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Ihit End on the call and push my hand through my wet hair, staring at the floor for a minute before there’s a soft knock on the bathroom door. I clear my throat and shake out some of the tension in my body before I open the door to find Kenzie with a hesitant expression.
“Is everything okay? You’ve been in there a while.” She presses her lips together.
“That was my mum. She and my dad got caught in this storm and had to stop at the first place they found. I guess it’s even worse north of here.”
She frowns. “They’re not coming?”
I shake my head. “Not unless, by some miracle, this storm stops and all the snow is cleared by morning.”
If I’m honest, I’m relieved. It’s not that I don’t want Kenzie to meet my parents. It’s just that they come with a lot of baggage, and after my mom’s comment about Audrey, I know it’s better, at least for where Kenzie and I are at with our relationship—just starting out—that she doesn’t meet them.
If Kenzie and I go the distance, there’s plenty of time to talk about Audrey.
“I’m sorry. You must be disappointed. We came all this way.”
I step into her, loosely wrapping my arms around her waist. “It’s not all bad. It just means I get you to myself for the weekend.”
Her eyes dilate the smallest amount before I kiss her. She brings her hand to my chest and moans when she feels my bare skin. The heat of her palm feels like a branding iron, but instead of wanting to retreat, I want her to press harder.
I deepen the kiss, and my cock hardens under the towel, threatening to poke through the slit. I’m supposed to be at least attempting to be a gentleman, so what the fuck am I doing? I’m one swift tug on my towel and a jerk of her knickers away from shoving inside her.
I force myself to close the kiss and pull away, staring at her. She’s so beautiful, so open with her feelings and warm heart. I can tell exactly what she’s feeling when she looks at me with those sky-blue eyes of hers. That’s what it feels like when she looks at me the way she is now, like a ray of sunshine is warming my skin.
“Guess we have the rest of the day to ourselves. Why don’t I get dressed and we can go check out the rest of the resort? Sound good?”
She nods. “Sure, if that’s what you want to do.”
I give her a strained smile because no, most assuredly it is not what I want to do. But I won’t play around with Finn’s little sister. I have to be sure before we sleep together, even if I did fuck up the other night at my place.
I return to the bathroom and change into the clothes I brought in with me, then join her in the bedroom.
Kenzie’s leaning against the frame of the large window beside the fireplace, watching the falling snow. She doesn’t turn to me when she speaks. “Andrew, who is Audrey? I heard your mom mention something about her when she called.”
I stick to the spot in shock and stare at her. I wasn’t expecting this. Not at all. And I’m in no way prepared to relive the most difficult time of my life when I’m supposed to be getting to know Kenzie and enjoying my time with her.
“Were you eavesdropping?” I immediately regret my snide tone, but Audrey’s name coming out of Kenzie’s mouth just feels wrong. It doesn’t matter who it is. The mention of Audrey gets my back up and makes me feel defensive, like an idiot. Hell, like the idiot I was.
She scowls at me. “You had your phone on speaker and I heard it.”
My face falls. I need to resist the urge to lash out and be an asshole to her just because she wants to talk about something I’ve now made very clear with my reaction is a big deal. “Why don’t we head to the bar and grab a drink, and I can tell you about it?”
My chest tightens. Since I arrived in America, I haven’t discussed what went down with anyone. Not even Finn knows. I wasn’t eager to bring those memories over here with me. In fact, I left London in big part to get away from them, but I suppose in trying to outrun them, I’ve grown tired and allowed them to catch up with me.
The rational part of me knows that if I want this to work with Kenzie, I need to be open with her, let her understand who I am and why I am the way I am. But being that open with someone again scares the shit out of me.
I can only hope that my gut instinct is right about Kenzie, even if it was so wrong about Audrey all those years ago.
We settle at a table in the corner of the bar, beside a window.
After the waitress brings us each a pint, Kenzie looks expectantly at me.
I bring the pint glass to my lips, hoping for a drop of liquid courage to get this started. “Audrey was my girlfriend back in university.”
There. The first sentence is out, and rather than the feeling of a dagger to the heart as I was expecting, I feel more like weight is being lifted off my chest, as though I can breathe a little easier knowing I’m going to do this.
Kenzie nods at me to continue.
“We started dating our freshmen year of university, and we were pretty inseparable. I had my plan—mark at the top of my class to get into a good law school. She was taking English lit and wanted to be a teacher. The two of us were from posh upper-class families and I don’t want to sound cocky or conceited when I say this, but we were sort of known around campus as theitcouple.”
