Page 49 of Twins for the Enemy

I place my hands on his arms, pretending to push him over, and he lets me, settling down to the left of me.

“Some of your house staff might think you were in trouble,” I say. “From how much you were cursing God.”

“I wasn’t cursing God,” he says. “I’m very grateful toward any higher power right now.”

“I don’t think goddamn is a sign of gratitude,” I tease.

“Well, the staff isn’t here, so they couldn’t have been that concerned.”

“Maybe they were watching when we weren’t looking,” I say. “You seem like the type that would hire peepers.”

“Only for the gardeners.” He runs his fingers through his hair. The sweat makes it protrude upward. “I don’t think you’re one to judge, Farah. You’ve eavesdropped on every conversation you could. With Ellie and I, with my future brother-in-law…”

I laugh. “Yeah, I’ve learned to not do that. Sometimes, you hear things you don’t need to hear.”

“Such as?”

I raise my eyebrows. Normally I’d run my mouth. But now, considering it, I’m not exactly sure this is the right time.

“You’re hesitating,” he remarks. “I can’t imagine what I said that would steal away the defiance in Farah Todd.”

I tuck my hair behind my ear. “Well, it’s complicated.”

“Yes, because our relationship before this has been simple.”

“Robert Young,” I blurt. “You talked about having closure because he’s dead.”

Surprise ripples across his face, but a guardedness quickly replaces it.

“Yes,” he states. “I do have closure over that.”

“I just…” I take a deep breath. “I don’t know what that means.”

He considers me. From the tension in his shoulders, I expect him to stand up and leave, return to our pattern of him acting like I don’t exist after we’ve slept together.

But he doesn’t move.

“I’d always told Olivia that if she drank at a party to call me, so I could drive her home. I made it clear that if she didn’t do that, I wouldn’t forgive her. She always called me.” He looks down at the space between us, where some of the mattress is starting to restore itself and forgetting where our bodies’ imprints were. “One night, I was driving her home. Robert Young, a drunk fucker, crossed the center line. He didn’t even have his headlights on. I swerved to avoid him, but he hit the back of the car. Olivia and I slammed into a telephone pole. Olivia died shortly after we got her to the hospital. Robert Young died instantly.”

I let out a slow breath and reach for his hand. Kieran hadn’t killed him. I expect Kieran to pull away, but he flips over his hand, so my fingertips brush againsthis palm.

It’s strange how tragedies happen without any reason or connection between the perpetrator and the victim. Like Helena Porter and how she became a victim just because I felt the need to call Neal. I made an innocent woman pay for my weakness. For my lack of good judgment.

The tension in my body eases as Kieran leans forward, his kiss rough enough to grind down the abrasive thoughts in my mind.

I’d felt divided between a coward and a loose cannon, but lying beside him, it doesn’t feel like I’m split in two. He didn’t make me reckless; it was a part of me that’d buckled under the weight of my fear of my father and my responsibility toward my brother. He’d lifted the weight and pulled it off like it was a jacket that I’d put on to protect me from the explosions of other men in my life.

He scoops up the compass in one hand and lays down on his stomach. Possessed by the braver side of myself, I trace his shoulder muscles, then let my fingers traildown his spine. He looks over at me with a smile that’s more real than anything outside this room.

He rests his chin on his arm. “You’re more than I could have ever asked for.”

“You did say I was a handful.”

“That’s true,” he says, caressing my arm. He watches his hand like he can’t quite believe our skin is touching. “But in a good way. Your chaos and your kindness are unexpected and necessary. I’ve never met someone that I can just lie next to and not be thinking about clients or revenge or how to get her out of my house.”

“Yes, you’ve made it very apparent you don’t want me out of your house,” I tease.

He leans forward and I kiss him. It’s a quick, flirty kiss, but as I pull back, his arm tightly wraps around me, yanking me closer so he can kiss me harder. His hands grip my ass, his mouth opening my mouth, and my breasts pressed against his chest. My hands move to his neck. When a slow rumble passes through him asmy thigh slides between his thighs, I feel it against my palm.

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