Claiming Kara [Fate Harbor 3] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour)

by Caitlyn O'Leary

  Olivia stepped forward and pressed her cheek to Kara. “We all love you, especially your brothers. Don’t be too mad at them,” she whispered into her ear.

  Kara stood there. She was in front of a bowl she had made. It was one of her favorites. It reminded her of the aurora borealis, the greens and blues with just a hint of lavender. She continued to stare at it, getting lost in the colors.

  “Hello, Kara.” She ignored the voice, continuing to concentrate on the vibrancy of the hues, the way they blended together to suggest fire in the sky. A warm hand gently came to rest on her shoulder, sending a shock throughout her entire body. She squeezed her eyes shut, wishing she could shut out everything else as easily as she could her vision. “Won’t you please turn around?” Quinn asked.

  “I’d like you to leave.” She could turn around, she realized. But she’d prefer not to. This was her night, and they shouldn’t have come. Quinn didn’t move his hand. She felt Ben’s presence at her other side, even before he tangled his fingers with hers.

  “Please, Kachawli, let us stay.” She managed to keep still, even though she still felt that initial shock of static electricity that often occurred when their flesh met. She turned her face and looked at him.

  “Okay, you can stay.” She dropped his hand and shrugged off Quinn’s. She turned so that she could face them both. “There’s plenty to eat and drink. I hope you’ll have a good time. I know my family will be happy to see you. If you’ll excuse me, I have a date I’ve been neglecting.” She walked over to Jim and he was happy to see her. They went over to talk to Trixie, who walked them around to various new arrivals.

  Jim was great with potential buyers, but when she wanted to go back and see her parents again, he decided to chat with yet another couple that he knew from his country club. Prick. She was surrounded.

  A waiter passed by with a tray of champagne flutes and she stopped him. She suppressed the urge to take two, limiting herself to just the one. She turned to go to her parents, saw Ben and Quinn, made a quick turn back to the waiter, and downed the glass.

  “Pardon me. Can I get one more, please?” She handed him her empty glass, and he gave her another full one with a wink. She turned and made her way slowly to her family. The two Shotbrook brothers looked fucking fantastic, of course. She’d never seen them in suits before. Dane and Eric had enough sense to look nervous. Leif just looked amused. Her mom and dads all looked concerned, and Ben and Quinn looked fan-fucking-tastic.

  She looked over her shoulder for her date, and he gave her a quick wave. Goddammit, she knew he was purposely avoiding her parents, and that was pissing her off, too. She was going to need another ride home, because if they rode home together, it was not going to be pleasant. Kara gave everyone but her parents the stink eye. She was very careful not to make eye contact with either Ben or Quinn. Their eyes held weird kinds of mystical powers. She drank down the rest of her champagne and went to soothe her mom and dads.

  “Hey, Munchkin, it seems like your doctor friend isn’t too keen on your old men,” Papa Conn said.

  “Way to go for the jugular, Conn.” Ilsa elbowed her husband in his side, while Leif, Sr. glared at him.

  “Honey, are you all right? Do you want to leave? This just seems like a lot to have to deal with. We can take you home,” Leif, Sr. said. He put his arm around her shoulders, hugging her close and helping to buffer against the rest of the people in the room. How did he know exactly what she needed?

  “Your mom is right. I’m sorry I was an ass. It’s just that you asked us to have an open mind, and I tried. But he didn’t, so I’m done. He’s an ass. So, let us take you home, Kara.” Her papa stroked his fingers down her cheek.

  “I’m not mad at you. You didn’t hurt my feelings. You’re right, he’s an ass, but I’m still going to use him. I need a buffer,” she said in a low voice.

  “Oh, Kara, you’re just going to make things worse if you play games,” Ilsa warned.

  “I don’t think they can get much worse, at the moment.”

  “Look at it this way, kiddo. According to Trixie you’ve sold almost seventy percent of the show, you’ve got three men drooling over you, and a family falling all over itself trying to make sure you’re happy. I’d say you’re looking at it from the wrong perspective. Your glass is half-full.” Kara leaned in even closer to Leif, Sr. He was right. She was totally blessed by her family, even her obnoxious brothers. But when it came to considering the three men in her life, not so much.

  “Are you sure you don’t want to come home with us? I think it’s going to be busy at your house tonight, honey,” Ilsa cautioned.

  “Not if they know what’s good for them, it won’t be,” Kara snarled. Then she made the mistake of looking over at the group of tall men standing a few yards away. Quinn was talking to Leif, but Ben was staring intently at her. She shifted the glass in her hand and realized it was empty. Where was that winking waiter when you needed him? God, Ben’s gaze was compelling. It was obvious he had no intention of leaving without being heard.

  Then Quinn must have felt something because he broke off mid-conversation with Leif and turned to look at her. Kara felt herself tremble. Quinn didn’t just plan to be heard. Conquer. It was a hard word, with two harsh-sounding syllables and consonants that resounded in her head. There wasn’t a doubt in her mind that she was reading him correctly. She had a primal urge to turn to her parents and have them take her to their house. She shoved that urge down and stared fiercely back at Quinn. He could plan to conquer, to win all he wanted, but he wouldn’t. She knew something he didn’t.

  She’d been hurt too badly to ever let them in again. She just didn’t have it in her to try again. It didn’t matter how much they might want to try—hell, it wouldn’t even matter if she wanted to try again—she just didn’t have the wherewithal. She was empty inside. That’s why she wanted to make a life with a man she didn’t love, because she didn’t have any romantic love to give. It had all been used up. She gave him an unguarded look, no anger, no subterfuge, just the emptiness. She watched as his gaze changed to shock. She shrugged her shoulders and turned to find the waiter and track down her date. It was time to go home.

  Chapter 10

  “Kara, you must be walking on cloud nine.” Jim reached over and put his hand high on her leg and gave it a squeeze as he drove the two-lane highway heading into Fate Harbor.

  “Yep, the show did really well. Trixie will have everything calculated tomorrow.” Kara was too numb to care about his hand.

  “I was surprised at how many of my friends showed up. Apparently, you’re a big name in the Seattle art world. I didn’t realize.” Dumbass. They’d been dating five weeks and he hadn’t done a simple internet search.

  “Yes, I really like Bob and Susan. I’ve met them a few times. I’ve met the Ledsons before, as well.” His hand was creeping higher and now it was becoming annoying. “It seemed like you had a good time with my brothers this afternoon.”

  “They’re great guys. I didn’t realize they were fire jumpers.”

  “I had mentioned that, Jim.” She couldn’t help sounding annoyed.

  “Oh, well I forgot. Anyway, I really enjoyed getting to know them.”

  “What did you think about the rest of my family?” Kara asked. “Did you enjoy getting to know them, too? Or did you feel too uncomfortable around them?”

  “Kara, what are you talking about?”

  “My parents, Jim. I’m talking about my parents.”

  “They seemed nice.”

  “Jim, you couldn’t get away from them fast enough. When we had to leave, you didn’t even shake hands with them, you just waved from a distance. What was your deal?”

  Jim took his hand off her thigh and put it back up onto the steering wheel. “You’re right, I did feel a little uncomfortable,” he paused. “But really, Kara, can you blame me?”

  “Yes, I can. I told you about it ahead of time. I asked you if it was going to be an issue before I introduced you. You ass
ured me it wasn’t. You’re a grown man, you should have known your own mind. I trusted you not to make my parents feel uncomfortable. So, yes, Jim, I do blame you.”

  “I didn’t think it would bother me. But then I saw them together, and it became real for me. Your mom has two husbands.” He said it like she didn’t know it, like he was telling her something new.

  “Jesus, Jim, I told you stories about my life growing up with two fathers. What the hell do you mean that it just became real for you?” Kara could hear herself getting louder, but she couldn’t stop herself.

  “I think we have something really special. I think we’re headed toward something permanent. Haven’t you been on that page, too?”

  “Yes, Jim, I’ve been thinking we might be headed toward something permanent, too.”

  “If we got married, we would end up moving to the suburbs of Seattle. So, how often are we really going to see your parents, anyway? Do my feelings really have to make a difference? Can’t we just avoid seeing them? Do we have to let this come between us?”

  Kara laughed for the first time since she had seen the men from Sitka. “Are you kidding me? My God, Jim, you don’t know me at all, do you? This is most definitely going to come between us. As a matter of fact, there is no us. As far as I’m concerned, you’re a bigot. Actually, you’re worse, because you don’t even see it.”

  “Kara, they’ve got you so damned brainwashed, you don’t even know what’s right and wrong.” Jim was using the patient voice a parent would use with a child.

  “This is not a matter of right and wrong. This is a matter of love. They love each other. That’s what matters.”

  “Kara, it isn’t just morally wrong. It’s repugnant.”

  Kara looked at the man seated beside her. When he looked over at her, she could see that he was trying to make her understand. His hands were gripped tightly on the steering wheel.

  “Did you just say repugnant?” She could barely keep her voice from screeching.

  “Repugnant, icky, whatever you want to call it. It’s all the same. It’s just all wrong, and I don’t want us around it, and I certainly won’t want our children around it. Clearly, you can understand that.”

  “Stop the car.”

  “What?”

  “Stop the car.”

  “Kara, be reasonable.”

  “Stop the god damn car, right fucking now!” They were in the middle of Main Street. It was one in the morning, and it was deserted.

  “I’m not going to leave my date in the middle of nowhere, in the middle of the night. It’s just not done.”

  “Right fucking now, or I’ll rip the steering wheel out of your hand!” she snarled. He pulled over to the side of the road, where she ripped off the seatbelt and got out of the car.

  “You’re acting unreasonable,” he said out of the driver’s-side window as she stormed around the front of the car toward the sidewalk.

  “This is my town, where my family is accepted, where I’m accepted. I feel safer in the middle of this deserted street than I do in your car. Go back to Seattle, Jim.” She went and sat on the bench in front of Hart’s Diner and stared at him. He must have seen the conviction in her eye, because he rolled up his window, pulled a U-turn, and drove back the way he had come.

  Kara sat there and enjoyed the silence. She hadn’t been kidding. She felt safe as a baby in her mother’s arms. This was her town. She’d grown up here. She was safe. She needed some time to think. She was a little worried about who might be waiting at her house. So, sitting here seemed peaceful. The one little worry was that this was a main thoroughfare to get to all the outlying areas, so anyone who left the opening later than she and Jim would soon be passing by and seeing her.

  However, she preferred not to leave it up to fate. Too many things had been out of her control as is, so if she could control this, she would feel better. Normally, Eric or Dane would be her first call, but they were definitely on her shit list. She wasn’t going to call Leif, because he was still trying to find Isabella. He had interrupted his investigation just to come to her opening, which she really appreciated. Her mom and dads were out, just because she was thirty-one and it seemed like too much of a pussy move.

  That left the girls. She was going to skip the two with babies, and Olivia’s men were too tight with the traitors. That left Jesenia. She didn’t answer the first two times she called. Kara hoped Jess’s phone wasn’t on vibrate. On the third attempt, Jess picked up.

  “Kara? Are you all right?” Jesenia’s voice was groggy with sleep.

  “Yeah, I’m fine, but I need a ride. Can you come pick me up?”

  “Sure. Are you still at the gallery?”

  “I’m sitting outside Hart’s Diner.”

  “What are you—nope, never mind. I can be there in thirty minutes.” The phone went dead and Kara smiled. She loved that about Jesenia. Smart as a whip and straight to the point. She started scrolling through the pictures in her phone. She smiled at the one with her parents standing in front of the helix sculpture. She still couldn’t believe the amount of money that the gallery had asked for it and the fact that someone paid that amount. That commission was going to keep Butch and Sundance in filet mignon for the rest of the year.

  Though she was still smiling, looking at the picture made her sad. How could anyone say that her parents’ relationship was morally wrong and icky? She might have been outraged with Jim in the car, but now that she was sitting here, she was sad. In reality, it had been a long time since she had been confronted with that type of bigotry. She’d forgotten about it. It made her sad for her parents, who still had to deal with it. Theirs was the best and healthiest relationship she knew of, and she wasn’t being biased. Maybe one of the reasons she was so impressed is that she had seen firsthand how they had worked through the hard times, and been so loving and caring with one another. They had something that she had always wanted, but had now given up on ever having. So, to hear someone like Jim, or anyone for that matter, saying it was morally wrong, made her sad. She wished she could hold on to anger and outrage instead. Maybe she would be back to those emotions tomorrow, when she wasn’t so tired and overwhelmed. She really shouldn’t have had those three glasses of champagne. She’d hardly been sleeping or eating much lately, so she knew better. Oh, well, what’s done is done.

  She heard a car pull up and was surprised. It had only been five or ten minutes. Jesenia couldn’t be here that quickly. She looked up. Well, great, if that didn’t look like a rental car, she didn’t know what did. The only people around here who would be driving a rental would be the Alaskan tourist trade. She reached into her purse for her keys, detached her house key from the ring, and held it in her fist.

  Kara watched as they both came striding over to her. Ben was wearing a gray suit with a black silk shirt and black tie, his hair a little longer than his shoulders. No matter how empty her heart may have been, her girl parts were in fine working order. She had begun to wonder, since she hadn’t been able to muster any kind of desire for any of the eighteen men she’d had first dates with, but apparently she still had working hormones.

  The suit fit Ben to perfection. He must have had it tailored to get it to fit through his broad shoulders while hugging his lean torso. What she wouldn’t pay to see his ass in those gray slacks! When she looked back up she saw that familiar wicked gleam in his eye and his dimples flash. She grinned back, and then immediately schooled her features back into an impassive expression. She ignored the pain that she saw on Ben’s face and turned to look at Quinn.

  He had worn a black suit with a blindingly white shirt. He looked like a character that had walked out of a James Bond movie, and he had the predatory demeanor to go with it. Kara never dreamed that he could move so sensuously and powerfully in fashionable clothes. She had always thought of him as an outdoorsman. But he could make people in any corporate setting sit up and take notice. God knew there were parts of her that were taking notice. As he moved closer, he looked around the street
. When he saw no one but her, she could see that he was angry.

  “Where is he?”

  “That’s none of your business, Quinn.”

  “What the hell kind of man would leave you in the middle of nowhere in the middle of the night?” Quinn demanded as he stopped in front of her.

  Tipping her head back, she looked him dead in the eye and repeated slowly, “Not. Your. Business.”

  “Tell me what happened.”

  “Not. Going. To. Happen.”

  Ben sat down next to her and put his hand on the same leg that Jim had been holding in the car. The feeling was night-and-day different. “Are you okay, Kara? Something must have happened to make you get out of the car here.” Damn, Ben could always see her emotional upset. She turned to him, ready to tell him the same thing, but when she saw his warm, chocolate-brown eyes, saw the concern and understanding, she found herself unable to be as harsh.

  “Ben, it was nothing. I’m fine.”

  “It had to be a whole hell of a lot more than nothing, to leave you stranded out here at one in the morning,” Quinn bit out. He was clearly frustrated with her lack of communication. “This is dangerous.”

  Kara laughed. “This is Fate Harbor.”

  “Kara, you know just because this is the small town you grew up in doesn’t mean it’s totally safe,” Ben said in a soft and reasonable tone.

  “You’re both giving me a headache. If I wasn’t wearing high heels, and I didn’t want my brothers to be called, I would have walked the three blocks over to the firehouse where Rick is working tonight. I don’t even need to call 9-1-1. I have the police station’s number in my phone because I’m friends with the dispatcher. I’m fine! I’m waiting for a friend! Now here’s the key to my house.” She thrust out her hand at Quinn. “There are clean sheets on the guest bed. There is bedding in the hall closet for the couch. Please be gone when I get there in the afternoon, and never come back.” Quinn made no move to take the key from her hand.