“Please don’t give me a heart attack like that again.” He shook his head. “Hanging from a tree. Only you, Ally.”
She glanced up at him, arched up and brushed her lips across his smooth jawline. Her lips fully appreciated his taut skin under them, and if Birch’s quick intake of breath and tightening of his arms around her meant anything, he’d liked it too.
“Careful,” she warned, “confiding that you were worried about me, I might think you actually care.”
“Actually care?” Birch framed her face with both hands and groaned, “Oh, Ally, that’s the problem. I care about you far too much.”
She barely had time to process those delicious, stunning words when his dark gaze grew deep and beautiful and then his mouth captured hers. She’d been dead on about how he would kiss her: firm, strong, in command, and completely tantalizing and all-consuming. She let his mouth take charge of her world and simply enjoyed responding to and drawing out a first kiss that no kiss had ever competed with.
Wanting him closer still, she dug her fingers into his back. The slight movement caused a shot of pain to radiate from her shoulder muscles. She winced and immediately Birch drew back as if in tune to her every nuance.
“What’s wrong? Ally?” He glanced over her searchingly.
“I wrenched my shoulder, it’s fine.” She hated that they’d interrupted that kiss. “Nothing worth stopping that kiss for.”
Birch smiled and gave her a soft kiss on the lips but drew back. “That kiss was incredible but we’d better make sure you’re all right.”
“I’ll be fine, probably just pulled a muscle in my shoulder.”
He released her and wrapped his arm around her waist from the right side. “Let’s get you home and we’ll look at it.”
“Okay,” she conceded. Home. She liked the sound of being home with Birch. Had her semi-fall from the tree broken through his wall? They’d shared that incredible kiss but she worried he’d back away again. Their relationship so far was a vicious yo-yo but maybe this was the break through she’d been hoping for.
* * *
Birch let Allison out of his sight so she could take a bath because that’s what she claimed she needed, but he was anxious about her shoulder and even more anxious about not being close to her. This morning had left him panicked about her safety and possessive of her. He didn’t know that he could disregard Blade’s deathbed injunction and let a gorgeous actress into his heart. Yet some part of him thought Blade would support him. Allison wasn’t like his mother, sister, Amelia, Bermuda, or any of the other actresses he’d known. Allison was genuine, beautiful inside and out, she was his Allison and he was going to take good care of her and get to know her better. Surely his brother would understand that? He hoped. Surely Allison wasn’t toying with him? He hoped.
A sudden, vicious memory hit him. He’d been a teenager and at odds with his mother over wanting to go surfing with some friends rather than sit through one more lesson on polite speech. As he’d been moodily eating breakfast, watching the perfect waves out the window, he’d heard a horrific crash. Turning, he’d seen his mother lying at the bottom of the stairs in a heap. He’d been terrified that she was dead and felt a rush of guilt for fighting with her. Running to her, she had tears streaking her perfect makeup but had reassured him she didn’t need an ambulance.
He’d helped her up and to the couch, supporting her as her ankle was “throbbing”. Birch had taken good care of her that morning and done his speech lessons without complaint. He’d actually thought for one brief, crazy moment that they were connecting as he watched over her. Even as a teenager he’d naturally wanted to protect and help others and he liked that his mother was allowing him to be there for her. Later that day he’d overheard her telling his sister, Divine, what a “class A acting job” she’d done on Birch and how obedient and sweet he was being because he thought she was hurt.
Birch had been ticked and confronted them. Without a smidgeon of regret or embarrassment his mother and Divine had both laughed in his face. His mother had told him to grow up, that being lied to by an accomplished actress was “just life” and he needed to get used to it.
He passed a hand over his face as he leaned against the hallway wall and waited for Allison. Could that beautiful woman have orchestrated her fall in the tree? It would be a smart ploy to break through his barriers. No. He couldn’t think like that. Allison wasn’t like his mother. She couldn’t be. Even with his brother’s warning in his head he was falling for Allison far too fast.
When she came out of her room, he straightened away from the hallway wall and she gave him a huge grin. Her hair was still damp and trailing down her back and she looked glorious in a loose white dress that revealed her luscious tanned neck and collarbone.
“Waiting for me?” she asked.
He nodded.
“Just can’t get enough?”
He nodded again.
Allison gave a throaty chuckle that proved his undoing. He crossed the short space between them and grasped her firm waist with both hands, his mouth coming down on hers. He was in trouble, deep trouble, and it had never felt so good.
Allison’s hands moved up his arms and he quivered from her warm touch, but then he felt her jerk slightly and her mouth trembled under his. He would’ve thought she was simply invested in the kiss but she was hurting. He knew it.
He forced himself to stop kissing her and escort her down the stairs to the kitchen.
“What are you thinking?” she asked as they walked into the daylit living area.
“I’m thinking I need to look at that shoulder and probably get you in for some x-rays and MRIs.”
She shook her head shortly as he sat her on a barstool. “No … what are you thinking about … us?”
Birch’s stomach pitched, part happiness and part nerves. What did he say that would show her he cared, was invested in her, but he had to take this slow and somehow reconcile a relationship with an actress against what he’d promised his brother? He was in a wickedly dangerous spot, hanging on a thousand-foot cliff with no safety ropes or harness, but the view was incredible.