With This Kiss (6 page)

Rebecca turned from the sink and wiped her hands on a white dish towel. “I found his note in the morning. I thought we were going to have a chance to talk about things more in the morning. I thought we were going
to be together to tell everyone about calling off the wedding.”

“So he was just gone in the morning and you have no idea why?”

She hated this. Hated knowing without a shadow of a doubt that Sean was going to keep pushing and pushing and pushing at her until she broke.

She shook her head, feeling trapped in a terrible web. One that she’d help to weave.

Anger finally lit his features. “I’ll never forgive you if he’s hurt and you didn’t give me the information I need to help him.”

“I’ll never forgive myself either,” was the only thing she could bring herself to say.

“Then tell me, Rebecca.”

She found herself looking desperately at the door. Not just as an exit, but with the hopes that if she was really, really lucky, Stu would reappear with a smile on his face and everything figured out so that he could give everyone the explanations they were looking for.

Too bad she knew better, wasn’t it?

“It’s late,” she told Sean, feeling unbelievably weary. “I’ve got a busy day tomorrow and it starts early at the front desk.”

She was halfway to the kitchen door, had almost started to believe he was going to let her get away for the night, when he said, “I’m not going to wait much longer for you to tell me the truth, Rebecca.”

She whirled around, angry now herself. “How dare you accuse me of lying to you! Especially when I’ve just told you things you frankly have no right to know about my relationship with your brother.”

But she could see from the hard, closed look on his face that he didn’t care about what she’d told him. Only what she hadn’t.

Didn’t he realize how bad she felt about having to keep his brother’s secret?

Well, no, of course he didn’t. Which was why there was no point in her spending another minute down here with him. Forget the cake, she was going to go and finally take that bath she’d been dreaming of for hours.

Which was when she remembered her dress.

And the stupid zipper.

Of all the people to have to ask for help… she almost groaned out loud. But knowing it was either Sean or scissors, she turned around to face him one more time.

Wishing the earth would open up and swallow her whole, she made herself say, “This is really awkward, but I’m afraid I need your help with something.” She lifted her right arm slightly. “The zipper on my dress is stuck. That’s partly why I came downstairs. I was hoping to find someone who could help me. Since we’re the only ones up, I’d really appreciate your help, if you wouldn’t mind.”

He didn’t move for a long moment and then he was coming toward her. She shouldn’t have felt like a lamb being stalked by a lion but—
oh god—
she did. And as he came closer, ten feet dissolving to five, then three, then a handful of inches, she had to firmly resist the urge to back up.

He’d touched her only once before now—when he’d grabbed her shoulders after the wedding to ask about Stu—and she hadn’t been able to forget the feel of his hands on her yet. She didn’t need round two to make things any worse.

“Lift your arm a little more,” he said softly.

That was when she made the mistake of looking up at him and his eyes caught hers.

She’d heard what he’d said, but her brain couldn’t seem to comprehend the meaning of it. Not when he was standing this close. Not when she could finally see the faint line of a scar that cut across his face, cheek to chin. Not when she was breathing in his intensely masculine scent, reminiscent of cedar chips and summer bonfires.

Finally, her brain registered his words and she lifted her arm. He held still just long enough for her to wonder if he was as reluctant to touch her as she was to be touched by him. And then she felt his fingers lightly brush against the side of her rib cage.

She could feel her body reacting to his nearness, heat creeping across her skin. Chills, followed by a rush of extreme heat, had no business swamping her system from nothing more than the lightest brush of his fingertips.

He worked the zipper slowly, steadily. Feeling light-headed, she realized she was holding her breath.

Breathe. She had to figure out a way to breathe.

“I see what’s stuck, Rebecca. But I’m going to have to get at it from the inside.”

The breath she’d been about to take caught inside her windpipe at the way he said her name, his low tones wrapping around the seven letters like velvet.

“From the inside?” she repeated pointlessly. He couldn’t repair her dress through the thin safety of fabric?

She’d never survive this.

“I’m afraid so.”

How she wished Sean was like her brothers-in-law. They made her laugh, made her groan at their stupid jokes and irrational love of football, and she loved them because
they loved her sisters, but that was it. There were no hidden currents. No reasons she wouldn’t want to be alone with them in a dark hallway. And if one of them had had to reach inside her dress to fix a stuck zipper, even if they got a feel-up by accident, they would’ve simply laughed about it later.

But neither she nor Sean was laughing.

She had to stop thinking this way. There was nothing between her and Sean. And there never would be. He was simply Stu’s brother.

Getting all weird about his fingers inside her dress was crazy.

“Okay,” she said as firmly as she could manage. “Go for it.”

She tried to think of something, anything but Sean’s lightly calloused fingertips sliding over her skin. She focused on the problems they’d had getting the right silverware into the inn’s dining room. She reviewed her mental files on the guest last week who’d “accidentally packed” the alarm clock. Heck, she went all the way back to the time when she was five and had the mumps so bad she could hardly recognize herself in the mirror.

But nothing, not one single thing she could think of, could distract her from the sensation of his warm touch on her sensitive skin.

Finally, the fabric from the inside of her dress shifted out of the zipper’s teeth, and in one smooth motion Sean pulled it all the way down, then back up.

Abruptly, he pulled away. So fast that he half spun her around and she stumbled.

She’d just vowed—in triplicate—not to keep running. But if ever there was a time and place to run, it was now.

Because with only the slightest brush of his fingers across her skin, Sean had made her feel things no other man ever had.

She was upstairs and in her room with the door locked in record time.

Why hadn’t she just used scissors to cut her dress off?

W
hat was wrong with him?

If he’d been the least bit in control of any of his senses, he would have gotten the hell out of the kitchen the minute Rebecca walked in. But every second he spent with her had his brain working on less and less of a rational plane.

Which was crazy, because he was always rational. Hell, he’d used his analytical mind to make millions of dollars.

She looked soft, warm, but finding out just how smooth her skin actually was, when she’d trembled at his touch, all he’d been able to think about was pulling her against him.

So close. He’d been so close to the edge. Almost all the way there, about to jump off into the abyss. She’d just told him she and Stu didn’t love each other. That they were just friends. So there was no barrier there, not really.

But there were others. Big ones, like the fact that she wasn’t telling him the full truth about Stu’s disappearance. She hadn’t actually admitted to knowing more
than she was saying, but she’d quite clearly evaded his questions.

Yes, she seemed like an open book. It looked like everything she was feeling was written on her face. Hell, when she’d been talking about wanting love her wistful longing had almost gotten to him, to the heart he swore he didn’t have.

Sean knew better than to be fooled by it, though. Not when everyone he knew held back as much as they could. Especially if it made them look ridiculous. And even though Rebecca gave off an air of not being able to hold anything back, he knew better.

She wasn’t telling him the truth about his brother’s disappearance.

Sean’s early years as a venture capitalist had been exciting, but the past year or so he’d gotten tired of the scene, of dealing with people who were only in it for the kill. Just as he always had been. He’d come back to Emerald Lake for his brother’s wedding and to prepare for his next career move, but now he realized there was a bigger reason he should have come back.

His brother had needed him. And he hadn’t been there for Stu.

Sean wouldn’t make that mistake again.

Just as he wouldn’t make the mistake of falling for Rebecca’s “look how honest I am” act, complete with big eyes and that sweet mouth that kept making him lose his train of thought like the idiot he’d sworn he’d never be for a woman.

Despite the late night, Sean was up early. Not as early as Rebecca, however. He found it hard to believe how fresh
and bright she looked, considering how little sleep he knew she’d gotten the night before—and how hard she’d obviously worked putting on both Andi and Nate’s wedding and keeping the inn running. He couldn’t help but feel a grudging respect for her.

She was on the phone and there was a little frown between her eyebrows. The fact that his thumb itched to smooth it out made no sense, considering he didn’t know her beyond their conversations the day before… and given that he didn’t trust her.

From where he was standing, at the doorway to the inn’s front room, he could see that she was on the phone and hear most of her side of the conversation.

“Mom, no, I’m fine.” She frowned again, deeper this time. “Please stop worrying about me. I’ve told you before, it’s not like I’m all alone out here. I have a lot of wonderful friends.” She gave a little shake of her head, her long, silky hair moving around her shoulders. “Please don’t come right now, Mom, and don’t let any of my sisters drive up, either.” She lifted her eyes to the ceiling as if she were looking for divine intervention. “No, it’s not that I don’t want you to visit. Of course, I do. But when you come, I want it to be for a vacation, so that you can relax on the lake. Summer will be a much better time for that.”

Evidently, he wasn’t the only one who didn’t like seeing Rebecca look upset. Her mother was clearly beside herself at the wedding being called off.

“Besides, I have too much to do right now with the Tapping of the Maples Festival to spend time with you.”

Tapping of the Maples Festival? What was that?

Finally, her lips curved up a slight bit at the corners. “It’s going great. But I’m crazy busy trying to run the inn,
too.” Her smile fell away at whatever her mother said in response. “Stu would be here to help me with everything if he could, Mom.”

It sounded like she meant it, but at the same time there was a thread of irritation there, whether at her mother or his brother—or both—he wasn’t sure.

“I know I made another bad decision,” she was saying into the phone, bristling now as she defended herself. “But I’m staying this time, Mom.”

Another bad decision? What kind of woman had his brother been engaged to?

“No, I’m not waiting for him to come back.” Rebecca’s voice had risen and she was pacing the small area behind the check-in counter. “Even though things didn’t work out with Stu, that doesn’t mean I have to pack up all my things and leave my friends and my job.” A pause, and then: “I really love being an innkeeper. And I love Emerald Lake.”

He saw concern and remorse—and frustration—flash across her mouth as she said, “Of course, I love you all, too! But I’ve made my decision. I’m staying. Talk to you tomorrow. Give my love to everyone.”

She’d been firm without becoming nasty. Yet again, she’d surprised him with her strength of will. In fact, she was a great deal firmer than anyone would ever guess, especially given how sweet and gentle she looked. It wasn’t just her delicate angel’s face that gave that impression; it was the picture of those pink painted toes he’d seen the night before that wouldn’t leave his brain.

The inn was home to her. That was why she felt comfortable coming downstairs to the kitchen without shoes on. It was just what she’d told her mother.

Sean hadn’t felt like he’d had a home in a very long
time. Although, in truth, the inn had a warmth about it that even managed to draw him in and made him want to stay in Emerald Lake when, previously, for years he’d barely been able to come back home without itching to get away again as soon as he could.

Why, he had to wonder, had her mother treated her like that? What else had Rebecca screwed up? And how badly?

Damn it, listening to her on the phone with her mother gave him more insight into her than he was comfortable with… and only made him want to learn more.

Being hit with yet another urge he didn’t understand where Rebecca was concerned had him heading away from the check-in counter for the kitchen.