Enemy's Secret - Ashlee Price Page 0,43

about Madison, and then it blew up in my face."

"I'm sorry for that. I just wish I understood - "

"This whole time, we haven't really known what this was," Kyra argues. "It's been going in fits and starts. I didn't want you meeting her until I knew for sure."

"For sure what?"

"That it's going to work between us."

Does that mean what I think it does? "And you know now?"

"No, I don't. It just didn't feel right not telling you anymore."

"Thanks for that, I guess. Although I still don't see why you couldn't have just told me all that."

"Yeah, I could've," she says wearily. "But I didn't. OK?"

"OK."

"OK."

Silence.

"I should go," she says.

"So, that's it?" I say.

"Landon, you accused me of cheating on you and basically being a terrible, manipulative person. Sorry, I'm not dying to talk to you right now."

"What about later... in a few days?" I ask.

"Your first instinct was to jump to the conclusion that I've been using you and cheating on you."

"Yeah, I made a mistake, we've established that."

"But what we haven't established is what to do about it," she says. "This all has got me thinking..."

Fuck me.

She better not be getting at what I think she is.

Chapter 16

Kyra

"I can't do this," I tell him. "I can't be with someone who doesn't trust me."

"Really?" he says. "You're really going to hold my reaction against me? Kyra, you dropped a literal bomb on me last night."

I swallow. He's right. I know he's right. But I also know that I can't do this. I can't be fully honest with him like I want to. I can't get my head around this.

It's just too hard.

"Give me a chance," he says, softly now. "To make it up to you."

A sad laugh. "Do you take anything I say seriously?" I ask.

"Only when it's what I want to hear."

Another sad laugh. "Can't you see how messed up that is?"

"Have I made you do anything you didn't want to?"

"No, but - "

"Case closed. I want to be with you, Kyra. That's the long and the short of it. Daughter, no daughter - strings attached or no strings - I want to be with you. Do you want to be with me?"

God, he makes it sound so easy. "It's not as simple as that - "

"Answer the question," he growls.

"Yes," I snap, "I do."

"Then let me come over. Let me meet your daughter."

"I don't know if I'm ready for that."

"Then let me come over. I don't have to stay the night."

How the hell does he do it? From me being convinced that we can't be together to me thinking that maybe there might be a chance...

I can't stay. I need to go, clear my head.

"I have to go," I tell him.

"Kyra."

"I'm sorry."

"Kyra, please - "

"Goodnight."

I hang up the phone. I turn it off and sink into my couch, staring at nothing.

How is it that doing the right thing doesn't feel right anymore?

**

Getting out of bed the next day is a drag. It's a court day today, and I'm dreading it. How am I supposed to stay clear of Landon when he's at the fucking courthouse, looking sexy as hell in his suit du jour?

Whatever. I'll take this opportunity to rip him a new one. See how much he wants to see me after that.

Getting Madison ready for school this morning isn't a walk in the park either. She decided to brush her own hair with a vengeance, with the result that the wire bristle brush got stuck in her hair.

"Sorry Mom," she says, wincing as I work carefully to untangle the thing.

Shit. Not the best morning for this.

"It's OK," I say. "I'll figure this out in no time."

Although I'm not so sure of that.

"Grandma says you're stressed and not to bother you," she says, with a guilty frown.

"Well, Grandma is overdoing it. I have a big case, but that's it."

Heck, I'm lying to my kid now too?

Then again, I'm not about to bemoan my man troubles to my nine-year-old.

"OK," she says. "Ow!"

I wave the newly freed brush triumphantly. "Sorry, but it's out. You ready to go?"

Madison rubs at her head with a glare. "If I have any hair left, yeah."

Of course Madison still has a ton of hair, and I manage to get her to the school and me to the courthouse just in time.

In court, I manage to rip Storm Media a new one - again. There are so many similarities between Storm and Goldtree's planned TV shows that I've lost count. The judge and jurors