by Hart, Taylor
He should have been the movie star, not Grant, she thought. Hollywood would have eaten Tom up.
Another two hard knocks. It was him beyond the door; she was sure of it.
Humiliation reigned. Of course Trina would give Will Emily’s room number. She was surprised Trina didn’t find a way to light up the path from Tom’s room to hers with flower petals or something. Her mouth was dry, and she couldn’t open the door. She couldn’t face him.
Another two knocks. “Ems!” His voice wasn’t a yell, but it was loud. “Open up. We gotta talk.”
Abruptly, she grabbed the handle and pulled the door open.
His hand was in the air, and his mouth was partially open. It looked like he was about to knock and call out again. Surprise washed over his face, and he slammed his mouth shut, putting down his hand.
Wild attraction swept through her. Yeah, he’d looked amazing on the beach and amazing in his room, still without a shirt, but now, he had on a white crisp shirt with khaki shorts and hiking sandals. And his cologne. Holy crap, when did Tom start wearing cologne like that? Definitely, not the cheap kind from high school.
“Hey.” He cocked an accusing eyebrow at her.
Once again, her mouth was dry. Her mind felt scattered. She blinked and tried to hide the fact that her face was turning warm. Probably the blotchy red she hated.
His eyes trailed down her body briefly, then back to her eyes. “Going somewhere?” His question felt so casual. Like they always ran into each other in hotels in Maui after ten years of not seeing each other and without a broken engagement and growing up best friends between them.
“H-hey.” She licked her lips and tried to calm her heart. Dang, the man was fine.
He widened his stance and crossed his arms, his gaze turning … what? She still didn’t know, and it was so frustrating. “We need to talk.”
It wasn’t the boyish way he’d asked when they were younger. In fact, there wasn’t a question in his tone. It caught her off guard. “We do?”
He nodded.
She wanted to tell him to go away, forget it all and run, but she could tell this version of Tom wouldn’t allow that. He felt bigger, more immovable. So she didn’t move either.
“I agree to be your wedding date.”
Date sounded so official. “You do?”
He nodded again.
A reflexive laugh came out of her, and she felt herself loosen up. Which felt weird. This whole present-meets-past thing had her off-balance. She stumbled back, losing her footing. “Huh.” She held the door handle to steady herself.
“Whoa.” Tom’s hands settled on her shoulders. Her bare shoulders. Tom’s six-two had always been nice to her five-six. Sometimes, at the most random times, when she was dressed up with heels, she’d missed Tom’s height.
The moment went slow and sticky, and Emily became intensely aware of his scent. All of the old feelings for Tom surged through her. Once again, memories snuck up. It felt like the place she’d stowed away all those memories had been stabbed and air was leaking out. “Thanks.”
He blinked and then looked at her lips. She knew that look. The kissing look. She’d known that look since forever. The pull was like the force of two magnets coming back together. For the last ten years, there’d been nothing to bring them into the same sphere, but now, once they’d come within reach, it felt like there was no keeping them apart.
“I meant everything, Ems. I meant everything.” He ticked off things on his fingers. “Our growing up together, falling in love, envisioning a life, proposing, and that night …” He trailed and his eyes turned wild. “I meant that night.”
She never could have imagined having a “come to Jesus” moment with Tom in this kind of circumstance. Somehow, she found words. “I’m sorry about before. I … my sister says I run away from difficult situations.”
He stayed right there, his breath warm against her face. “Tell me something I don’t know.”
Dang, was he really pinning her to the wall again about this?
But his look turned to one of resignation. “Sorry, never mind. Look—” He ran a hand through his hair. “—I want you to know that the day you left, I did go to your house to try to talk some sense into you—”
“And I was gone,” she finished quietly.
He nodded.
“I couldn’t lose you too.”
“What the hell does that mean?”
Shock pulsed through her, and she wanted to duck away from him, but she fired back. “I couldn’t just sit by and watch you die!” She stomped her foot for good measure. “Remember how we’d talked about the whole ‘you can’t leave because you could die’ thing?”
He scowled at her. “Unacceptable,” he said, but his voice had softened. “Tell me the real reason you left.”
“Really? Really, Tom? It’s been ten years. Ten years and—”
He cut off the rant and grabbed her wrist. “Yes, Emily. It’s been ten years. And you just stood on the beach and told me you regretted the one night we spent together.” Emotion misted in his eyes, and she wanted to cry. “You told me you regretted the only thing I’ve held on to.”
The moment went slow, and Emily looked down at his hand covering her wrist. He was hurting her.
Yanking his hand back, he ran it through his hair and cursed.
She had a flash of understanding. “We’ve both been suffering, Tom.”
“Have we? Did you suffer, Emily? Because I’ll tell you that losing you …” His voice broke. “Losing you about killed me.”
Pain stabbed into her heart, and tears filled her eyes. “Tom, don’t—”
“What, Emily? Don’t what?”
“I couldn’t—” She turned away from him. “Don’t do this.”
He took her by the shoulders. “You’re right, Ems. It’s been ten years. Let’s do this.” He wasn’t yelling anymore, but he was intent on her, and she knew that this was the “come to Jesus” moment.
She hesitated and then looked at the ground. “My dad left me, and I wasn’t about to get left again.”
Jolting back, he dropped his hands from her shoulders. “Okay.”
“Trina says I have dad issues.” She blew out a breath. “Maybe. I—”
“But you regretted being with me?”
Vulnerability. Yes, that was what Tom was feeling. She was feeling it too.
She shook her head and blinked away the tears in her eyes. “I’m not going to lie; part of me was ashamed we’d crossed so many boundaries. Boundaries I know I wanted to cross, but I dunno. I was eighteen. Maybe I thought if I held you as tight as I possibly could, it would have kept you from leaving. The next day I knew how stupid that was, and yes, I’ve regretted it. I wanted—” Gosh, was she going to admit this? “I wanted to wait for marriage.”
Silence passed between them.
Tom let out a strangled breath. “I should have just married you, eloped with you before any of that happened.”
While part of her was touched that he would say that, she knew that thinking about the past wasn’t useful. “But we both moved on.” It’d been meant to be said in a positive way, but both of them knew it was crap.
His jaw flexed as his gaze seared her. “I respected your choice, but I can’t you tell how many times I’ve missed you.”
Emily swallowed, feeling like the carefully constructed safety net she’d put around herself was beginning to fall away. “I’m sorry for everything.”
Tom narrowed his eyes. “Quit telling me you’re sorry, because I’m not. I’m not sorry for any of it. Sure, it’s been the worst pain in my life, but I wasn’t sorry for that last night.” He grabbed her hand. “The only thing I’m sorry about is … well, I already told you what I should have done.”
He should have married her. Her stomach fluttered with butterflies.
The air thickened between them, and she wondered if he might still want a relationship with her. Was that what he was saying?
Gently, he pushed his finge
rs through her hair. “I thought of you for so long.”
Unable to do anything except melt at his touch, Emily closed her eyes.
“I’ve wanted to see you. I’ve wanted …” He trailed off, his breath in her ear.
Her eyes opened slowly, drinking in his beautiful blue gaze. “Tom,” she whispered.
“Dang it, Ems,” he whispered. He leaned in slowly to touch his lips to hers and cupped the back of her head, pulling him closer to her. She linked her hands around his neck. Her body felt like it had turned to liquid.
When they came up for air, he searched her eyes.
“Kiss me again,” she said.
“Are you sure?” he whispered next to her ear, pausing to let her lips cross the centimeters to his. He wanted no more regrets for her.
Her lips met his once more, and as the kiss deepened, she closed her eyes and wound her arms around his neck.
Chapter 11
Kissing this woman felt like the most natural thing in the world. Like home.
A monsoon of physical attraction rushed through him. Tom knew what it was like to be in a desert. He’d served two tours in Afghanistan, on the ground and taking care of the helos. He’d stood with an AR strapped to his shoulder and watched helos whip sand into his face. He’d fought when he’d had to. He’d waited in the desert for hours, days, dreaming of water. One time, he’d seen an actual mirage. He’d seen the palm trees and the spring. He’d run toward it. His buddies had to hold him back.
Luckily, supplies had come, and he’d drunk. In fact, he’d been sick from drinking so much. That was the key to rehydrating after being in the desert. Go slow. It took discipline to learn that skill.
As he held this woman and felt her respond to him, his control slipped. Snaking an arm around her waist, he pulled her flush against him.
The memory of every kiss he’d shared with her flooded him. All he’d ever wanted to do was be next to her, kissing her, for the rest of his life. It was the thing he’d pushed into the deep recesses of the “don’t go there” mental box. Now, it was coming out.
A slight moan escaped her lips. The moan only encouraged him, and he found himself pushing her back forcefully, with the hand not around her waist. He shook his head. “We need some space.”
Her eyes flashed open, and the memory of those soft green eyes surged through him. How many times had he seen those eyes in his dreams? How long had it taken him to get those eyes out of his head? Yet here they were again, and he didn’t know if he would ever recover.
She looked stunned. Then she dropped her arms from him and took a step back. “I’m sorry.”
He recovered, pulling his arms back and sucking in a breath. “I told you to quit saying that.” His heart hammered, every part of him only wanting to pull her back in and kiss her again. It’d been less than five hours since Emily Times had come back into his world, and already all the walls he’d built over the last ten years had come crashing down. This woman was a Scud Missile he hadn’t seen coming.
“This was a bad idea,” she said, letting out a breath and touching her lips before looking at her fingers like she couldn’t believe they’d just done that.
He ran a hand through his hair and scoffed. Here he was, back at ground zero. Like the last ten years meant nothing.
She took a step back. “I never should have asked you to be my date.”
Dang, she shouldn’t have if she wasn’t ready to have him back in her life, and he didn’t know if she was or not. He was getting all these mixed signals. Was he ready for her?
“I’ll—” She broke off. “Thank you for offering, Tom.” She said his name like it was part of an affidavit. “I think I’ll just fare on my own.”
“Being the pitied loser?” The question was out before he’d known he would say it.
Sharply, she met his gaze. “What?”
He could tell she was annoyed. Maybe that’s what he wanted. Heaven knew, in regards to this woman, he was tired of not getting what he wanted. “Your words, not mine.” He had settled into deliberate calmness, like he was investigating a fire and needed to make a report. “Here’s the deal. Will left because he insisted I have time with you.”
His words held in the air, and she frowned.
“So that leaves me on the island with all these excursions that are paid for, and they’re for two. And I’m not going to be the only Kent brother who has to vacation by himself.”
Her eyes fluttered. “Oh.”
Tom sighed, rubbing his lips. Already he missed kissing her. “No backing out on me a second time, Ems. No breaking your word again. I’ll do the rehearsal dinner and dancing and wedding with you tomorrow, but I need you to do the excursions with me.”
Emily stared back at him, her expression teetering between understanding and confusion.
That kiss wasn’t a pity kiss, he realized, and it had cleared his mind. “I think you owe me that much after everything, Ems. Don’t you?”
Chapter 12
If someone had told Emily an earthquake would happen today and the ground would swallow her up and spit her back out—exactly the way she’d been ten years ago—she wouldn’t have believed them. Yet here she was, unraveled by this man in front of her. Not just because those kisses were amazing. She swallowed, thinking the kisses were just the tip of the iceberg. She took two steps back, wanting distance from Tom and needing to answer his question. “No, this won’t work.”
Tom’s face brightened. “I think those kisses proved it will.”
Emily had to concede that. She knew he was right, at least about the date. They had a lot zing between them, so everyone would definitely buy it. “Okay, we need a story. I broke up with Brett a month ago, and you and I have been dating.”
Tom frowned. “No, the truth.”
“What?”
“No story, Ms. Attorney. Just the truth.”
“The truth.”
“I’ve always found it useful.” He cocked an eyebrow. “Like when I say I’ll marry someone, I mean it.”
Emily glared at him. “Too easy.”
The edges of his lips went up, taking the sting out of his comment. “Okay, I ask that the previous comment be stricken from the record, judge.”
She cracked a smile. “Fine. The truth.”
“Great.” Hesitantly, he reached for her hand. “Maybe we should practice the kissing again, just to sell it.”
She let out a nervous laugh. What was she doing? They weren’t kids anymore. She shook her head and pulled her hand away. “No, Tom.” She pushed her fingers into her right temple, feeling a headache coming on. “We have to remember it’s just a date.”
Tom scowled at her. “Why?”
“Because there’s so much between us, and we obviously can’t get along.”
“I don’t think you can hide how well we get along, and it’s bugging you.” The side of his lip turned up in a sexy way. “Can you?” He wagged his eyebrows, something he used to do when they were kids and he was teasing her.
Hesitating, she couldn’t help but smile. Tom looked overly pleased that her kiss had betrayed how much she was into him. She shook her head, not wanting to think about that. “Okay, let’s just focus.” She wagged a finger at him. “You’ll come to my stuff, and I’ll come to your stuff. Then we’ll go back to our lives.”
The surly look was back. “That’s what you want? Back to your life?”
His question took her by surprise. This was all happening at lightning speed. What was he saying? “I just broke up with my boyfriend this morning on the phone. Now …” She threw up her hands and looked away, trying to clear her head. “This feels—”
“Normal,” he said quickly.
She blinked. “That’s not what I’m saying.” But she couldn’t forget the way he took her in his arms. “Maybe wrong.”
“Wrong?” He looked offended.
Her mind felt mushy and confused, exactly the opposite of the way it usually felt in court in front of a jury. “No. That’s not what
I meant.”
“What do you mean, Ems?” he asked, closing the gap between them and trailing a hand up her arm. “Because it felt right to me.”
She couldn’t think with him touching her. “Why wouldn’t you see me last summer when I messaged you?”
Abruptly, his hand stopped running down her arm, and he pulled it back. He scrunched up his face. “Do you want me to be your date or not?”
Obviously, he didn’t want to talk about it. She didn’t respond for a few moments.
Tom closed his eyes, then flashed them open. “You’re right. We shouldn’t do this.” He turned and walked out the door.
Then he was gone.
Chapter 13
Tom walked into his hotel room, all keyed up and wishing his brother had already left for the airport, but he hadn’t.
“What happened?” Will demanded over the chatter of the television, leaning back on the sofa.
“It’s not happening.”
Confusion crossed Will’s face, and he stood, turning off the T.V. and putting the remote on the coffee table. “Why?”
Tom slowly took in a breath of air, then let it out and counted to four. This helped him when he got upset. “You don’t understand.” Even Tom didn’t understand what had happened to end up with them in a lip lock. All of the old feelings had rushed back in full force, like a fire exploding and destabilizing the whole house.
His brother’s hand landed on his shoulder. “Bro, I have discussed this extensively with Grant. Your pride is what keeps you from your destiny.”
Tom flung Will’s hand off and pushed his brother in the chest—hard. “My pride? That’s rich, coming from two of the most prideful people I know.”
