• Eight •

This world I live in isn’t one that builds strong relationships. It rips them apart.

Rumor

I wanted the security and solitude of the little white cottage, but I understood that it was for my safety that Maeme had Storm bring me and all my new things inside her house. I felt bad that she wouldn’t let me help him carry it all inside. When she was done telling him where to take everything and walked off, I turned to him.

“I’m sorry about all this stuff,” I whispered. I couldn’t go anywhere, so all the clothing seemed pointless.

“I have two sisters, and you just spent quality time with my mom. No need to apologize,” he assured me, then winked as he turned and headed back out the door for more of my things.

I stood there, unsure what to do with myself when I heard a car door slam and voices outside. Walking over to the still-open front door, I looked out to see King’s truck. My heart did a flutter, then remembered his fake engagement, and sank.

“Stay out of it!” King shouted as he came stalking up the walkway.

What had Storm said to him?

I backed up and thought about running to the blue room, but I wasn’t sure I’d have time. Instead, I headed to the library. I could hide in there. I didn’t want to see him or talk to him. Not yet.

There was a soft click as I closed the door and backed up farther into the room. I’d left the lights off in hopes he would see the room was dark and pass on by it.

“Where is she, Maeme?” I heard King demand.

“I know you’re not coming in my house, yelling like a hothead.”

“Maeme, I love you, but if you don’t tell me where she is right this minute, I’m going to start breaking shit.”

“Jesus, King!” Storm said. “Stop with the yelling.”

“Where is she?” King said with a growl that startled me.

“You take one more step inside this house, and I WILL be the one breaking shit.” Maeme’s voice had taken on an edge I’d never heard before. She was angry … really angry.

“I need to talk to her.” King’s dark tone had softened somewhat.

“Not like this. She knows about your engagement. I reckon she needs some time to process all this,” Maeme told him.

“FAKE! It’s a fake engagement. Maeme, I’ve been forced to follow around a woman I don’t particularly like. I’m being kept from talking to the woman I do want to be around, and I am real fucking close to snapping. SOMEONE is going to tell me where she is. Now!”

Unable to let this go on any longer, I decided I had better face him before this escalated any further. I hurried back out of the library and into the foyer while King was now yelling at Storm.

“Stop it!” I said loud enough to be heard over the noise.

King spun around, his eyes locking on me.

“Rumor.”

He said my name with such relief that I felt guilty. I had no reason to feel such an emotion, but the mental abuse I’d suffered from my marriage warped me. My immediate reaction seemed to be to blame myself for whatever was wrong.

“I’ll talk to you if you stop yelling at everyone,” I replied.

He started walking in my direction, and Maeme stepped in front of him with her hands on her small hips. “She said she’d talk to you, not that you could invade her personal space.”

King’s nostrils flared as he looked down at his tiny grandmother.

“It’s fine, Maeme. Really. We can go talk in the library,” I said.

She glanced back at me, then sighed. “Very well. But this”—she turned back to King—“this’d better not blow up in our faces. You have a job to do.”

King’s eyes swung back up to meet mine, and he stepped around Maeme, then started toward me again. I didn’t want to stand there and let him reach me. I preferred we talk about whatever it was he was intent on saying in private. Going back to the library, I mentally coached myself on how to handle this. I wasn’t sure what to expect from him. But whatever it was, I would deal with it. I had to.

The door closed with more force than necessary behind me, and I spun around to see King looking at me as if I were his last meal before he closed the distance between us.

“Your phone is off and has been since last night. I’ve tried calling and texting all fucking night and day,” he said as he grabbed my chin, tilting my head back. “It’s not a real engagement. They told you that. It’s fake. So, what is wrong?”

“You have a house,” I blurted. Not the smoothest response, but it must have been what was bothering me the most.

He nodded. “Yeah. So?”

I grabbed his arm and pulled his hand from my face. “So, I didn’t know. You’re keeping a woman there, at a house I didn’t know you had. I’ve never seen it.” I paused and crossed my arms over my chest. “We’ve had sex. A lot. But I don’t know things about you. Things like that. It … it just made it clear that all we are doing is physical, and I don’t think I can do that.”

His eyes narrowed as he studied me, trying to make sense of my words.

“You’re upset because you didn’t know I had a house?”

I nodded. “Yes. I don’t know your favorite color … or … or your favorite flavor ice cream or what you like to do … your hobbies.”

The corner of his mouth twitched as he held my gaze, making me feel slightly ridiculous. Saying this all out loud made it seem silly. I wasn’t verbalizing this well.

“Green—the color of your eyes, to be exact. Peanut butter cup ice cream—the kind with the actual chunks in it. When I was younger, I played football. Quarterback. I could have played in college, but I didn’t get that option in the family. I had to grow up. Take my place in the ranks. But I still love to throw a ball. I like watching it too,” he said, reaching out to run a knuckle over my cheek. “Being with you. That’s become my favorite thing to do in my free time.”

Was he aware the power he wielded with his eyes alone? Probably. He was a grown man. He had been reeling in women since I had been in preschool. Yet here I was, feeling that pull. The desire to agree to whatever he wanted if I could have him.

“You’re thirty-five,” I said, not sure as to why I needed to point that out.

He grinned then. “Yeah, sweets, I am.” He cupped the side of my face. “You decided I’m too old for you?”

I rolled my eyes, and he chuckled, stepping closer to me. The heat from his body made me tremble, and I really wished it hadn’t. I wished I could stop this and walk away. Save myself from being hurt. Because I knew I would be. I’d already suffered some of the pain that would come from loving this man.

“What else do you want to know?” he asked, lowering his head to nuzzle near my ear.

My eyes began to flutter closed, and I had to use all the strength I could muster to step back from him. His hand fell away, but he didn’t take his eyes off me.

“Are you sleeping with her?” I asked before I could stop myself. It was an answer I knew could break me, but I had to know.

His brows drew together. “Scotlin?”

“Yes,” I said through clenched teeth.

Who else would I be asking about? Was there someone else I needed to be asking about?

“Fuck no.” The disgusted look on his face was like a balm to my soul.

“Why? She’s beautiful. She likes you. She’s living in your house.”

He took a step in my direction, and I backed up, keeping the space between us.

The hurt in his gaze made it hard for me to stand firm. A large part of me wanted to run to him, wrap my arms around him, and beg him to just want me. It was pathetic.

He let out a deep sigh. “Yes, Scotlin is a beautiful woman. She chased after me for years, but she was four years younger than I was, and I ignored it. Until she turned nineteen and began pursuing me hard. Showing up everywhere that I was.” He shook his head. “I eventually gave in, and we had a relationship of sorts.”

This wasn’t helping me. In fact, this was much worse than I had anticipated. He’d had a relationship with her. It wasn’t a fling, like I had assumed. I wished I had sat down before he started telling me their past.

“She got pregnant. I told her I’d marry her. But she didn’t want to be a mom. Ever. So, without talking to me about it, she went and had an abortion.”

My hand went to my stomach as I let out a gasp. “Oh, King,” I breathed. I’d not expected that.

His blue eyes locked on me. “And that was the end of us. I didn’t want to marry her. It would have been a horrible mistake. I know that now, but at the time, I just wanted to do the right thing. Give my kid what I hadn’t had—parents who were together. I even convinced myself I could love her if I tried.” A hard laugh fell from his lips.

“So, no, I’m not fucking Scotlin. I will never fuck Scotlin again. Over the years, we made peace with the past. Our families are connected. I can’t call her a friend because I don’t trust her. I don’t even like being around her. But this is a job I have to see through. Even if I hate every fucking moment.”

When he took a step toward me, this time, I didn’t move.

“I’m so sorry,” I breathed as I stared up at him.

“Long time ago, sweets,” he said, running his hands up my bare arms. “Now, tell me, what else do you want to know? Ask anything. I’ll tell you.”

What else did I want to know? He’d hit me with this information that made my chest ache for him. I couldn’t ask him to share anything else. What other skeletons were in his closet that I could unintentionally drag out? I didn’t think I was ready for that.

“That’s enough,” I replied.

“That’s all you need to know? You sure? Because I do not want to go through another day like that again. I hate being away from you and not being able to check in on you. It fucks with my head, sweets.”

I did have another question. One I had to ask. If what he was doing, what we were doing, wasn’t going away. If he was going to keep talking to me like this. Making me feel these things. I had to ask.

“What are we? You … you say we’re friends, but this … this doesn’t feel like friends, King. This feels like more, and to me, it is more. And if it’s not more to you, then I can’t keep doing it and survive it. Survive you.”

“You’re right. We’re not friends. I thought we could be, but I need you. I want you with me all the damn time. When shit gets dark, all it takes is your smile to ease the demons inside. Does it need a label?”

Yes. No. Ugh! Why was I pushing? This was all new. Perhaps I was too inexperienced in life and I was asking for something I shouldn’t.

“I guess not,” I replied.

His hands grabbed my waist and pulled me against him. “Those eyes of yours are saying something different. You want security. Your trust in me is gone, and I deserve it.” He lowered his head and pressed a kiss to the corner of my mouth. “I don’t know what to call this. I just know you’re all I think about. The only one I want to fuck. The only person I miss. Yeah, it sounds like a relationship, but I’ve seen what happens when people fall in love. That shit isn’t real. It’s just a word. It ends in disaster, and I could never live with myself if that happened to us and I lost you. My life … this world I live in isn’t one that builds strong relationships. It rips them apart. I’ve seen it happen over and over. So, let’s not label it. Let’s just live in the moment. Enjoy how this feels.”

There were no right words here. At least, I couldn’t think of any. I just nodded, and he brushed his lips against mine as his hands tightened their hold on me.

“When this is over, move into my house with me,” he said, then nipped at my top lip with his teeth.

“What?” I asked, breathless.

“You heard me.”

“When what is over?” I asked him, needing clarification as my heart soared.

He trailed kisses over to my ear and pressed a kiss to the tender spot beneath it. I shivered, and my hands fisted in his shirt.

“When I find Scotlin’s stalker and the Insantos are handled, I want you in my house. With me.”

The way the heaviness from earlier lifted from my shoulders should have been a warning. One for me. Reminding me just how much power he had over me. Every step I took closer to him, I was only losing more of my heart. And he didn’t believe in relationships.

King wrapped his larger hand around mine and flashed me a crooked grin as he led me out the door of the library. He didn’t slow his pace as we reached the foyer, where Maeme and Storm still stood.

“She’s going with me for the rest of the day,” King informed them without pausing for a response.

“What about tonight?” Maeme asked him. “You’re Scotlin’s date at her father’s dinner party this evening.”

I would not let that bother me. I had to find a way to control the jealous surge that came whenever I heard her name and that King would be with her. If I was going to do this with him, I had to trust him even if he’d done little to earn my trust back.

King’s grip on my hand tightened. “Rumor can stay in my room at the stables while I go. I’ll come back there tonight when it is over.”

“What about Scotlin?” Storm asked, causing King to tense up.

“She’ll be staying at her father’s,” he said through clenched teeth.

“Rumor, is this what you want?” Maeme asked.

I shifted my gaze from King to his grandmother. The concern in her expression was clear. She didn’t think I should go, but how did I explain to her that I wanted to be with him, even after everything that had happened?

“Yes,” I replied.

She let out a long sigh, then nodded. “Very well.”

King pulled me with him out the door before either of them could say more. I had to almost run to keep up with his pace all the way to the truck.

“You didn’t ask me about this,” I said to him as we stopped at the passenger door. “What if I didn’t want to go with you?”

His eyes snapped to mine. “You don’t want to go with me?”

That wasn’t the point.

“I don’t even have my things.”

King moved in front of me, caging me against the side of his truck. “Sweets, I fucked up. But you’ve forgiven me. I know you drew your lines, and there were rules, but after the other night and that conversation we just had in the library, I assumed things had changed. You might not trust me, but you don’t want me with another woman. I don’t want another woman. So, we agree on that. Now, I want to fuck you. I want you in my room, in my bed, in my shower. The best I can do right now is take you to my room in the stables. Keeping you there. With my things. You’re safe there. It’s safer than even Maeme’s. I won’t have to worry when I can’t be with you. Please.” He paused and wrapped an arm around my waist, holding me against his body. “Don’t fight me on this. The two weeks I went without being inside your hot little cunt were fucking brutal.”

I swallowed hard and felt my body melt against his as I leaned in closer without even realizing I was doing it. “Okay.” My voice was barely above a whisper.

“That’s my girl,” he replied with a slow grin spreading across his face. “Let’s go before I fuck you against this damn truck and Maeme puts a bullet in my ass.”

He reached behind me to open the door while pulling me away from the truck and with him as he stepped back.