Seb (19 page)

I’d thought Amy had done a number on me, but that was child’s play compared to Skylar’s plan. Not because hers was more nefarious, but because I’d fallen harder, deeper than I ever thought possible and she knew it. She let me believe she felt the same way. That was the thing I would never forgive. Every time she looked at me, every time we made love, she’d said without words that she was falling in love with me. It killed me to think that had all been a vicious lie.

“I’m not sleeping with Jarod,” she said quietly. “I can’t believe you’d even think that.”

The fact that she was calm instead of outraged only proved to me that she was guilty as sin. “Don’t pretend with me. I’m not that stupid.”

“I wouldn’t have thought so either. So why are you acting like such an idiot?”

If she’d been a guy, I would have decked her. Instead, I curled my hand into a fist and slammed back my drink instead. “You’re right—I am an idiot for ever falling for your ‘poor me’ routine. You had my number from the second you walked into the shop. Pop a couple of buttons, put a little swing in those hips, bat those eyelashes, and men beg to do your bidding. Isn’t that how it is?” I didn’t want to think I was the only one who’d been so easily conned by her. That really would have made me an idiot.

“Is that what you think?” Her green eyes flashed with indignation.

“What else am I supposed to think?”

She walked farther into the room and wrapped her hands around the back of the leather armchair we’d made love in just last week. She touched her chest, drawing attention to her breasts, which looked spectacular in that low-cut dress. I may have been pissed, but I wasn’t blind. “I thought you knew me better than that. I thought I’d finally found someone who was interested in getting to know the real me.”

“I do know the real you. Finally. And I don’t like you.”

Her eyes widened before they filled with tears. “Jarod was right about you. You are a vicious bastard.”

I threw my head back, laughing though I wanted to punch something. “You expect me to believe you talked to him about me?” I shook my head, pointing at her. “Maybe you did. Yeah, you would have had to fill him in on your plan, wouldn’t you?”

She brushed her fingertips over her temple as she glanced at the half-empty bottle. “I’m going to guess you’ve been working on that all night ‘cause you’re not making a bit of sense.”

“Come on, your boyfriend would have seen you with me on the show. So what’d you tell him? That you were just gonna toy with me ‘til the car was done and you’d stashed away enough money from the show, then you’d cut me loose so you could be with him?”

“You are seriously delusional,” she said, covering her eyes with her hand. “I think you better lay off that stuff. It’s frying your remaining brain cells.”

She could take shots at me all night. It didn’t change the facts. “You’re the one who’s fried too many brain cells if you thought you could pull this off.”

Narrowing her eyes, she asked, “How did you find out I went out with Jarod last night?”

“Kane told me.” How the hell else would I know?

“So Jarod told Kane?”

“Yeah.” I kicked my feet up on the coffee table. I was getting tired of this conversation. I just wanted her out of my house and my life so I could lick my wounds in private.

“And it never occurred to you Jarod might be the one playing you?”

“What?”

“You just assume I’m the only one who has a motive for lying and trying to manipulate the situation. It never occurred to you that he might have a motive of his own?”

Like trying to get Skylar into bed? That would have been enough to motivate any man. “Tell me something—did you ever sleep with him? The truth.”

Air seeped through her lips before she said, “The fact that you had ask me that proves to me that we have nothing left to say to each other.”

I watched her walk out, tempted to call, “Good riddance,” but something stopped me. The doubt she had planted in my mind maybe. Shit, what if I’d gotten it all wrong and just screwed up the best thing that ever happened to me?

Skylar

I intended to tear a strip off Jarod, but not until I had all the facts. Since talking to Seb again wasn’t an option, only one person could fill in the blanks. He hadn’t sounded too thrilled about seeing me either, but after several minutes of coercion, I finally convinced Kane he could either agree to let me come over or I’d camp out on his sidewalk all night.

But now that I was facing his front door, I was nervous as hell. I was walking into enemy territory, and Kane intimidated people for a living. What would he do to me? Chew me up and spit me out no doubt.

But this was no time to back down. I just had to pull up my big girl panties and get this over with so I could get on with the business of assaulting a certain police officer who had yet to figure out he had a big ol’ target on his back. After I rang the doorbell once, Kane answered, looking every bit as handsome and intimidating as his brother. Lord help me.

“Thank you for seeing me,” I said.

“You didn’t give me much choice, did you?”

I’d stopped by the bakery to get Kane’s number from Mac. After I told her the whole story, she cussed out her brother-in-law for being a dumbass and offered to talk to Seb on my behalf, but I promised her I could handle it. But Kane’s stony glare made me wonder whether I’d overestimated myself.

“This won’t take long,” I said, shifting my purse from one shoulder to the other as I wondered whether he intended to let me in.

“It better not. I have things to do.”

Okay, then. Apparently the charm he’d exhibited the first time we met was reserved for people who hadn’t betrayed his brother. He’d obviously tried and convicted me without hearing my side of the story. Not that I could blame him. Seb was family. I was a stranger.

“Can I come in?” I asked.

He rolled his eyes with a heavy sigh before stepping back to let me enter. “Fine, but I don’t know why the hell you wanna see me. It’s Seb who—”

“I hurt?” I gave him a sharp nod. “Yeah, I know he thinks I’m the villain, but I’m here to tell you I’m not.”

He gave me a quick once-over, obviously trying to decide whether I was the scammer his brother and Jarod had portrayed me to be.

“I know you have no reason to believe anything I have to say,” I said. “You don’t even know me, but I’m asking you to keep an open mind. Just listen to what I have to say. If you still don’t believe I’m telling the truth, I’ll never bother you again.”

He gestured to the great room. “You might as well sit down.”

“Thank you.” I sat on the brown leather sofa, sneaking a peek around the large room. The house wasn’t huge, but it was in a nice part of town and had obviously been recently renovated. Maybe Gabe had helped Kane the way he’d helped Seb. “Nice house.”

“Just get to the point,” he snapped, crossing his arms.

“Jarod lied to you.” I waited for him to process that bit of information before I rushed on. “It’s true that I met him the same day I met your brother, but I was clear with him that I wasn’t interested in pursuing a relationship with him.”

He tipped his head as though he was trying to decide whether he could trust me. “Go on.”

“I went out with him once for coffee and once for dinner. We talked on the phone a few times, mainly about his disastrous dates, and I told him as soon as things between Seb and me started getting…” I couldn’t say serious since I wasn’t sure Seb would have defined our relationship that way.

As though he sensed the reason for my hesitation, he nodded. “So Jarod thought he could drive a wedge between you and my brother if he came to me trying to make it look like you two were dating?”

“I guess so.” Full disclosure was important. Even if Seb and I couldn’t work this out, I didn’t want his family to think I’d deceived him. They were good people who’d been kind to me. I wanted to return the favor. “He even implied your brother was dangerous, that he had a temper and I’d be wise to steer clear.” His warning had startled me that night, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized the picture he’d painted didn’t align with the Seb I knew.

Kane swore softly before swiping a hand across his mouth. “I’m not gonna pretend my brother is a saint. He’s not. Has he been in a few too many fights? Probably. Some for the right reasons, some because he’d had too much to drink and needed to blow off a little steam. But if you’re wondering whether he would ever hurt you, or any other woman, he wouldn’t. If he did, we’d all take turns kicking his ass.”

“I know he would never do anything like that.” I took a deep breath, staring at my nude nails and wondering why Seb couldn’t have given me the benefit of the doubt instead of assuming the worst.

“He’s been burned before, Skylar. More than once. That’s why he was so quick to assume you were like the rest.” He closed his eyes, pinching the bridge of his nose. “And I sure as hell didn’t help matters, feeding his anger.”

“Then you believe me?” I asked, holding my breath.

He looked at me a long time, his eyes locked on mine, and I remembered he was trained to sniff out deceit. I didn’t flinch or break eye contact as I waited for him to try me and render his verdict.

“I do.” He sat in the chair he’d been standing behind, directly across from me. “It didn’t sit right with me. It felt like too much of a coincidence, Jarod coming to me to talk about this hot new girl he’d been seeing. He’d never done that before. Then when he showed me the picture of you…”

“Why didn’t you just take some time to think it through before you went to Seb with Jarod’s story?” I knew it wasn’t fair to blame Kane for this mess. He had only been looking out for his brother, but he had set this whole thing in motion. “At least confronted me first?”

“I probably would have,” he admitted. “But Jarod came to see me as I was on my way out the door to pick Seb up from the airport. I thought about sitting on it for a while, but my mind immediately jumped to the worst-case scenario.” He smirked. “That goes with the territory when you do what I do for a living.”

“I guess so.”

“I kept thinking, what if I don’t tell him right away and he finds out I knew? It would’ve killed him. After all he’s been through with women in the past few years, I just couldn’t do that to him.”

“I understand.” I didn’t have to like it, but I did understand. I probably would have done the same thing in his position. I didn’t have a sister, but if I suspected one of my girlfriends was being screwed over by some guy, I’d spill my secrets first and ask questions later.

“So what now?” Kane asked, leaning back in his chair. “I don’t even want to think about how Seb reacted when you saw him. Is there any going back from that, or did my brother mess things up too badly for you to ever forgive him?”

The things Seb had said, his blatant lack of trust in me, had hurt. “Honestly, I don’t know. But my first order of business is to let Jarod have it. I don’t have his home address. I don’t suppose you do?”

“I think so.” He pulled his phone out of the pocket of his jeans and scrolled through it. “Yeah, here it is.”

I pulled my phone out of my purse and brought up Jarod’s contact information. “Would you mind?”

“Sure.”

I watched him transfer the information from my phone to his before I asked, “Do you think what Seb felt for me was real? I know we haven’t known each other long, but it felt real to me.”

“He was crazy about you, no doubt in my mind about that.” Kane handed my phone back to me. “He may not always make the best decisions when it comes to women, but I think all of the Steele brothers could be accused of that.”

I smiled, appreciating Kane’s honesty. “I really wanted this to work. I thought I’d finally found someone who would always have my back. Seb seemed like the kind of man I could count on—”

“Always,” Kane interjected. “I know it may not feel like that now, but that guy would take a bullet for someone he loves. You may not feel like you’re a part of that group yet, and maybe you’re not, I don’t know. But if it ever gets to that point, you’ll have someone you can always count on, I can promise you that.”

“The prospect of losing my uncle is scary as hell,” I admitted, swallowing my tears. “He’s always been the only person I could count on. I have a few friends, but it’s not the same. They have their own lives, their own families.”

“And you’ll have no one,” he said softly.

I hated that I’d let a tear slip down my cheek. I quickly brushed it away, hoping that he hadn’t noticed. “It’s not that I went looking for a relationship because I need a man to take care of me. I don’t. I can take care of myself—”

“And your uncle, from what Seb tells me. He, uh, mentioned that you’d sold your house and moved in with your uncle to help take care of him. I can’t tell you how much I respect that. The way we lost our mother…” Kane shook his head, obviously trying to keep his emotions in check. “Let’s just say we all understand how important family is.”

I nodded, suddenly anxious to escape. “Well, I guess I should get going. I’d like to catch Jarod before he goes to work.”

Kane stood and walked me to the door. “Good luck with that. If he gives you a hard time, let me know.” He grinned. “I’ll gladly kick the shit out of him for trying to mess things up for you and my brother.”

“Thanks,” I said, returning his smile. “But I don’t think it’ll come to that.”

He grabbed my hand when I was over the threshold. I turned to face him, and he pulled me into his arms.

“Something tells me you’re good for my brother,” he whispered. “Don’t give up on him, okay?”

I patted Kane’s back before withdrawing from his embrace. “I can’t make any promises. I have no idea what the future holds for me and Seb.”

***

Jarod looked stunned when I showed up on his doorstep unannounced. Good, I had the element of surprise working in my favor.

“How dare you tell Kane we’re dating!” I shoved him and walked past when he stumbled back. As much as I’d have liked to let his neighbors know what a deceitful bastard he was, I had too much to say to stand outside and say it.