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His stretched white t-shirt did nothing to conceal the massive wall of muscle tapering from his ripped shoulders to a narrow, washboard stomach. Tree trunk thighs filled out his faded jeans going all the way down his long legs to tan leather hiking boots. But the most captivating thing about him was his thick, icy-blonde hair that contrasted beautifully against his bronzed skin and emerald-green eyes. He was the kind of man you would see once and never forget. The kind of man to haunt your dreams and dominate your fantasies.
And after all these years, he still haunted mine.
Kingston Heller burst into a huge grin when he saw me and his deep, malachite eyes sparkled under a shock of longish hair that hung over his forehead. “Holy shit, Riley. I can’t believe I finally found you.”
I didn’t smile. Didn’t freak out. Didn’t show him how much seeing him like a ghost brought back to life, shocked and unnerved me.
“What the hell are you doing here?”
He crossed his arms over his brawny chest and frowned. “Looking for you.”
“Is this a joke?”
“What do you mean?” he asked.
“You vanished out of my life over five years ago without so much as a goodbye. Then you show up randomly out of nowhere in the middle of the woodsrightwhere I happen to be?”
“I just told you. I’ve been looking for you for years, but you sure don’t make it easy. You must have changed your identity forty times. I’ve been tracking you for a long time.”
“That was the idea, Kingston. I didn’t want to be found. But now you have, you can go back to wherever it is you came from.”
I started to turn away from him, but he grabbed my arm.
“Don’t touch me.”
His hand swept through his hair in a gesture of exasperation, “This isn’t at all how I imagined this would go down.”
“Well, I’m sorry to disappoint you.”
“Riley—
“What makes you give a damn now, Kingston? And how did you even find me?”
He opened his mouth but then quickly closed it.
As much as I loved Kingston, and as much as I thought I knew everything about him, he always had secrets. Things he would never admit to or never say, but I knew they were there.
“I can’t believe this is how you greet family after all this time.”
“You’re not my family.”
He jolted back and his cheery grin vanished. Every expression crossing his face stabbed me in the guts. I could read him so easily. Every one of those expressions imprinted a memory on my past that I could never forget.
I cared about him way too much back then. No way would I make the same mistake now.
“The hell I’m not.”
“You used to be my stepbrother, but now,” I shook my head, “You’re just another stranger.”
He positioned himself in front of me, serving as a stark reminder of his imposing stature compared to my own. “We both know that’s bullshit. You know me and I know you. Iknowyou. Every part of you.”
I ignored the heat pooling deep in my belly at the insinuation behind his words.
“You didn’t have to sneak around in the woods scaring people just to see me,” I told him. “If you wanted to talk to me, you could have just walked up and started talking.”
“That’s what I just did.” He frowned with his head on one side. “Why are you so tense? And what’s with the rock? What’s going on?”
“That’s none of your business.” I tossed the rock aside and turned my back on him. “You’re leaving and I’m leaving, so now neither of us will be out here. See you around.”
