Page 3 of Kingston

Everything around me had narrowed, turning fuzzy until all I could see was him.

Dark-blond hair that was shaved on the sides and several inches longer on the top pushed back from a face that was, without a doubt, the most amazingly handsome face I’d ever seen in the world.And I would know handsome.Charlie Johnson was movie-star handsome.His mother had been Miss Georgia before she’d become Miss USA, and later, she had been the second runner-up for Miss Universe before she’d come home and married a local politician.Not long after Charlie was born, his dad became governor for two terms and was now running for the Senate.

But there were just a few loose ends the family needed to make sure got tied up to ensure the Johnson family continued their political dynasty.Like keeping Iris and me a secret.Having a son getting his high school girlfriend pregnant out of wedlock was frowned upon, but it wasn’t the darkest secret they needed to keep out of the public eye.Like having that same son, who was an abusive addict, beating that girlfriend when she was eight months pregnant until she went into labor.Or again a month later after she was released from the hospital…

Blinking away the bad memories of Charlie, I’d focused on the man in the kitchen, my teeth sinking into my bottom lip without realizing it.His strong jaw had a little stubble on it, just a few days’ worth of growth.I wondered how it would feel against my palm.Or my neck… Or my belly… Between my legs.

Pressing my thighs together, I’d shaken those thoughts away.Men were bad news.The worst.Nothing good ever came from dealings with them.Sex with Charlie had been blah at best.He didn’t know what he was doing.When other girls talked about getting wet, I always thought they were making shit up, because my ex had never gotten so much as a trickle from me.

But looking at the cook right then, an ache began to build low in my tummy, my panties becoming damp.

What the fuck was happening?

Then Opal told him I needed to be paid.

And that was when I’d kind of blacked out.My temper had taken over for the very first time in my life.

Even as I was pelting the giant blond cook with muffins I’d spent the previous night baking instead of getting much-needed sleep, I’d known it was going to cost me, but I couldn’t seem to stop myself.Shame was a hard pill to swallow, however, when you were running on two hours of sleep, a gallon of caffeine, and a hundred pounds of anxiety.

Hearing this gorgeous stranger with all his tattoos and muscles call me a con had pushed me too far over the edge, and there was no coming back.This bridge was officially burned.It had been time to move on anyway.If my ex stuck to his past patterns, he would have worked his way into a somewhat sober state and would come looking for us any day now.

Charlie had already chased us across the Southeast.California was a big enough state that I was hoping we could blend in.As long as I stayed off the radar, kept our names and Social Security numbers off the grid, we could outrun him.But that meant we couldn’t stay still for too long.Getting comfortable was dangerous.It was better to just pack up and move on.

I’d considered going as far north as Canada, but my car was a junker that I wasn’t all too sure was legal.I’d bought it at a junkyard with the money I’d secretly saved while I was pregnant with Iris.It wasn’t pretty or eco-friendly.But the brakes worked, and it had been a home more times than I could count.That piece of scrap would get my baby and me where we needed to go just fine for a little longer.

I hoped.

Grasping another muffin, I aimed for the giant’s huge head, his careless words exploding in my mind like bombs.We’d only been in Creswell Springs a few months, but it was the longest I’d spent in one place in the last three years.I’d gotten comfortable, had even been able to save a little money for the first time ever, despite how often I had to take Iris to the doctor.That was all thanks to Quinn.

I’d taken a chance and offered her a business proposition.If she could keep things hush-hush, not report my earnings, I could supply her with as many breakfast pastries as I could make in a night, and we could split the sales.I wasn’t going to fool myself; I’d probably reeked of desperation that day I’d walked into Aggie’s with Iris on my hip, a container of samples in hand.But Quinn had taken one bite of my banana chocolate chip muffin and moaned so loud her cheeks had instantly turned pink.

Quinn Hannigan must have known she was saving my life that day because she didn’t blink over my whispered suggestion to keep this agreement off her books.I’d drop off fresh goods every morning, she’d give me the cash from my share of the sales the previous day, and then I’d go back to the small house where I was the daytime caretaker for an elderly woman, Joy Lively.

Her son and daughter-in-law supposedly couldn’t afford any kind of real home health care, and they worked all day.My pay wasn’t much, and as with the diner, I was getting paid off the books.But they had an extra room they let me stay in with Iris.As long as I kept the house clean and had dinner on the table when they got home, they left me alone.With all the baking I did, I paid for all the supplies and kept them stocked in breakfast pastries.

If anything, they were getting the better end of the deal.Joy was, in fact, not a joy to deal with.She was a fucking headache.It didn’t take long for me to realize that it wasn’t actually because her family couldn’t afford the home health care.All the local nursing staff refused to deal with the old hag’s bullshit.

Between the verbal abuse Joy threw at me, always glancing over my shoulder in hopes of staying one step ahead of my ex, and the constant fear of losing Iris, I should have known it was only a matter of time before something set me off.Hurt and shame mixed together, adding the perfect ignition to the keg that was my hot temper.

I wasn’t a con.I worked hard for what I had, for what I gave my daughter.It wasn’t much, but I wanted her to think that her mother was a strong woman who did everything she could to protect and love the most precious person in the world.Life hadn’t been the easiest for me, but I was doing my best to give my kid a different start.Iris wasn’t going to end up a statistic like I had.I wouldn’t fucking allow it.

With each muffin I hurled at the giant man’s head, I released a little more of the rage that had been building deep inside me.Pain and fear.All the goddamn stress that was my constant companion tried to suffocate me late into the night, and the only thing that kept me tethered to the world was Iris snuggling so sweetly into my side.Trusting me to keep her safe.

If he hadn’t pissed me off so much, it might have been cathartic.

“Whoa!”His deep voice vibrated through me, causing me to shiver in a way my ex never could, but I kept throwing, refusing to acknowledge that little additional awareness.Hate-lust was a thing, I was sure.I just hadn’t ever experienced it.

He lifted his frying pan like he was a Viking in battle, making him look that much hotter.Damn him!“Hold on a sec.Hey.Come on!Give me a minute to?—”

“Kingston?”Quinn’s soft voice barely registered just as I released the last of the blueberry muffins.“Oh, goodness.What have you done?”

The disappointment I heard in the older woman’s voice was what finally calmed the storm inside me.She was the last person I wanted to let down.Quinn had given me a chance when no one else had.That woman saved me, and I’d just destroyed her kitchen.

Dropping the now-empty container, I glanced around in horror at the catastrophic mess I’d made of the industrial-sized kitchen.The smell of bacon and other frying foods filled my nose while I took in the disarray of toppled-over pots and pans, food and broken plates on the floor.Quinn stood in the open doorway, her pretty eyes wide as she took in the chaos I’d unleashed.Opal was on the other side of the pass-through window, her mouth gaping open.

And the giant, with his chiseled, god-like beauty, lifted a brow at me, a smile teasing at his lips.“You done, hell-raiser?”

“Fuck you.”

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