Crazy, huh? From what I gathered, Tim really did wanna talk to her. He just went about it the wrong way.”
“I’ll say.”
“Well, I only wanted to check in.”
“Hey, tell Jess thank you for me. That’s a damn smart woman you got there.”
“Don’t I know it,” Braydon agreed, a smile in his voice.
“One of these days you’ll have to make it official and put that wedding ring on her finger.”
“Trust me, Bubba, I intend to.”
“Talk to you later,” Sawyer said and then disconnected the call as he pulled into his driveway. He could hear Buster barking inside the house, clearly not too happy being left alone.
Once inside, after soothing Buster for a minute, Sawyer headed to his room and grabbed some clothes for the night. He was anxious to get back to Kennedy’s and he knew as soon as word got out, his family would be descending on his house, making it damn near impossible to get back to her, so he double-timed it.
His thoughts drifted back to something he heard Kennedy say to Tim at the scene: I do have to tell my father and Sawyer what you told me. It’ll be their decision on how to handle things from that point.
He had no idea what she’d been referring to, but he fully intended to ask her about it when he got back with food. Until then, he shook off the thought. After all, the sooner he got his shit together, the sooner he’d be back with her.
And at the moment, that was all he wanted.
chapter TWENTY-TWO
Kennedy stood in her kitchen, staring into the refrigerator. She was hungry, but she didn’t know what she wanted. Sawyer was supposed to bring food back, but she didn’t know when he was going to show up and in the meantime, she feared her neighbors were going to get worried if her stomach growled any louder.
She opted for a glass of cranberry juice—mixed with a couple of shots of vodka—to tide her over, then headed into the living room and plopped down on the couch. She smiled, not quite sure what she found so amusing, but the events of the day had finally gotten to her. Maybe she was losing her mind.
After all, she had been kidnapped.
The idea caused a slightly hysterical laugh to burst out of her mouth.
What the hell had made Tim think it was all right to lie to her just so he could get her alone to talk?
Maybe she had been wrong in not explaining to him exactly why she’d broken up with him. Granted, in her defense, she thought he’d realized it long before the time came for her to call a halt to their relationship. Not having sex in roughly five weeks should’ve said it all. It had been like a red flashing sign for Kennedy, but clearly Tim hadn’t noticed.
Which was a little scary.
Kennedy’s thoughts drifted to Sawyer. She couldn’t imagine Sawyer being able to go that long without sex.
Speaking of . . . There was a knock on her front door seconds before it opened. Buster snuck past Sawyer’s feet and came directly for her, jumping up into her lap and offering her puppy kisses.
“Hey, buddy. What’s up?” she asked the dog, her eyes moving to the bag Sawyer was carrying in his hand. Her brain relayed the information to her stomach and the damn thing growled again.
“Hungry, huh?” Sawyer asked, chuckling as he carried the bag to the kitchen.
“Starving,” she told him as she got to her feet, carrying her empty glass back to the kitchen. “What did you get?”
“Country fried steak, mashed potatoes, gravy, and fried okra.”
“Oh, God, I think I love you,” Kennedy said without thinking. As soon as the words were out, she slammed her hand over her mouth, her eyes wide as she watched Sawyer in horror. What the hell was wrong with her?
He simply laughed, giving her a look that promised something wicked later and she exhaled slowly.
“I didn’t mean that the way it sounded. I just—”
“Hush,” Sawyer said firmly, moving to stand right in front of her.
His blue-gray eyes were so intense, her breath escaped her again.
“I’m not gonna interrogate you about those words. Nor am I gonna expect you to repeat them.” Sawyer’s lips came down on hers gently, but left far too quickly. When he looked back into her eyes and added, “Yet,” to his sentence, she nearly choked.
“Time to eat,” he told her, stepping back and urging her toward the chair, his sinful smile still plastered on his face.
Unable to form words, Kennedy lowered herself into the chair and watched as he spread the food out in front of them after he grabbed plates and silverware from the kitchen. Once her plate was in front of her, she picked up her fork and stared at her food with more interest than was probably necessary.
It wasn’t until Sawyer chuckled that she looked over at him, a smile forming on her own lips.
“Eat,” he commanded, and she did.
They both dug in, holding the co
nversation until they were finished. While she did the dishes—or tried to, anyway—Sawyer teased her ruthlessly by kissing her neck and sliding his hands delicately over her hips, her waist, the undersides of her breasts, until she couldn’t take anymore. Turning off the water, she turned to face him only to find herself plastered to him, his hands fisting in her hair while hers roamed the back of his head, grasping for purchase as she devoured him.
The heated make-out session lasted longer than she had expected it to and the next thing she knew, they were on her couch, going at it like teenagers.
“Kennedy.” The way Sawyer said her name made her body ignite in flame, her body hungry for his, unable to wait any longer.
“You’ve got too many clothes on,” she said, her voice hoarse from the desire pulsing through her.
“You’re one to talk,” he retorted, reaching for her T-shirt and lifting it over her head. Once he had it off, he tossed it to the floor and reached for the clasp on her bra. Within seconds she was topless and Sawyer was feasting on her breasts, nipping and sucking until she thought she was going to implode.
Desperate to feel the heat of his skin against hers, Kennedy attacked the buttons on his shirt until she managed to part the fabric, pressing her torso to his, relishing the warmth of him against her.
An excited bark had Kennedy jumping, giggling when Buster decided he wanted to join them.
“Sorry, little man. Not now,” Sawyer said, pushing to his feet and reaching for her hand. “You get to take a nap,” he told the dog, before turning the intensity of his gaze on her. “And you . . . There won’t be any sleep in the near future for you.”
“I’m okay with that,” she replied as he pulled her into her bedroom, closing the door behind them and effectively leaving Buster on the opposite side.
“Clothes. Off,” Sawyer commanded.
Forcing her leggings down and off, Kennedy stood before him in nothing but her panties while she watched, intently focused on the way his muscles bunched and moved as he disrobed.
“Still too many clothes,” he told her, hooking his fingers in the band of her panties and lowering them down her legs. Once she was naked, Sawyer stood to his full height and met her eyes. “That’s more like it.”
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