by Ashlyn Brady
* * *
Joe’s mention of physical appearance put a sour taste in Kyra’s mouth. “I know Maddy wants attention, demands it even. That’s how she is. But you’re wrong to think that I use my body to get noticed. How I look on the outside hasn’t brought me a lot of happiness so far.”
His eyes skipped over her face. He didn’t have a comeback. She wondered if he’d experienced his own false starts to relationships with good-looking women.
He looked away for a moment.
The Henriettas gathered around the front bar door.
“When Maddy finds her place in the world she’ll stop behaving in such a self-destructive manner. I think the same about you.”
His words were arrows that shot straight into the center of her pent-up frustrations. “Maddy takes every opportunity to bring me down to her level,” she said. “I don’t remember asking for other’s people opinions about my life.”
In the background, the Henriettas booed at her criticisms of Maddy.
“Let’s go outside where we can talk without an audience,” he said, cupping her elbow.
She tucked her arm against the side of her body. “I don’t want to chat to you about my man problems.” She rolled her eyes at the ceiling. “Heavens above, please send me a team of angels to take Maddy home and lock her up for the night.”
“You go, girl. Go away!” Dizzy Denise, the spiky-haired Henrietta, called out from behind Kyra’s back.
Kyra half-turned toward the slim woman wearing a blue mini-skirt, sleeveless blouse and biker boots. She folded her arms across her chest, which lifted her small bust line higher. Denise stood in the line-up of women barricading the door to the front bar.
Kyra’s stomach dropped at the sight of the hockey tactic she’d seen many times, when the players used their bodies to defend the midfield and block the game of the opposition. Now they were using the tactic to stop her from reaching Maddy. Bile rose up the back of her throat at the realization she was outnumbered, and beaten by the aggressive barrier.
Denise broke away from the row and stomped forward in her boots. “Look at you,” she said, her voice loaded with contempt. “Ka-Ka, you’re a mess…your hair…clutching your skimpy dress against your boobs like a desperate tart.”
The terrible feeling of being singled out for more verbal abuse gave Kyra the shakes. “Stop ripping me apart,” she cried out.
“Back off from Maddy,” Denise said with snark. “Ka-Ka, go home.” She pointed at the French doors. “We won’t miss you.”
Hot tears sprung into the corners of Kyra’s eyes. She turned her back on the pack of Henrietta hyenas. She didn’t want to cry in front of them. She didn’t want to cry at all. She squeezed her eyes shut to stop the waterworks.
“Kyra, come with me,” Joe said in a kind voice.
She opened her wet lids to find him standing in front of her. “I’ll be fine. I want to be left alone,” she said, her voice full of saw dust.
“Go with your new boyfriend and get lost,” Denise yelled, which was greeted with a round of applause from the Henriettas.
Kyra flung a hand over her mouth to muffle her sobs.
“Let’s go,” Joe said, steering her to the outside doors that led to the garden restaurant.
Kyra tasted defeat as the gloating Henriettas bunched together and watched her walk out through the French doors. She had to get away from everyone before she cried like a baby. Leaving Joe’s side, she grabbed hold of the handrail to climb down the short staircase.
She blinked to clear the water in her eyes and looked around the empty brick courtyard strung with garlands of sparkly, fairy lights. Mad Maddy must have also booked the outdoor area for Elin’s party. She wiped the back of her hand across her wet face. At least there were no spectators to see the unwanted tears drying on her cheeks.
Against the timber-slated walls, the white and red lilies in the garden beds gave a light perfume to the night air. There were tubs of greenery placed in the gaps between the hewn pine tables. It was a tranquil haven, except for the spying eyes at the doors, watching her every step. When she glanced back, the rude finger gestures from the Henriettas gave her legs a fresh spurt of power, and she ducked behind a large fig tree growing in a terracotta pot.
Alone and out of sight, her emotions overflowed. She couldn’t keep a man in her life. She closed her eyes to accept the truth Maddy had forced out of her for all the other women to laugh at. She was dateless, now friendless, a wreck, and what the critics didn’t know was that her career had plateaued too.
She huddled deeper into the leaf cover where no one could see her. In her mind, the ambition to lead an exciting life and love an amazing guy had toppled from its lofty height and fallen apart. The reality check made her want to scream, she’d wasted years chasing a fantasy and got nowhere. She was no different to the spinster sisterhood of Henriettas, another try-hard want-to-be but not going-to-be. The high-flying career, the keeper man, and the suburban house with the kids were far beyond her reach.
Her body turned into a pillar of ice. She crossed her arms over her chest to hug herself against the chill spreading over her skin. Despite hearing the sound of footsteps heading her way, she couldn’t pull herself together.
Joe lifted aside a small tree branch to glimpse at her. “Hi there,” he said with a drawn-out sigh. “Kyra, are you okay?” His worried eyes searched her face.
She unfolded her arms from the awkward, straitjacket position. “I don’t know what to say to you,” she said, her voice strained.
He shifted on his feet. “Are you going to stay here or leave the party?”
He stood close to her, and her battered emotions longed for his muscly arms to hold her while she recovered from her crisis. And then she would repeat the pattern of sabotaging a potential relationship with an avalanche of neediness.
She stepped away from the bush to put some distance between them. “I haven’t made up my mind what I’ll do,” she said, just above a whisper. Under the fairy lights, his brow was furrowed and his mouth was a glum slash across his face.
He buried his hands in his trouser pockets. “If you want to call it a night, I’ll phone for a taxi, or I can drive you home in my hire car if you prefer.”
Oh, this guy was unbelievable. He was throwing her a rope to climb up from rock-bottom, but her emotions were still see-sawing in a gloomy, lonely abyss.
“Kyra, it seems that you’ve become an easy target for the angst of the other women.” His dark velvet eyes reflected the same message of concern.
Her heart dropped a beat that couldn’t be recovered because he’d stolen it away with his kind words. Tears dripped down her cheeks. Did he care about the disgraceful squabble she’d had with Maddy? What would happen next in the relationship intervention that Maddy had set in motion? Kyra closed her eyes to stop more tears from welling up.
“You didn’t deserve to be attacked for challenging the pack mentality,” he said in a soothing tone that spread around her like a comforting blanket.
She took a deep breath to fill her cramped lungs with air. How did this man find just the right words, along with a genuine way to say them? He’d witnessed the entire catfight in the lounge and the flash of her breasts, yet he hadn’t acted any less the gentleman. She’d never met a man with his type of good manners. He was lifting her higher out of the pit of despair.
She slowly opened her eyes and took her fill of the gorgeous shape of his face and the soft tint in his dark eyes. He was staking a claim on her heart. “Joe, I acted on my beliefs. Do you think I was wrong to try and stop the stripper act?” Her raspy voice begging for his approval didn’t sound like her own, but sadly it was.
He grimaced, and moments passed before he answered. “Only a foolish man picks sides in a woman’s argument,” he said sagely. “It’s not my party. What I think doesn’t matter.” He gave a tight shrug of his broad shoulders.
“I would like to hear your opinion,” she said with a heavy weight pressing on her chest.
; “I’ve had my turn at shattering other people’s expectations and being punished for it. For years I was cut away from those I cared about,” he said quietly. “Do I have any regrets from opposing what others thought about me? No, I don’t.” His gaze locked with hers. “But if I had my time again, I would keep a lid on my hot temper and wait for the truth to reveal itself.”
In the depths of his eyes, she saw reflections of a guy with his own demons and fears, but they hadn’t torn him apart because he’d found a way to live with them. She grasped her hands together in front of her body to stop herself reaching out to him while the grief lingered in his eyes.
“Your temper is a near relative to mine.” His smile was a blend of shy confession and camaraderie.
The snippet of humor brightened her spirits a little more. “I don’t believe you have a temper,” she murmured.
“Don’t doubt it, Kyra. It’s the reason why I understand yours,” he said with more spunk.
A small chuckle escaped from her lips.
“When you mix fire and passion together, it’s a volatile mix,” he said, knowingly. “Maddy sparked the fire. You safeguarded Elin’s happiness with a passion. Then, boom, there was an explosion of wild forces.”
Kyra brushed her fingers over her wet cheeks. “I thought I was losing my mind over Maddy’s meddling and acting like a psycho sister to Elin. Tell me more, Joe.”
He laughed softly. “No, Kyra, I’ve said more than I should. What man wants to be accused of interfering with the guests at a hen party?”
“I think that if you told me your thoughts, it would be a fair swap of information.” She challenged with her own smile.
He had tilted his head to listen, and his eyes lightened from the glow of the overhead fairy lights.
I told you about Elin’s situation with Marco. I leaned into you for your understanding and support. She paused to find the words to tell him what his companionship meant to her. “I thought you were my chivalrous knight-to-the-rescue?”
He lowered his eyelids to shield his gaze.
She chomped down on her lip as her suspicions worsened over the mixed messages he was giving her.
He smoothed down his hair even though there wasn’t a single strand out of place. “Kyra, don’t think of me that way,” he said in a thick voice that sounded like it came from the bottom of his chest. “I’m a black knight, and I’m not here to save you.”
He was trying to discourage her romantic illusions of him. Shake her off with his claim of being her Mr. Wrong? He was ignoring their mutual attraction and the click of their personalities.
“Then why have you stayed with me from the moment we first met?” She yearned for his arms to fold around her while he told her she’d done well to protect Elin’s wedding dreams. She curled her fingers until her nails bit into her palms. “Tell me the truth.”
His face was grim as he looked down at her. There was pain etched into the shadowed contours of his face. It left her breathless. Someone had beaten up his heart and left those wounds.
“When the party is over, you’ll know whether sticking to your moral code was the right decision for Elin or not. No one can change the outcome of the party but you,” he said with gravity. “You’re the natural leader of the women.”
“Those are strange comments for a holidaying businessman to make about a group of women he doesn’t know.”
His face blanched. She watched him a little longer, gathering her thoughts. Yep, she’d hit on the truth—he was hiding something from her.
“Why are you thinking about the outcomes of the hen night? Why, Joe? Why is Elin making the right decision even on your mind?” Frustration overcame her, and she grabbed his upper arms in a plea for an honest answer.
* * *
The touch of Kyra’s hands on Jovanni’s body sent a zap of electricity up his spine. She was crossing a physical boundary and joining them together as a couple. The vibe about her was alive and thrilling as she pounded at the walls in his head. Time came crashing down around him and his thoughts spun around in circles at breakneck speed.
When the whirlwind slowed, he stopped stressing over the split in his loyalties. The scars on the old Gina wounds were sealed. It was up to him to block out all of the complications that separated him from Kyra.
The thump of his heart against his ribs called for him to sink into this special moment with her. He gazed at the wild beauty of her messy appearance. Her mane of glossy chestnut hair had a wind-blown look from chasing Maddy around the furniture in the lounge.
He took in the smear of ruby gloss on her trembling lips and her teary eyes. Her smoky makeup intensified the usual color of her eyes, brownish when she was in control of herself and greenish when her passion was ignited. How would it feel to kiss the upset out of her hazel eyes?
“If you don’t tell me why you’re following me around, I won’t believe another word you say to me,” she said, giving his arms a shake.
He crossed his arms and wrapped his fingers around her slender wrists to calm her flightiness. “I’m here because I want to get to know you. That’s the truth,” he said. “I don’t want to miss any of your big moments.”
“My big moments,” she spluttered. “So my takedowns are your entertainment for the night. You’re no better than Maddy.” She dropped her arms to the side of her body. “You’re a flawed man, and I’ve lost my taste for insincere douches.”
What was she accusing him of? His heart bounced all over the place as she raced toward the open grill gates at the back of the restaurant. She was leaving. He was losing her. He took to his heels and reached the exit first. There he stood, with his back against the brick pillar and his ankles crossed in the walk-way. “Where are you going?”
She marched up to him. “Anywhere away from you is a better place to be.”
He took the insult on the chin, recognizing the signs of a sizzling temper stoked by the clash of their strong personalities. “I can help you jump off the hamster wheel,” he said in a steely voice.
“What an incredible offer to fix me,” she snapped.
“I don’t fix women.” He held out his hand to her. “I dare you to ride out the storm at the party with me.”
She shook his hand. “Thanks for the invitation, but I have other plans right now, and you’re not part of them.” She torched him with her flaming eyes before she let go of his fingers. “I’m going to skid off the hamster wheel sideways, and I don’t care if it’s a rough landing. I’ve got nothing left to lose. Go home, Joe!”
Her abrupt dismissal gave him no choice but to turn up the heat to change her mind about him. His gaze dropped to her stunning bust. “Are you coming home with me?”
Her face paled. She opened and closed her mouth but no words came out. Mossy green was the color of her eyes when she said, “If I remembering correctly, the next step in Maddy’s intervention is for you to get me out of my knickers.” The words lashed out of her like a whip.
He took another step nearer. “Is that a round-about way of saying I’m the man with the know-how?” He opened his arms to her. “I’m ready for action. Watch your ankles and don’t trip over your lingerie.”
She gasped, and the blood rushed back to her face into two crimson splotches on her cheeks. “As if I’ve lost my brain and would leave the hotel with a stranger who’s shadowing me?”
“I could show you how much I like you with a kiss?” he said, laying on the charm.
“Huh?” She screwed up her cute nose as though it was a weird idea out of left field, but he knew better. If she didn’t want to take their sparking chemistry to the next level, she would have been long gone from his side.
He reached for both of her hands and took them in his. “A kiss is an honest way of saying I like you the way you are. Don’t change to please your critics.” He swung her arms from side to side before saying, “Well, at least not before I loosen you up, or you’ll spoil the fun.” He let go of her.
“How dare you try to sleaze onto me?”
She hooked her right arm up high and her hand sliced through the air to knock his head off. He leant back quickly and dropped his chin to his chest.
She stumbled forward with the momentum of her swinging arm. He held up his palms to call a truce. She gave a feminine grunt of annoyance that she’d missed her target, which made him laugh.
“My mistake, I misread the signs you were interested in a kiss,” he drawled. “Go back inside the lounge and wear out your temper in another round of the catfight.”
She was so mad at him that more gutsy sounds were tumbling out of her mouth. He gazed into the depths of her misty eyes, and the world around him closed down. Time meant nothing to him as he fell into the twin pools of passion. He was lost there…and didn’t want to leave.
She lifted her hand to cradle the side of his face. His breath was jagged at what she would do next. Give him a stinging slap or what? Her fingertips caressed the stubble over his cheek and jaw.
“Kyra, it feels good when you touch me,” he murmured.
“I thought you were a cut above the average guys I’ve met,” she said, choked up. “It’s cruel to throw Maddy’s words back in my face.”
What had he done to her? “I’m sorry. I was a parroting idiot. It was dumb, and I won’t do it again.”
“You’ve treated me as a joke and twisted me in knots.” She drew a shuddering breath and exhaled with gusto. “Go away so I can forget I ever met you.”
“Don’t blow me off,” he said, devastated. A volcanic eruption of heated Italian threatened to pour out of his mouth. He clenched his jaws together to hold it back. The thrill of getting to know her in a personal sense combined with the effort required to block out their professional hierarchy was pushing him to breaking point.
“Give me another chance to be your friend.” He rested a hand in the crook of her neck. Her skin was warm and perfumed. It took all of his self-control not to blurt out about how her fire was burning down the cold walls inside that had kept him locked up in a stark, loveless prison for so long.
“Look, it’s been a chaotic evening, but I can feel something special growing between you and me.” He pleaded with her like he had never done with a woman before, but she was worth the humble skid. “We might find something crazy spectacular together.”