Kinsley was all warmth, affection, and so much…brightness. Rhett could barely breathe as they stared into each other’s eyes, reminded of all the ways she wrecked him. Two months had gone by since he’d touched her, and every minute, every second, had been a struggle to stay away from her.
She quickly regained her composure like she always did, but he had to force himself to look away first. If he stared too long, he got lost in the intensity between them. Rhett couldn’t allow that. For her sake. He was a soldier, not a civilian. He belonged on the battlefield, not living in a small town or playing house with anyone. And through the years of watching Kinsley grow up, he knew she wanted the husband, the 2.2 kids, the walks in the park, the movie nights. Rhett could barely sit in one place for longer than twenty minutes before he got edgy.
The rumble of motorcycles roared on the other side of the door and Rhett gritted his teeth. Dalton Greeves, and the others with him, belonged to the notoriously dangerous RED DRAGONS motorcycle club. It wasn’t often that Dalton and his men came into Stoney Creek. They had no business there. And Rhett hoped this wasn’t a start to something, especially considering Dalton had put his focus on Kinsley.
When the motorcycles were all but a soft rumble now, Rhett noticed the silence in the bar. He took in the customers, all sitting at their tables looking in his direction. Most were pale. Some looked ready to bolt. “It’s all right,” he told the crowd. “I’m police. You’re all safe, and they won’t be coming back tonight.” He glanced at the pretty singer onstage and nodded her on.
She quickly moved toward the microphone and got right back into the song that obviously had been interrupted, filling the bar with her velvety voice.
To settle the crowd, Rhett holstered his weapon and slid onto the stool. When his gaze met Kinsley’s again, he found that the connection they’d had a minute ago was now gone. “Any idea why they were here?” he asked her.
She shrugged. “Being aggressive pricks is my guess.”
The slight movement of her shoulder drew his attention to her body. Her beauty stunned him, every damn time. Her blue eyes were like no other color he had seen in his life. Bright against her chocolate brown hair. But what he liked most about Kinsley was her strength. She had her shit together.
Just then, Benji, the guy Rhett still could never get a read on, sidled up next to Kinsley. “I leave for one second to stock the fridges and all hell breaks loose.” He examined her, a little too intimately if Rhett had anything to say about it, before sliding his arm around her. “Are you okay?”
She nodded, her face ashen.
Rhett stared at Benji’s arm, willing it to burst into flames. Benji’s affection only reminded Rhett how bad he was with people. He should have comforted her. Christ, he should have done a lot of things, but getting anything right aside from being a soldier and a detective wasn’t in his nature. He stayed put, arms resting on the bar, not getting any closer to Kinsley than was absolutely necessary. He did not trust himself to keep his hands to himself. “They won’t come back,” he told her, hoping to reassure her. “This is what the gang does. They come in, rattle people up, and leave.”
“They better not come back,” she said, stepping out of Benji’s arms. “The last thing I need is a bunch of hooligans scaring off my customers.” She placed her hands on the ice bin in front of her and drew in a long, deep breath, and with that single breath, she seemed to shed the remainder of worry shadowing her.
She looked very much like the in-control, sexy woman that Rhett had found when he came home from the military. Kinsley had always just been Boone’s younger sister. The cute, feisty kid who stood up to bullies on the playground and got into more trouble than her older brother did. Rhett had once pulled her off one of the biggest guys in high school as she clawed out to hurt him for spreading lies about one of her friends. She’d always been a spitfire, but when Rhett left for the military, she’d still been a kid. When he came home, he discovered that she’d become a woman, a gorgeous one at that, and she drew him right in. For years, he fought his attraction to her, but she was simply unforgettable. And yet, he couldn’t be more wrong for her.
Rhett knew how to hunt and how to kill. He knew how to make sure a woman left his bed satisfied. But he didn’t know how to love her. Not in the way she should be loved. And even if he wanted to, which he wasn’t sure he did, he was too far gone.
To make the boundary between them as clear as ever, he slid off the stool and said, “If they come back, let Boone know.”
He wasn’t lost to the tightening of her lips before she said to Benji, “If anything comes up, just call, okay?”
Benji nodded then gave her a quick hug. “Go and enjoy the rest of your birthday.”
Her birthday. Yeah, Rhett knew all about it. He’d spent the last week trying to avoid all the conversations regarding today that Remy and Peyton kept trying to get him involved in.
“Thanks for coming,” she finally said to Rhett after Benji strode away. “I tried Boone and Asher, but no one answered their phone.”
Rhett shoved his hands into his pockets. “It’s fine.”
The way she flinched at his dry voice made him hate himself even more. But that was minuscule compared to the emotion in her eyes. “Were you at the station?” she asked, grabbing her purse from underneath the bar.
He shook his head and let his silence be the answer. He’d done everything he could for the last two months to try to forget about how good Kinsley smelled, felt, how incredible she tasted. He’d failed miserably to forget her, but even though he wanted to, he couldn’t find it in himself to be with anyone else.
“Oh.” She cringed, obviously assuming he’d been with someone else tonight.
He hadn’t, but he let her believe that since it was far better than the hurt he’d give her if he let her in. If he let anyone in. And Benji’s thoughtfulness toward Kinsley only cemented Rhett’s choice to keep his distance.
“Well, sorry I dragged you away.” She barely gave him another look as she hurried into her winter jacket, and matching scarf and winter beanie, and walked out the front door.
Rhett cursed. He rushed after her, the door slamming shut behind him as the brisk winter wind bit his face. Tension sank deep into Rhett’s muscles as he sidled up to her.
She glanced over at him. “What are you doing?”
“Walking you home.”
“Don’t bother,” she snapped. “Your date is waiting for you.”
Whatever punch she threw at him, he’d take it. A thousand times. As long as it kept her safe. “Your brother will kill me if I don’t walk you home after Dalton’s appearance,” Rhett countered.
“Fine,” she grumbled. “Whatever.”
Silence fell between them that was as cold as the bitter air. Stoney Creek’s Main Street was the height of excitement for the small town known for its fresh seafood and gorgeous views of the Atlantic Ocean. The sun had long ago set, the cool east wind cutting through the town as Rhett shoved his hands into the pockets of his jacket. Christmas was still a month away, but the townsfolk had already begun decorating with wreaths on their shop doors and twinkling lights on their signs. The beams of the streetlights caught any snowflakes fluttering to the ground to melt away.
They strolled past Black Cat’s Cauldron, Remy’s magic shop, walking beneath the wooden sign. The lights were on in the storefront, showing off jars and candles and a broomstick, along with a stuffed cat animal. By the time they passed by Peyton’s lingerie shop, Uptown Girl, Rhett began counting the minutes until he could get away from Kinsley. He liked being near her. Too much. It felt too…good.
Ten minutes. That’s all he needed to keep this silence going and keep things as casual as possible before he had her home and safe.
Obviously, Kinsley had other ideas. “I’ve been calling you.”
“I know.” He’d been dodging her ever since they came home from the tropics.
He felt her stare on him, but he kept looking straight ahead, hurrying his steps.
Of course, she didn’t let him off easy. “Is there a reason why you’re not returning my calls, or are you just really milking this asshole vibe?”
“You know why I’m not indulging this,” he said. Damn, why couldn’t her house be closer?
“So that’s your plan then?” she asked, quickly catching up to him. “Just ignoring me until I go away?”
He glanced at her and found that she was scowling at him. Good. Scowling was better than when she looked at him with those sweet eyes that ruined him. “I’m not ignoring you,” he told her. “I’m stopping whatever you think may or may not be there between us.”
She froze right there on the sidewalk, as the cold air bit Rhett’s skin.
A beat passed.
Then, “You’re honestly unbelievable,” she said with a dry snort. She brushed past him and snapped, “Don’t give yourself that much credit, West. You’re not as memorable as you think you are. I haven’t thought about that night once.”
“Liar,” he mumbled beneath his breath, staring after her. She was all fire blazing down the street, leaving a path of flames behind her. He shouldn’t indulge this, but he couldn’t help himself. “If I’m so forgettable, then why call?”
“I had to talk to you.” She turned down her street and moved quickly toward her two-story house on the corner.
The charming yellow brick house had once belonged to her grandparents. When they passed, they left the house to Kinsley’s father, who then gave it to Boone and Kinsley. Boone eventually moved out, leaving it to Kinsley.
She reached the front porch with black pedestal posts that Rhett had helped paint last year. Before she got to the door, he called out, “Then talk now.” He felt like a dick. He was a dick.
“The next time I want your opinion of what you think I should do,” she shot back at him, “how about you go fuck yourself first.”
Dammit. Pissing her off hadn’t been what he wanted. When she reached for the door handle, he raced up the steps and grabbed her arm. “Listen, I’m not good at this shit.”
“Ya think?” she growled, ripping her arm away. She turned to her door, opened it, then whirled back around. “By the way, Mr. Big Shot, I’m not this teenage girl chasing after you with stars in her eyes.”
As she was yelling at him, Rhett caught movement in her bay window. He saw more than one shadow, and a sudden realization had him lurching forward to place a hand over Kinsley’s mouth to keep the conversation private.
He instantly realized his mistake.
Her eyes were wild with a fury he suddenly feared, and before he had the chance to tell her they were not alone, she bit his hand and sacked him in the nuts with her knee. Light flashed before his eyes as he bent over, wheezing against the pain.
“I wanted to do this another way,” she yelled at him. “Any other way but how you’re making me do it.” He forced his eyes open and brought his gaze up to hers. The world suddenly stopped moving at the emotion paired with the seriousness in her expression. “I’m pregnant. The baby is yours. That’s why I’ve been calling, you stupid ass!”
Gasps of shock came from inside the house, and he nearly emptied his guts on her snow-covered porch. He dropped to one knee and placed his hands in the icy snow, easing the cold sweat washing over him that had nothing to do with his testicles being lodged up into his throat.
A few seconds passed before Kinsley’s eyes slowly widened with awareness. She stepped into her house, flicked on the light.
A long awkward pause followed.
Until the bubbly Remy yelled, “Surprise!” And then blew her party horn.
Still hunched over, now sucking in gulps of air for another reason, Rhett took in the streamers, the HAPPY BIRTHDAY sign strung up in Kinsley’s living room, and the birthday cake on the coffee table. He’d known they were throwing her a surprise party tonight. He’d been told the party was at Boone’s. Plans must have changed. He glanced at Asher, finding his friend’s mouth wide open. Peyton’s hazel eyes flickered between him and Kinsley. And then Rhett felt the weight of two gazes on him burning with anger that suddenly made his skin flush hot. Boone and Hank, Kinsley’s father, glared at Rhett like they were coming up with all the ways to kill him. But that was the least of his worries.
Kinsley was pregnant. A baby…his baby.