Page 24 of Accidentally Mine
“Can I walk you home, at least?”I said to her back as she turned to leave.I knew she’d say no, but I had to try.
She paused, hesitating at the doorway.I held my breath, silently pleading for her to turn around and come back to me.
She didn’t.Not fully, at least.She did turn, but it was only enough to meet my gaze.“I’m sorry.I’m really, really sorry.”
I got the feeling that might have been the first thing she’d said all day that was authentically what she felt.
Even as the door slammed shut behind her with a final thud, and I watched her disappear from view through the frosted windows with the wordsCommon Café – Uncommonly Good!written at sidewalk level, I made up my mind that I hadn’t seen the last of Miss Roselynn Reid.
She was a mystery, and I might just be the man to solve it.I had so many questions, and I wasn’t one to be kept from the truth.What was she sorry about?And why the fuck did those eyes haunt me like the ones from my dreams?She was obviously scared, maybe even in trouble.But why?
Was it possible I’d found someone in this city with scars deeper than mine?
6
Roselynn
Wednesday morning, two full days after that morning meeting with Brent, our conversation had run through my head about a million times.Because of him being a constant in my mind, this morning I settled into a booth at the Starlight Café in downtown Boston and ordered myself a chocolate croissant.I damn well needed chocolate.The atmosphere wasn’t as good as the Common Café, and neither was the coffee or the hospitality, but I’d learn to live with it.
I had to.
The Common Café had been making me too nervous.I couldn’t let anyone—anyone—get too close.Not a chatty waitress, anddefinitelynot a guy with a face so gorgeous it made me want to weep.
If I was going to stay in Boston for any length of time, I needed to be smart about it.And going to the same café to use the Wi-Fi, keeping a routine that meant people would easily know where to find me…that wasn’t smart.
I shouldn’t have gone back there that last day.That was for sure.Something about Mr.Tall Dark and Handsome had compelled me to.Maybe he reminded me of the man on the Pike, but it was more than that.He didn’t have the obvious ego that Anthony had.I could sense a kindness in him, just in the way he talked to the waitress.I’d always hated how Anthony treated service personnel, like they were lower than him.He treated most people like they were lower than him, but I hadn’t really noticed that at first.And he’d treated me so well.At first, he’d doted on me like a princess.
Those first few months had turned out to be total bullshit.
Now, I was hyperaware of the way men acted.Any sign of possessiveness or cockiness sickened me.
Brent hadn’t been like that.When I looked at him, I saw a kindness in him that would probably make my mother proud.But it was no use dreaming.Plus, I didn’t trust myself anymore to judge the character of a man.I’d failed so utterly before.
Still, my traitorous brain wouldn’t give up examining my situation for loopholes that would miraculously allow me to hand over my phone number like Brent had asked.Was it because I’d avoided male companionship for so long?And now, for the first time in over two years, I’d met a person who made me want to open myself up to that kind of connection.
But, how could I?I’d just met him.And I would be leaving soon.
Anyway, why would he want to get involved with me?If he knew who was after me, and who would be afterhimif he pursued me, he wouldn’t stick around for long.
It was better this way.Making myself anonymous.Invisible.
As I sipped my coffee and looked around, I didn’t see a single face that worried me.No suspicious glares.No creepy leering.No lingering sense of déjà vu.
Perfect, I thought, trying to convince myself that this was enough.
I threw myself into my latest story and worked through the early afternoon, checking my phone so that I could be sure I got back on time to make Aunt Marie lunch.When I finished laying out the eighteenth installment ofBlood Run Roadfor the publishing platform, I had just enough time to make it back to Aunt Marie’s.I started to power down my computer when I sensed someone watching me.
Whirling, heart in my throat, I froze when I met Brent’s chocolate-brown eyes.
“What are you writing?”he asked casually, as if I’d told him to meet me there.
I exhaled the gasp that had caught in my throat.“What are you…?”My heartbeat skittered in my chest, making speaking difficult.“How did you find me?”
He didn’t answer, just looked down at me with those hypnotizing brown eyes.I felt whatever resolve I had crumbling, my sexy parts tingling as my libido came back at full-bore, a juxtaposition to his stalker-like appearance.
I jutted out my chin.“Answer me.”
He let out a low, sexy rumble of a laugh and scrubbed a hand through the hair at the back of his neck.“As well as you answered all my questions the other day,Roselynn?”He said my name like a taunt.Like he knew it wasn’t my real name.
