Rebound: Passion Book 2 (8 page)

“What
in the blue fuck are you wearing Kadyn?” I made sure we were far enough away
from prying ears. The way I felt I wasn’t sure what the hell I was going to say
or do next. She looked down at herself and then back up at me. “What’s wrong
with what I’m wearing? In case you haven’t noticed, we’re at the beach.
Besides, Carrie’s wearing almost the same exact thing.”

 
“That’s Josh’s problem not mine.” I crowded
her, towering over her, it’s a cheap trick I know, but I needed all the help I
could get. The sight of her in that thing was burned into my fucking corneas
and was making me stupid.

“And neither is this.”

“Think again, I don’t want you
running around the beach half naked. You keep that shirt on or I’m taking you
home right now.”

“I can’t swim in this shirt.”
She pulled on the tail of my shirt that dwarfed her tiny frame.

“Figure
it out, the shirt or home. What’s it gonna be?”

“Why do
you even think you have the right to tell me what I can or cannot do, Matthew
Steele? You’ve barely said two words to me since we met and each time you did
have something to say it was an insult.”

“That maybe so, but last night
changed things, now everything is different.”

“I don’t see why, we hardly know
each other and you don’t even like me, remember?”

“Who the
fuck says I don’t like you, why do you keep saying that? Look, in a few hours
this place is going to be crawling with people and I’d be fucked if I’m gonna
have other men ogling your ass.” Yes I know I wasn’t making any sense, that she
was one hundred percent right, we didn’t know each other. She might think we
had no obligation to each other, but my mind had been made up for me and now
she was fucked, because the shit that was going on inside me wasn’t good for
anybody. Least of all the woman I now found myself wanting.

“You…are
you insane? What gives you the right? I’m my own person Matthew Steele and I can
do whatever the hell I want.” See, I knew she was going to be a pain in my ass.
She tried removing the shirt but I grabbed a fistful of it and pulled her in
close. “Try it.” I stared into her eyes that were all but spitting fire at me.

“You
had to know what your body in that thing looks like, and that thing in your
navel is a sure fucking invitation. What do you think people are gonna think?
You think I want people looking at my woman thinking…”

 
"Just because I
have tattoos and a nice ass doesn't make me a freak.”

"No but the
shit I want to do to you might, and I repeat, I’d be fucked if I’m gonna have
other men thinking the same thing."

“This is crazy, you can’t just go around ordering complete
strangers around like you’re their lord and master. And what do you mean your
woman? I’m not your girlfriend or your wife for you to have any say…

“Think again, if you didn’t want this then you shouldn’t have
kissed me back the way you did. You shouldn’t have clung to me like you never
wanted to let me go. I was there Kadyn. I know what I felt, or are you going to
tell me you trembled in my arms because you were cold?”

“No…I…I don’t know okay, I just know this is moving too fast, I
need time to think.”

“No.”

“What do you mean
no?” she was breathing fire again fuck; can my life never be easy?

“I mean that there’s nothing to think about, I don’t need anymore
time. I’ve thought this shit to death in the last few weeks and between last
night and this morning the thinking stopped.
You think I’ve been following your ass around town for the
past few weeks because I’m bored?” She went pale as a sheet and pulled away
from me. “You’ve been following me?” Her voice was a choked whisper as she
looked around like a trapped rabbit.

“What
the hell is wrong now?” I reached for her but she evaded my arms and turning,
fell to her knees and threw up in the sand. I stood over her feeling helpless
and uncertain before kneeling next to her and holding her hair back.
This was bad, whatever this is
,
it was
really bad
. What the hell had I said that could make her have this kind
of reaction? She might think it was too soon, but for me, if we were going to
move forward in anyway, we were going to have to deal with this shit.

 
After she was through being sick, I picked her
up and headed for the restrooms her state of undress forgotten for now. I made
sure no one was in the lady’s room before pushing the door in with my foot and
taking her inside. She’d gone limp and quiet in my arms and my gut was doing that
sick churning thing again. That was something else that was coming to an end
today, I couldn’t take much more of that feeling. There was definitely
something going on with her and before my thoughts drove me insane she was
going to tell me or I’ll set Josh on her ass. That fucker would know who her
kindergarten teacher was by the time he was through digging.

I
cleaned her up and wiped her face before lifting her and taking her back
outside into the fresh air. She hadn’t said a word the whole time I was tending
to her, just laid limply against me. As if all the life had gone out of her.
“What was that about Kadyn?
And no more of your fucked up
excuses.
First you froze up on me that day in town and now this. Start
talking and if I don’t like the answers I promise I will go to your father.” I
probably shouldn’t be threatening her so soon after she’d been sick but what
the fuck! This shit had danger written all over it.

I
sat on one of the benches on the boardwalk with her seated safely on my lap. My
head was already coming up with its own conclusions but I wanted her to tell me
that I was wrong, that what I was thinking was foolishness. She didn’t answer
me and I squeezed her gently to get her attention. I wasn’t playing, if she
didn’t tell me what I wanted to know I would go straight to her father and ask.
With my mind made up about us I truly believe I now have every right, whether
she accepts it or not. She was here, that had to mean something. Obviously
that’s what Carrie had been up to last night, but she had to know I would be
here and she wasn’t wearing that fucking suit for Joshua or Andrew, she better
fucking not have been.

She
turned her face into my neck and breathed in deep. Her body was still tense but
at least she wasn’t fighting to get away. “I can’t talk about it Matt, I just
can’t, not yet please. And I’d appreciate it if you waited for me to tell you
myself. I don’t want my dad to worry.” Her voice had gone soft and pleading.

I took a
deep breath and prayed for patience. I can’t force her if the shit was going to
make her this ill but soon, one way or another I was going to have my answers.

 
“I’ll give you some time to get comfortable
with me, that means we’ll be spending a lot more time together from now on. By
then maybe you’ll feel safe enough to tell me. But tell me this one thing and
I’ll leave it alone for now. Did someone hurt you?” I gritted my teeth as I
awaited her answer, please tell me no. It felt like forever before she finally
answered me.

“Not
in the way you mean no, but…” her body shook hard enough to rattle her teeth
and my gut tightened. “It’s okay, leave it for now.” I soothed her, running my
hand over her hair and shushing her. “Look at me.” I turned her face myself and
looked down at her, studying her.

 
Last night in the moonlight I hadn’t noticed
the specks of light in her eyes, or the different shades of grey, from slate to
almost silver. “You’re fucking gorgeous Kadyn damn.” I hadn’t meant to say that
dammit. She was falling apart in my arms and I was fighting my body’s reaction.
I hadn’t lost my hard all throughout this whole ordeal. I don’t know what that
says about me, or more to the point the hold she had on me.

“Matt,
I’m not who you think I am, I have…there are some things about me that you may
not like.” She hid her face once more and I let her. What did she mean by that
cryptic remark, and did it even matter?

“Are you
a criminal or something, are you running from the law?” Funny, I could care
less if the other one got the needle but her I was willing to hide if it came
to that. I am truly and totally fucked.

“No of
course not but…let me just think about it first okay, I have to decide if this
is something that I want, you’re moving so fast…”

“Don’t
worry about that it’s a Steele thing, as to you needing time to think I already
told you when it comes to us your time has run out. You’ve found your future
and I’ve found mine. Just a few short hours ago I wasn’t sure, I too had
questions. But I do know you’re the last thing I see before I close my eyes at
night and the first thing I see each morning when I awake. I don’t see that
changing anytime soon if ever so that’s pretty much a done deal. But I’ll give
you time to tell me whatever it is that’s bothering you. So take the time you
need, not too much though. Somehow I don’t think I’ll have too much patience
where you’re concerned, not with something like this, something that obviously
caused you great pain.”

“You
feel that?” I pressed her ass down on my hardness that still had yet to go
down, it seemed nothing would make the shit go away short of getting inside
her. The truth is, nothing had ever kept me this excited for this long except
maybe tinkering with my cars. That’s another sign that I’d been about to make
the biggest mistake of my life with the other one. She never had me tied up in
knots the way Kadyn did; never made me feel like I was losing my damn mind.

 
Huh, thinking of her didn’t bring with it that
feeling of lost. I didn’t feel that ripping hopelessness that had been tearing
at my gut for so long and I had no doubt it was thanks to the girl in my arms.
Whatever her problem was we’d deal with it so I could get on with the business
of claiming her. I hope I have the patience to wait for her to come around on
her own and not go home and fire up Josh’s comp and find shit out for myself.
Shit, dad had said be a Steele, I guess we were all about to see just how much
of one I was because this shit was wild. No wonder Joshua had lost his damn
mind.

We
walked back down the beach to the blankets and sat watching while the others
frolicked in the water. I kept her hand in mine more so because I couldn’t bear
to release it just yet than because she still needed my support. She seemed to
be relaxing a little bit more, though I could still sense some tension in her.
“Whatever it is, whatever secrets you’re keeping Kadyn won’t change the outcome
of us. I don’t know how I know that I just do. I too have some things in my
past that aren’t pretty; I’m only now learning to let them go. Our past cannot
control us unless we let it.”

“But
Matthew we don’t even know each other, who’s to say that you will want to deal
with my baggage? How can you know unless you’ve heard what it is? This all
seems too crazy for me. You have to understand before I came here, I’d made up
my mind that I wouldn’t have that sort of life that it just isn’t in the works
for me. I’d made peace with it, I can’t go through another heartbreak…”

“Somebody
broke your heart? Who?” I didn’t like the sounds of that, that maybe she’d once
been in love so deeply that she had given up on life when that love failed. And
that’s just fucked Matt, you were in a relationship too remember? Somehow that
didn’t placate me one bit and I found myself biting back the anger.

“No
it’s nothing like that; you promised to give me time remember?” I ran my finger
down her cheek as she held her face up to me. Why was it I wonder that at this
moment I felt none of the angst and uncertainty that had plagued me for so long
now? Why did sitting here with her like this suddenly feel so right? This
growing up shit was a pain in the ass, what I had before felt like child’s play
compared to what I felt now. Did all men fall this hard this fast? Was it even
natural, or was it a Steele trait? Josh had been the first person I’d seen
react
in this way, at the time I’d thought he’d lost his
shit but this…this was beyond me.

“As
time goes on you’ll learn that I’m not the most patient man in the world Kadyn.
I agreed to give you time yes, but if I don’t get some answers soon enough I
might take matters into my own hands. You’ll have to be prepared to deal with
that. There’s a lot we need to learn about each other, I understand and respect
that. But make no mistake about it whatever this is going to be it’s not going
to be like anything you’ve known. I will tell you this much, I thought I was in
love once, thought I’d found the person I was destined to spend my life with.
Yes I can see what you’re thinking. I’m so young to be thinking of forever, but
that’s just the way I’m wired. Things didn’t turn out quite like I’d expected
and I’ve learned to live with that failure. But in all the time I thought I was
in love, she never plagued me the way you do. I never lost any sleep over her,
not for the right reasons anyway. So when you start questioning what I say to
you about us remember that. I know my mind if nothing else, and I know that
what I feel for you if it’s not love, it’s well on its way to something
spectacular.”

I
think I struck her dumb with my little speech but that’s okay. I was fine just
sitting there under the shade of the umbrella with her little hand held tightly
in mine. Every once in a while I took a sneak peek at her beautiful face as she
kept her face in profile. I knew she was as aware of me as I she because with
each look her cheek would redden and her fingers would tremble slightly.