When We Kiss

by Darcy Burke

  Her brows were perfectly crafted to draw attention to her sultry hazel eyes, and she wore just enough makeup to accentuate the elegant line of her cheekbones and the suppleness of her lips. Her red hair was twisted up, baring her long and graceful neck. She wore a dark green fitted dress and black heels. She was sleek and sexy, but he knew that as great as she looked dressed, she looked even better undressed.

  Scowling, he turned away and strode into the kitchen to refill his beer at the tap. He found his brother Kyle and his brother-in-law, Sean, doing the same.

  “Hey,” Kyle said. “Need a refill? Sean’s doing duty.”

  Liam walked around the bar to where Kyle was standing opposite Sean, who was behind the tap. “Beer me.” He slid his empty pint glass emblazoned with both the Archer logo and Evan’s and Alaina’s names and the date of their marriage across the bar to Sean. Guests would take home a pint glass and a growler of special-edition beer Dad had just managed to brew in time. This had been a relatively quickie wedding, since Alaina was pregnant.

  “Hard to believe so many of us are married or getting married.” Kyle shook his head with a bemused smile.

  “Including you,” Liam said. “I can’t believe you’re monogomizing, let alone getting married.”

  “Monogomizing?” Sean asked, his British accent giving the made-up word gravitas. He handed Liam his refilled glass.

  Liam took the beer and brought it to his mouth. “What else would you call it?” He sipped the IPA. “Before Maggie, Kyle didn’t do girlfriends.”

  Sean sipped his beer. “You don’t really either, from what I can tell.”

  “Oh, Liam does girlfriends—for three to six months maybe,” Kyle said. “But damn, brother, seems like you’ve had a drought the past year or so. Unless you’ve been keeping someone secret.”

  Liam nearly choked on his next drink of beer. Aubrey might be a secret, but he couldn’t call her a girlfriend. And if she was to be believed about their thing being over, she wasn’t even a secret anymore. She wasn’t anything except the attorney administering their brother’s trust and handling this stupid zoning appeal for the property.

  And why hadn’t she been one of his girlfriends? She met every single one of his requirements and then some.

  Duh, because she lived in Ribbon Ridge, and he lived in Denver. It was hard to have a relationship, even the casual ones he preferred, long-distance. A voice deep in his head said it was the and then some that was the problem. Aubrey was unlike any woman he’d ever known. Aside from being crazy attracted to her, he liked spending time with her. And that wasn’t good for a guy who preferred to keep things unfettered. He liked to be in total control, and sharing your life with someone meant sharing control. Pass.

  Kyle pulled a stool out from the bar and sat down. “Looking back, it seems like you went dormant after Alex died. You never talk about him, about what happened. You okay?”

  He flashed Kyle a smug smile. “King of the world, man.” Liam knew Kyle was genuinely asking about him, but he didn’t want to go there right now. If he ever did. Instead, he defaulted to flipping him shit, which was their norm. They’d been particularly competitive in their youth, with sports and girls and popularity. Kyle had struggled academically, washing out of college in the first year and then going on to culinary school, where he’d found his niche. He’d become a rock-star chef until his gambling addiction had completely derailed him and driven him to Florida for several years.

  Liam had felt like he’d won, but that was stupid. And looking at Kyle now, it seemed that he was the winner—happily engaged with a five-star restaurant set to open. Provided Aubrey could make this zoning problem go away.

  Damn, Alex’s entire project—his dream—hung in the balance because of some asshole who didn’t want a commercial property adjoining his acreage. An acreage on which Liam was pretty sure sat an empty shed, a creek, and not much else. “Who’s behind the appeal again? I forgot.”

  If he’d ever known. He’d kept himself out of pretty much everything to do with The Alex—they’d even named the hotel after their brother, a decision Liam had also had nothing to do with. Just what they needed, another reminder of the brother who’d cut a hole in each of them by selfishly ending his life.

  “Russ Parker,” Kyle said. “Do you know the story there?”

  Holy fuck. Liam would’ve remembered that name. And yes, he goddamn well knew the story, but he sure as hell wouldn’t say so to Kyle or anyone else in his meddling family. Wait . . . If Kyle knew the story, he would’ve called Liam months ago and yelled at him to fix it. So whatever story Kyle was referencing couldn’t be what Liam knew . . .

  “What?” Liam asked cautiously.

  “Parker used to date Mom in college. She dumped him to go out with Dad. He’s hated Dad ever since.”

  Son of a bitch. Not many things rendered Liam speechless, but for a moment he simply couldn’t form words. This was a total clusterfuck. If he’d known about that, he never would’ve started up with Whitney Parker a couple of years ago. Had she known?

  When Liam had heard her father’s name a minute ago, he’d assumed she was the reason behind the appeal. She’d been pissed when he’d ended things with her eighteen months or so ago. But she’d run her course. Although she’d been a long-distance hook-up, Liam had still grown bored by the six-month mark, prompting him to stop seeing her when he came to town.

  He suddenly realized their thing had been similar to what he’d done with Aubrey last year. Except with Whitney, she’d done all the initiating, while with Aubrey, it had been more mutual. The other exception was that Liam had tired of Whitney, but he still couldn’t get enough of Aubrey. And it wasn’t just her body, because Whitney could’ve fulfilled that need at any time. With Aubrey it had been something more, something he couldn’t define and didn’t want to.

  Hell, there was no point thinking about that right now. Or ever really. A vision of her laughing with her lame-ass date rose in his mind, and he shoved it all away. He looked from Kyle to Sean, who’d secretly married their sister Tori in Vegas on the eve of their brother’s suicide, much to Tori’s absolute devastation. She’d spent most of last year pushing everyone away, including her secret husband, but they’d found their way back to each other last fall. They had settled into Ribbon Ridge like an old married couple—her with a burgeoning architecture firm and Sean with his production company, which he co-owned with Evan’s new wife, the spectacularly famous actress Alaina Pierce.

  “What, no response?” Kyle asked, narrowing his eyes. “What’s up with you, Liam?”

  “Nothing.” He pulled himself back to the conversation about Parker. “That’s effed up. Glad to know our business matters are someone else’s revenge trip.”

  Kyle paused in lifting his glass to drink. “ ‘Our’ business matters? You just mean Archer business, since you don’t really have anything to do with them, right?”

  Liam got the dig, and he deserved it. Immediately following Alex’s suicide, he hadn’t been the only one who’d refused to come home, but the others who had—Kyle and Evan—had both returned since then and had done so in spades. Kyle had exceeded everyone’s expectations, taking over for Hayden as COO at Archer when Hayden had accepted the wine-making internship in France and jumping into The Alex project like he’d been there from the start. He’d even found a top-notch landscape architect and groundskeeper in his fiancée, Maggie. Meanwhile, Evan had taken over Alex’s old job at Archer as creative director, plus he was managing the creative aspects for The Alex. Everyone had a hand in the family business. Everyone but Liam.

  Not that he cared—he had his own real-estate development company in Denver. He’d taken over the true family business that their forefathers had started when they’d founded Ribbon Ridge. The Archers owned half the town, and Liam had inherited his great-grandfather’s head for development and business. So Dad had repeatedly told him. Liam could’ve easily stepped into that role at Archer, freeing Dad up to focus more on his true love: crafti
ng beer. But Liam hadn’t wanted a hand-me-down. He’d wanted to build something from nothing. And he’d wanted to do it nice and far away from Ribbon Ridge.

  More accurately, he’d wanted to do it nice and far away from his family.

  Oh, come on, asshole, you can at least be honest with yourself—you wanted to be far away from Alex.

  He gulped down half his beer. “Nope, none of it has anything to do with me. You’re right about that,” he said at last.

  “Why is that?” Sean asked, leaning on the counter and looking at Liam. “How come you’re the only one who stays away?”

  Because I was a constant reminder to my twin of what he could never be.

  But now that twin was gone. Why couldn’t he come home? Ugh, too much shit to think about when all he wanted was a really good buzz. And since jumping out of an airplane wasn’t going to happen at eight o’clock on a Saturday night, he’d have to settle for more beer. Or maybe something stronger. Hell, maybe he should blow out of here altogether.

  Yes, run upstairs and change his clothes, then sneak out the back to the garage, where he kept a bike for when he was in town. A nice night ride—the weather was perfect—would give him enough of a buzz to release some of his pent-up frustration. Or pent-up lust, more like it. Wind whipping through his hair, bike beneath him devouring the road at sixty miles an hour. Sounded like heaven.

  As close to heaven as he was going to get tonight, since Aubrey seemed intent on dogging him. Fine. He didn’t need her. He didn’t need anybody. Hadn’t he established that over the past six years?

  Kyle clapped him on the shoulder. “Dude, are you even here tonight?”

  “For a little while longer.” Liam drank the rest of his beer and set it back down. “Another one, Sean.” Not if he wanted to ride. “On second thought, never mind.” He looked at Sean and answered his question. “I don’t come back here permanently because, let’s face it, no one really wants me to. I don’t fit here anymore, and that’s fine by me. I come back four, five times a year. I think everyone sees me just enough to remember why they prefer I live somewhere else.” He slid Kyle a glance. “Right, bro?”

  “Nailed it.” The snarky response was expected and made Liam grin, but there was something behind Kyle’s eyes that made him uncomfortable. Something that Liam hoped Kyle would keep to his damn self.

  “See you guys later,” Liam said, turning from the counter and intending to steal up the back stairs to his childhood bedroom, where he stayed when he was in Ribbon Ridge.

  “Hey,” Kyle called after him. “If you’re leaving, don’t forget about the wedding brunch tomorrow morning. Eleven o’clock.”

  He paused on his way out of the kitchen and looked over his shoulder at his younger-by-a-few-minutes brother. With his surfer blond hair and blue-green eyes, he took more after Mom, while Liam took more after Dad. But they shared the trademark Archer nose and square chin.

  “Why do you assume I’ll be gone all night?” The fact that Kyle had reminded him of an event that was taking place here, where Liam was staying and therefore sleeping, inferred he didn’t think Liam would be home.

  Kyle laughed. “Dude, you hook up with someone every time you come back to town. You disappear overnight all the time. No worries—go do your thing.”

  Yes, he did do that. There’d been a long line of women before Aubrey, but the thought of finding someone else who wasn’t her gave him a bad taste in his mouth.

  He jogged upstairs and changed into jeans, a long-sleeved shirt, and the riding boots he kept here. He shrugged into his leather jacket and zipped it up to his chin before snagging his helmet and gloves from the closet.

  Another quick trek down the back stairs and he was soon outside, weaving his way through the cars parked between the garages. It was a good thing he didn’t want to take a car; he wouldn’t have been able to get one out. His bike was in the last garage, parked with a handful of ATVs they used from time to time on his parents’ property. That sounded fun, too—maybe someone would want to go for a ride tomorrow.

  Right now, though, he was going for a ride. Hopefully the speed and the brisk night wind would be enough to drive Aubrey Tallinger from his mind. That’s all he could hope for, since he was pretty sure his body would never be able to forget her.

  Chapter Two

  LIAM RODE NEARLY to the beach and back, taking back roads he’d traveled hundreds of times. Though it was only April, it was warm, and the promise of summer was in the air.

  He was exhausted, and it was going on eleven o’clock, but he wasn’t ready to head home just yet in case people were still milling around the house at the reception. He didn’t want to see his family, and he sure as hell didn’t want to see Aubrey or her date.

  He pulled into Ruckus, Ribbon Ridge’s answer to a dive bar. On the western edge of town, it was the only alternative to The Arch and Vine, the Archers’ flagship pub at the center of Ribbon Ridge. No way in hell was he going there, even though he knew none of his family would be there. One of the employees would still tell someone who would tell someone else, and soon every Archer would know Liam had shown up.

  Even going to Ruckus, there was still a chance they’d find out he’d chosen to hang out at a dive bar over his own brother’s dwindling wedding reception. Ribbon Ridge was, after all, a small town, and its inhabitants pretty much knew everyone else. Or at least they knew someone who knew someone. It was two degrees of separation instead of six.

  He parked his bike and went into the windowless building. It was moderately crowded, but then it was Saturday night. There’d be a lot of nonlocals passing through town on their way home from the casino, which was on the way to the coast.

  He beelined for the bar and set his helmet down. He recognized the bartender and nodded. “Hey, Brian, shot of Patrón.”

  “You got it.” He poured and slid it over to Liam. “Lime or salt or anything?”

  Liam shook his head just before tossing it back. The tequila slid down his throat and gave him the perfect mix of heat and hell yeah. “One more. Then a beer—whatever IPA you have on tap.” He preferred Archer beers to everything else, but you could only get them at an Archer brewpub or his parents’ house. Okay, and at his place in Denver, since he regularly had kegs shipped to his condo and his office. It was the one piece of Ribbon Ridge he couldn’t live without.

  Really? Beer was the thing he couldn’t live without? Shit, he was lame.

  Brian refilled the shot glass with the tequila, then went to the tap at the other end of the bar.

  “Drinking alone?” A honeyed, feminine voice came from his right. A voice he recognized. A voice he had a bone to pick with.

  He turned his head and took in the curly blonde hair and razor-sharp brown eyes of Whitney Parker. “Not drinking with you, that’s for sure.”

  She sat down on the stool beside his, not appearing to care that he’d basically told her to get lost. “Ouch.” When Brian deposited Liam’s beer, she flashed the bartender a smile. “I’ll have what he’s having—the shot and the beer. And put it on his tab.”

  Liam had to respect her gall. One thing about Whitney Parker—she had a mind and drive of her own, and screw anyone who got in her way. It was how she’d grown a women’s fitness-wear company from a college project into a massive success that would likely go public in the next two years. She was exactly the kind of woman Liam ought to go for on paper: gorgeous, confident, wicked smart, and a larger-than-life personality. Too bad she was also batshit crazy.

  And it sounded like her apple hadn’t fallen far from her father’s tree, given his revenge plot against Dad.

  Liam turned his head to look at her. “I heard your dad is trying to screw us over. That hotel was my brother’s dying wish. Trying to block it is a real dick move.”

  She turned toward the bar. “Yeah, well, I don’t have anything to do with that.”

  “Are you sure? Because as soon as I heard about it, I was certain you did. Aren’t you still pissed that I didn’t want to se
e you anymore?”

  Brian dropped off her drinks and, to his credit, tried to pretend like he hadn’t heard what Liam had said. Not that Liam cared.

  She threw back her tequila shot and slammed the empty glass on the bar before giving him a blazing glare. “Classic. You think I’m waiting around for you like some lovelorn puppy? Get over yourself.”

  Wait, she’d texted him not too long ago to ask if he’d be in town for Evan’s wedding and, if so, suggested they hook up. Yep, crazy. “Okay, whatever you say. I still think you had something to do with the zoning appeal. What does your father care if we run a commercial business up there?”

  “He owns the property at the bottom of the hill. He doesn’t want a bunch of traffic going up the road.”

  Liam turned his stool toward her. “There’s nothing on that property. He doesn’t live there.”

  She sipped her beer. “Not yet, but he’s considering building. He wants a retirement home. Or I might build something new there.”

  “Uh-uh, not buying it. I know you finished your mega mansion between here and McMinnville just last year.” He’d been to the house while it was being built, and she’d regaled him with design plans. It was her dream house, and she was rightfully proud to be building it with her own money before she was even thirty. She looked at it like a goddamned trophy. “The amount of time and money you spent on that place? No way you’re moving. Your dad’s just being a prick because my mom dumped him a thousand years ago and married my dad, and you’re probably egging him on.”

  She rolled her black-lined eyes. “You Archers are such arrogant jerks. It wouldn’t matter who was trying to rezone that property. My dad would still be fighting it.”

  Liam laughed. “Bullshit. But whatever. We’ll have our day in court and kick your asses.”

  “You can hope so, but our attorney is one of the best land-use lawyers in the state. While yours is . . . What’s her name? Audrey Culpepper? Fulbright? Tarryton?” She shook her head. “I don’t remember. Audrey never-heard-of-her. Good luck with that.”