The Heart That's Meant to Love You

Chapter 79: Honesty

Naomi knew she shouldn't have let Kieran take her home, but she cherished any time he spent with her nowadays. She hadn't realized, a few short months ago, that she would miss him if he left her behind. Maybe absence really did make the heart grow fonder.

Or, perhaps, she would fully regret allowing him to put her in the backseat of his vehicle.

Donovan's presence could be a blessing or a curse, depending on the situation. From what Naomi had figured out about Donovan, he worked for Kieran and was always on Kieran's side. But Kieran had often told him to protect Naomi. She didn't fear Donovan, but she questioned what he would do.

As for Kieran, he hadn't said a word since he climbed into the passenger seat. If that meant that he didn't yell at her anymore, Naomi didn't mind, but she wished she could hear his voice. Or that he would comfort her after what she had been through. No one ever comforted her. Did they think she could live without kind words?

Naomi refused to let the tears roll, though they desperately wanted to escape.

The vehicle rolled to a stop in the parking lot below the Rowes' condominium. The trip had taken too little time and had brought them to a place that Naomi had been trying to escape. Would her destiny always lead her back into the clutches of her overbearing mother?

Kieran jumped out of the car and opened Naomi's door, a little more gently than he had shut it earlier. Maybe some of that anger had disappeared, after all.

"Get out," Kieran instructed.

Naomi didn't like the tone he had been using. It riled up something inside her that had been dislodged by the insult of the thieves.

Naomi crossed her arms and raised her eyebrows. "What if I don't want to?"

She could have sworn she saw a grin cross Kieran's lips, but it was gone before she could be sure.

Kieran leveled that dark stare at her, more menacing than he had ever been before. "You want me to make you?"

"If I get out of this vehicle, you're going to leave without another word." Naomi stifled her sigh before it could slip out. "Don't."

"Don't? Don't do what?"

"Don't leave me again." The words were raw and true and completely honest. Naomi had never said such heartfelt words before. It might have been the first time she showed her heart in front of anyone.

Kieran's tongue ran along the inside of his cheek, as if he had lost his patience. The night had been full of firsts for Naomi, including the first time she saw Kieran so unnerved.

As swiftly as he had earlier on the road, Kieran hoisted Naomi into his arms, princess-style. Only, this time, Naomi protested.

Naomi kicked her aching legs once, then settled on beating a hand against Kieran's chest. "Put me down! I don't want you to leave yet!"

"Stop throwing a tantrum like a toddler!" Kieran threw back, his voice just as loud as Naomi's.

The sheer shock of the fact that Kieran had yelled at her stopped Naomi's fight. Kieran had always been flirty, sometimes agitated, but he had never yelled at her. His yelling didn't frighten her like her mother's did. And the scary part was, she acknowledged that he had point. That he was right.

"I'm not leaving yet," Kieran added in a voice much softer and gentler. He kicked the car door closed and hauled Naomi to the front door of the complex.

There, he set her on her feet.

Naomi wobbled, finding the balance between her good leg and her hurt one. She would be up all night practicing how to walk normally while in pain, just so her mother didn't find out in the morning.

"Go home, Naomi. Back to your perfect little life." Kieran shoved his hands in his pockets, the perfect picture of nonchalance.

"Nothing's perfect anymore," Naomi confessed. "I'm a caged bird who has felt the wind in her feathers. I can't go back to the cage. I'll die."

Kieran blinked, as if he had never thought of that before. Or, maybe, he got lost in the metaphor. Either way, those dangerously dark eyes turned steel when he looked at her.

"You think that robbery was an accident?" Kieran shook his head. "I told you, it's dangerous there."

"And I pointed out that you live there, so it's fine."

"I told you that I approached you for your money and as a plaything. Why can't you just walk away now? Why are you making my life so difficult? Hate me, already!"

Naomi blinked, swallowed, and took a shaky breath. Her already sensitive anger roared in her head, demanding she say what she really felt despite the consequences.

"Apologize," Naomi demanded.

Kieran didn't move, that emotionless expression still stuck on his face. "Why?"

"Apologize," Naomi reiterated.

"And I asked, for what? For tricking you? For playing you?"

"For insulting yourself."

That broke the steely expression, for a millisecond before Kieran returned to the icy demeanor he had adopted. "What?"

"You keep pointing out that you approached me on purpose. Fine. It is what it is." Naomi leveled her own glare at the man before her, as frightening as his. "But don't ever ask me to hate you. If you really knew yourself, and didn't look down on the man you are, you would know that it isn't possible for me to hate you. You're annoyingly lovable."

For the first time, Naomi left first. Turned on her heel, punched in the access code, and limped through the door. Because she knew she had won the argument. She knew the point she made was right. And she wanted Kieran to think about it every waking moment from then on out.

So she didn't look back. Naomi pressed on. What Kieran did with the information she threw at him, she may never know. But she couldn't let him think that she didn't love him.

Because deep down, irrevocably, Naomi had admitted to herself that she had fallen in love with a man named Kieran Colburn.