My breath hitches in my throat.
This is my chance to tell him that’s exactly what I want, too, and yet I keep quiet, letting him continue.
“The moment I met you, I knew you were different. You weren’t dressed up to see some band greeting the crowd in a nightclub. You weren’t even there to see the band.” His gaze flicks around the meadows before it settles on my eyes and lips again. “I liked that, so I remembered your license registration and found out your name, where you lived, basically everything I could find out about you. It helps that my brother’s the deputy sheriff around here.”
“Wow. That’s creepy.” I slap his thigh in mock annoyance, marveling how hard and sculpted his muscles are. “See, that’s why I told Mandy about you. I knew you were a creep, albeit a hot one,” I say, my voice low as I think back three months ago, give or take a week or two. “If Ryder found out my number, you could have called me.”
“You would never have talked to me, Ava. You made it clear that you didn’t like me.” His gaze meets mine. The glint of candor in his eyes makes me flinch. “And I don’t blame you. I was an ass. But I still needed to see you again. It wasn’t until my sister died that I had the courage to change my life, so I came up with a plan. I persuaded my band mates to play a last, small gig in Montana and made sure that you were picked as the winner in a radio giveaway swoop.”
In spite of the fact that he deceived me into seeing him again and omitted most of the details about his life, I can’t help but feel touched. No one’s ever done something remotely twisted for me.
Then again, it is quite the romantic story.
Definitely one I could tell my children—leaving out Kellan’s obnoxious sexual innuendoes and the part where he went down on me in his brother’s back yard.
And the week-long, non-stop sex.
And the part where he made himself cum, and I watched him, which probably makes me the bigger creep out of the two of us.
“I have to say, that’s the nicest thing someone’s ever done for me,” I whisper.
Kellan nods. “I have to admit it’s also the weirdest thing I’ve done for anyone.”
“But why me?” I ask.
He jumps off the fence and shifts in front of me, settling between my legs. His arms wrap around my waist. I lean into him and clasp my hands at the nape of his neck.
“Remember the first moment I met you?”
I nod, my pulse racing. “Yes.”
Each and every detail.
“I was hypnotized—and angry as hell,” Kellan says, grinning. “When I got back to my brother’s place, where I always stay when I’m in NYC, the first thing I did was call my sister and tell her everything. She said that I was an ass to you. Those words stuck.”
“Two women offending your ego in the same night?” I let out a laugh. “How did you take it?”
He smirks. “Don’t ask. I told her that you’re a New Yorker, and that you bunch of folks aren’t exactly friendly. That I had no choice but to be an ass because you weren’t exactly the epitome of cordiality either.”
I open my mouth to protest, when he presses a finger to my lips.
“Remember the first moment I saw you again? Completely soaked, with that tiny umbrella in your hand, ready to battle a storm? That’s the first time I felt happy since Clara’s death.”
His words stop my world.
I can’t believe it, and yet I know it’s true. We both make each other happy. I can feel it in the way he seems to own my heart. In the way his eyes lock with mine when he’s inside me, holding me, possessing me.
When did that happen?
“At first, I thought someone was pulling a prank.” He grins. “When you knocked on my door, I assumed Josh was behind it. Or maybe Ryder. Maybe even Cash, even though he’s in Boston right now, and I only mentioned you once or twice.”
“Is that why you—”
He nods, interrupting me. “Why I was so mad?”
No…why you almost kicked me out, I want to say but don’t.
“I thought Josh had arranged for you to arrive on my doorstep,” Kellan continues. “I wasn’t mad at you. I was mad at myself and at him. Then we got talking, and I realized it was all a coincidence. To be honest, I had you pinned down as this city girl, and I didn’t know what you’d make of seeing me here. This is my life, Ava. The plan was to meet you at the hotel, then introduce you to the idea gradually and see what happened.” He shakes his head, laughing. “But life has this tendency to kick you where it hurts at the most unfortunate of times. Mandy took a wrong turn, and you ended up here. That isn’t just crappy luck. It’s fate.”