Authors: Emily Ryan-Davis
“I didn’t ask to insult you. I asked out of respect.” He drew back.
Pepper lost her hold on him and sagged in the water. Salt water washed up her chin, trickled past her lips before she gathered her bearings and grasped the lane divider for stability. She frowned at Mitch, who’d released her so abruptly and backed away.
“Respect,” she repeated, disbelieving.
“Yeah. Respect.” Either the motion of the water distorted her perception and Mitch hadn’t moved as far away as she thought, or he was absurdly fast. One breath he’d gone, giving her room to relax, and the next he was back. Strong hands grasped her hips and lifted her to sit on the edge of the pool. Mitch shouldered his way between her knees and kissed her stomach, her right thigh and her knee. “Promise you’ll tell me if you do start fucking him? Either of them.”
She narrowed her eyes. Was the emphasis on that word in her imagination? Well, she wasn’t going to let Mitch play with her. Raising both legs from the water, she planted her feet on his shoulders and shoved him backward into the pool.
Mitch fell with a splash and a laugh. He spread his arms and half-reclined in a float.
“Fuck buddy?” he supplied when she didn’t finish the sentence.
Cheeks hot, Pepper did something she’d never before done in her life—she gave him the finger. And then she walked away.
She didn’t stop to shrug into her robe. Dryness and decency ranked lower priority than establishing distance between her and Mitch.
What in heaven’s name had their exchange meant? Was Mitch trying to needle Andy into a repeat of the fistfight she’d witnessed at the end of Mitch’s last summer at Hallsford? She’d been eighteen, old enough to decide she wanted a man, aware enough to understand her wants meant nothing at all to a man who preferred other men. Maybe she wasn’t meant to witness their kiss and the subsequent violence but she couldn’t undo what she’d seen.
The memory of Mitch’s erection nestled between her thighs…. Pepper bit her lip and stopped outside the pool house to take stock. If she made Mitch hard, where did Andy fit in? She’d assumed that fight stemmed from Andy confessing his attraction to Mitch and that the tension between them all these years came from a false denial, unfulfilled attraction. She’d continued to assume the two men would eventually work out their relationship. Part of her long-held feelings of guilt originated with her traitorous desire for Mitch. It was wrong of her to covet something Andy had already claimed.
Her whole body hummed with awareness. The evening air cooled her skin but it was a surface drop in temperature. Inside, she still ran hot and her head spun with possibility. Sex with Mitch—she groaned out loud and mentally shook herself. She couldn’t go there, not even out in the wide open dark. And not only because that path would lead to hurting Andy but also because she’d hoped she would eventually respond to Robert.
Except Robert wasn’t Mitch. Nobody she’d dated had been Mitch. And that was a problem. Pepper rubbed her temples. After that kiss and the truth of her response to Mitch, she knew if Robert proposed, she’d have to tell him no.
Across the lawn, one of the west-facing French doors opened. A woman emerged onto the porch that wrapped the west and south walls. Pepper recognized her father’s bride-to-be Bristol Rose’s bottom-heavy silhouette. Pressure built behind her eyes, a sudden threat of headache.
In the interest of avoiding the other woman, whose domineering personality occasionally made her wonder at Carlton’s attraction, Pepper slid back into the shadow of the pool house. Low-growing flowers tickled her ankles and calves as she pressed close to the wall. The tickling sensation reminded her of Mitch walking his fingertips over her shoulder. Pepper exhaled, counted to three and filled her lungs for another focus breath. She couldn’t allow things to remind her of Mitch.
Careful to move slowly, Pepper donned her robe and watched Bristol Rose on the veranda. The older woman’s voice drifted across the lawn, low and indistinct as she spoke into the cordless phone pressed to her ear.
Pepper was on the verge of outing herself and risking the encounter when a rectangle of light angled across the grass. The long, lean shadow of a man bisected the light. She grimaced. Now she was really caught between two evils.
Mitch closed up the pool house and crossed the lawn with none of the hesitation Pepper had displayed. Unlike her, he’d taken the time to dry off and dress. A dark t-shirt stretched across his back, its hem tucked into light-colored cargo pants. He carried a duffle slung over his muscular shoulder. Bristol Rose quieted and faced Mitch as he approached. She ended her phone call before extending her hand to him. Pepper was too far away to hear words but she wasn’t deaf to the timbre of the older woman’s low, husky greeting or to Mitch’s deeper, masculine tones shaped in response. Mitch took Bristol Rose’s hand and didn’t move away when she stepped close.
Something hot grew in Pepper’s chest. She closed her eyes, not wanting to watch Bristol Rose use her particular brand of over-familiar charm on Mitch. Andy had come away from meeting Bristol Rose with a smudge of her lipstick on his mouth and the scent of her floral perfume on his shirt. Pepper exhaled slowly and counted to fifteen, thirty, before she heard the click of the other woman’s heels recede into the house.
Shaking off her disgust, she opened her eyes—and drew a sharp breath. Mitch stood on the veranda, his shoulder braced against an ivy-beribboned support beam, staring at her hiding spot. Neither of them moved for long minutes. Finally, he inclined his head in her direction and turned to go into the house.
Pepper picked her way from the flower bed and forced her feet one in front of the other, shoulders square and chin high despite her burning cheeks. Hiding had been a mistake. Hallsford had been her home long before it was Mitch’s or Bristol Rose’s.
The clock neared midnight and the big house stood silent. Mitch, sprawled on the same bed he slept in during his mother’s brief reign as the lady of Hallsford, stared at the ceiling. The shape of Pepper’s spine, the taste of her mouth, were imprinted on his memory. Hell. If he wanted her before he touched her, he didn’t have a word for what he felt now. He had words for what she felt, though. Pepper Eaves, for all her skittish avoidance of him, had reacted to his touch. Despite her resistance, she wanted him.
As if Mitch’s preoccupation with Pepper had conjured her, her quiet voice filtered through his French doors.
“I don’t want you to get hurt.” That was Andrew. His heavier footsteps paced Pepper’s lighter tread. “If Robert finds out, he’ll consider it a betrayal. You’ve been seeing each other for almost a year. Are you going to throw that away on someone like Mitch?”
“I’ve never made any kind of commitment to Robert. We have dinner. We’re not planning our retirement.”
Their footsteps stopped. Andrew muttered a curse, which Pepper greeted with silence. After a moment, she spoke again.
“I need to go. Kelly’s waiting for me.”
“Kelly.” Andrew heaved a disgusted sigh. “You need to let Carlton take care of this. She’s not your responsibility. I don’t think you know what you’re doing.”
“You’re wrong,” Pepper replied. “I do know. I’m trying to do what’s right.”
“If you want to do what’s right, tell Carlton and let him handle it. You could be mugged or worse, going out there by yourself.”
“Andy, let it go. I need to do this. I want to do it. Please let me deal with it the way I can.”
Rising, Mitch shoved his feet into a pair of shoes and pulled a t-shirt over his head before crossing the room. He silently opened the French doors. The night air welcomed him onto the balcony. Andrew and Pepper stood a few feet away. Andrew held her forearm and towered over her while Pepper tugged on his grip.
Mitch expected her to be in a nightgown or pajamas. Instead, she wore blue jeans, running shoes and a sleeveless top.
When he stepped from his room, Pepper heard him first. Her head swung around and she met his eyes. Surprise changed the shape of her mouth.
Andrew released her abruptly.
“We woke you,” Pepper said. She fidgeted with her key ring. “I’m sorry. We’re finished, though. You should be able to get back to sleep.”
She sidled away from Andrew, who caught her elbow and drew her up short.
“You’re still going?” he asked.
“I’m…” Pepper glanced at Mitch, away again, and tugged her arm from Andrew’s grasp.
“I told you,” she whispered. “It’s something I have to do.”
Mitch stood in her path. “It’s late. Where are you going?”
“I need to do something downtown,” she replied.
Behind her, Andrew raked one hand through his hair. “She’s being an idiot.”
Pepper flinched. She tried to circle around him. Ignoring Andrew, Mitch again moved to intercept her. “I’ll take you.”
Andrew gave a short laugh. “Like you’re the lesser of two evils.”
“I don’t need an escort.” Pepper reversed direction and tried to pass Mitch on his other side.
He touched her waist, barring her passage with his forearm, and lowered his voice. “No judgments and no trying to talk you out of it. Let me take you.”
“Fine,” she muttered. “But we’re taking my car and I’m driving.”
Mitch suppressed his initial refusal. If he had to choose between accompanying her on her terms or letting her go on her own—a prospect even Andrew couldn’t swallow—he’d agree to her terms.
“Lead the way,” he said.
Pepper’s mouth pinched in a scowl but she didn’t say anything else. Neither did Andrew when Mitch fell into step behind Pepper. He didn’t disagree with his stepbrother’s concerns. Wherever she was going, whatever she was doing, she shouldn’t be striking out alone in the middle of the night.
“What’s this about?” He lengthened his stride to walk abreast of her as they entered the garages.
“I have an appointment to keep.” She unlocked her small, sporty two-door and frowned at him across the roof of the car. “I really don’t need you to go with me.”
“I need me to go with you.” Mitch folded himself into the passenger seat, cramped even after he shoved the seat as far back as it would go.
Pepper sighed loudly and joined him. They didn’t talk as she set a course for the city. Mitch tuned the radio to a rock station with metal programming and occupied himself with watching her hands move between the steering wheel and the gear shift. Cold air blasted from the vents. Pepper’s nipples peaked beneath her thin top, responding to the temperature in the car.
Mitch inhaled. Her light, fruity scent permeated the small vehicle. It reminded him of peach-flavored Dum-Dums. He wanted to roll her hard little nipples against the roof of his mouth like the ball of one of the small lollipops.
She broke the silence. “It’s Bristol Rose.”
Trying to ignore his body’s response to the sweet fantasy, Mitch studied her profile. “What is?”
“She’s moving in on the staff. Last month she fired Kelly Hammond.” Pepper bit her lip and glanced at him. “You remember Kelly?”
“Yeah, I do.” Like himself, Pepper and Andrew, Kelly was a single-parent rescue. She’d been a young girl when her father started working for Carlton and along the way, she’d claimed a staff position of her own.
“Bristol Rose ordered Kelly to uproot the roses in the south garden. Kelly’s dad planted those bushes. She went to Carlton and asked him to intercede. A week later, Bristol Rose accused her of stealing and demanded that Carlton let Kelly go.” Pepper’s fingers flexed on the wheel and her voice hardened. “Kelly has a four-year-old. She found another job, but she can only pick up shifts when someone else calls out. She can’t leave her kid alone at night and she can’t afford to refuse work.”
“You’re babysitting,” Mitch realized.
Pepper shrugged. “I can’t support them and Kelly wouldn’t want me to. But I can help by giving her some peace of mind until she has some time to come up with a different plan.”
He drummed his fingers on his splayed knees. “Andrew?”
“He thinks I’m delaying the inevitable by not letting Kelly solve her own problems. He’s wrong. She needs help and she’s in a bad place that she shouldn’t have to be in.” Pepper shot him a challenging look. “I suppose you think I’m hurting more than I’m helping too.”
“I think,” he said slowly, “you’re walking a road that’s going to hurt you. Volunteering at a hospital is one thing. Giving yourself up to make individual lives better… Pepper, you can’t save everybody. Not this way. You’re only one person.”
She scowled. “Did anybody ever say that to you when you decided to join the Marines? Or to Candace when she signed on with Green World?”
“I didn’t join the Marines because I wanted to save the world.”
“Why did you?”
“I wanted to be part of something. Candace too. She wanted to be part of a family, part of something bigger than herself. You’re trying to be the something-bigger all by yourself.”
“You think I should join some kind of organization.”
“Maybe you should start one.”
“Andrew wants me to partner with him to start a non-profit music school,” she said.
“What do you want?”
Pepper slowed to execute a turn. She didn’t answer. Instead, she focused on prowling the street for a parking space. Mitch eyed their surroundings and bit his tongue to keep from telling Pepper to turn around and drive home.
Instead, he repeated the question. “What do you want, Pepper?”
“I’ve been thinking about enrolling in a nursing program.”
That caught him off guard. “Since when?”
“Since for a long time. You think I can’t do it?” Her eyes narrowed, quickly darting from the street to him and back again. Her chin lifted to a stubborn angle. “I’m a very good student.”
“I believe you can do it but I’m surprised. You don’t have to work, trust-fund baby.”
“You don’t have to work either,” she pointed out. “You’re career military by choice, not by a need to pay your bills. I’d hoped you of all people would back me up instead of trying to talk me out of it. You should know don’t have to and don’t want to are different things.”
Her vehement tone raised his eyebrows. “I’m not trying to talk you out of anything. In case you hadn’t noticed, my goal this weekend is to talk you into a few things.”
Even in the dark of the car, he could see her deep flush. Mitch suppressed a grin. “So you get your nursing license…then what? You sign on at some hospital?”
Pepper moistened her lips. “I thought I’d enlist.”