Page 50 of Inked Temptation
I let out a slow breath. “Yeah. He’s that, I think.”
“So, what happened?”
“Anyway, I’m enjoying the work. I love the house. It’s calling to me, you know?”
“You’ve always been good at more than just plumbing,” my dad put in.
My hackles rose as everyone stared at my father, narrowing their gazes.
Dad held up his hands. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have added the wordjustthere. What I meant was you can do so many things. You’re a master plumber, and you have your contracting license because you’re talented. You could do any job at Montgomery Builders.”
Lee snorted. “Probably not Paige’s.”
“I would be great at Paige’s. I’m a people person.”
“You are not a spreadsheet person, though,” Lee countered.
I winced. “True. Thanks, Dad. Seriously, a compliment like that means the world to me, I promise you. But each of us is in the jobs that we should be in. I’m just having fun doing additional things with this house.”
“And I like the fact that you come to us with any questions you have,” Beckett put in.
“Because we all do that. We have our assigned roles and teams, but we also pitch in when needed. The fact that you’re doing this as sort of a Montgomery Builders’ branch right now is fucking amazing.” There was a light in Beckett’s eyes at that, and it stirred something within me, but I didn’t have time to think about it then. Maybe later. I would hope later.
“Before I derailed us with the talk of work…” my dad put in. “What happened, son?”
I took another drink of my beer and set the glass down on a coaster. Annabelle would hate it if we left rings on her hardwood table.
“We fight a lot.” I looked up at the other guys and held up my hands. “Not in that way. Not rudely. It’s just…we butt heads and he makes me say things that I don’t mean to out loud.”
I laughed at the end of my sentence, and the twins shared a look while Lee and Jacob did the same. My dad just stared at me, his gaze intent. So I continued. “He told me why he’s on the mountain.” I let out a breath. “It’s not my story to tell. Just know that it was utterly horrific, and I don’t even know how he’s still standing. And somehow, he trusted me with a part of him that I don’t think he trusted with anyone else.”
“That’s something,” Dad whispered.
“Maybe. Or it was. I don’t want to get into too many details,” I hedged, even though I had a feeling everyone in this room knew exactly where I was going with this. “However, one thing led to another, and I made a mistake.”
Humiliation settled over me. The men in front of me might be my family, they also didn’t judge me. I would forever be grateful for them.
“Did he hurt you?” Beckett whispered, leaning forward.
“You already asked that question.”
“And we are asking again,” Benjamin said.
“Not in the way you’re thinking. It didn’t work out. He wasn’t ready, and frankly, I don’t know if I am either.” I let out a breath and looked down at my hands. The hands that had been over Killian’s, the hands that had touched him. And the hands that had pushed away as Killian had fought for breath. “Either way, it was a mistake, and now I have to work on the mountain and avoid him, which I’m not very good at doing. He just wasn’t ready. And I feel like I pushed him.”
There, that was the truth. What hurt me the most. Not that Killian had pulled away before I had been able to, but that I had pushed at all.
“From what I know from the few times we’ve spoken, Killian doesn’t seem like a man who would do something he didn’t want to,” Beckett put in slowly.
I shook my head. “He wasn’t ready.”
“Okay then, then find a way to make it up to him,” Jacob put in.
I shook my head. “I think the best way for me to do that is by avoiding him completely and pretending that it never happened,” I said quickly.
My dad let out a rough breath. “I think this is the first time any of you have ever come to me, or even allowed me in the room when you’ve had this kind of conversation,” he said, the tips of his ears reddening. It was the same thing that happened to me just then, and it just reminded me of the fact that I was talking about sex without talking about sex with my father in the room.
I was losing my mind.
