“I’ll have to talk it over with your dad, Serena. I blew up just now and that wasn’t fair. We’re all here on a holiday and I don’t think I should be the one to ruin it,” he says softly, brushing my hair back behind my ears like I know he’s been dying to.
“I hated her… told dad she was wrong for you,” is the best I can do, willing myself to tell him more, but weakened under his stare and those strong, warm hands as they comfort me.
Not touching me like I want them to, but holding me in comfort.
Like a family friend would and should.
“Would you rather I died a lonely old bachelor?” he says, making me jump as I feel another familiar feeling.
A thick heat rising up from his front as he presses closer towards me, taking both my hands in his.
I feel my head shaking, my whole body shaking as he commands me again.
“Ask me to tell you my secret,” he says. His voice is deep and smoky. So freaking masculine I feel like I’m gonna burst unless he touches me someplace else.
I try to mouth the words, but my whole mouth feels like paste, I can only make a silly whimpering sound as I watch him lean in closer, his face getting within an inch of mine.
My lips opening for his and my eyes closing.
The sudden, heavy pounding on the cabin door jolts us both apart in a second.
“Carter! Goddammit, Carter open up. Where’s Serena!”
Chapter Six
Carter
I can’t say I’m surprised at the news Greg tried to play cupid, it’s so like him.
But with a complete stranger, and using my details without my permission?
I guess what really surprises me, the guy who hates surprises, is just how mad it makes me because Serena’s here.
Anywhere else I’d brush it off and wag my finger at Greg for being a dick. But here? Right in front of Serena?
It makes me so mad because I guess I still have some foolish hope she’ll fall for an older guy like me, that somehow we could be happy despite her being Greg’s daughter.
Like I said, a fool’s hope and one that frustrates me so much I can’t help but blow my stack when Greg rubs my nose in it at the lunch table.
Even though he doesn’t mean to upset me, he’s only trying to help.
Trying to steer me away from the life of loneliness I know he’s felt since his own wife left all those years ago when Serena was still a baby.
God, how time flies.
I’m in too deep now with my own feelings though.
As soon as I’m alone with Serena, even just for a minute, all I want to do is tell her how I feel. Hold her close to me again.
Consequences be damned.
I almost think she does feel the same way, but she’s probably just upset about seeing me erupt at her dad just now. But I really hope that the feeling she’s broadcasting isn’t just my imagination.
I ask her, pretty much point blank. And before I know it, our mouths are gravitating towards each other.
Until her dad pounding on my door breaks the moment.
Kills it before it even starts.
In a split second, Serena’s leaped halfway across the room and I feel like the dirtiest man alive.
Until I see the pleading look in her eyes.
I should be mad all over again, but I feel more confused than anything until she mouths a single word.
After.
I open the door, and Greg brushes past me, heading straight for Serena and pulling her closer to him.
Something I don’t like, another man’s arms around her, even her own father’s.
So soon after she was just in my own.
My own lips about to-
“What is wrong with us? We’re supposed to be on holiday,” Greg announces, forcing a lighter mood, straining to smile.
“I’m sorry I went behind your back, Carter. Truly I am,” he says honestly, making me realize just how tense I still am as I force my own shoulders to relax as I exhale.
“And I’m sorry to sweetie, for being such an ogre just now. Seeing you want to storm off right after my best friend… well, I guess it hurt me twice to see how silly I’ve been,” he tells Serena, looking more relieved than anything when she returns his squeeze.
If there’s one thing Greg is, it’s honest. He’ll lay all his cards out for you to see so there’s no question in your mind as to what he’s thinking.
It’s why we’re friends after all these years.
Never anything between us.
Until today.
“I’ve asked them to hold our table for lunch, can we try again? Let’s head back and have something to eat, Carter. I think we’re all a bit tired and cold from the trip up. I know Serena skipped breakfast too,” he adds.
Looking at her, I don’t have to think twice. I feel my head nodding and once Greg lifts his free arm up, beckoning me over I embrace him.