He half-smiled.
“I warned you it was awful.” He shrugged and looked off to his left, out of the front window above the stove. “Lowe got all the cooking genes. He could have made even that out-of-date crap taste good.”
This wasn’t the first time she had heard him talk about his brother as if he was superior. It struck her that he measured himself against his twin and that deep inside, beyond all the armour he wore around his heart, he felt he was lacking. She was sure there were things he could do that Lowe couldn’t. She walked over to him, drawn to him, needing to be close to him because despite his armour, she could see he was hurting and she wanted to know why.
She stopped close to him and angled her head up, her gaze colliding with his again. “About that drink.”
He smiled easily this time.
“I have just the thing.”
Chapter 14
Knox rounded the kitchen island, tugging the long sleeves of his black T-shirt up at the same time, revealing toned forearms that flexed and had those damned biological urges Skye was finding harder and harder to ignore growing stronger within her.
He stooped and opened a cupboard in the corner of the kitchen, near the sink, and when he turned and straightened, revealing the bottle he held, she smiled and shook her head.
Whiskey.
He grabbed two glasses from the cupboard above the one he had found the whiskey in and came back to her, choosing the other side of the island to her. He set the glasses down and pulled the stopper from the bottle.
She stared at the amber liquid as it sloshed into the glasses. It was strange having him being the one to serve her whiskey this time when she had done it for him so many times in the past. She lifted her head to tell him that and froze as her gaze caught on his face, as a feeling ran through her and had her thoughts shifting course.
Knox finished pouring two strong glasses of whiskey and looked up at her, still clutching the bottle. “What is it?”
“Nothing. I mean…” She stared at him, that feeling growing stronger. “It just hit me and… Well, I can’t believe it’s you… that you’re really here… or that there are men after us. Everything just seems so… crazy. Surreal. Like a dream. Or a nightmare.”
Knox set the whiskey down and offered his other hand to her, reaching across the black granite counter, his blue eyes earnest and open as he held her gaze. “I’m real enough.”
She looked at his hand, tempted to take it. He had big hands. Strong, capable hands. They were as rugged as the rest of him, looked as if they could handle lifting logs and chopping wood with ease, or knocking a man out with a single punch, yet whenever he had touched her, they had been soft and gentle, applying just the right amount of pressure to make her burn for him.
Skye shifted her hand towards his. Stopped herself at the critical moment and reached for one of the glasses instead. She drew it to her and lowered her gaze to it, and Knox sighed and took his hand back, snagging the other glass on the way.
“This is…” Knox sighed again, making her want to look at him to see whether he was as conflicted as he sounded. “This is strange for me too. It’s been a while since I last saw you, but it feels like only yesterday. Like the years just disappeared the moment I set eyes on you again.”
She felt that too, but kept it to herself. She didn’t feel it all the time. Sometimes, like now, she felt every day of those two years, the hurt she had felt in the weeks following their night together echoing inside her.
He glanced at her as she looked at him again, guilt flickering in his eyes before he looked at his whiskey.
“Don’t worry about it.” She tried to keep the bite from her tone but failed, couldn’t hold back the hurt as it surged through her, the bitterness that had plagued her for months after he had left without a word. She called herself on that. The bitterness had lingered in her far longer than mere months. It had been festering inside her the entire time they had been apart. She had tried to forget him, but it had been impossible. Knox wasn’t the kind of guy a woman could just let go. Or at least he was the kind of guy she couldn’t just let go. “So you seduced me, left before I woke and I never heard from you again. There’s absolutely no need for you to apologise to me.”
“I did just save you.” He frowned at her and regret crossed his features, softening them in an instant.
“That’s debatable.” She swirled her whiskey, lifted it and sipped it, but couldn’t savour it as acid scoured her insides raw and her blood burned and chilled at the same time. The fear she had felt when she had been around Karl hadn’t gone anywhere and she doubted it would while she knew he and his men were out there. She looked at Knox again, needing to hear him tell her that everything was going to be all right and needing him to confirm her suspicions. “They’re going to come up here, aren’t they? They’re going to come for us.”
He closed his eyes and nodded, and when he opened them again, steely resolve darkened his blue irises, that look in them all she needed to feel safe again. “When they get here, I’ll be ready for them.”
The part of her that couldn’t let go of her hurt, that wanted to punish him, had her mouth moving before she could stop it. “Can you think of any reason why four armed men just happened to be heading up your valley? Maybe you slept with their sister or something and forgot to call her?”
He pulled a face.
“Ouch. Low blow.” His handsome features smoothed, turning serious again. “They’re after a woman. Cameo.”
“Cameo, huh? Your girlfriend?” she bit out.
He frowned, the corners of his lips turning downwards as his head tilted slightly to his left, something she had noticed it always did when he wasn’t impressed with someone. Fine, she was being difficult, but she couldn’t stop herself even when she wanted things to be calm between them again.
“Cameo isn’t my girlfriend.” He twisted his glass in his fingers. “She’s my brother’s girlfriend.”
She believed him as she sipped her whiskey again, enjoying it this time as her mood evened out and she shut down the part of her that kept wanting to lash out at Knox. Mostly because he looked close to answering some of her questions, ones that had been bothering her since she had found herself at a trailhead with four armed men.
“They mentioned a woman, and something about two men.” She lowered her drink to rest on the counter.
“The two men are dead. Cameo is with my brother.” Knox glanced at his whiskey, stared at it for so long she thought he might not say anything else, even when she could see the war in his eyes. He was debating whether to tell her something. What? It only made her want to know even more. He swigged his whiskey and huffed. “I wish you hadn’t gotten involved in this.”
Because it meant their paths had crossed again?
The look he gave her, one laced with pain and a hint of fear, told her that wasn’t the reason. He was worried about her, afraid something might happen to her, and that touched her, softening her mood further, making it easier for her to ignore that part of her that wanted her to be angry with him.
“Cameo… she’s a ranger and Karl is her ex. Apparently, when they were together, he was a decent man.” Knox rubbed a hand over his damp blond hair and frowned as he shook his head slightly, his blue eyes telling her he found it hard to believe Karl had ever been a good man. “She left to become a ranger and her brother got caught up in some bad shit and Karl was apparently at the centre of it.”