Loving Pierce (Heart & Soul Series Book 4)

by Elizabeth Lennox

“Honey, what are you doing?”

  “It really is you!” she breathed. She threw herself into his arms. Those strong, familiar arms wrapped around her waist, holding her close and she breathed in the smell of him. She loved his smell! It was musky and male and so precious! This really was Pierce! Because paranormal apparitions could only change their appearance. They couldn’t mimic another person’s scent. Duh!

  She felt his face press against her neck, just as he’d done so many times in the past and it felt amazing to feel him in her arms like this again, to smell him and…ick! “You’re all sweaty,” she exclaimed belatedly, pulling out of his arms and frowning up at him.

  “Of course I’m sweaty, honey. This is the resort’s running trail.”

  Kaitlin shined her flashlight down at the ground, looking around. “This is the path?” she demanded. Because it wasn’t really a path. It was barely wide enough for a chipmunk.

  “Yeah. This is the long route. There’s a shorter trail closer to the resort.” He took her hand with his strong fingers and she fought to not to curl her fingers around his hand. But she couldn’t really stop herself. He just felt too good! “Come on. I’ll lead you back to the resort. I’m guessing…”

  “Don’t say it!” she ordered.

  “…you got lost?”

  Ugh! “Not lost,” she clarified, falling into step beside him. If she happened to brush against his muscular arm several times, well, that was because the path wasn’t wide enough for two people. And perhaps because she was pathetic and any contact with Pierce was good contact. “If I know where I am, I’m not lost.”

  He laughed and she shivered at the sexy sound. “Right. But do you know how to get back to the resort?” he teased.

  This had been an ongoing argument during their time together. She’d insisted that she wasn’t lost if she could eventually find her way back. He’d argued that, if one didn’t know where they were, they were lost.

  “Sure!” she said, adding in a confident smile. Pierce was big and scary enough that no villain would dare to attack her now. And yeah, the creepy, cold “hand” she’d felt against her ankle had been a branch. Stupid imagination. “I just follow this path!”

  Another deep chuckle and she sighed. “Please don’t do that, Pierce.”

  “Don’t do what, honey?”

  “Don’t laugh like that. You know how much I like it.”

  His smile vanished and she looked away. He was so handsome and so yummy. But he didn’t love her. Not the way she loved him.

  “What are you doing out here? And why are you here at a health resort? I thought you hated exercising.”

  She sighed, accepting the change of subject. “I don’t hate exercising. I hate sweating. To date, I haven’t figured out how to exercise without the icky sweating aspect.”

  Another chuckle and she mentally groaned. “Right. That is a conundrum.” She kept walking straight but he tugged at her hand, leading her to the right. “But what are you doing here? Are you interested in the classes? There’s a great weight lifting…”

  “No! Good grief, no!” she shuddered in horror. “I mean, yeah, some cute chicky-babe signed me up for daily classes. But that’s not why I’m here.” She stepped over a log. Why would a log be on the running path? Seemed to her that the only way to avoid tripping over that log would be to avoid running completely! Problem solved!

  “I’ve been trying to contact the owner of an old stone house that’s…” she glanced behind her, but there was only darkness and scary woods. “Well, it’s somewhere back there,” Kaitlin explained. “Rumor has it that the house is haunted.” She scoffed, shaking her head. “I don’t believe in haunted houses, but I wanted to take pictures of it for my next book. Unfortunately, the guy who owns the house won’t respond to my e-mails, letters, or phone calls. I’ve heard that he’s a grumpy old curmudgeon.”

  “So, you were trying to get to the house from the resort? That’s about a ten mile walk, honey.”

  Oh, she wished he’d stop calling her ‘honey’. It sounded so wonderful!

  Then his words registered and she sighed. “Ten miles? Seriously? But…” she thought about the map she’d pulled up online. “It was only like…an inch on the map!”

  Another deep chuckle and he shook his head. “It might be ‘only an inch’,” he teased, “but that inch is in the mountains. You have to go downhill and then back up in order to reach it.”

  “Huh!” She started walking again, shaking her head. “That’s unfortunate.” She wasn’t aware of her face squinching up as she tried to figure out a new way to get to that stone house.

  “I will drive you there tomorrow. You can take all of the pictures you want. Will that work?”

  She blinked up at him, startled by his announcement. “But…how can you drive me there? It’s….” Kaitlin paused as she realized what was going on. “Oh. You own the property, don’t you?”

  “Yes. My father lives in the house on the other side of the property. So yes, I can drive you to the haunted house and you can take all the pictures you’d like.”

  Biting her lip, she considered her options. She could walk the ten miles to the…nope, she couldn’t even finish that thought. A ten mile walk was completely out of the question. Another alternative was to simply drive to the house herself. But this was mountain country and people around here had guns. Nope, plan B probably wasn’t safe. Plan C…?

  “Afraid to be alone with me?”

  “Yeah. I am,” she admitted.

  He steadied her as she stepped over yet another log laying across the path. “I promise to be an absolute gentleman.”

  She rolled her eyes. “Being a gentleman was never a good look for you,” she laughed.

  A moment later, they were within eyeshot of the resort, the lights of the lap pool sparkling in the darkness like a beacon.

  “Have breakfast with me tomorrow morning,” he urged, not releasing her hand. “We’ll head out after that to see the house.”

  Kaitlin looked up into his eyes, unable to see the color in the dim light. “I don’t think that would be a good idea. What with our past and how…” she cleared her throat, trying to be brave. “How we left things.”

  She felt his thumb caress the back of her hand and she couldn’t deny the intense sparks between them.

  “We can be friends,” he offered. “Besides, do you really want to sit at a table all by yourself? Or eat in your hotel room?”

  He saw her cringe. “You have a good point. I hate eating alone.”

  “I’ll meet you in the lobby at eight…” he caught her frown and laughed. “Okay, make that nine o’clock tomorrow morning. We need to make one stop first though.”

  Kaitlin was pretty sure that she was going to regret it, but she nodded. “Fine. Nine o’clock tomorrow morning. And…” she paused, pulling her hand away. “Thank you for…” she shrugged at the darkness behind her. “Thank you for helping me get back here. I never would have found my way back and, well, you know what my mind is like.” She felt her cheeks turning red and was grateful for the darkness now. “Just…thank you.”

  “My pleasure,” he replied in the deep, sexy voice that really should be illegal. That voice always caused sexy thoughts to multiply in her mind.

  Kaitlin stepped away from him, forcing her feet to move but it was painful. Pierce was here? She’d spent the last six months trying to get over him, to convince herself that she could live without him because he would never love her.

  Unfortunately, seeing him now, she had to admit that she hadn’t gotten over him. Not even a little. Just one touch and she was right back where she was six months ago, madly in love with him and the amazing, shocking electricity that sparked between them. So no, she hadn’t gotten over Pierce Rossen. She’d simply figured out how to live without him.

  Hurrying down the hallway towards her room, she flicked the key card over the lock and let herself into the room, then leaned against the doorway, closing her eyes as she tried to slow her heart ra
te. Pierce was here! She’d see him tomorrow! Oh, goodness, this wasn’t good!

  Chapter 4

  Pierce rubbed his eyes, then glanced at the clock. Two in the morning. Another late night. Another night where he tried not to think about Kaitlin. But this night was harder because he knew that she was close by. He even knew which room she was sleeping in.

  Standing up, he stretched his muscles, then closed his laptop. Enough, he thought. He needed a drink. Instead of calling the front desk and having someone deliver something, he decided that a walk would help him clear his mind. Maybe a walk would help him stop thinking about Kaitlin.

  Walking down the hallway, he refused to glance in the direction of her room. He wouldn’t allow himself to check if the light was still on. But if he knew his Kaitlin, the lights would definitely be on. Especially after her fright earlier tonight. Despite what she’d said, Pierce knew that she’d been terrified out of her mind earlier tonight. And what in the world had she been muttering before he’d gotten close enough to call out to her? Something about a pokey thing? He chuckled softly, shaking his head at her imagination. Kaitlin was a best-selling author for a reason. Her imagination knew no bounds, which was both a good and a bad thing. She might know how to weave a story so that readers were on the edge of their seats, but it took a toll on her mentally. She struggled to get enough sleep and she couldn’t sleep in the dark, terrified of a room without a light on. It could be a small light, but if she woke up, Kaitlin needed to be able to look around, assure herself that a bad guy wasn’t lurking in a corner. There were no shower curtains in her house. She’d struggled to find a house without a basement. And she had an expensive security system, even though she’d be the first to say that bad guys could get through most security systems.

  He’d just rounded the corner of the lobby when he spotted a dark head on one of the white sofas in a corner. A light shined down on the dark hair and instantly, his body throbbed with awareness. Kaitlin.

  He hadn’t needed to look at the window of her room because she was here. Sleeping in the lobby where there was more light. She probably felt safer here because there were other people in the area. Kaitlin loved her routines and the familiarity of her home. She knew each of the shadows and night sounds, knew where the doors were and checked to make sure they were locked.

  She didn’t have that sense of security here.

  His body tightened at the thought of her sleeping down here, her body awkwardly curled up in the chair that, while big, wasn’t a bed. She needed a bed, space to stretch out. Even as he watched, she shifted slightly, trying to get more comfortable.

  For a long moment, he simply stood there, watching her. Drinking in the sight of her. She was so soft and beautiful, her long, dark lashes fanning out against her pale skin. She had dark circles under her eyes, he realized. He hadn’t noticed them earlier. But he could see them now and his stomach ached with the need to help.

  With a sigh, he bent down and gathered her into his arms. Pierce expected her to wake up and tell him to go to hell, that she was perfectly fine. But instead, without waking, her arms wrapped around his neck, her body shifting to get closer to his.

  In her sleep, she didn’t have the same caution as when she was awake.

  “Pierce,” she sighed and even that turned him on. She was mostly asleep, but his name on her lips, said in that sexy, breathy way was all it took for his body to go from semi-erect to full, aching, throbbing hard in a fraction of a second.

  Walking back down the hallway, he realized that he didn’t need a drink as much as he needed Kaitlin in his arms. Entering his suite, he put her gently down on the bed. With an aching body, he stripped off most of his clothes, leaving on his boxers, even though he preferred sleeping in the nude. He didn’t think that Kaitlin would appreciate that right now.

  As he slipped into the bed, pulling her into his arms, Pierce gritted his teeth as her soft, voluptuous curves snuggled against him. Despite the raging erection, he still fell asleep almost instantly.

  Chapter 5

  Kaitlin shifted on her feet, nervous and…surprisingly rested!

  Okay, so it shouldn’t be too surprising. She’d woken up in Pierce’s arms this morning. No surprise about WHY she’d slept so well. She vaguely remembered him picking her up from that sadistic chair in the lobby and carrying her to his room. She’d been so exhausted from only managing two or three hours of sleep a night for the past several weeks, that she hadn’t been able to rouse herself enough to argue that she shouldn’t sleep with him. So when he pulled her against his body, arranging her so that her head rested against his warm shoulder, Kaitlin hadn’t resisted. She’d simply snuggled closer to his warmth and fallen into a, thankfully, deep and restful sleep.

  Fortunately, he hadn’t kissed her this morning. If he’d kissed her, she wouldn’t have been able to resist him. Well, the morning breath might have slowed her down a little, but there were so many ways that man knew how to kiss her…

  Don’t go there! She turned around, looking down the hospital hallway and wondering why they were here.

  “I just have a stop to make, if you don’t mind?” he’d said this morning.

  Was he going to buy the hospital? Kaitlin wouldn’t put it past him. Pierce was the kind of man who could find profit in just about anything, although she knew that he specialized in hotels and resorts. But she also knew that he’d branched out into retail, providing travel products that were sold all over the world now. He was ingenious at business…not so great in matters of the heart though.

  “Why are we here?” she asked curiously. Nurses, doctors, and orderlies rushed around and it all looked like carefully choreographed chaos. Meanwhile, she stood in the small waiting room, avoiding the uncomfortable looking chairs, and trying to figure out what was going on.

  Suddenly, she saw Pierce and, as usual, her breath caught in her throat as she watched him approach. He was so tall and incredibly handsome! How could she not love him?!

  Because he didn’t love her back, she reminded herself.

  “About time you came to get me,” an older man that looked surprisingly similar to Pierce snarled. “Who the hell are you?” the man demanded when Pierce stopped beside her.

  “If you don’t behave,” Pierce warned, “I’m going to leave you here and have the doctors do that colonoscopy they suggested.”

  Kaitlin’s hand whipped up to cover her laugh when the old man’s lips pressed together at the dire threat. She suspected that the older man wanted to argue, to say something just as ominous back, but refrained, not wanting to be wheeled back into the hospital bed.

  “Dad, this is a…friend of mine. Kaitlin Hawley. You might know her as Jessup Jones, the writer.”

  The man’s eyes narrowed at first, but then widened at the reference to her pen name. “You’re that mystery writer?” he demanded, obviously not believing his son.

  “Yes, sir,” she replied, extending her hand. “It is a pleasure to meet you. I admire your son.”

  The man grumbled something else, but shook her hand. “So you’re not bumping uglies with my son in order to get his money, right? If you’re really that famous writer, then you got your own money!”

  Kaitlin laughed, thinking he was hilarious. “I am financially secure, sir. So no, I’m not a gold digger out to seduce and steal your son’s money.”

  The man grunted, but Kaitlin wasn’t sure if that meant he believed her or not. “What happened to your arm?” she asked, deciding a change in topic was her best bet.

  “Fell,” the man grunted, then slumped back into his chair. “You gonna get me back home or what? I need a drink!” he snapped to Pierce.

  “The ‘or what’ if you don’t behave.”

  But Pierce gave a nod to the orderly and they continued towards the hospital exit. “I’ve hired another housekeeper, Dad. But this one refused to live in. Apparently, word has spread through town and you’re persona non grata. The woman’s name is Evelyn and she’ll come in to clean for you once
a week. She’ll also make food for you, but she’ll cook it at her house and bring it to yours, leave it in the freezer.”

  “And I have to cook it?” he snapped. “How the hell am I supposed to cook it?”

  “You’re a big boy,” Pierce replied. “She’ll leave instructions on each frozen meal and then you’ll have to figure it out from there. If you weren’t such a mean son of a bitch and caused the last housekeeper to cry, then you wouldn’t be in this situation, now would you?”

  “That last woman was an idiot,” he groused. The orderly moved around him and tightened the foot holds on the wheelchair. “I’m fine!” he said when the orderly tried to help him stand up. Sure enough, the man stood up on his own and stepped into the passenger seat of the big SUV, slamming the door and glaring straight ahead.

  Pierce sighed and turned to Kaitlin, taking both of her hands in his. “I apologize for his attitude, but thank you for being here with me.”

  “He’s not so bad,” she smiled up at him, moving closer. “I guess he’s in a lot of pain from his fall?”

  “And he had a heart attack. He was alone in the house for three days.”

  “Oh, how tragic!” she gasped. “The poor man!”

  Pierce squeezed her hands slightly. “No, don’t give him any sympathy. The only reason he was alone was because he’d verbally abused the housekeeper to the point that she walked out on him, apparently in tears, and has told the entire town what a bastard he is to work for.”

  She laughed again. “So he’s lonely and in pain.”

  Pierce rolled his eyes as he shook his head. “Kaitlin, you’re probably the only person around who is willing to give that man the benefit of the doubt, including me.”

  She smiled up at him and, for a moment, she’d thought about going up on her toes, kissing him briefly, just as she might have done months ago. But then she remembered that they weren’t together, that they could never be together. So she pulled back, patting his hand instead. “Well, let’s get him to his house so he can take a nap.”