Under Pressure (21 page)

Jackson’s fist wavered before dropping. Using both hands, he shoved Asher’s shoulders, driving him harder into the wall.

“Last night you had your arm wrapped around her waist, ready to go toe-to-toe with me in order to protect her. In there, you were just being cruel.”

Asher opened his mouth to argue but shut it again. Because maybe Jackson was right. He could have been gentler about ending things, but she’d hurt him, and part of him wanted to hurt her as well.

Shaking his head, he let his body sag against the wall. He was tired.

“Damn,” Jackson breathed out. “You actually love her, don’t you?”

Asher shook his head, trying to force the words away. He couldn’t. He didn’t.

Lying to Jackson was useless, anyway. “Yes,” he mumbled. “But she’s leaving in a few days, so it doesn’t really matter.”

Wrapping a hand around Asher’s neck, Jackson pulled him into a light embrace. “You realize you’re an idiot, right?”

“For falling for your sister? Yeah, I’m aware.”

Jackson just shook his head.

* * *

T
HE
THREE
DAYS
that followed were pure torture. If she’d thought Asher could be an asshole before, that was nothing compared to the way he’d been acting since they’d returned to work.

She was ready to kill him, and she thought Daniel was close to putting out a professional hit.

Where was the guy she’d gotten to know on the ship? Had he been a figment of her imagination? Had he been putting on an act just to get inside her pants? Kennedy didn’t want to believe it.

Mercifully, there was finally a light at the end of the tunnel. This evening was the last day of filming. After this, the project would wrap, and she’d be free to concentrate on the details of her move to Seattle. She already had a Realtor searching for apartments, so she could hit the ground running when she arrived.

Daniel had shot Asher a pointed glare when he’d finally arrived, showing up two hours after their original call time. He’d walked into Trident in the same clothes he’d left in the day before, his hair a mess, bags under his eyes and reeking of perfume.

Kennedy had felt sick. Unable to stick around and watch, she’d fled to Jackson’s office and hid out there for a little while.

She and Jackson had gone over the few items she needed to pass on before leaving Trident, which meant that, as soon as filming was complete, her employment with Trident would be finished.

And several hours later, she couldn’t continue to hide, not when her place was out there with the production crew. It was late, already dark outside, so they had to be close to finished.

Her body braced for whatever was coming her way, Kennedy walked into the conference room the crew had been using and stopped short.

“...the pig tore through the camp, trampling tents, ripping through supplies, not even bothering to stop and nose at the food churned up.”

Asher sat, his hips propped against the end of the large table sitting in the middle of the room. Jackson was kicked back in one of the chairs, the biggest grin she’d ever seen on his face. They were engrossed in each other and the story she’d walked in on. But their profiles were to the room with the cameras capturing every moment.

Leaning back, Asher laughed, the loud, robust sound echoing through the room. It wasn’t until that moment that Kennedy realized she hadn’t heard it in days.

“Or the expression on that teenager’s face when he walked into that clearing in the middle of the godforsaken jungle only to find twelve semiautomatics trained on his forehead.”

This was the man she’d missed for the past several days. The one she’d seen on the
Amphitrite
. The guy she’d thought had been a figment of her imagination.

Tears pricked the backs of her eyes. She must have made some noise, because both Asher’s and Jackson’s gazes jerked in her direction.

Jackson’s grin softened when he looked at her. But Asher...his expression simply shut down.

“Kennedy. I thought you’d already left.”

“No. Why would I leave? This is my project, and today’s the last day.”

Asher’s pale green gaze slipped away from her, and she felt the loss of it straight down to the soles of her feet.

“Jackson said you’d turned over all your other projects this afternoon.”

Everyone in the room began to shift and murmur. Daniel stepped into the shot, leaning across the table toward both men. “Thanks, guys, I really appreciate you sharing some of your stories with us, even if you couldn’t get too specific.” Turning back to the crew, he said, “That’s a wrap. Asher’s invited everyone back to his place for a few beers. You all should have the address.”

She hadn’t gotten the invite. Kennedy tried not to let that bother her, but it did.

Asher stood up and wandered out without even looking at her.

She was so overwhelmed she didn’t even hear Jackson approach until he was standing right beside her, watching the same empty doorway. “He’s an idiot.”

“Tell me something I don’t already know.” She flashed her brother a smile but didn’t even pretend it was real.

“He’s hurting, Kennedy.”

“He has a really strange way of showing it.”

Jackson shrugged. “I’m not about to fault him for whatever gets him through this, especially since you’re the one leaving.”

Her brother didn’t even wait for her reaction, although she wasn’t entirely certain what it would have been. It was clear Jackson was implying that Asher felt more for her than he’d let on. But she didn’t believe him. Or maybe didn’t want to believe him.

Asher was the one who’d broken things off.

“So, you’re heading out to Seattle day after tomorrow?”

Kennedy nodded. She planned on staying out there for a couple weeks, long enough to find a place, meet her new boss and coworkers and then come home to get all of her stuff.

And she was already dreading that goodbye with her father, mother and brother at the airport.

But she needed to do this. For herself. Or she’d always question whether or not she had the strength to stand on her own.

* * *

T
HE
NEXT
TWO
days flew past, a blur of activity as she tried to square away her life in Jacksonville and arrange things in Seattle.

Her stomach was in knots as she boarded the plane, replaying her mom’s tears, Dad’s gruff goodbye and Jackson’s whispered “make sure you come home in one piece” in her ear, the same words she’d spoken to him countless times before.

There was one person she wished had been there, and for a brief moment she thought she’d caught a glimpse of him in the crowd around security, but it had only been her imagination playing awful tricks.

Several hours later, she’d touched down and hit the ground running. Apartments, movers, new company and corporate culture. Everything had been intimidating and overwhelming.

And, if she was honest, disappointing.

Two or three days into her new job, it had become clear that it was not exactly what she’d thought—or been told. Instead of being a junior member of the team, learning the ropes and assisting on major national ad campaigns, she was little more than a glorified fetch-it girl. She handled the grunt work, editing someone else’s copy, refining someone else’s graphic artwork, researching someone else’s campaign ideas, instead of brainstorming her own.

For three weeks Kennedy tried to tell herself this was how things worked. She had to pay her dues and work her way up the chain. But during lunch with one of her new coworkers, she’d come to realize that working her way up the chain at Masters, Dillon and Cooper could take her ten years of sixty-and eighty-hour work weeks, none of which would be spent on her own campaigns.

And maybe, if she hadn’t had a taste of something more, she’d have been satisfied with that path. But at Trident she’d had autonomy. She’d headed up her own major marketing campaign, interacted with the media, written press releases, formulated sound bites and spun crises.

It didn’t take long for doubts to creep in. Had she made a seriously bad decision?

Adding to that, whenever she thought of home, she remembered Asher and that last night of filming. And she wanted him. Not just physically, although the burning need for his touch was always there. But she wanted his laugh, his confidence, even his stutter, although she’d noticed it had been completely absent during those last few days. At some point in the process, he’d gained confidence in front of the camera and conquered his fear, probably without even realizing.

Kennedy had never been the kind of woman to hold back, except when it came to love. Jackson wasn’t wrong when he said she rarely let anyone in. Because the few occasions she had, things hadn’t exactly gone well.

She was scared of trusting the wrong person again. And Asher scared her more than anyone else ever had. He could seriously hurt her.

But was that really a valid reason to not even try?

She knew the answer was no, but taking that leap of faith was harder than she’d ever expected.

Picking up the phone, Kennedy made her weekly call back home, starting with Jackson.

Her brother answered, not even bothering with a hello. “How’s Seattle going?”

She wanted to lie to him as she’d been doing since she got here, but tonight the words wouldn’t come.

“I...really miss home.”

There was a long silence, followed by a chuckle. “Thank God.”

“The job is...interesting, but it isn’t what I expected. I took it thinking I’d have a chance to use the skills I’d learned, but I’m not, Jackson. I crave the kind of responsibility I had at Trident.

“Real estate is outrageous, and the apartments I can afford don’t allow dogs. I miss Max and I’m sure mom and dad will get tired of keeping him at some point. I miss my condo with a view of the water. I miss everyone at Trident. I miss the laid-back atmosphere and sense of family.”

“Then, come home.”

Jackson made it sound so simple. And maybe it was.

Her heart was back in Jacksonville. The woman who’d left everything behind to travel across the country for a new adventure wouldn’t hesitate to go after the man she wanted in her life.

And she wanted Asher.

17

A
SHER
STARED
OUT
the windows in his home, watching nothing. Behind him there was a glass of whiskey sitting on the table, ice melting, untouched. The moment he’d poured it he knew it was a mistake...it reminded him of her.

He’d spent the past three weeks trying to prove to himself that he could survive without Kennedy. He wasn’t sure anyone was buying the act.

Just this afternoon he’d told Jackson that he planned to take a diving job in Australia. Trident didn’t necessarily need the work, but he needed the break. Everywhere he looked, the ghost of Kennedy haunted him.

Maybe a change of scenery would help. God knew he’d attempted to exorcise her with other women, but that hadn’t gone well at all. He’d been to bar after bar, but despite being approached by countless women, none of them could hold his attention. And he’d always gone home alone.

Because none of them were Kennedy.

A knock on the door startled him out of the unpleasant thoughts. Frowning, Asher turned away from the view he hadn’t really been watching anyway and crossed to the front door, opening it.

Kennedy stared at him, her hands fidgeting at her waist, as if she didn’t have a clue what to do with them.

“Wh-what are you doing here, Kennedy?”

Asher ground his teeth together. After everything that had happened between them, the sight of her set him so off balance that he lost his words.

“Can I come in?”

Asher thought about telling her no, but what point would that serve?

Sweeping back an arm, he silently indicated she could enter, and then shut the door behind her.

She stood in the middle of his living room. A sense of déjà vu overwhelmed him, which didn’t help to settle the anxiety jangling his nerves. That first night hadn’t ended very well. He really didn’t have a desire to relive it.

“You back in Jacksonville to get the last of your things?” he finally asked.

She shook her head and took a single step forward. “I’m here for you.”

“For me?”

Kennedy nodded, a brief, jerky movement. What the hell did that even mean?

Turning away, Asher let all of the pain and exhaustion that had been eating him up just pour out of his words. “What do you want, Kennedy?”

He didn’t hear her approach, but his entire body bucked when her hands came to rest on his back. He stalled, unable to keep walking away from her, even if his head was screaming at him that it would be better to run.

“I love you.” The words came out choked, her voice soft and barely recognizable. His heart thudded unevenly in his chest. Slowly, he turned.

Could this be real? Or had he fallen asleep on the couch again and started dreaming?

“What?”

“I love you. I think I’ve probably had feelings for you for a long time, since you rescued me that night from jail. But you kept pushing me away.”

“Because I couldn’t let myself want you.”

“I get that. I’m Jackson’s little sister and your employee. But on the
Amphitrite
we were able to move past that.”

Her hands slipped up his arms, over his chest to rest on either side of his face. “You’re a good man, Asher. No matter what happens between us, I want you to know that. Don’t let anyone ever convince you that you’re not worth everything, because you are.”

God, he wanted this. Wanted what she was offering him. But could he trust it?

“How is this going to work, Kennedy? I live here. You live in Seattle. I’m willing to give long distance a shot, but are you? It will be difficult.”

She smiled up at him, her gorgeous golden eyes twinkling.

“Do you love me?”

He wanted to say no, knew that it was probably the best way to protect his heart. But he couldn’t. “Yes.”

Her smile widened, brightening up the gloominess that had entered his life the minute she’d left.

“I resigned my job in Seattle.”