The concentration behind his scrutiny never wavered, not in the full second that passed before he answered. It claimed all my attention the way only he ever could, with a profound intensity that made all my nerve endings painfully alert.
“I came to see you,” he murmured at last. “I brought your car.”
I blinked. “You brought my car?”
“Well, no.” He offered me a half grin that dribbled through me like warm honey. “My mechanic did, but...” He reached into his pocket and unearthed my keys. “I brought the keys.”
I reached for them and only then realized he was still holding me. I was still cradled in perfect alignment with his chest, surrounded by the warmth of his arms. I was nestled against him with the unabashed welcome of a woman embracing her lover.
I tore myself free and forced my traitorous legs to support my useless weight as I righted myself without his support. My gaze swung over the passing crowd, searching for even a hint that someone was watching.
All it would take to destroy me was one recording cellphone angled just right.
“I’m sorry.” I forked my fingers back through my hair, ripping out strands in my own annoyance. “I didn’t mean to...”
He held my keys between us. The metal teeth glinted in the warm light from the cafeteria. They looked so harmless, so familiar, yet I felt like he was handing me a deadly viper.
“Thank you.”
He inclined his head as I accepted.
I shoved them hastily into my purse as if he’d just handed me an eight ball of coke. I had to resist the urge to steal another peek at our surroundings. The last thing I needed was for campus security to get called for suspicious behavior.
I faced the man watching me.
“There’s an ATM just around the corner. If you want to follow me, I can—”
“No.”
My mouth opened and closed a couple of times while my brain tried to process his response.
“I have checks if you—”
“No,” he repeated, this time with a small shake of his head.
Bemused, I frowned up at him. “I don’t understand. How do you want to get paid then?”
“I don’t.”
It was such a ridiculous statement I laughed.
“What do you mean you don’t want—?”
“I don’t want the money, Gabby,” he stated coolly.
“But ... why?”
To my absolute amazement, he smiled, a big, beautiful pull of his entire face blooming into a radiant glow. His eyes lit up, reminding me of light glittering off the surface of a polished amber. He had a dimple I knew nothing about. Years of sharing a dinner table with him once a week and it caught me in the sternum like a fist, knocking the air from my lungs.
“Because I want something else.”
That declaration shouldn’t have shaken me nearly as much as it did, yet those five words rippled at the pit of my stomach.
“What?”
Even I couldn’t hear my quiet murmur over the pounding of feet and raised voices, but I wasn’t brave enough to repeat myself.
“Have lunch with me. Right now.”
Would the wonders never cease?
“You want me to buy you lunch?”
He shook his head. “No, I want you to have lunch with me.” He glanced over my shoulder. “There looks good.”
I looked back, already knowing what I would find, but unable to stop myself. Most of the cafeteria was now a mess of crowded bodies and a line I didn’t have the time to stand in.
“I only have...” I checked my watch, “less than thirty minutes before my next class.”
Kieran seemed to realize my dilemma, because he nodded thoughtfully. “All right.”
If I thought that put an end to that, I was sorely mistaken. Kieran took my hand and led me away from the board.
Four steps out, he stopped and rounded on me.
“Did you want that cat woman’s number?”
I blinked. “Cat woman?”
He nodded to the board. “The kittens.”
I laughed. “No, I’m not very pet friendly right now. I was looking for a tutor.”
He considered that a moment. “Any luck?”
We started walking again, making our way with easy strides through the corridors towards the doors leading to the visitor’s parking area.
“None,” I admitted with a sigh. “I might have to actually talk to someone in my class.”
“I never pegged you for anti-social,” he remarked with an ease that was absent of mockery, just simple fact.
“Have you met me?” I teased, ducking beneath his arm when he opened the door.
“I have.” He stepped onto the sidewalk with me, letting the door swing closed behind us. “Which is why I don’t get it.”
I couldn’t be sure if he was toying with me or not. He seemed so sincere and yet I couldn’t fathom where such unwavering knowledge was coming from.
I seldom talked at dinner.
I never brought people with me.
I never got phone calls or texts.
Did he think that I was hiding all my friends in my closet?
“I don’t have ... friends,” I told him carefully.
“We can talk about that over lunch.”
He never gave me the chance to ask why it was a topic that needed talking about, but he’d settled a hand on the small of my back and was guiding me across the lot to his Porsche. The black beast sat with an almost arrogant grin amongst all the lesser models. Its glossy paint gleamed beneath the overcast sky, reminding me of a wild stallion.
“I thought you brought my car,” I said as we reached the passenger side door.
“Jacob brought your car.” He yanked the door open for me. “I brought mine.”
I hesitated getting in, not out of uncertainty, but curiosity. My eyes swept over the sea of metal, searching for the one I recognized and finding it absent.
“He took it to your apartment,” he told me.
My searching stopped on his face with wary confusion.
“You’ve gone through a lot of trouble today, Mr. Kincaid.”
He nodded solemnly. “I have, which is why you shouldn’t keep me from lunch. I’m starving.”
Fighting the twitch threatening to turn my lips up, I shook my head at him. “If you were any other man, I would question your motives.”
The sun glinted over the pools of his eyes, making them flash hypnotically. “You still should, Ms. Thornton. I would never claim to be a gentleman.”
Bottom lip caught between my teeth, I slipped into the seat and let him seal me in. My bookbag and purse were stuffed into the space at my feet and I pulled the belt over my lap. I was getting comfortable when he climbed in behind the wheel.
“Do you have a place in mind?” I asked.
“Nope.” He put the car into drive. “But I’m sure we’ll find something.”
The university campus took up about eight city blocks, most of that was traffic central. The rest was a maze of coffee shops and diners. In retrospect, it shouldn’t have been nearly as hard as it was to find somewhere to eat. We could have thrown a rock and hit at least a dozen restaurants. But Kieran seemed to be searching for something. He passed several burger joints, sandwich shops, and pizza parlors without sparing them a glance.
“In the mood for something particular?” I guessed.
He shook his head. “Not particularly. Why? Are you?”
“Not really,” I confessed. “I’ll eat just about anything.”
Kieran chuckled. “A girl after my own heart.”
I fought not to let his comment seep beneath my skin and warm my blood. An almost impossible task, but allowing it, I knew, would be worse. He was already in way too deep. Much deeper than I ever should have let him in. But I was hopelessly weak where he was concerned. Granted, I was always weak. The only difference was that the weakness he caused didn’t fill me with dread and despair. It didn’t make me feel weak.
Those
dangerous thoughts were shoved aside and buried. I couldn’t afford to let them linger. Nothing good could ever come of it.
“Why did you leave early last night?” I blurted, needing the distraction. “You usually stay for dessert.”
He made a turn down Oxford road before answering, “If I stayed any longer, I would have wound up with anal rash from all of David’s ass kissing.”
My head snapped in his direction with a ferocity that nearly caused me whiplash. The implication was horrifying. I should have been stunned. But something inside me burst and I was laughing like I had never laughed in my life. It crashed out of me in waves, the momentum of ripples on a lake after a rock had been dropped in. They just kept rolling out until I couldn’t breathe, until tears were streaming down my cheeks and I was clutching my sides. It was sheer force that I managed to work my voice.
“I can’t believe you just said that!” I cried, wheezing. “That’s so horrible. I shouldn’t be laughing.”
Kieran chuckled. “I’m glad you did.” He drummed long fingers on the wheel. “Could you imagine how awkward this drive would have gotten if you hadn’t?”
I laughed again, not as hard, but it stabbed at my tender stomach. “Ow...”
“Besides,” he went on seamlessly, “you left. I had no other reason to stay.”
I caught the flick of his gaze slanting my way from the corner of his eye, and my heart kicked my ribs. The impact jolted the breath I tried to suck in, making it catch in my chest.
“Kieran...”
“Here we are.”
He pulled alongside a curb just in front of a Greek restaurant. Any other time, I would have told him we passed at least eight of those, but he was already out of his seat and rounding the hood.
I quickly untangled myself from my belt just as he reached my door.
Inside smelled of roasting lamb and lemons and herbs. The succulent aroma made my mouth water and my stomach whimper. It was the remaining shreds of my dignity that restrained me from lunging on a stranger’s plate.
Kieran led us to a corner booth. We hung our coats on the pegs along the back wall. I inconspicuously checked my watch when he wasn’t looking, wincing slightly at how little time I had remaining.
“I might not be able to stay for long,” I said even as I slid into the warm leather. “But I’ll make it up to you—”
“Tonight.”
I faltered. “Excuse me?”
He claimed the seat across from me and folded his hands on the table. “You can make it up to me tonight. Dinner.”
I knew what he was doing.
I may not have had the experience, or the knowledge, but I wasn’t an idiot.
“Kieran, I appreciate everything you’ve done for me, but that’s not a good idea.”
“Because you don’t eat dinner?”
Not always.
Only when I had food to eat.
But he didn’t need to know that.
“You know why,” I stressed, wishing he’d stop ripping the ground out from under me.
“Enlighten me.”
I didn’t get the chance to when a woman carrying steaming trays of food arrived at our table. Heaping plates of freshly baked breads, meat, rice, and sauces were laid in front of us.
The smell ... God, the smell was enough to make me rabid with hunger.
“Drinks, Mr. Kincaid?” the woman asked in a thick accent.
“A soda for me, please, Voula. Gabby?”
It took me a moment to wrap my head around what was happening, and speak without drooling.
“Same,” I murmured.
The woman smiled kindly and hurried away as quickly as she’d appeared.
“I took a guess,” Kieran said once we were alone again. “Rice and lamb are most people’s favorite. Unless you want something else?” he hedged when I could only stare at him, unable to formulate words.
“When did you...?”
I looked over the spread, a spread that would have taken at least forty-five minutes of wait time. This wasn’t the dine and dash sort of place. Everything about it was relaxed. The kind of place perfect for a date, which I assured myself this wasn’t.
“I may have made the order before I came to find you,” he said with a sheepish little wince that would have been endearing if my stomach hadn’t been in knots.
“You must come here a lot,” I murmured.
“A bit,” he agreed, eyeing me.
The urge to ask if all those other times included other women bubbled up inside me, but there was no easy way to allow that to spill across the table without coming off sounding jealous. It wasn’t my business who he brought where. He could go on as many dates as he wanted with every woman in the city and it wasn’t my place to judge.
But it didn’t mean I liked it.
“She knew your name.”
“Voula?” He glanced briefly in the direction the waitress had taken. “I’ve known her for a few years now.”
I tore at a piece of bread, no longer hungry, but needing a distraction to avoid his eyes.
“Does she always bring you lamb and rice?”
“Not always. Sometimes she brings me beef.”
Now he was just mocking me.
“I own the place.”
The volunteered information had my head jerking up. I caught the glimmer of barely concealed amusement in his eyes.
“What?”
“I own the place,” he repeated, making a circular motion with one finger. “I bought it from Voula a few years back. She asked if she could stay on and I said yes.”
“You own...” I didn’t know what to say to that.
“I own a few businesses around here,” he said, not with arrogance like David would have, but simply stating a fact. “If you like, we can make this a weekly ritual and I can show you them all.”
There it was again.
His offer.
An offer I wanted to grab with both hands and run.
An offer I could never accept.
“I want to, but you know what a bad idea that would be.”
“Do I?” He leaned back in his seat. “I don’t think I know any such thing.”
“Kieran.”
He pointed at the dish in front of me. “Eat, or you’ll be late for class.”
Class.
Crap.
I checked my watch.
I barely had enough time to finish half the plate, which depressed me beyond reason, because it looked so good.
“Whatever you don’t finish, Voula will pack up,” he assured me, as if reading my mind.
She wound up packing a good portion of it, including his untouched plate and several pieces of bread. I thanked her profusely while digging into my purse for my bank card.
Kieran snatched it out of my fingers before Voula could even reach for it.
“Hey!”
He shot me a dry glower as he pushed to his feet. My card disappeared into the pocket of his trousers.
“Her money’s fake,” he told Voula seriously. “Don’t ever accept it. It’s no good here.”
“That wasn’t money!” I shot out of my seat. “It was a card, and don’t tell people I have fake money!”
God, the last thing I needed was to get arrested for counterfeiting.
“Quiet, love,” Kieran murmured. “Grab your coat.”
He left me standing there and led a grinning Voula towards the register.
I grabbed my coat and my takeout boxes, and my purse and somehow managed to make my way over to him just as he finished paying.
“Why did you do that?” I demanded as he led me outside to the car. “I could have paid.”
“Well, you can pay for drinks tonight.”
“Kieran.”
“I don’t like when you say my name in that tone,” he decided. “It makes me feel like I’m five and being scolded.”
The image broke the tight grip I’d had on my annoyance. I laughed despite myself.
“You’re really impossible.
”
“Irresistible, you say?” He smirked. “How irresistible?”
“I said impossible.”
He shrugged. “Same thing.” He yanked open my door. “Come on, love. Let’s get you back.”
It wasn’t until I was on my way home later that evening that I remembered he still had my bank card and I had absolutely no way of contacting him.
Never in all the years I’d known him had I ever needed his phone number, nor was I about to call David for it.
Part of me wondered if this was part of his plan to see me for dinner that evening. While the idea excited me far more than I should ever allowed, I knew I needed to start putting my foot down before things got really out of hand.
But every time I tried, he managed to sidetrack me. I had no idea what he was doing, only that if he didn’t stop, he was going to get me killed.
Or worse.
Chapter Seven — Gabrielle
I never realized how hard it was to lie to myself until I found myself in the shower, scrubbing my skin pink with the special, never use except in the case of emergency body wash and telling myself I was doing it for myself.
I was, of course. In a sense. The bottle had cost me two weeks pay, but the smell it left behind and the silky texture when I patted myself down with a towel made it worth every penny.
But I knew it wasn’t only for me.
“What are you doing?” I asked the flushed, stupid girl in the foggy mirror.
She had excitement in her eyes. She wasn’t even pretending to conceal it. It twinkled like damn stars and I wanted to slap her.
“You’re being an idiot,” I told her. “This isn’t going to work. He’s marrying your sister. He’s going to walk her down the aisle and have babies, and ... be with her, and you...” I glowered at her as she stared back with heartbreak tracing silver steaks down her cheeks. “You’re going to die alone.”
What was I thinking?
I wasn’t this person.
I had a plan.
I was getting out.
I was going to be free.
Getting involved with Cordelia’s fiancé was asking for pain I knew I couldn’t handle.
She would destroy me.
She would end me.
Was he worth it?
A knock on my front door interrupted before I could answer my own question. It vibrated down the hall and filled the bathroom where I was still only dressed in a towel.
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