Calling Kupid (Kupid's Cove Book 1) (7 page)

Gideon

I checked my phone for the first time since I left the hotel room almost two hours ago. That
never
happens. I’m always on the clock 24/7, so to find myself lost in conversation with Katie for that long was a little disconcerting. She had gone to the ladies room, so I could no longer ignore the vibrating phone. I opened the screen, expecting it to be from Graham. Instead, it was a number I wasn’t familiar with. The message made my heart pause its beating.

“
I’m watching you. If you think hiding out in a small town will keep you safe, you’re wrong. Dead wrong. Who’s the gorgeous chick? Does she know the kind of man you are or have you taken her in with your lies? Maybe I’ll start with her and let you suffer a little longer. I hope you enjoyed your dinner, it may be your las
t
.”

I looked up from my phone to glance around the café. There were a few people scattered throughout the restaurant, but no one that stuck out like a sore thumb. I decided to type a message back and see if anyone picked up his or her phone.

“
I see you found me. Apparently my antics on the loop in Chicago weren’t good enough, too bad. I haven’t missed you.”

I hit send then watched the other tables and booths, but no one picked up a phone or looked out of place. Katie’s sweet approach drew my eye and I stuffed the phone back in my pocket, so she wouldn’t see it. Sebastian’s plan to escape to a small town seems to have backfired. My lead investigator was convinced getting away from Chicago, and my usual business, would take the wind out of this guy’s sails, whoever he was. Sebastian was no further in figuring that out, then I was in convincing Katie I wasn’t a bad guy.

I helped her back into the booth, before sliding in across from her. “The waitress said she would be back to see if we wanted dessert.”

“I’m pretty full,” she said without making eye contact, “but you can certainly have some. You’ll love Liberty’s pie.”

“But you said you wanted a piece of pecan pie. How can you be too full for pie?” I asked jokingly.

Her eyes drifted to the window instead of my face. “I’m watching my figure. Too much pie isn’t good for it.”

I bit my tongue to keep from sighing. This wasn’t about the dessert; it was about the fact that I insulted her body and she hadn’t forgotten about it, or forgiven me for it. She may never forgive and forget what happened that night, which is what had me the most worried.

“Katie, will you look at me, please?” I took her hand off the table and held it in mine, but she refused to do as I asked. “I wish I could live that night over again. I seriously didn’t think you would even remember the things I said. I’m sorry about all of it. I don’t know how to make my apology any clearer.”

“It’s clear,” she said, still glaring out the window. Her chin trembled once, but then she stiffened her shoulders. “But it affected me deeply. I’ve struggled through life in ways you will never understand. Those experiences are why I knew it was dumb of me to talk to you that night, much less believe you were interested in me. Why would you be? The things you said sobered me up very quickly. You’re a rich older man who, while gorgeous and conversationally my equal, would never end up with a girl like me. I’m not from your class of people, Gideon. I never will be.”

She wrenched her hand from mine, scooted out of the booth, and ran out the door before I registered that she was gone.

I grabbed my wallet, throwing more than enough money on the table for the bill and tip. The text from earlier ran through my mind and I ran for the door, plunging into the darkness of the night to find Katie. As I jogged, I pulled the phone out and read the last text that came in.

“
This time you messed with the wrong person, Gideon Armstrong.I will make you pa
y
.”

Dammit! I had to call Graham and Sebastian, but first I had to find Katie before she got into trouble she didn’t know was coming.

“Katie!” I called into the night, looking left and right, trying to remember which way we had come when we walked here. Which way would she go to head home? “Kate Kupid!” I called out again. I saw a shadow under a streetlight on my right. “Katie, stop and talk to me, please!” I called. I was glad the sidewalk was empty since I was yelling and slipping around like a lunatic

“Just leave me alone, Gideon. I’ll call you after I talk with Hank tomorrow,” she yelled.

Her head was bent against the biting wind, and her hands were tucked inside the pockets of her heavy ski parka as she scurried away. I was gaining on her as we both tried to keep our footing on the glassy surface. I prayed I would get to her before she made it to the door of the law firm or she would lock me out. Maybe distracting her was the best idea.

“I can’t leave you alone. You’re my lawyer!” I called out. As I hoped, she spun around on one heel.

“I am not your lawyer! I’m your mother’s lawyer, end of story!” she exclaimed.

I was almost on her when I saw her arms flailing as her feet slipped on a patch of ice. I scrambled the last few feet and grabbed her around the waist just as she lost her footing.

“Ouch,” she moaned, immediately taking weight off her left leg.

“I got you,” I whispered, holding her tight against me as a cold, biting wind blew across us. “Did you hurt yourself?”

“My knee, it hurts,” she said, resting her forehead on my shoulder. “Just give me a second. I’ll be okay.”

“Lean on me. I’ll help you the rest of the way,” I ordered, moving her in front of me so I could support her weight.

She hobbled forward, barely stepping on the toes of her left foot each time. “How far are we from the law firm? Maybe I should get the car.”

She pointed at a dark alley. “My door is down there.”

I stopped at the entrance to the alley, the text message flashing like a neon sign in my mind. “That doesn’t look safe.”

She craned her neck around to look at me. “It’s Snowberry. Nothing happens in Snowberry.”

I had to make a decision, so I bent and picked her up, cradling her in my arms. I moved quickly down the dark alley until the beam from the light above the door reached us.

“Put me down. I can walk. I’m too heavy for you to carry,” she said three times before we reached her door.

“Yet, I managed just fine.” I winked, but she wouldn’t make eye contact as I set her on her feet, carefully. She unlocked the door and I helped her in, closing it behind me. She stopped with her hand on the stairway rail.

“Thanks for helping me in. You don’t have to see me up.”

“How are you going to get up the stairs?” I asked, locking the door behind me.

“On my butt.”

I laughed at her stubbornness and wrapped her arm around my shoulder. “Use the railing and me for balance,” I instructed.

We hobbled up the stairs and she unlocked her apartment. There was a light burning in the living room casting a soft glow around the small space. I settled her on the couch, propping her leg up on a pillow. I found an icepack in her insanely anal retentively organized freezer and wrapped it in a towel, laying it across the knee that was starting to swell.

“Maybe you need to go to the ER,” I said nervously.

“Nah, it’s just an old injury from high school. It happens all the time. It will be fine after icing it.”

“Can I get you some Advil?”

She shook her head. “No, I can’t take that. I’ll be okay, really. Thanks for helping me in.”

“Is it an old track and field injury?” I asked, not wanting to leave her alone just yet.

“No, I’m not a runner.”

“Basketball? Volleyball?”

“It’s not a sports injury. Can we leave it at that?” she asked quietly.

There was a hint of something in her voice I couldn’t explain. Maybe it was her defensiveness or maybe it was her sadness, but something in me wanted to know, so I could make it better for her.

“Did someone hurt you, Katie?” I asked. “Besides me, that is. Like physically hurt you.”

I shrugged out of my coat and laid it across the arm of the couch, so she could see I planned to stay.

She adjusted the icepack and ran her hands across the towel to smooth it out a few times. “When I was fourteen my brother died in a car accident. I was the first to find him and I tried to get him out of the car. He was already gone, but I didn’t know that, so I tore up my knee in my vain attempt to rescue him. I had surgery to repair the problem, but sometimes it still bothers me.”

I took her hand, caressing the top with my thumb. “I’m sorry for prying. I just want to spend a little time with you to get to know you better. I didn’t mean to dredge up old memories.”

“Why do you want to spend time with me, Gideon? You aren’t staying in Snowberry and you’ve made it clear you aren’t interested in sleeping with me. What is your endgame?”

“Maybe I’m not staying in Snowberry, but I would love to have sweet, passionate sex with you. You bring out something in me that I’ve never experienced before, a deep sense of protectiveness.”

“I don’t need anyone to protect me. I’ve been alone for the last eight years and managed.”

I brought her hand to my lips and kissed it. “Managed, yes, but have you lived? Have you had a meaningful relationship with anyone? Have you gotten close to or loved anyone?”

She rolled her eyes. “You sound like Winifred. I haven’t had a lot of time for dating, Gideon. I went to law school, which was a full time job. After I graduated, I became a partner in a law firm, also time consuming. I’m just getting to the point where I feel like I have time to devote to my personal life.”

“Me, too.” I grinned.

She shook her head at me. “You never give up, do you?”

“Not when I want something.”

“And you want me? Forgive me if I find that one to be a line.”

“It’s not a line. I wanted you then and I want you now. Then was the wrong time for us. I can’t say the same for the present. Maybe this is the right time. Maybe we both need to accept that.”

She swung her legs down to the floor, the icepack sliding to the floor. She opened her mouth, but I put my finger to her lips.

“For Lord’s sake do not say it. If I hear you say one more time that you aren’t my class of people, I might kiss you senseless.”

“I’m not your class of people,” she whispered.

I didn’t think, just reacted, pulling her into my arms and crushing my lips to hers. I cradled her, rested her head on the arm of the couch, making love to her mouth the way I wanted to make love to her body. Slowly, thoroughly, and sweetly. A sound came from her that I could only define as pure pleasure. It made that one part I’ve never allowed to be involved with a woman before, feel something it never has. I didn’t want to let her go and that was as frightening as it was alluring.

I rested my hand on her soft waist before slowly running it up the length of her, caressing the side of her soft, perky breast. I plunged my fingers into her silky hair that was so incredibly soft it felt like downy feathers against my skin. Her bottom slid closer to me pressing my bulging need into my abdomen. I moaned into her mouth and she let her lips fall open, so I could explore that part of her. I wanted to explore every part of her, but I would take what she was willing to give, for now. I released her lips to kiss down her jaw line to her neck.

“You’re so incredible, Katie. Your scent, your body, and the sounds you make as I kiss you. I’m completely lost in all of you.”

“It’s taken me almost a year to get over you. Now you’re back. Why is this happening?” she cried.

“Quite possibly it’s happening because I’ve prayed every night for the last eleven months for a chance to make things right with you. You’ve haunted me, Katie, in a way no woman ever has before.”

“Make things right?”

I nodded and brushed a stray hair from her face. “The morning after I sent you away, I looked you up on the computer. Flynn had rented the rooms, so I had no way of knowing your real name. I went to your room, but you were gone. I was far too embarrassed to ask Flynn or Freddie, so I decided I had to let you go. As hard as I tried, I couldn’t do it. It was simply impossible to let you go. Every time a woman walked by me, I searched her face, hoping it was you. Every time you crossed my mind I saw all the women I didn’t send away from my hut.”

“Were there a lot of them?” she asked, her eyes never leaving mine.

“Enough for me to realize what I was getting from them was never going to be what I needed. I never took the time to look any of them up afterwards, and I had slept with them. The heaviness of that realization weighed heavily on my chest. However, the disappointment that every woman I saw wasn’t you was bone crushing. Each time a woman tried to catch my eye I forced myself to evaluate my life as it stood. Each time I walked away from them, because their face wasn’t yours, their scent wasn’t yours, and their body wasn’t yours. You made that change in me in less than an hour of time we spent together. I knew the time had come to decide what kind of man I wanted to be.”

“And what was your verdict?” she asked, her wide blue eyes shining in the low light of the brass lamp.

“That I wasn’t the kind of man worthy to be with someone like you.”

“Gideon, really,” she started to fuss, but I held my finger to her lips.

“It was true, then. I wasn’t the man I should have been at thirty-six, not by a long shot. Yes, I was a great businessman, but I had a lot to learn.”

“About?”

“Life, Katie. I had a lot to learn about the reality of life. Shortly after our encounter, my mom got sick. We both decided to make Hawaii our home for however much time she had left. It wasn’t long, but we spent her last days on the beach together. Every morning and every night I was the one to carry her down to the sand so she could rest in the warmth it held. Sometimes she told me stories about when I was a little boy, and sometimes she told me stories about when she was a little girl. I listened with my heart, so when she slept I could write it all down while I prayed.”

She reached up, slowly pulling my glasses from my face so she could caress the lines at the corner of my eyes. “I’m sorry you had to go through that.”

I shook my head and captured her hand, kissing her palm. “Don’t be sorry. I learned so much about myself, and my family, in those few months I took care of her. Believe me when I say I wish I hadn’t had to hurt you in order to learn how to pray again. I wish my mother didn’t have to suffer the way she did for me to find faith again, but it was important to her that I did.”

“Rosie told me you weren’t a devout Mormon,” she mumbled, breaking eye contact.

I took her face in my hand pulling it back to mine, so she had no choice but to look at me. “I’m not, but my mother didn’t so much care what my religious affiliation was, as much as she cared that I found God again. Cancer is an evil disease, and an eye-opening one. It teaches you the difference between being something versus believing in something. I don’t consider myself Mormon, or any other religion for that matter. The lessons cancer taught me were how to find the importance of faith without the insistence that it can only be accomplished one way.”

I nodded. “I understand that idea in ways you may never understand.”

I caressed her face while I smiled down at her, the sweetness of her lips begging me to suck the nectar from them again.

“That’s the point I’m trying to make, Katie. I want to understand you. Someday I want to know why you automatically asked if I was devout Mormon, in a tone of voice that told me you are anything but. I want to hear that story from your beautiful lips, when you’re ready to tell me. Maybe all of this will lead to friendship, but maybe we will find in each other what we’ve both been looking for from this world. I already know that kissing you gives me a far greater feeling of headiness than any fine bottle of wine ever could. It also gives me a feeling somewhere in my soul that I’ve never had before.”