Page 25 of Falling For The Enemy (The Gilbert Curse)

“Why not?” she asked, reaching for a leather jacket on the hook and shrugging into it.

The action pulled the fabric taut across her full breasts and Kit wasn’t sure how much more his body could handle.

“Because I want you, Rory,” he growled. “You invited me here as a friend and teacher, and I know you’re not ready for horny me to be all over you.”

“Oh! Well, I want you, too. I’m not sure, okay, well...” She was sort of rambling. “I’ve never had sex. I mean, I made out once and the night of the ball my date was...well, he was forceful and tore my dress but no actual—”

“Stop. You don’t have to tell me all of that,” he said. He ached for her as she was telling him this story. And it confused him.A lot. Because that wasn’t any part of the story he’d heard about the ball from his aunt. But then his brother had died before any of them spoke to him. Had Dec attacked Rory?

He had no idea how his brother had been with women. Kit did know that his brother had been angry after learning the factory was being closed. Declan had often gotten physical with Kit when they’d been younger and arguing about something, but Kit had always thought that was just a sibling thing. He opened his eyes and looked at her, saw that she’d kind of shrunken into herself, and realized she needed to know that they were okay.

He opened his arms. “That doesn’t matter. You and I will figure ourselves out.”

She stepped into them and he hugged her close. He held her carefully as his mind was now spinning with questions that he was pretty sure he’d never get any satisfaction from, but he knew he had to find out what had actually happened the night that his brother died and Rory went into a coma.

She shifted back. “It’s okay if—”

He put his fingers over her lips, not sure he could handle anything else she had to say right now. “No more talking for now. Let’s go for a drive and just spend the day together. I’m not going to pressure you into anything.”

“Oh, Kit, I know that. I just don’t want you to be disappointed in me. In how I drive or how I kiss.”

“Woman, your kisses are the best. Don’t ever doubt that,” he said.

Nodding, she locked her door and they headed to his car. He got behind the wheel and they drove out of Gilbert Corners together, over that bridge where the accident had happened, and once again he couldn’t help wondering what had happened that night.

It had changed so many lives, even Kit’s, and he hadn’t been in town. But it had put him on a path toward this moment, driving him to questions that he knew he had to have answered.

They got on the interstate, which wasn’t busy this time of the day. The leaves on the trees on both sides of the road were changing. Rory didn’t remember particularly liking fall before, but now she did.

“Where are we going?”

“Oh, sorry, I went into autopilot and was heading back to Boston,” he said.

“Was it me talking about sex...?”

“Yes. But please stop. I need a minute to think about something other than what you feel like in my arms,” he said, his voice growing a bit husky on the last part.

“How about we get off at the next exit and find a spot that’s not busy and you can help me drive?” she asked. “That’s not sexy.”

He signaled to exit the interstate. “Everything about you is.”

She blushed, glad to hear him say that. “I was fishing.”

“I know,” he said, a wry grin flickering on his lips.

As he exited the interstate, she noticed there was a co-op off to the side advertising fresh cider, apples and doughnuts. Kit pulled into the parking lot and parked away from the other cars. He turned off the engine and put his arm along the back of her seat as he faced her. “I don’t mind you fishing.”

“That’s one of many things I like about you, Kit,” she admitted. She couldn’t remember dating before the coma. She had an idea that she’d probably been afraid to admit things back then. But having missed a decade of her life, she wasn’t going to let fear keep her from the things she wanted.

And she wanted Kit.

“What else do you like?” he asked.

She undid her seat belt and reached over to put her hand on his thigh. She did envy him his healthy body but knew hers was getting there. She squeezed his leg. “That you keep showing up despite the fact that I coerced you into it.”

“You didn’t force me to do anything I didn’t want to,” he said, his hand idly playing with a strand of hair that had escaped her braid.

She and Kit noticed people coming out of the store. “We can try letting you drive here,” he suggested. “Or we can go into the shop.”

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