Page 116 of Beneath the Mountain Sky
“Please cut her some slack.”
Because it’s going to make my life very difficult if I’m going to have to referee those two constantly. It was bad before I left, but now, it’s completely untenable.
“I won’t.” He tilts his cup of coffee at me. “And you better be careful. You never know what she’ll print about you. Or Killian.”
As if on cue, the door swings open, and Killian steps in, his gaze sweeping the room and landing on me. The corners of his lips pull up. “You doin’ okay in here?”
He nudges the door closed with his booted foot and wipes his hands on his jeans, which are covered in sawdust.
I shrug. “I was just asking your brother why he hates Raven so much.”
Killian’s gaze cuts to Connor, and he smirks. “Oh, I’d love to hear this.”
Connor sneers at him. “Same reason you hate her.”
With an annoyed huff, Killian holds up his hands defensively. “I never said I hated her. I just…she isn’t my favorite person.”
I can’t fight a grin at his dodging the issue. Killian won’t let his issues with Raven interfere with us. “Who is?”
His gaze moves back to me, heating instantly. “Do I really need to answer that?”
That look tells me everything without him saying a word.
Hours spent tangled together in the sheets last night flash through my head—the kind of memories I want to obsess over instead of the ones that are tied to my missing year.
I push off the desk and move toward him, but he takes a retreating step.
“Honeybee, I’m sweaty and covered in sawdust at the moment.”
And looking sexy as hell.
I grin at him. “When has that ever stopped me before?”
The smile that splits his face would light up the room if it wasn’t the middle of the day already, and he pulls me up against him as Connor issues a gagging noise behind us and climbs to his feet.
“So, I see you two worked out everything, huh? I kinda figured after this morning…”
Killian kisses me hard, the smell of sweat and wood and the mountain enveloping me, then pulls away and looks at his brother. “We did. Though, I’m sure I’ll be making it up to her until the day I die.”
Connor nods. “Agreed.”
He stomps out and slams the door behind him, apparently relieved of his babysitting duties and none too soon.
Killian ignores his brother’s mood and kisses me again, holding me tightly to him and reminding me of all the strength and passion I love so much about him.
This morning rattled me almost as much as what happened last night and the painful nightmare did. Killian’s belief that I was held against my will by someone on the mountain, likely someone we know, because they directed me to write those notes to Raven to draw off suspicion, is enough to almost make me wish I didn’t know.
And the way Killian is kissing me, it feels possible to completely forget everything around us for as long as we keep going.
But it can’t last forever.
When we finally come up for air, Killian brushes a strand of hair from my face. “What have you been doing in here all morning?”
“Spinning in your chair.”
He glances at it. “How’s that working out for you?”
I press my hand to my stomach. “It kind of made me nauseous.”
