Right where we belong, p.7
Right Where We Belong, page 7
“Scones,” he confirmed, looking extremely pleased with himself.
Dammit. She didn’t have a good excuse not to talk to him, did she? Especially not now scones were involved. Well, she needed to get this project started, so now was as good a time as any.
Indigo let out a silent breath and braced herself for the avalanche of male charm that was no doubt going to come her way.
“Okay,” she said.
* * *
Levi felt exceptionally smug. The scones had been a power move, and silently he thanked Finn and Chase for setting the example of courting their partners with food.
Chase had gotten Izzy eclairs, while Finn had used sausage rolls to good effect with Beth.
Finding out that Indigo loved Bill’s scones had been a simple matter of asking Bill himself what she bought from his cabinet. So now he had a couple of fluffy scones in a paper bag in the little kitchen of the Pure Adventure NZ HQ, and he knew also that Indigo loved tea, and there was certainly a lot of tea there too.
He’d wanted to have as many weapons in his arsenal as he could when it came to getting her agreement on building her a tiny house.
“So where are we going to have this chat?” she asked as they stepped outside onto the porch of the Rose.
Across the road was the lakeshore, its usual brilliant turquoise blue muted today due to the cloud cover. A chilly wind blew off the jagged mountain range in the distance, bringing with it the icy scent of snow. Definitely signs that summer was on its way out and autumn was approaching, which meant building this house ASAP if Indigo wanted to be in there by winter.
It didn’t get as cold here as it did in Alaska—the lake never froze over, for example—but some winters there was snow in the township and your pipes could freeze if you weren’t careful. She’d need some double-glazing and some good heating, that was for sure.
Already halfway down the porch steps, Levi paused and turned.
Indigo stood on the porch, frowning down at him. She wore a pair of loose blue cotton trousers today, with an oversized white T-shirt and a darker blue fleece thrown over the top. Clothing that screamed practical rather than sexy, yet she was super sexy all the same.
Somehow the loose, oversized nature of the clothing emphasized her petite size and her fey femininity in a way that very much appealed to him. Even with her winged brows drawn into that habitual frown of hers.
Even when her downright beautiful sky-blue eyes were giving him the sternest of looks.
“I thought HQ.” He nodded his head in the direction of the building. “It’s private and there’s tea.”
Her expression became a touch less suspicious. “Oh.” She bit her lip, glanced over at HQ, frowned a bit more, then said, “I guess that’s okay.”
“Glad you approve.” Levi turned and went the rest of the way down the steps. As he stepped onto the road, a black shape came slinking out from under the Rose’s stairs and trotted over to him.
He stilled, his hands in his pockets, and let Mystery, the stray dog that had been hanging around the town for the past few months or more, have a sniff.
No one in Brightwater had successfully managed to convince Mystery to go home with them, even though the dog had no shortage of people willing to give him a home. But the animal had his own ideas about what he wanted and had steadfastly refused all comers.
Levi had privately decided that he was going to adopt Mystery—he’d been a lost stray himself once—and had been waging a secret campaign to get the dog on his side. He hadn’t been successful so far, but Mystery had seemed to warm to him. Or rather, he hoped Mystery had warmed to him.
He’d taken to carrying around treats in his pocket to give the dog whenever he spotted him, but he’d run out today and was silently cursing himself as Mystery, having sniffed his fill, sat at his feet and looked up hopefully at him.
“Sorry, boy,” Levi murmured. “I don’t have anything for you today.”
The dog seemed to understand, giving a disgusted sneeze before turning and running off toward the lake.
“That dog,” Levi pronounced as Indigo came up beside him, “will come home with me one day. I swear it.”
Indigo stared after the dog. “I thought everyone was waiting until he decided who got to adopt him.”
“Well, sure. And he’ll decide that I’m the best option.”
She glanced at him, eyes bright with curiosity. “Oh? Why? Are you a dog person?”
“I like dogs, yes. But I also know what it’s like to not have a home.” His background wasn’t a secret, and she may as well know. It might even help his cause. “And I want to give him one.”
Indigo’s brow creased, but not with suspicion this time, more puzzlement. “But don’t you have a home? Beth told me you’ve got some massive house in Queenstown.”
“It’s three bedrooms, which hardly counts as massive,” he corrected mildly. “No, I’m talking about my previous life, before I came here.”
“Oh?”
He looked down at her, into her blue eyes, a strange sense of disquiet stealing through him, which was weird. Normally he had no problems with talking about his childhood and the difficulties he’d had. True, he didn’t often talk about it since everyone here knew already, but he didn’t have an issue with answering people’s questions.
Perhaps he was out of practice or something.
“Yeah,” he said, shoving away the disquiet. “I was a foster kid. Got bounced around the system, twenty homes in two months, that kind of thing. Ran away eventually and lived on the streets in Auckland for a while. Then joined the army, since that was preferable to sleeping rough.”
There was shock in her eyes that morphed instantly into concern.
It hit him oddly. Most people when he told them greeted the story with varying degrees of pity, which he shrugged off since pity wasn’t useful to him in any way, shape, or form. But concern was new, and he wasn’t sure he liked it.
Concern implied that he was suffering, which was bullshit, because he definitely wasn’t suffering. He was completely and utterly fine.
He had a home now and people who cared about him, a family, and his life was pretty damn good. There was no need for her concern.
“Oh, Levi,” Indigo murmured. “I had no idea.”
“It’s fine,” he said, deciding he was done with the conversation. “It’s all good now. Brightwater is my home and everyone here is like a family to me.” He turned in the direction of HQ. “Come on, let’s get you a scone.”
They walked along the road, gravel crunching under their feet.
Indigo kept glancing at him, her brow still furrowed.
“What?” he asked eventually.
“Oh…I just wondered…” She bit her lip again. “Has you wanting to build me a house got—?”
“Anything to do with me having been homeless?” he finished, getting in before she could because he knew exactly how this conversation was going to go. He’d had it before with people. Many times. “Probably. Homes for everyone, I say.”
But she didn’t smile. If anything, her gaze became even more concerned. “Levi, I’ve been pretty awful to you for—”
“Come on,” he interrupted yet again, because that unease was still inside him and he didn’t like it. And he didn’t want to talk about this, at least not out on the street and not when he was feeling so uncomfortable. The last thing he needed was her feeling sorry for him. “Let’s get you some tea.”
Indigo’s gaze narrowed, but she closed her mouth and didn’t push, for which he was thankful.
Chase had just left for a two-day guided hike, and Finn was downstairs in the front desk part of the building, fiddling around with some bookings, so Levi had the upstairs to himself.
It was a small area consisting of a main lounge room with a door to a small kitchen, then a tiny hall with a bathroom and a couple of small bedrooms off it.
The lounge area had couches and a wood burner up against the wall, plus bookshelves stuffed with all kinds of different books from outdoor activity how-tos, New Zealand guidebooks, and engine manuals to first aid, plus a range of fiction titles covering various genres. On the walls were photos and posters of the activities Pure Adventure NZ took clients on, plus other striking photos of New Zealand landscapes.
Levi loved this room, and he spent a lot of time in it since the guys used it as their staff room. He pretty much based himself in HQ, the bedroom down the hall his own bedroom. It wasn’t ideal since this place wasn’t his house, but commuting from Queenstown every day wasn’t happening either. He’d bought his Queenstown place as an investment, and it had come in handy on a number of occasions. But he didn’t actually want to live there.
He wanted to be here, in Brightwater. That was home.
“Sit down and get comfortable.” He gestured to the couches. “I’ll go and put on the tea.”
“What kind of tea is it?” Indigo asked, moving over to the couch.
“Gumboot.”
She frowned. “What’s gumboot tea?”
“Oh, you know, bog standard tea.” He went into the little kitchen and started getting out a couple of plates to put the scones on.
“Bog standard tea?” Indigo was now in the doorway, still frowning.
Levi sighed, and before he could think better of it, he’d gone over to where she stood and had lifted his hand, pressing his thumb gently to the crease between her brows.
Her eyes went very wide, the frown disappearing as the sweetest blush he’d ever seen stained her pale cheeks.
What the hell are you doing?
Quite frankly, he had no idea. He’d seen her frown and the impulse to smooth it away had come over him and…yeah, he’d gone over there and done it. And now that he was looking down into those beautiful sky-blue eyes of hers, watching her blush deepen from pink into rose, feeling the warmth and silkiness of her skin against his finger, noticing how all that biting had left her bottom lip looking very red and full…
Damn. He’d made a mistake. The same mistake he’d made yesterday, encouraging her to get close, because he couldn’t resist. Because he liked how flustered she got around him, little realizing that it would fluster him too…
For a second neither of them moved, the shock of the contact and the strange echo it had set up inside him vibrating in the air around them, holding them fast.
Then, taking him utterly by surprise, Indigo rose suddenly on her toes and, before he could move, kissed him on the mouth.
He had no time to enjoy it. No time to even feel more than a fleeting softness and a bright burst of heat before she pulled away from him as suddenly as she’d kissed him, a look of complete horror on her face.
She was going to bolt; he knew it. Just as he also knew that if she ran, he probably wouldn’t see her for another week, which would mean this house idea would go completely by the wayside.
That was not happening.
His hand shot out, and he grabbed her elbow just as she started to turn.
“Hey,” he said softly. “Don’t run away.”
She stilled, half turned away, her whole body trembling. “Let me go, please.”
“Only if you promise me you won’t run.”
“Levi…”
“Why did you kiss me?”
“Oh my God,” Indigo groaned and put her free hand over her face. She made no further move to pull away from him, so he loosened his hold.
He could still feel the soft press of her lips against his, the briefest of tastes, making his heartbeat accelerate. But quite frankly he was shocked—yes, shocked. A kiss from Indigo Jameson was the very last thing he’d expected. A punch in the face? Yes. A kick in the balls? Also, yes.
A kiss? Very much in the negative.
He cleared his throat, his body deciding it was in favor of the kiss and urging him to try for more. Which he ignored. “Indy?”
“I don’t know.” Her voice was muffled by her hand. “I don’t know. I don’t know. Can we pretend it never happened?”
No. He could never pretend it didn’t happen. Not when he could still feel the impression of her perfect little rosebud of a mouth on his, the softest brush of her lips, tantalizing…
Yeah, stop right there.
Shit, yes. He had to. She was at a disadvantage here, with nowhere permanent to live, a fledgling business, and limited funds. Plus, an affair with someone also living here was always going to be a terrible idea when he wasn’t in the market for anything more. Especially with someone as inexperienced as he suspected she was.
Yeah, but she sort of made the first move.
“Okay,” he said mildly, ignoring that little thought. “Are you going to promise me you won’t run away? I’ve got scones and tea, and we need to talk about your house.”
She was silent a couple of moments before she finally said, “I promise.”
Levi released her, half expecting her to bolt anyway. But all she did was turn and go back into the living area without a word.
This was, naturally, a terrible development.
Indigo Jameson should never ever have kissed him. He was a certified playboy, a man whore who loved bedding women as much as he loved flying helicopters or fixing engines. A man who was not for inexperienced, prickly little hedgehogs like her, and he should be very, very concerned at this development.
Except he wasn’t concerned.
He was very, very pleased about it instead.
Chapter 5
Indigo sat on the couch in the living area of HQ, her hands clasped tightly in her lap, listening to Levi rattle around in the kitchen getting the tea and scones ready.
Her face was still flaming, her heartbeat racing, and she could hardly breathe through the embarrassment that was threatening to drown her.
She’d kissed him. She’d kissed him. She’d kissed him.
What the hell had she been thinking? Had she gone temporarily insane? Maybe he wasn’t a simple adventure guide. Maybe he was some kind of wizard who’d put a spell on her, making her do things she’d never in a million years ordinarily do.
Things such as kissing a man she actively disliked.
You don’t dislike him, come on. You’d never have kissed him if you truly didn’t like him.
Indigo covered her face with her hands and screamed silently into them.
She’d been standing there innocently asking him what the hell “gumboot” tea was, when he’d come over and stroked his finger between her brows. And there had been something about his touch that had gone through her like lightning. A pulse of the most intense electricity.
All she could think about was his mouth and how it was so close and how beautiful it was. His lower lip was full and soft-looking, and she’d been seized with the most intense curiosity about how it would feel on hers, since she’d never kissed a man before.
His gaze had been warm as he’d looked down at her, those fascinating sparks of wickedness glittering in his eyes.
She’d been dazzled, part of her thinking about what he’d told her earlier after they’d come out of the Rose, of how he’d been in the foster system and then been on the streets. And she’d been shocked. He’d always seemed so…confident and sure of himself in everything he did, so charming and good with people. Not like a man who’d had a very unsettled childhood and maybe even an awful one.
Her own might have been achingly lonely and isolated, but at least she’d had her grandma who’d looked out for her.
It hurt her heart to think of him as a boy, tossed from one home to another without anyone to look out for him or care for him. Why that mattered to her, she had no idea. But it did.
And that painful ache had combined with the attraction into one unholy urge, and before she knew what she was doing, she was rising on her toes and pressing her mouth to his.
Then awareness of what was happening had fallen on her full force, and she’d pulled away, horror-struck and mortified. Only to have his fingers close around her arm, preventing her from bolting like any self-respecting idiot would have done.
More rattling came from the direction of the kitchen, and she lowered her hands and glanced warily at the doorway. But Levi didn’t appear.
God. Why was she still sitting here? She should have wrenched her arm from his grip and shot out the door, but he’d said that they could pretend it never happened, and they did have to talk about her house. She couldn’t let her own embarrassment take precedence over that, so she’d stayed where she was.
But she was second-guessing herself now.
It wouldn’t take a moment to get off the couch and quickly run down the stairs. Then she would be free. Then she’d go and hide in Clint’s farmhouse for the rest of her natural life.
Sure. Great plan. You’ll turn into Grandma before you know it.
Poor Grandma, stuck with Indigo after Indigo’s mom had decided to go to Anchorage with Frank, the pair of them leaving Indigo behind. Tilly had already distrusted him after the affair he’d had while Claire was pregnant and had transferred that hate onto the “outside world.” She only left the homestead to make supply runs every couple of weeks, bringing Indigo up on a diet of fearful stories of the world and the people in it, and how dangerous and terrible it was.
She’d lost a daughter to the outside world, and to keep her granddaughter “safe,” she’d planted that same fear and mistrust deep in Indigo’s psyche. For a long time, Indigo had shared her grandmother’s beliefs, her trust in people already broken by her parents’ abandonment. But that had changed after Tilly had a stroke and was forced to let Indigo go for supplies instead. And after Grandma died, Indigo had realized that she was in danger of becoming a crazy old hermit lady too if she wasn’t careful.
So, she’d taken her courage in both hands and rejoined the outside world, forcing herself into crossing the globe on a thousands-of-miles adventure to a new country and new people in an effort to prove her bravery.
It hadn’t been easy. In fact, it had been more difficult than she could possibly have imagined, but she was here. She’d survived two whole months among strangers, and now she was almost like a normal person.
She couldn’t put all that personal growth aside for one ill-advised kiss.
