Page 67 of Chasing Kaylee Kringle

Both Josie and Rick gave him a baleful look, and he cleared his throat. “Never mind, I’m not here. Again.”

When Colin went back to pretending to browse, Rick shook his head. “I would love to tell her that, but as you can see, she’s not exactly talking to me.”

“Maybe it’s about time to make her talk to you. When you got here, you were all for sleeping on her couch and not giving her a choice. I mean, not giving her a choice in talking to you. Not forcing her to sleep with you. Consent is sexy.”

Rick groaned, running a hand over his face. “What am I supposed to do? Throw her over my shoulder and drag her off somewhere? Tie her up and talk to her until she finally sees things my way?”

Josie had a strange look on her face. “Seriously, you need to walk away and go find her now because you’re literally just listing all my dark romance fantasies.”

“Freak!” Colin mumbled under his breath.

Rick nodded, ignoring Colin. “All right. I’m gonna go find her. If we’re not back in fifteen minutes, will you make sure Colin gets home safely?”

“Yeah,” Josie said, slapping Colin on the back. “Leave the bookworm to me.”

Chapter Thirty-Three

Kaylee

Kaylee fumed in front of the mirror as she washed her hands, scrubbing the soap between her palms more aggressively than necessary. How dare he keep showing up at the places she loved and trying to talk to her? If she wanted to talk to him, she could have tracked him down. Not that she would have, but the man had no qualms at all.

And screw him for smelling so freaking good. When he’d moved in close to take her cup, she’d gotten a whiff of his spicy cologne, and it was uncalled for. She’d already been fantasizing about him, and now his smell was going to haunt her.

She came out of the bathroom and saw Rick standing there waiting for her, and for a split second, her heart jumped excitedly, happily, before she squashed the emotion, pushing it back down into the dark recesses of her stomach where it belonged.

“What do you want?” she asked, ready to duck back into the restroom if she needed to escape him. “Why aren’t you listening to the words that are coming out of my mouth? I do not want to see you or talk to you.”

Rick had the nerve to grin. “See, that’s where we have an issue because I want to see and talk to you.”

“Well, it’s not all about you, King Rick. King Dick, more like it.” She wanted to crow when his smile slipped and his eyes narrowed.

“Maybe I deserve that, but there’s more to all of this, and you need to hear it.”

“I don’t want to.” She tried to step past him, but Rick pushed her back into the bathroom and locked the door. He stood in front of it like a sentinel, crossing his arms over his chest.

“Well, now you have to talk to me because I’m not letting you out of here until you do.”

“For a federal agent, you commit a lot of crimes, do you know that? Trespassing. Kidnapping.”

“I’m not kidnapping you.”

“False imprisonment.”

“This isn’t getting us anywhere.” He took a deep breath, as if centering himself, and continued, “I am sorry that I didn’t disclose I was here on vacation and not in an official capacity. I am sorry that you thought I was just here for revenge, because that’s not the case. I came here because once I found out where you were, I was afraid that others would figure it out, too. Above everything else, even the case, I wanted to keep you safe. I didn’t tell my captain or anyone else because I didn’t know if someone might leak your location, and I wanted to protect you. Lastly, I wanted to close this case so I can move on, because I don’t want to spend years hunting the same group of killers I know are guilty but can’t prove it.”

Kaylee wanted it all to be true, to believe he’d come down here not just to convince her to testify, but so that he could keep her safe. However, there had been several opportunities for him to come clean or even share some of the truth, especially before they’d slept together, and he chose not to.

“Really? Not a single ounce of you had satisfaction in tracking me down in hopes of getting me back for making you shit your pants?”

Rick grimaced. “Was there a moment of satisfaction when I caught you outside the coffee shop? Yes, but I would never hurt you, and I would never let anyone else hurt you.”

“So you keep saying, and yet you lied to me, and then you slept with me.”

“That was not my intention. I honestly didn’t think it was that big a deal, and I had no idea you would take it as me trying to seek revenge against you.”

“You came down here of your own free will once you saw me on that stupid show, and you can say it was to protect me or whatever, but how can I believe that? How can I believe that when the feds don’t even need me, and they are building their own case without my involvement? You basically came down here and made everything more complicated for me. You know I have to lie to my friends, I have to lie to the people who have been kind to me— You made me like you.”

His expression brightened. “I did?”