by Meghan March
Oh. Hell. No.
As I picked up my phone to reply something along the lines of No way in hell am I coming home and We have nothing to discuss because there is no us, Carver came into the room.
“Ms. Sampson? You have a visitor at the gate. Shall I let Mr. Hennessy in?”
I sat my phone on the table and stood. “Rhett Hennessy?” Yeah, as if some other Hennessy was going to show up at my door.
“Yes, ma’am.”
Mentally, I tugged up my big-girl thong and straightened my shoulders. “Sure. Let him in. Feel free to give us some privacy, Carver.” My gaze landed on him long enough to ensure he got the message loud and clear. “When Mr. Hennessy is around, I’m not under any security threat, so consider yourself off duty.”
No matter what else ever happened with Rhett, I knew those words were unfailingly true. He would protect me with his life.
“Understood, ma’am. I’ll let him in, and will be in my apartment if you need anything at all.”
“Thank you, Carver.”
“Of course, Ms. Sampson.”
He strode away, and I looked down at what I was wearing. A Namaste in Bed T-shirt that had caught a splash of soy sauce during lunch, and sweats I’d turned into cutoffs with a dull pair of scissors.
Looking hot, Ari.
But I’d been working all day, and part of being the boss meant I got to wear whatever I wanted when I was in beast mode. Which was all the time. I might be a geek, but I’m always a beast-geek.
Rhett was going to get the real me. No makeup, my hair a little wild from putting it up and taking it down as I mulled over decisions, and a hot mess of an outfit. I was too old and too awesome to worry about being someone else.
With that positive thought firmly fixed in my mind, I tried to calm down the flock of seagulls that took up residence in my belly as the doorbell rang. Rhett Hennessy was on my doorstep.
Be cool, Ari. Be cool.
Okay, scratch that.
Pretend.
19
Rhett
After we left breakfast, Heath shot me a text saying the cops were getting ready to release the crime scene that was my parents’ house, so I’d hauled ass over there to start my own investigation before it was corrupted. I put in a call to an old friend who owned a barricade company, and he agreed to bring over enough metal construction fencing to surround the entire property and lock it up. Any assholes who thought they’d go searching for scrap metal or anything else of value would be blocked.
That began my day of digging through rubble and looking for evidence that the crime scene unit might have missed. I couldn’t decide if it was working in my favor that they’d missed a few pieces of the wiring and device, or whether they were screwing my family by not being better at their jobs. When it came down to it, I didn’t trust anyone to solve this case except for me, so I was going to take it as a positive.
Evidence collected in my own baggies and the fence in place around the yard, locked up, and security lights armed, I babysat the glass installers at the Sampsons’ house next door to make sure Mr. Sampson would be able to move back into his house sooner rather than later. That was, if Heath and Ari decided he could live on his own.
Either way, I was doing my part to hopefully make their lives easier.
Once that was finished, I shot Heath a text to let him know it was done. He didn’t reply.
As I looked up at the two windows I knew belonged to Ari’s childhood bedroom, I remembered seeing her face in them more than once over the years, watching me, even though she didn’t know I saw her.
She’d thought she was invisible to me, but she’d been dead wrong. It was always the opposite. I’d been as hyperaware of her as you tended to be of something you couldn’t have.
Breakfast with Heath had changed that.
Now, how am I going to make her mine?
More than ever before, I understood completely that life was short. You got one ride, and you didn’t know when your number was going to be up.
If this was my only shot with Ari, I wasn’t going to screw it up.
I cursed when I realized it was already four o’clock by the time I pulled away from my parents’ street. I thought about calling her, but what I needed to tell her had to be said in person.
Turning my Jeep in the direction of my hotel, I worked out a game plan.
All right, Red. I hope you’re ready for this, because I sure as hell am.
* * *
Fifty-five minutes later, wearing a white dress shirt I’d pressed with my crappy hotel-provided iron and black dress pants, I stood on the front steps of Ariel Sampson’s massive digs. It wasn’t like I needed a reminder about just how different our situations were in life right now, but I got it anyway.
Still, we had something that spanned the differences—history, and years of it.
I waited after I rang the bell, finally hearing footsteps padding toward the front door. I wasn’t sure what I expected to see when Ari opened it, but the smile that stretched across her face when she saw me told me everything I needed to know.
I’ll take her any way I can get her.
Her chin lifted as she took me in. “I was wondering if I’d ever hear from you again.”
I stepped forward and pulled her against me, one hand wrapped around her hip and the other speared into her hair. I closed my lips over hers and kissed her the way I’d always wanted to—with nothing hanging over us. No guilt, no barriers, no hesitation.
Just me and Ari.
Exactly the way I wanted it.
20
Ariel
I didn’t know how Rhett’s conversation with my brother went, but from the way he was kissing the hell out of me, it must have gone well.
Good Lord, Rhett Hennessy could kiss. I wondered how long it would take me to stop thinking that every time his lips touched mine. I was willing to make an experiment out of it.
My fingers found their way into the long ends of his shaggy blond hair, my nails raking his neck as he groaned and pulled me tighter against him until I could feel his hard-on pressing into my belly. Bursts of heat shot through me.
I was about to climb him when Rhett jerked away from me.
“Wha—” The partial word, not even a fully formed question, fell from my lips before Rhett interrupted.
“Go put on a dress, Red, because I’m taking you on a date. A real date.” He took another step back and tucked his hands in his pockets. “God knows I could turn this kiss into something that’ll last all night, but you deserve better than that and I’m going to give it to you.”
So this is what it feels like when your insides are melting into a giant puddle of oh-my-God-is-this-really-happening goo.
“A date?”
He nodded. “Yeah, and I’d be honored if you’d put on a dress, unless you’d prefer I take you out like this. I don’t care either way, but I figured you might . . .”
Go out on my first date with Rhett like this? Oh. Hell. No.
“I’ll be right back.” I spun around and shut the door. Two steps later, I realized I’d closed it with Rhett outside.
“Shit!”
I yanked the door open and took him in, standing on my front stoop with a smile on his face. I didn’t even attempt to lie. “I’m flustered. This is all because of you. Would you like to wait inside?”
Rhett stepped in the house, leaving barely an inch between us, and closed the door behind himself. “Take your time. I’ve been waiting what seems like my whole life for this. I can wait a little longer.”
Oh. My. God.
His hooded green eyes told me he spoke the truth, and it took everything I had to turn away and put one foot in front of the other until I reached my bedroom.
As soon as I eased the door closed behind me, I broke into a dance that was way more enthusiastic than the one Esme and Erik had witnessed earlier. With both fists in the air, I spun into my closet.
You can get what you want. Sometimes it just takes half your
life.
With a deep breath, I surveyed my clothes. Now, what in the world am I going to wear?
* * *
The need to balance not wasting too much precious time on getting ready warred with the need to look hot as hell. After an objective scan of my closet, I opted for a little black dress that went everywhere with me because it was so versatile. The draping V-neck was low enough that it was sexy, but the extra swath of fabric teased more than it revealed, keeping it classy.
Once I’d selected a pair of simple black stilettos and jewelry, I rushed to the bathroom with my armful and stared into the mirror.
My hair was every bit as much of a disaster as I’d thought it might be. It had reached bird’s-nest-level proportions, and it was painfully obvious I wasn’t wearing a bra under my T-shirt.
And still Rhett had kissed me like he was a man coming back from war.
That was a very good sign, in my opinion.
I stripped in minutes and kept my hair in a knot on my head before I hopped in the shower and did the fastest shaving job of my life. I was taking no chances that things might end up in a bed later—or up against a wall, in a car, or on a table, because my imagination was very well-versed in creativity when it came to Rhett.
Luckily, no blood was spilled in the shower and I was dressed, made up, and my hair had been tamed into a sophisticated twist with tendrils falling around my face in under twenty-five minutes. I considered it a minor miracle, although not the type that would reasonably put me in contention for canonization.
Slipping my right foot into my second stiletto, I adjusted the strap and buckled it before straightening and preparing myself to walk back into the living room.
I’m going on a date with Rhett Hennessy.
I will not worry about being cool.
I will not worry about being awesome.
I will be my own damn self, and if that’s not good enough for him, it’s not meant to be.
With that pep talk bringing me solidly back to earth, I strode in his direction. He rose from his seat on the sofa, his face unreadable.
He kissed me when I was looking like a hot mess, so he has to appreciate this effort, right?
Rhett stepped forward, meeting me in the middle. “You’re beautiful, Ari. Whether you’re wearing a T-shirt with a pencil jammed in your hair or a ball gown, you’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen. Thank you for not telling me I missed my shot.”
His words, ones I didn’t realize I needed to hear, echoed with sincerity.
“I wondered if you were ever going to let me know what happened with my brother. I kept myself busy all day trying not to think about it.”
Rhett reached for my hand and gripped it. “Turns out he’s a hell of a lot more levelheaded about the situation than I would be if I had a sister. But I don’t, and he’s not standing in our way. So let’s go see what we think about this.”
As I let Rhett lead me to my front door, I appreciated his no-nonsense approach. With all the waiting, longing, hoping, praying—on my side of the fence, obviously—it was hard not to wonder if reality would be anything near what I’d dreamed of as a teenager.
Neither of us were in high school anymore, and those old feelings might not have faded, but they weren’t relevant here. This was new ground for us to cover, and I was going to put everything else behind me.
Except . . . I did have one tiny confession to make. As Rhett led me around to the passenger side of his Jeep, I had to tell him.
“Remember that hit-and-run, the one that smashed the taillight of your Jeep when you were a senior?”
He paused, his fingers gripping the door handle. “Yeah?”
“It wasn’t exactly a hit-and-run. It was more of a hit-and-walk.”
“You and a Louisville Slugger the day that the rumor went around at school that I knocked up Kim Leander.”
My mouth dropped open. “You knew?”
“That you were pissed I could throw away my life like that? Yeah, I knew. I watched you do it. It put a hell of a lot of things in perspective for me.”
I jerked my head back. “Like what?”
“Like that I wasn’t going to back myself into a corner by making stupid mistakes when I was eighteen.”
“Well, I guess that’s a good thing.”
He met my eyes, and his green gaze shone. “I never touched Kim Leander, Red.”
“You didn’t?”
“No.”
“Oops.”
He smiled. “I’ll let you make that taillight up to me sometime. Don’t worry.”
And so started my first real date with Rhett Hennessy.
21
Ariel
I couldn’t help but keep trying to guess where Rhett was taking me. Maybe a regular place he took his dates? A New Orleans classic? I flipped through the possibilities but came up empty.
“Where are we going?”
He glanced over at me with a smile. “Sometimes I forget you’ve been gone a long time.”
That didn’t answer my question. “And?”
He raised an eyebrow at me. “Patience, Red. Patience.”
I folded my hands together in my lap, resisting the urge to tug my dress down when it rode up my thighs further as I fidgeted in my seat. When we pulled up to a stoplight in an area of old warehouses, I was officially lost.
“Where are we?”
The car in front of us laid on the horn because the truck first in line at the light wasn’t moving.
Rhett twisted to look at me. “You don’t know New Orleans that well at all anymore, do you?”
I glanced out the window, trying to place the street. I had nothing. “If you recall, I left when I was seventeen, and before that, I never had my own car. I went from home to school and church and not really anywhere else.”
Rhett drove through the green light and took one more turn before pulling into a parking lot across from a warehouse that looked like it had been rehabbed and then upper stories added with new, modern construction. The red brick that colored the surrounding buildings was missing on this one, as it was black with a giant gold logo painted between the old storeroom-type windows. The newer-looking upper stories had solid glass walls supported by thick wooden timbers.
The building was breathtaking. I’d never seen anything like it in New Orleans.
“What is this?”
“The Seven Sinners Distillery. It’s been around longer than I’ve been alive, but the family gave it a facelift and opened it to the public with a restaurant just before . . . well, just before I left town.”
My gaze traveled over the exterior, marveling at the gorgeous design of the building, marrying the old and new, and the bold logo. “It’s amazing.”
Rhett opened his door and climbed out of the Jeep. “I’m glad you like the looks of it. The food and drinks are supposed to be just as good, if not better.”
I latched my purse, which had somehow become unlatched in all my fidgeting, and reached for the door handle. Before I could grasp it, Rhett was there swinging it open.
“Wow. Full gentleman treatment.”
His smile turned wolfish and his eyes flashed. “I wouldn’t say I’m fully a gentleman.”
My mind went to all the places it probably shouldn’t, and Rhett’s had obviously gone there too. What would it be like if he carried through on all the thoughts I could see blazing in his gaze? That thought made me wish I’d tossed a second pair of panties into my purse. The ones I was wearing were a lost cause, which seemed to be a theme around him. Maybe I could just take them off . . .
“What could possibly be going through that head of yours right now?” Rhett asked as he helped me out of the car, his rough palm clasping mine with a possessive grip.
“I have no idea what you mean,” I replied, keeping my tone light and joking.
Rhett closed the door of the Jeep, but instead of leading me forward like I expected, he backed me up against it. His chin dropped so it was only an inch from my ear.
“You know exactly what I mean, Ari. I see that look on your face, and I know that incredible mind of yours is thinking something naughty enough to turn your cheeks pink. You watched me, but I watched you too. Even when I should’ve been blind, deaf, and dumb where you were concerned, I couldn’t help but look.”
“How’s that look-but-don’t-touch angle going for you?”
His palms glided down my sides before stopping and gripping my hips. “I plan on doing a whole lot of touching.”
My body was so acutely aware of Rhett that shivers started at the indent of each of his fingertips into my skin. I wanted him to squeeze harder or maybe shove my skirt up and . . .
“That. That right there. I wish I could look inside your head and see exactly what made your breath catch. I’m making it my mission to figure out every single thing that puts that look on your face.”
An involuntary shudder started at the base of my spine and shook my upper body. “Is that right?”
“You better believe it.” Rhett’s breath ghosted over my skin before his lips feathered across the same path along the edge of my jaw. “Now we’d better get inside to claim our table before I pin you against the car for a whole different reason.”
“Oh dear Lord.” I didn’t mean to say it out loud but the words escaped my lips, and Rhett’s lips curled into a satisfied smirk.
“Come on, Red, before I lose my willpower.”
At that moment, I would have been totally and completely fine with skipping whatever was waiting for us inside the building across the street in favor of whatever Rhett had on his mind, but when he stepped away and threaded his fingers through mine, I followed behind him. And not mostly because of the view it gave me of his ass in those dress pants of his. Sweet Lord, I didn’t know what that man did in the gym, but I hoped he kept doing it.
We waited for a few cars to drive by before Rhett led us across the road. I glanced back at the parking lot, which was partially full. But for such an amazing-looking place, I would have expected more patrons.