Killian Read online

  "I notice you're working up front behind the counter instead of in the back of the store." Opal counts change for a customer and hands her a box of baked goods. "Have a nice day, honey."

  I turn around, ready to wait on the next customer and ignore Opal, but there are no more customers in line. When I glance over at Caveman again, he's behind his newspaper. As much as I’m irritated that he’s here again, when I look at him I can still feel his lips on mine, and my breath quickens the same way it did when he stormed in here and kissed me.

  6

  Killian

  "What are you doing here?"

  I look over the edge of my newspaper when I hear her voice. "Enjoying a relaxing morning with a newspaper and a cup of coffee. You?"

  She narrows her blue-grey eyes and her nostrils flare again. I think that might be the most seductive expression I've ever seen on a woman. Or I'm just hard up and it's been too long since I've gotten laid. Probably the latter. "I'm working. At my job. I know you're not here because you like the coffee."

  I fold the newspaper and lay it on the table. "You really shouldn't sell yourself short. Your coffee is good.”

  Lily raises one eyebrow and crosses her arms over her chest. “That is not my coffee,” she says, eyeballing the tall glass on the table.

  “It’s your brew. I just doctored it up my way.”

  “Don’t you have someplace to be?” she asks. “Other than here, I mean?”

  “Nope.” I decide to push my luck. I don’t know why this girl makes me want to push my luck with her but there you have it. “Besides, I like the scenery here.”

  My eyes stay fixed on her as a faint tinge of pink rises to her cheeks. “Do you usually stalk girls you kiss?”

  “That was hardly a kiss.”

  She coughs out a laugh. “I guess our definitions of that word are totally different.”

  “I can show you what a real kiss is, if you'd like." I'm joking, just egging her on, except with the way she looks standing here in front of me with her lush lips slightly parted, there's nothing more I'd like to do right now than feel those sweet lips on mine again.

  She raises her eyebrows. “You’re so generous.”

  “What can I say? I’m a giver.”

  “You’re something,” she agrees, tossing me a look over her shoulder as she walks back toward the front counter. I watch her walk away, although walk away isn’t the right term for it. She practically sashays, her hips swing seductively as she takes long strides. I’m far too fixated on the way her ass looks in those jeans for my own good.

  Cupcakes and Cappuccinos is comfortable, a decent place to have a cup of coffee and read the newspaper. That was what I told myself when I got into the truck this morning and drove thirty minutes into town for a cup of coffee. Total bullshit, of course. The view of her walking away just now made it worth the drive.

  I open the newspaper back up to the sports section, because if I stare at her from over here any more, she’ll be justified in thinking I’m a stalker.

  Not more than ten minutes later, she’s back and standing in front of my table. “Here. Try this.” She sets down a glass of iced coffee on the table.

  I peer into the liquid. “Coffee ice cubes?”

  “And espresso. So it’s not watered down. You said you needed caffeine.”

  I take a sip of the coffee drink. “You’re alright, cupcake. This is good shit.”

  “Enough with the names.”

  “Sure thing, muffin.”

  She glares at me. “Never mind. I take back the coffee.”

  “Too late, bear claw.”

  She shakes her head slowly, one hand on her hip, her lips pursed.

  I shrug. "You’re right. Bear claw wasn't very good. I'm pretty much out of pastry names, unless you want me to call you doughnut. Or cream puff? Wait. Hang on – what are the long ones with the cream inside?"

  She narrows her eyes at me. “Is that a crude innuendo?”

  “It wasn’t, but I like where your mind is at.” I remember the pastry name. “Éclair.”

  Lily rolls her eyes. “I’ll get you a to-go cup for that coffee, then.”

  “Nah, I’m just fine here, sugar,” I call to her retreating back as she passes the counter, the kitchen doors swinging behind her.

  I don’t know if it’s the coffee or seeing her, but there’s an extra spring in my step when I leave the coffee shop. Halfway down the block, I run into Luke.

  “Am I losing my mind or did you just walk out of a bakery?” Luke asks. “A cupcake bakery with a pink sign over the door?”

  “Shut up.”

  Luke laughs. “Tell me you went in for one of the froufrou coffee drinks in there.”

  I shrug. “So what if I did, little brother?” I ask, wrapping my arm around his neck and putting him in a headlock. “Maybe I like little froufrou drinks.”

  Luke makes a faux strangling noise and I let him go. “What are you doing in town?” he asks. “I thought you were all about shunning us and staying up in your cabin. Are you coming down from on high to grant us with your presence?”

  “I had to retreat to my cabin to get away from you and Autumn and all your lovey-dovey bullshit. I think the two of you might be worse than the twins and their girls.”

  “Hell no. Worse than Elias and Silas? Now you’re being insulting.”

  I'm just ragging on him. No one is as annoying as Elias and Silas are with the women in their lives. Elias hooked up with River, this big Hollywood movie star. He keeps trying to get me to come over and hang out with them, but what the hell do I have in common with a movie star? Silas is with Tempest, who’s a con artist, which is actually pretty okay, I guess.

  “Alright. All three of you are equally disgusting.”

  Luke laughs. “You’ll meet some girl and be as disgusting as we are, eventually.”

  I stop walking and give him a raised eyebrow. “You going to keep saying dumb shit like that?”

  “I’m screwing around with you, man,” Luke says, laughing. “God, the look on your face. Shit, no. I can’t see you being all gaga over some girl.”

  I grunt in response. I’m not going gaga over some girl ever. Period. Just because I drove thirty minutes into town for a cup of coffee doesn’t remotely mean I’m gaga over that girl in the bakery, either.

  “So why did you come out of hiding?” Luke asks. “You’ve been up there since you got back."

  I shrug. “Just taking care of some business in town.”

  Total lie. I have no business in town to take care of. But hell if I’m going to admit that to Luke.

  “You alright, man?” Luke asks, stopping at the end of the sidewalk. “You’re not sitting up there in the woods crying and shit, are you?”

  “Shut the fuck up, Luke.” I shake my head at him as I unlock the truck.

  “Autumn wants you to come down tomorrow for dinner,” he says.

  “I don’t know." I groan. “I ”

  “Don’t give me grief, Killian. You know Autumn. If she wants you at dinner, you’re going to have to be at dinner. Besides, I’m making ribs. I'm glazing them with Autumn’s newest brew.”

  I groan reluctantly, but Luke knows it’s a fake protest. I like Autumn just fine. “Tell Autumn I’ll be there.”

  I sit outside under the stars beside the pile of planks that will eventually become the front porch I'm going to add to this cabin. I bought this place because I wanted solitude, and solitude is definitely what I got up here. The long winding road stretches for miles up the side of the mountain before turning into a one-lane dirt road, all switchbacks and steep ascents. The cabin sits on a ten-acre piece of land, the nearest neighbor a mile down the road. Cell phones don’t work up here and I’m sure the roads will be impassible for most of the winter. The owner was just glad to get rid of it. Calling it a fixer-upper would be an understatement. Making the cabin livable has been a full-time job the past few months.

  I sit out here smoking a cigar and rocking on the chair that was Jac