Again, he did the hand holding thing as he drove, but she sensed that he was preoccupied. When they reached her home he helped her down and walked her to the door, still in complete silence. “Do you have anything planned for the day?”
“No, I think I’ll do some writing.”
“Fine, I’ll pick you up later, or I’ll bring something in for dinner.” That sounded so domesticated, but there was nothing domesticated about the kiss he gave her, or the way his arms held her as if she belonged there. Her toes literally curled in her sandals and she was clinging to him before she could stop herself.
No wonder he turned into Mr. Hyde after each kiss. He probably thought she was looking for happily ever after the way she clung to him. Like a little lost puppy. “Stop it. Go inside and make sure your phone is charged. I’ll call you so that you can have my number saved.”
He took a folded piece of paper from his jeans pocket with what she gathered was the number to her new cell phone on it. With one last look and a kiss to her temple he was gone.
She stood in the same spot for another minute or so trying to make sense of what was going on with her life in the last couple of days. As she moved into the daunting little space, she realized it had been more than twenty-four hours since she’d mourned the loss of her former life. At least that was something.
Chapter 6
***
Across town, Kyle was headed into the office of one Dr. Paul Blunt. He needed to see what the fuck he was up against. Not that he saw the other man as competition, he wouldn’t allow that shit. But he needed to get a look and feel for this guy to see what it was that she seemed to want to hold onto.
The little receptionist at the desk saw him coming and perked right up. If he wasn’t already half gone over the one he’d just left, he might’ve given her a second glance. Figures, the day after he’d met that one he’d run into just the type of woman he would’ve gone for had she not flung herself under his damn skin. Ain’t that a bitch?
“Good afternoon, may I help you?”
“I need to see the doctor.” He looked at her just to see if there was anything. Not a fucking blip. His dick was still semi-hard, but she had nothing to do with it, he couldn’t even raise a smile for her and she was trying so hard. If she smiled any wider it would break her jaw.
“Oh do you have an appointment?” She looked down at the appointment book on her desk. There was no one in the sitting area, but if the guy was busy he could always come back, though he’d prefer to get this shit over and done.
“No, is he busy?”
“Actually, you’re in luck. He’s between patients right now. Have a seat and I’ll see if he can see you now. What’s your name?”
“Clancy, Kyle Clancy.”
“I’ll be right back.” She threw him another megawatt smile and added a little sashay to her walk as she headed down the short hallway to the closed door. It wasn’t long before she was back ushering him into the office.
He walked in with a chip on his shoulder, his back up, and his gut full of something. This was the man who’d had his Kerry. He didn’t know since when he’d started thinking of her like that, but it didn’t matter now. “Yes may I help you?”
“You’ve got to be shitting me.” He turned and walked right the fuck back out.
He wasn’t sure what he’d been expecting, but that milksop wasn’t it. What the fuck? What had she ever seen in that guy? The dude looked more like a wet behind the ears kid than anybody’s husband. He looked soft and just, fuck. The fuck had a receding hairline and the beginning of a paunch.
He couldn’t believe he’d been worried about that fuck. And the truth is he had been. He didn’t admit that to himself until now, but that’s part of what had been bothering him. Now he had one last pressing question that he needed answered and he could put this shit away. Whatever lingering feelings she may still have for that runt he’d fuck them out of her plain and simple.
Lucille had given him the name and the address in passing, but it wasn’t until now that he realized the significance of the last names. These days, divorcees didn’t really go to the trouble of changing them, though he was glad she did, but he needed to know. He was fucking obsessed.
He wanted to know if she’d ever lit up for that fuck the way she did for him. If she ever clung to him like she was trying to get under the same skin. The thought infuriated him so much that by the time he got back to her door he was halfway to a raving lunatic again.
He laid on the doorbell until she came, looking flustered and out of breath. “What the fuck were you doing?” He moved her out of the way and stepped inside his eyes combing the room.
“What, nothing? I was in the kitchen getting coffee I had to run to get the door.” He looked down at her and all he wanted was to pick her up and find the nearest flat surface. Or the wall, the wall could be good. Though he thought the first time he got inside of her it might be better for her if she was horizontal. The way she made him feel, he was sure there would be very little finesse.
“Why did you go back to your maiden name?”
Her eyes clouded over and he saw the hurt before she was able to cover it up. “Paul petitioned the judge to forbid me to use his name legally. His…his wife didn’t want there to be another Mrs. Blunt in town, except for his mother of course.”
Her eyes were wide pools of hurt and misery. He pulled her into his chest as it ached for her. What the fuck had those two done to her? He felt. For the first time in a long time he felt something for someone other than family. He kept replaying her life story as it had been told to him over and over in his head as he held her, this final blow tearing at his heart.
As much as he wouldn’t have wanted her to have the other man’s name, he could only imagine what being stripped of everything had done to his sensual little girl. She’d been completely destroyed.
As he stood there, holding her fighting back raw emotion. Pain, anger, hate. He promised himself that he wouldn’t fuck with her unless he was sure of what it was he was after. The need was there yes. The desire to bury himself deep inside her hot little body and fuck for a week rode him hard. But he couldn’t see himself using her and walking away, not after all she had already been through.
Pulling back, he took her face between his hands so he could study her eyes. “You’re a very brave girl aren’t you baby?” She would have to be to have stayed here after all this shit, even if she’d had nowhere else to go. A lesser woman would’ve crumbled into dust.
He didn’t wonder at the wealth of emotion that rose up in him as he looked into her bruised soul through her eyes. He wanted to wrap her up in cotton and protect her from everything and everyone else. But who was going to protect her from him?
What was he going to bring into her life? And was she ready for it?
She’d better be, because it looked like it was out of his control. Maybe it was providence after all that they’d met, and fuck if he knew fuck all about that sappy shit. But whatever he knew or didn’t, one thing was for sure. He couldn’t leave her until he saw this thing through. Come what may, she was in his blood now and he was afraid it wouldn’t be easy getting her out again.
“Why don’t I join you for that cup of coffee sweetheart?” He didn’t answer the questions in her eyes, but instead took her hand and walked deeper into the apartment after closing the door.
He hated this place. She didn’t belong here. First chance he gets he was going to look into that divorce of hers. Though he sure as fuck didn’t want her to have anything from the other man, he wouldn’t mind raking the fuck over the coals to get her some of her own back.
He had yet to lay eyes on this ex-best-friend, but he was sure from what little he’d learned that she was of the same caliber as that Sarah person. Fucking succubus. He could well imagine that his princess was no match for her, not in that arena anyway. She didn’t seem like she could hurt a fly if the fucker buzzed around her head all day. He’d just have to bring some of his own special b
rand of fuck you to the little town. There was no fucking way he was living here with that shit hanging over his woman’s head. FUCK!
It looked like she’d done in two days what his gramps hadn’t been able to accomplish in weeks. One day with her and already he was thinking of staying. He didn’t dwell too heavily on the change. Nothing was set in stone yet. But he accepted that walking away from this, from her, wasn’t going to be as easy as he’d first believed.
“You go back to your writing, I’ll get the coffee.” He stopped her from going into the kitchen. His mind was now going in the opposite direction from only a day ago. Instead of tucking tail and running like he’d been tempted to, he was now ready to go full blast to stay. That’s always the way with him. No half stepping. Anything in life that was worth having he’d move mountains to attain.
She was such an enigma though, a mix of siren and innocent. A combination he had no experience with but was sure he was going to enjoy the fuck out of tapping into. It didn’t matter that things were moving way too fast, or that some might wonder at the timing. Fuck that! He’d never given a good damn what anyone else thought and he wasn’t about to start now.
He came back with his coffee and the one he’d found sitting on the counter. Placing hers beside her, he turned his back and walked over to the two stingy windows that looked out onto an even stingier patch of grass. He strategized his next move while she tapped away at the keys behind him. He felt his shoulders relax with every sip of the strong brew as her presence in the room gave him peace.
That was it wasn’t it? That’s how she’d snuck in under his guard. With her he didn’t feel the need to keep his shields up. Looking over his shoulder, he studied her, as she was lost in concentration. It’s funny. She was the one being on earth that he should’ve been more guarded against. The only one who’d ever posed a threat to the man he was.
Yet somehow, he’d left himself open and she’d conquered him without even trying. “So fucking perfect.” He whispered the words to himself before turning back to the windows. He had a fuck load of shit to take care of if he was gonna do this. He heaved a deep sigh before raising his mug to his lips.
Now that he’d sort of made up his mind he no longer had that hunted feeling like he was prey or some fuck. He’d had a good run outrunning the relationship game. He’d kept his head above water and tread carefully along the marsh and traps that other women had set for him.
But he guessed at thirty-five it was time he settled down. His mom would be so pleased, and he was almost certain that she’d love his choice. Once again, he found himself smiling secretly at the fact that she’d reeled him in without any real effort. In fact, he would venture to say that she had no idea she’d even achieved that. Maybe that too was part of the appeal. The fact that unlike most of the women of his acquaintance she hadn’t been gunning for him. She had no idea of his worth, and yet she’d melted in his arms.
He finished his coffee to the sound of her fingers tap-tapping away on the keys behind him. “I’ll leave you to your writing, I’ll be back later.” He needed to get started on some of that shit he had to do. Leaning over, he kissed her long and hard, leaving her slumped against the chair with swollen lips and hungry eyes. “Later.” With a pass of his hand over her amazing hair he left.
His step was a lot lighter than it had been as he climbed into his truck and headed for gramps’ place. As he pulled into the driveway he saw the old man hoofing it from across the street. Him and Lucille had been out in her front yard doing who knows what.
“Afternoon Kyle, how’s our Kerry doing today?” Lucille called from across the way. He didn’t ask the woman how she knew where he’d been. What would be the point? He was sure the two of them had taken up clocking his every move, and probably had a bevy of their old nosy ass friends spying on his ass.
“She’s okay, I left her writing.” Gramps looked better and his color was coming back. He had that old twinkle in his eye that his mother had always accused Kyle of inheriting. Up to no fucking good! “Good boy.” The old man clapped him on the shoulder as they both waved at Lucille and headed for the house.
“So, what are we up to today? You look better.”
“What do you mean grandpa?”
“Well, since you been here you’ve been about the sorriest sight I’ve ever seen. I was about to call your mama and ask her just what the hell you been getting up to in that big city of yours, but hell if you don’t look half alive today.” Kyle just looked at him. Sneaky fucker was up to something.
“That Kerry sure is a fine girl isn’t she? Sad what that sorry son of a bitch did to her, and her being all alone in this world and all.” He shook his head.
Uh huh, I’ve got your game you old fake. “Say gramps, it’s been a while but I seem to remember there used to be this nice neighborhood down by the water.”
What he remembered is that that’s where all the big shots lived. Millionaire row it was called if he recalled. “Well now that place has been all the rage with the out-of-towners here lately. Last I heard some hotshot bought the biggest place down there and built him a mansion. A right beauty I heard tell. Sitting on a prime forty acres overlooking the water on a hill.”
“Oh yeah? They got any more real estate down there for sale you think?”
“Well now I was fixing to tell ya. That hotshot ran into some trouble a few months back. Lost his shirt in some scheme or other, gotta sell. Lucille was just now saying how it’s a shame that beautiful place is gonna go to waste cause sure as spit no one around here can afford it. Been on the market for a spell.”
Kyle didn’t miss the side eyed glance or the hopeful way the old man was looking at him. “Lucille say anything about the price?” He was sure she knew down to the damn penny.
“Two point five million.”
“Hmm. What say you and me head on out there and have a look?”
He hadn’t seen the old man move that fast since he’d come to town. Barring the fact that he was essentially doing this for her, he would’ve done it just to see that joy in his gramps’ face.
They headed out with the old man talking a mile a minute trying to sell him on the idea of small town life. It was true he could work from anywhere and head back when the need arose. She could go with him on those trips. As he listened to the old man try to reel him in he was busy planning her life in his head.
He didn’t once question whether or not she’d be on board with any of this. As far as he was concerned the decision had been made, now set in fucking stone. That part of him that made him such a formidable foe in the boardroom was in full effect. She didn’t stand a chance. Besides, the way she went up in flames in his arms, he didn’t foresee any problems. And if she made her past a stumbling block then he’d just have to smash that fuck into pieces.
He fell in love with the place from a distance. Gramps was right, it looked as if it were looking down at the rest of the town from its great height on top of the hill with the water as a backdrop. The grounds were immaculate, green as far as the eye could see, until they reached the front of the house where the garden bloomed.
There was a gazebo off to the side in the back that could be barely seen as they pulled up to the gate. The sign outside had the name and number of the dealer and he pulled his phone. Gramps was all but jumping in his seat and he didn’t wait for his grandson, just opened the passenger door and hopped out.
“Yeah I’m here at the place on Bakersridge? I need you to come out here and let me in.”
“The place on the hill?”
“Yes.”
“Who’s this, Tom is this you-you asshole? I don’t have time to play games…”
“Hey, I don’t know who the fuck Tom is but I’m sitting outside the gate. I wanna see this place today.”
“Oh-oh sorry sir, so sorry. I’ll be right there give me ten minutes. What’s your name?”
“Kyle Clancy.”
‘Clancy, you any relation to old man Clancy?”
“I guess.
” He hung up the phone before the man could ask him his life story.
Stepping down from the truck he joined gramps as he peered through the gate. “This would be a fine place to raise a passel of kids won’t it?” What the fuck? Could he at least land the girl first? Kyle just put his hand on his hero’s shoulder and squeezed. He’d been had good and proper. They may not have planned it the three of them. But some way somehow everything had lined up just right to land his ass in this mess.
Gramps didn’t even blink at asking him to shell out two mil on a woman he’d only just met, but he guessed that was to be expected from someone who’d married his sweetheart two weeks after meeting her and had enjoyed a full life with her. The memory of his grandma brought a touch of sadness to the day, but a soft breeze like a caress against his cheek took it right away.
They heard the drone of an engine coming up behind them minutes later and turned to see the jeep pulling in behind the Ford three thousand. He’d bought the truck his first week here thinking that he could pack up his hog and whatever necessities gramps might need when he took him home with him. He’d had it all planned out. Now it looked like his plans were gonna have to change.
“Hey there.” The sweaty over weight man came forward with his hand outstretched. “You must be Kyle; I’m Clarence Mayburn, pleasure. How you doing Mr. Clancy? It’s been a while. Sorry to hear about your wife.” He shook the other man’s hand and waited while he unlocked the gate in between his verbal back and forth with gramps.
Kyle and gramps hopped back into the truck while Clarence pulled up the rear and followed them down the drive that had to be at least a thousand feet long. The place had a calming feel about it, like it was waiting to welcome him home. He couldn’t wait to bring Kerry here.
He could see her here more so than that dump the asshole had relegated her to with his actions. It was just the kind of place a woman like her belonged.
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