Against the Wall (Stoddard Art School Series Book 3) (8 page)

“You need to talk to her.”

Kay shook her head. “I can’t afford to be derailed. Not now.”

“She just wants to know you’re okay. And sweetie, you’re doing better than okay, you’re doing great. Don’t you want to share this with her?”

“No.” She gave a small laugh. “Absolutely not.”

“So what are you going to do—pretend she doesn’t exist?”

Kay folded her arms over her chest. “Hey, denial and running are my best things.”

“Some things you can’t run away from, Kay. They’re going to catch up with you no matter what.”

Kay sat and took the woman’s hands. “Things are never going to be good where my mother is concerned. It wasn’t my idea. She made her choice twenty years ago. I’m just grateful I have you.” She kissed the backs of her hands.

Dottie gave her a pitying look. “But I’m not your mom.”

“Thank goodness.” Kay smiled.

“You know, you only get one.”

“Some you get, some you pick. That’s why I picked you.”

“I just don’t want you to get to the day where you regret things. There’s still time to mend the fences. Before it’s too late.”

Kay frowned. “Too late for what?”

“Nothing.” Dottie lifted a hand. “I’ll go back to minding my own business. I love you both, and it breaks my heart to see you both so unhappy.”

“I’m
not
unhappy.”

Her words hung in the air as Dottie sipped at her tea. “What happened with Todd?”

Kay was on her feet again. She dumped the rest of her tea into the sink. “Wow, Mom and Todd in one conversation. I may be too tired for this.”

“Does your breakup have anything to do with the fact that you’re keeping Bear Coulter at arm’s length?”

Kay shot her a look over her shoulder. “What?”

Dottie shrugged and spoke into her cup. “The man is sweet on you.”

“I am too tired for this.” She rinsed her cup and put it into the drainer to dry.

“You’d have to be blind not to see it.”

Turning, Kay braced her hands on the edge of the counter. “Bear is a client.”

“So?”

“So, I don’t date my clients.”

“He’s a good man,” Dottie insisted.

“I agree.”

“Handsome, successful, good-hearted.” She counted each quality off on her fingers.

“I agree with all those things.”

“Then what’s the problem?”

“Besides him being my client, he lives in Maine. I live in New Hampshire.”

Dottie scanned the room. “Looks like we’re in Maine, now.”

Kay narrowed her eyes. “Cute. I’m only here for the summer. What happens come August when I have to go back? I won’t even buy a houseplant because who’d take care of it come fall?”

“Bear isn’t a houseplant, honey.”

“No, he isn’t, but I don’t want a summer fling. Bear’s not a fling guy. He’s a forever guy. He deserves someone who is settled and stable. Who’s going to be around for the long haul.”

“Then may I ask why are you feeding a stray cat?”

Kay huffed out a sharp breath. “Good question.”

After Dottie left, Kay showered and slipped into bed. Her body was exhausted, but her mind refused to quit. She tossed and turned and, in frustration, growled at the ceiling before covering her face with her pillow. The day was too warm. Her bedroom felt stuffy and stale. Throwing the pillow didn’t help. Air. She needed air to clear her head and cool off.

Slipping on a T-shirt and shorts, Kay headed out to her spot on the point. Passing Bear’s house, she replayed her conversation with Dottie. All her reasons concerning Bear were valid. The last thing she wanted or needed was a summer romance. After Todd, her heart couldn’t take it, and she wasn’t the type to keep her heart out of the mix. Bear Coulter might be sweet on her, but every time she got within two feet of the man, she became some brainless twit. She’d lost track of all the times she’d humiliated herself. Best to keep her head down and do her work. That’s all. Come August, she could leave with a solid bank account, maybe a nice reference, and an unbroken heart.

Making her way through the tumble of granite boulders making up the point, she found her place. Her rock. The ancient stone had forever marked this spot. It dipped in on one end, carved out by a million storms and the endless beating of the water. It was the perfect place to sit and watch the waves. Walter called it Fred Flintstone’s beach chair. High and dry, the warm stone cradled her tired back.

Kay rolled the tension out of her neck and lost herself to the beauty of the calm sea. The rhythmic waves soothed her. She closed her eyes and relished the feel of the sun on her skin. Out here, the smell of the water was sharp and clean. The air cooled as it came across the sea. It cleared her mind, refreshed her soul, and clarified her resolve.

Dottie meant well, but Kay wasn’t going to let a set of big shoulders and a tight guy butt cloud her judgment. Bear Coulter was off limits.

“Kay?”

Kay startled and twisted around. “Bear? What are you doing here?”

“I thought I saw someone walk past the house. You’ve been working all night. I thought you’d be sleeping.”

She looked beyond him. “Where’s Shadow? I thought you’d be at the inn.”

“Yeah, I left him there. He was busy teaching Skippy how to fetch. I’m expecting a big furniture delivery today. Forgot the damn paperwork.”

“Wow, you really are forgetful.” She stood up and brushed the back of her shorts. The sun shone in his hair. The gray of his shirt played havoc with the color of his eyes. The way it hugged his body played havoc with her common sense.

“Not usually as scatterbrained as I’ve led on. Only when I’m trying to spy on beautiful mural painters.” He smiled the smile. The one that turned her insides into melted caramel.

“You’re here to spy on me?”

“No, this one’s legit. Finding you out here basking in the sun was just a bonus.”

“And me without my sunscreen. Excuse me.” She sidled past him and headed back toward the beach.

He kept pace. “The mural is really coming along. Every morning, I’m excited to walk into the lobby and see what you’ve done the night before.”

“The work is going well. I’ll probably be out of your hair sooner than I planned.”

“I’m not sure that’s good news.”

Kay shrugged a shoulder and kept walking. “The project has to be finished sometime.”

Bear caught her elbow with a gentle hand. “But then I wouldn’t get to see you.”

She pulled out of his grasp, but stopped. Shaking her head, she crossed her arms over her chest as she turned back to him. “You know the old saying,
ships passing in the night
. You barely see me now.”

“I see more than you think I see.”

She frowned at him and continued walking. “Sounds kind of stalker-ish.”

“It does, doesn’t it?” He caught up to her in two strides. “What I mean is, you put so much of yourself into your painting. It practically screams your name.”

“Well then, when I leave, you won’t miss me.”

“Could be I’ll miss you more.” That stopped her. The teasing was past. He was serious.

Bear closed the space between them. The hand at her elbow slipped up her arm to rest at the curve of her neck. His gaze seemed to be taking in every aspect of her face as if he were trying to memorize its features.

“You can’t,” Kay whispered.

His eyes met and held hers for a long moment before returning his attention to her mouth. “I can’t what? Miss you? Or kiss you?”

His fingers trailed up the side of her neck and slipped behind her head while his thumb swept along the line of her jaw. A rush spread through her as the world tipped beneath her feet. She reached a hand out to steady herself, grasping his other arm.

“Neither.”

The man was solid muscle beneath her touch. He angled his head and brought his mouth to within a hair’s breadth of hers. Her heart was doing its best to pound its way out of her chest. His breath fanned her cheek while she held hers.

“Seems I can’t help myself.”

His lips captured hers, easily shattering the feeble defense of her words. He claimed her mouth. This was not a teasing timid kiss. Nor was it punishing. It was Bear. Strong, powerful, confident. In other words, breathtaking.

The arm she held slipped behind her waist drawing her even closer as the kiss deepened. Opening her mouth, she welcomed him in. Losing herself to the feeling of being surrounded by the strength of him. Before she knew it, Kay had a hand tangled in the softness of his hair and was pressed tight against the wall of his chest. She returned the fervor of his lips and tongue until the cold wave of sanity made her push away.

Wide eyed, they both stood panting. Her lips felt swollen, and she covered them with shaky fingertips. Her body hummed. After the heat of his body, the cool air raised goosebumps on her arms and tightened her nipples.

“Kay…”

“No.” Kay turned and ran back to the cottage.

Chapter Nine

Sweat rolled into Bear’s eyes. Three more bed frames to move and assemble and he’d be done. He’d split a knuckle that refused to stop bleeding and continued to sting like a bugger every time he bent his finger, but thank goodness he had some manual labor to keep him moving.

Returning to the inn, he’d chopped half a cord of firewood before the furniture delivery arrived. It beat the hell out of some of the other things he’d considered while trying to make sense out of what happened on the point—banging his head on a rock, punching a wall.

He’d kissed her. All the fantasizing and days of wanting and wondering paled to the mind-blowing reality of that one kiss.

Her tiny gasp of surprise when he slipped his tongue between her lips had almost stopped him, but then she softened beneath his hands. She kissed him back. Held on to his hair, leaned her body along his, and kissed him senseless. The sweet taste of her mouth only made him want more. Another few seconds and he would have picked her up and carried her into the house.

He could have held her forever, but the kiss ended as abruptly as it had begun. He’d been stunned when she bolted. Part of him wanted to chase after her. The other part wanted to throw himself off the point.

Dammit!

Since when did a simple kiss throw him? No, Kay was anything but simple. This had nothing to do with monsoons or drought—there was more heat to her than rain. It was true, it’d been a long time since he’d wanted to kiss someone, and he sure as hell had wanted to kiss Kay. He had the singed lips to prove it.

He couldn’t stop thinking about her. She was everywhere and nowhere. Her essence surrounded him at the inn, at home on the point. He tripped over Shadow the other morning on their run all because he was trying to catch a glimpse of her as they passed her cottage.

And now he’d kissed her. He knew how she tasted. How she felt in his arms. In those few maddening seconds, he’d only intensified the desire to know her better. He wanted her even more. All he had to do is get her to speak to him again.

When he returned to the inn later that evening, he was relieved to see her funny little car parked out front. Either she was working—or she was here to
quit, quit
.

Shadow was happy with his new rawhide bone bribe when Bear left him outside in the back kennel. The dog wasn’t a fan of his new digs, so dig he did. Bear had already filled in three holes, but if Shadow got his favorite toy or a new bone, he tolerated the short time he was left alone. “Let’s see if we’re both relegated to the dog house.” Shadow whined once in sympathy, and then carried his prize off for some serious gnawing.

As soon as Bear saw Kay’s drop cloths spread along the sidewall, he released the breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding. She was working.
Thank you!

He leaned against the doorframe leading into the lobby, staying quiet as he watched. The earbuds in her ears meant she hadn’t heard him come in. What song was she humming?

She was adding a line of pine trees into the background. Tipping her brush, she tapped the paint to the wall. She double loaded the square-tipped brush with two separate colors, which magically mixed beneath her touch. It was as if the trees simply appeared off the end of her brush. One after another, after another.

Kay caught sight of him and gasped. She pulled the buds from her ears. “Jeez, Bear, you scared the hell out of me!”

“Sorry.” He pushed away from the doorframe and held up his hands in surrender.

She turned her back on him. Her shoulders set as she added more paint to her palette. Loading her brush, she stood poised to continue, but didn’t.

A full ten seconds crawled by. The tension in the room was neon green. He had to say something to make everything right with her, but what?

“Kay, about what happened earlier, I—”

“You scared the hell out of me,” she repeated, speaking to the wall.

Bear moved toward her and stopped. “That was the last thing I wanted to do. I’m a big clumsy idiot. I had no right to grab you. I lost my head. I get close to you and…it’s no excuse, but I don’t want to scare you.”

He watched her shoulders rise and fall as she took a deep breath. “It’s not
you
I’m afraid of.” Her voice sounded small.

“I don’t understand.”

She set aside her paints and turned around. “I kissed you back.”

“Yes, you did.” A warm rush ran through him at the memory of her body tight against his, her tongue gliding into his mouth while she tugged at the back of his hair. “I started it though.”

“You did. And may I just say for the record, it was epic in that whole
Wow, what a first kiss
kind of
thing.” She ran a quick finger over her lower lip.

“Epic?”

Kay pressed her lips together and nodded. “Not one hint of slobbering. On a scale of one to ten, it was a rock-solid twelve.” Her quick smile disappeared. “That’s what scares me. I just got through a really ugly breakup. My feet are barely back on firm ground.” She looked away. “Let’s not even mention I’m under contract with you, or that I’ve known you all of five minutes.”

“It was one kiss.” He shrugged a shoulder. “One mind-blowing, epic, please-God-let-her-kiss-me-again kiss.”

Kay gave a quick laugh and sighed. “I’ve got no business kissing you. We shouldn’t be kissing at all.”