Rival Forces

by D. D. Ayres

  Lily came in, carrying something white. She chewed a few times and then deposited the soggy cloth at Yard’s feet. It was Yardley’s PJ bottoms.

  She picked up the destroyed garment. “Really? That’s your judgment of me?”

  Lily turned and walked out.

  “I’m not trying to take him from you.” Yardley rolled her eyes but then caught back a sob. Now even dogs were turning against her.

  She needed a shower. A long hot shower followed by a cold one and then some other excuses to keep her from facing Kye. She’d give her hair a deep moisturizing treatment, pluck her brows, and maybe even paint her toenails. Anything that would give her time to regain her balance before she talked with Kye.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  At least he was dressed. She doubted she could keep it together if Kye had still been nude.

  He was sitting at her kitchen table with a cup of coffee in one hand and a mini laptop balanced on one knee. She wondered if he’d been in touch with Law but decided not to ask. If he had, there was nothing she could do about it now.

  He had showered and wore jeans and a black hoodie with the Hawaiian Warriors’ crest stenciled on it. His dark hair was still spiky with dampness. His bronze cheeks had been shaved, glowing as smooth as his butt—no, not the image she needed in her head at the moment. Lily lay at his feet. She gave Yardley a questioning glance but didn’t raise her head. For some reason the toller didn’t like her.

  Kye looked up. “Hi.” His gaze took in her black leggings and hoodie. “I’ve already walked the dogs. Fed them, too. I think Oleg and I have reached a truce.”

  “Thanks.” Yardley folded her arms across her chest as she same through the doorway. She’d taken a long shower during which she’d decided how to handle the situation. All she needed to do was put it into action.

  “I forgot to say thank you. Last night.” She saw his eyes darken. “I mean, you letting me blow off steam. I was pretty much a basket case before the boxing session.”

  “No worries.” He grinned fully and her toes curled. “What about earlier this morning? Guess I should be thanking you.”

  She shrugged a shoulder as she moved toward the coffeepot. “Not necessary.”

  She saw his smile slip a notch just before she turned away to reach for a cup. He’d read her state of mind, just like that. And he wasn’t happy about it. She really wished he was a bit less attuned to her. It would make this easier.

  When she had poured a cup and added milk she turned back to face what had become a strained silence.

  He was standing now, the long solid strength of the man unfolded for her observation. He didn’t need a scowl to add force of personality. The reality of him, present, was enough to set her pulse thumping.

  She could see him thinking about what to say next before he spoke. “Yard, don’t do this. I know what happened this morning. It’s scary. But let’s not run away from it. Maybe there’s something here we missed the first time.”

  She shook her head and took a gulp of java before replying. “Don’t make this more than it is.” She lifted her gaze to his because it was impossible not to look at him. “It’s a good time.”

  “That’s all?” His expression warned her but still the words stung. “The great Yardley I-must-be-in-charge-at-all-times Summers got laid so all’s right with the world?”

  She looked away from his expression. She’d forgotten that because he played nice most of the time, he had a hard-ass streak. But it hurt to have him wield it against her now.

  “What did you expect, flowers and chocolate? We got off together. It was good. Okay, great. But I don’t need or want anything from you.”

  “That’s not what you said four hours ago.”

  He was closer now, and moving closer than she was comfortable with. He stopped before her and lifted a hand slowly to shift a swatch of her damp hair back from her shoulder. His hand settled in a light caress on her shoulder. Uh-oh. She could handle hard-ass. Sexy seductive Kye was much harder to defend against.

  He smiled again, and this time it had Yardley hearing the familiar intro to “Aloha ‘Oe” played on a lap steel guitar. “Last night you said you wanted everything.”

  She certainly had. Now she’d had very physical proof of his everything, twice, and it still didn’t feel like enough. His fingers went wandering up the side of her neck in little light strokes, and she felt sparks of a desire that weren’t dwindling embers. They were ignition sparks.

  She stepped back from that touch, feeling a little desperate. But he mustn’t know that. She had to be cool, keep-it-together tough. “I meant in bed.”

  She took another sideways step and lifted her coffee cup, speaking to him over the rim. “Let me spell it out for you. I’m not interested in anything long-term. You’re safe. You can go home to whatever and whoever’s waiting for you.”

  She saw his expression go funny and wondered, just for a second, what that was about.

  His jaw hardened. “You want to hear about my love life?”

  “No.” She didn’t. She really, really didn’t.

  “Because I’m happy to share.”

  “I said no.”

  “You’ll enjoy it.” He folded heavy forearms across his chest. “She made a complete fucking idiot out of me.”

  Yardley slanted him a glance behind her cup. “Then maybe I’m a teeny bit interested.”

  “Let’s start with the key part. I was married. We divorced four years ago.”

  She tried to harden her heart against the sadness edging his tone. “She threw you out?”

  “I walked. She was preggers when I got back from my last tour of duty. It wasn’t mine. Heard enough?”

  Not nearly. How awful. Damn. “Go on.”

  He settled hips against the kitchen counter and crossed his legs. She didn’t glance at his package deliberately. It was an ocular accident.

  “She was a local girl named Healani. We married between my tours of duty. It wasn’t fireworks at night or anything. We’d known each other our entire lives. After a while you stop expecting … crazy kinds of love.” He didn’t look away. He was being more honest than he needed to be.

  “I was happy. And then the big news came via Skype on my last tour. She even had this blurry photo of a blob as proof.” His gaze shifted away from her. “I’d always thought I’d be thrilled to hear the words, You’re going to be a dad. Nothing. I felt zero.” He shook his head, as if still unable to believe it.

  Yardley bit her lip, winced. “What happened?”

  “She was pretty far along by the time I got home. Two weeks after I returned stateside, the boyfriend calls, tells her he wants her and the baby. That’s when she confesses the truth to me. Baby’s not mine. It was Christmas Day.” He looked back at her. “That’s when I finally felt some emotion.”

  Crap. He’d been really hurt. She could see the lingering effects of it now in the tautness of his mouth and the tightness around the eyes. “I’m sorry, Kye.”

  He shrugged. “The hardest part was dealing with everybody else. She left the island with Baby Daddy without a word to anyone. Not even her family. Everybody’d bought us all this baby stuff for Christmas, in preparation. I gave it all back. I haven’t been back to Hawaii at Christmas since.”

  Yardley didn’t know what to say to that. He was sharing his most intimate pain but she wasn’t ready to share David. It wouldn’t change anything, for either of them. She changed the subject. “I heard you tell the sheriff you served with Law in Afghanistan. Is that where you met my brother?”

  Kye nodded but his eyes hadn’t lost that old-wound pain. “I was there the day he was wounded. Haven’t seen him since. He’s rejected my calls and messages for the past four years.”

  “But he sent you here. Why would he do that?”

  Kye looked like he wasn’t going to answer. “Law said I was the only one he trusted.”

  “Why?”

  “He knows I’ll take care of business.” He made full eye contact. “Af
ter they were attacked, I’m the one who had to shoot Law’s K-9, Scud.”

  Stunned, Yardley tried to digest that, in all its implications. The death of Law’s military police K-9 had figured greatly into her brother’s PTSD issues. “Law said Scud was wounded, too, and went a little mad trying to protect him from even his squad members.”

  He nodded slowly. “Tried to bite the medics who needed to get to Law before he bled out.” There were a lot of emotions vying for dominance in Kye’s expression. “It was Scud’s life or Law’s.”

  The gruff pain in his voice raked up her spine. He wasn’t cutting himself any slack for that decision, even after all this time.

  She touched his crossed arms with the gentlest of touches. “It was a fucked-up situation, Kye. No good options. You did what you had to do to save my brother’s life. Thank you.”

  His gaze shifted to her hand where her thumb instinctively brushed along his forearm in comforting strokes. Then it rose to her face. “You Battises try to have the world your way. Even your friendships occupy little compartments in your minds that you open and close when it suits you. It makes it hard for those of us who care about you.”

  Those of us who care about you.

  The words echoed inside her mind. Jori, Law’s new lady friend, had said something similar when dealing with Law. An hour ago she would have been happy to hear that hint of caring in Kye’s voice. Now it only made her feel worse. There were other considerations. There was David.

  She almost reached for the phone in her pocket before she stopped herself. She would have known if there was a message. It would have pinged and vibrated.

  She turned and reached for the coffeepot to refill her still mostly full cup. “Don’t start rearranging reality, Kye. Law is the reason you’re here, or you’d never have come back. It’s been twelve years. Where was the interest in me for those twelve years?”

  “Hawaiians have a saying. Aloha mai no, aloha aku.”

  She glanced over at him. “What does that mean?”

  He gave her something short of a smile. “Look it up.”

  “Right.” Yardley nodded. On autopilot because, suddenly, she wasn’t certain any longer about anything.

  She couldn’t feel for David what she did and make peace with her actions with Kye this morning. That had been too intense, went too deep, had gotten past all her barriers. Even ones David never touched. What a mess.

  She’d thought love would make every other man a shadow in her thoughts and feelings. It’s what everyone said. You’ll know. Without a doubt. When you’re in love.

  Maybe she didn’t have the capacity to love that way. Perhaps she wasn’t able to love the way other people did. Full-on and completely. Perhaps David had felt it, too. And that’s why it had taken him so long to reach out again. She’d hurt him. Just as she was about to hurt Kye. But she owed him honesty. She owed him in return for his revelations of his private life.

  She turned to face him. “You must know there’s someone in my life.”

  “Dr. David Gunnar. Law told me.”

  Hearing Kye say David’s name gave her a jolt. “What else did Law say?”

  “I know you guys were hot and heavy for a while. Law mentioned something about a possible wedding.”

  “That’s never been in the plans.”

  “Whatever.” But the edge of his lips curved enough to let her know she’d been played for information. He reached out and touched her again, this time with warm possessive hands on her upper arms that felt wonderful even through her clothing. “He’s been gone three months. He has nothing to do with us.”

  “He has everything to do with us.” She backstepped but he held her in place without exerting any effort. This wasn’t going the right way. By being nice, he was seeing weakness in her. And that panicked her. She needed to be strong.

  She tossed back her head. “I was pretending last night. Pretending you were him. That I wasn’t alone.” The moment the words were out of her mouth she wanted to take them back.

  Instead he pulled her toward him. Until inches separated them. “When you’re scared you say things you don’t mean, Yard. I don’t think you could do what you did last night if you didn’t have feelings for me. That wasn’t just sex last night. I’ve had a lot of ‘just sex’ in my life. That wasn’t it.”

  “Maybe.” Her voice sounded suffocated. “But it doesn’t matter. I’m not like other people. I don’t know how to be in a relationship. My father—”

  “Was an abusive asshole.” He paused to let her recover from the shock. “So you—what? You decided you’d hide in relationships with unavailable men so you don’t have to commit?”

  “How—?” How could he know that?

  But he was looking at her with those golden-brown eyes that saw more than any man had a right to see. His hands held her in a hard grip but his voice turned soft and low. “I know you, Yardley. We didn’t know each other long the first time. But we knew each other when our emotions still rode the top of all we said and did. Then somewhere, as the years passed, you got so busy trying to prove yourself that you’ve lost touch with who you really are. Last night wasn’t about this Doctor David guy. It wasn’t even really about me. It was about you. What are you afraid of finding out about yourself?”

  She tried to twist away. “Stop.”

  “Sorry. No. Next argument.”

  “If you don’t stop I’ll sic Oleg on you.”

  “No you won’t.” He was smiling at her in a strangely tender way. “Besides, he likes me now. I’ve walked him twice. We bonded. Over poop. So, you know, it’s serious.”

  He was being nice, and kind and funny. It scared her to death. Losing David hurt. Losing Kye just might kill her.

  She jutted out her chin, trying not to notice how it brought her mouth even closer to his. “I will call your tutu.”

  “My grandmother?”

  “Yes. You said she taught you that to dishonor a woman is to dishonor one’s self.”

  “You remember that.” His voice had a funny hitch in it. Then the aloha heat of his smile was back. “You like me, Yardley. Maybe I’m not the man, but I’m proof that this doctor’s not the one, either. He’s gone. Move on. Let’s see what we could have.”

  Reality dropped on her with a thud. “I’ve heard from Dr. Gunnar. This morning.”

  “Nice try. Third ploy.”

  She reached into her sweater pocket and pulled out her phone. She held it up between them. “This is why I wanted my phone back. Only David has the number. He sent me a message this morning.”

  Kye looked at the phone as if it were a grenade. “Show me.”

  “Not that you deserve to see it but here.” She punched the buttons to bring up the message.

  He squinted at it. “It’s a music video.”

  She shrugged. “This is how we communicate. We use song titles to plan meetings.”

  She saw him shut down. Nothing to see there. And then she remembered, he’d once been military police, in law enforcement like nearly every other man in her life.

  When he’d heard thirty seconds of the song he looked at her with a serious expression. “This doesn’t say anything. Not where he is. Or what he’s been doing. Or even when or if you’ll see him again.”

  “It tells me he’s alive.” She sounded defensive. She felt defensive. “He’s okay. And he doesn’t want me to worry.”

  Kye snorted. “What a guy. After three months of silence you get music from a dickhead. So what? You’re going to sit on your hands some more and wait until if and when he condescends to get in touch again?”

  “You sound like he ghosted you, instead of me.”

  That brought him up short. “He let you stew for months, Yard. You were worried enough to contact the feds. Does your precious doctor know or even care about that? Or is he so wrapped up in his world, whatever it is, that he just fits you in when he can?”

  “Don’t say things like that. You don’t know him.”

  “He’s no paragon,
Yard. I’ve bailed on women before. I’m not proud of it but I know that when a man doesn’t make it his business to stay in touch, it means he’s not attached in any serious way. He saw you as a target of opportunity.”

  The angrier he got, the calmer she became. “Dr. Gunnar is nothing like you. He’s a serious man. He’s a professional who doesn’t play it safe. Unlike you, who spends his time guarding holiday vacationers from avalanches that never happen. Running around playing ski bum. Probably hitting on girls young enough to be your daughter.” She saw him flinch and kept throwing verbal jabs. “David save lives every day in scary places. He’s smart and educated and passionate and committed. He’s everything—”

  “—but here. He’s not here. I am. You’re with me.”

  He kissed her, hot and deep, not waiting to see if this was what she wanted, but knowing instantly it was what they both needed.

  Yardley didn’t think of resistance. The heat licking through her was still too strong, the memories of half-light lovemaking too new and fresh to resist the wonder of losing herself in the embrace of his lips.

  His kiss was so needful all she could do was hang on and ride. And he took her everywhere, the stroke of his tongue on hers as persuasive as the sexual tension of his body, braced for action but not actually touching hers. She locked her own body into a rigid posture, fighting with everything she had not to give in to the so-easy need to melt into him, fit her body to the harder contours of his. But letting nature take its course would completely derail any self-respect she had left.

  Think of David. Think of— Think.

  When he lifted his head, Kye looked as hot and confused and needy as she felt. But a whole lot more certain about what exactly he wanted, and how to get it.

  He brushed a finger across her mouth. “Your head and heart aren’t saying the same things.”

  She curled fingers into his hair though she had no idea when she’d snaked her arms about his neck. “You mean my head and my body.”

  He shook his head, looking more serious than ever. “Your body, like mine, isn’t to be considered trustworthy. It’s about your heart. Because when I tune your words out, Yard, what your eyes say isn’t even close to the trash talk.”