DOUBLE THE TROUBLE Read online

  “Oh, I don’t intend to argue.” Colt glanced at Penny and watched as sparks glinted in her eyes. “I’m just going to tell her how things are going to be.”

  “That I’d like to see,” Robert murmured.

  “Maybe I’ll sell tickets.”

  “If you two are quite finished,” Penny announced.

  “Not even close,” Colt told her.

  “Not my problem anymore,” Robert said, lifting both hands in gratitude at being able to hand off the responsibility of worrying about his sister. He looked at Colt. “Good luck.”

  “Not necessary.” Colt didn’t need luck. All he needed was a cold shower and then a chance to settle a few things with the mother of his children.

  “Seriously?” Penny tried to get up off the couch, but Colt dropped one hand onto her shoulder to hold her in place.

  “Don’t move from that spot.”

  “You are not in charge here,” she argued.

  “Wanna bet?”

  He met her gaze and stared, waiting for her to back off first. In a contest of wills, Penny wouldn’t stand a chance. She could be as stubborn as she liked, but she hadn’t been raised a King. In the King family, everyone wanted to be right. And no one ever backed down. So if she thought she could best him in a staring contest, she couldn’t be more wrong.

  Took a few seconds, but eventually, she shifted her gaze from his and slumped back into the floral cushions, muttering a steady stream of words he was probably better off not hearing. A reluctant smile twitched his lips. He had to admire her fighting spirit—even though she had no hope of winning.

  A pretty, dark-haired woman with big brown eyes walked into the room, passed Robert and Colt, then took a seat on the coffee table in front of Penny. Reaching out, she took Penny’s hands in hers and squeezed. “The twins are fine. They’re sound asleep and since it was so late in the afternoon, we fed them their dinner, too. I know it’s a little early, but with any luck, they’ll sleep the night through and give you some rest.”

  “Thanks, Maria. I really appreciate you stepping in to help.”

  “We both appreciate it,” Colton said.

  Finally, the woman lifted her gaze to his and there was no warmth in her eyes. She looked him up and down and Colt had the distinct impression she was less than impressed. He almost smiled again. He admired loyalty, too.

  “Of course we helped,” she said coolly. “Penny had no one else.”

  “Maria...” Robert gave a sigh.

  Colt shook his head and waved one hand, dismissing Robert’s objection. Now he knew two new things about Penny. Her little brother was willing to use his fists to defend her, and her friend Maria was Penny’s staunch ally. Still, all three of them had better get used to how things were going to be. “Now she does have someone else.”

  “We’ll see, won’t we?” Maria turned her gaze back to Penny and said, “If you need anything, just call. Honestly, I can be over in minutes.”

  Penny laughed a little. “I will. Promise.”

  “Good.” Nodding abruptly, Maria leaned forward, kissed Penny’s cheek and said, “We’ll go now. I’m sure you two have plenty to talk about.”

  “Oh, you don’t have to leave so soon.”

  “Yeah, they do,” Colt argued, and Penny shot him a hard glare. Didn’t bode well for their “discussion” but that wouldn’t have gone well in any case, he assured himself.

  “Okay then,” Robert announced and took Maria’s hand in his, drawing her up from her perch on the edge of the table. “Remember, if you need something, call.”

  Then it was just the two of them. Colton didn’t even know where to begin. There was a lot he wanted to know and even more he needed to know—things like why bother buying and using condoms if they clearly didn’t work? An existential question he’d have to explore more completely later. There were plenty of other things he wanted to know, though.

  But at the moment, damned if he could think of a thing to say. Instead, he stared down at the woman he’d married and divorced within the span of a week and tried not to notice just how blasted vulnerable she looked. Hard to have the kind of argument that was waiting for them when the woman was just out of the hospital.

  Hospital.

  That word conjured up old mental images that threatened to choke him. He had promised to be there in Penny’s room that morning, but hadn’t been able to do it. Couldn’t force himself to walk back into that building. Into a place so filled with the scent of fear and misery, so thick with memories that Colt felt them surrounding him, burying him. Even now, his mind was opening the door to the darkness that hid deep within his past. Shadows rushed out and spilled through his body like black paint, covering everything in its path.

  Shaken right down to the bone, Colt reached out blindly and grabbed hold of the anger that was his salvation. If he could just focus on the situation facing him now and shut down the past, he’d get through this. As he’d done so many times before.

  “Are you okay?”

  “What?” He surfaced from the tangled thoughts in his mind like a surfer trying to breathe through sea foam. “What? Oh. Yeah. I’m fine.”

  She didn’t look convinced, but that didn’t bother him. The real problem here was that he was still drawn to her. Still felt that nearly magnetic pull that he’d felt so long ago. What was it about her, he asked himself, that tugged at everything inside him? And why the hell couldn’t he get rid of it?

  Trying to avoid looking at Penny, he glanced around the small beach cottage and really noticed it for the first time.

  The rooms were small and painted a soft yellow that looked as though sunbeams lived in the walls. An old, stone-faced fireplace stood along one side of the room, with built-in bookcases on either side.

  A painting of the sea hung on the wall above the hearth, and around the room, old but comfortable-looking furniture sprawled, inviting people to come in and take it easy. Reading lamps sat on the end tables and there was a huge plastic tub filled with toys beneath the front window.

  Off the living room was a hall that probably led to the bedrooms and a dining room with a door beyond that was undoubtedly hiding the kitchen. It was a typical cottage, no doubt built in the forties for long weekends at the beach. The rooms were small, the yard tiny and if you had claustrophobia you wouldn’t last out the weekend. But there were charms in these old neighborhoods, too. Close to the beach, on a quiet night, you could hear the surf. Decades-old trees lined the streets and their roots caused sidewalks to ripple like waves. And any time the city tried to pull down the trees to make the sidewalks even, the neighborhoods came out in full fight mode.

  Places like this never changed.

  “You hungry?” he asked suddenly, to break the silence.

  “I’ll make something in a minute,” she said and eased back into the cushions of the couch.

  “I’ll make it.” When she looked at him in surprise, he almost laughed. He’d been on his own for a long time and though he had a housekeeper, he’d never bothered to hire a cook. Hell, he wasn’t home often enough to justify it. “I’m not completely helpless in the kitchen.”

  “That’s not what you said—” Her voice trailed away.

  “What?”

  She shook her head and stared up at the ceiling. Old, smoke-stained beams divided the cream-colored plaster. “That week we were together, you told me that you and your twin once set fire to your aunt’s kitchen when you were trying to make French toast.”

  He frowned to himself. He didn’t remember telling her that, and knowing that he obviously had told her confused the hell out of him. Colt didn’t usually share much of himself with women—hell, with anyone. He didn’t want the closeness and didn’t crave what women always seemed to enjoy—the baring of souls. Who the hell wanted a naked soul?

  He gave her a ti
ght smile. “Been a long time since the fire in the kitchen. I’m not bad with chicken or pasta, though I’m the first to admit I’m not a chef. But I make great phone calls for takeout.”

  She laughed a little, then winced, and Colt felt a twinge in response. But when she spoke, all sympathy for her drained away.

  “Look, Colt, I know we have to talk but I’m just too tired to deal with you tonight.” She sighed a little. “Why don’t you go home and we’ll talk in a day or two?”

  “Go home?” He repeated it because he couldn’t believe she would even suggest it. He was here now and he wasn’t leaving. Not yet, anyway. “And who takes care of the twins while you sit here on the couch and chew at your lip?”

  She stopped that instantly and fired a look at him. “I can manage. I always do.”

  “No,” he corrected. “You always have in the past. Now that’s not an option.”

  “You’re not in charge here, Colt.”

  “Check again.” He walked closer to her and gave her a glare designed to intimidate. From what he could tell, it didn’t work. “Damn it, Penny, as mad as I am at you right now, I’d almost be willing to do just what you said and leave you here on your own just so you could see what a stupid decision that would be—”

  “Bye then.”

  “I said almost.” Sinking to his heels beside the couch, he met her eyes and said, “As much as you hate the idea, you need me. Damn it, I had to carry you into the house.”

  “I could have walked.”

  “What is bothering you the most?” he asked. “Needing help? Or needing me?”

  “You’re wrong, Colt,” she said. “I don’t need you. Okay, maybe I need some help, but I don’t need you.”

  “Tough.” He straightened up again, looming over her and forcing her to keep her head tipped back just to meet his eyes.

  “’Cause you’ve got me. Until we get this whole mess straightened out, I’m not going anywhere.”

  She huffed out an impatient breath. “Don’t you have a mountain to climb? A building to jump off of?”

  For one split second, thoughts of Mount Etna and his Sicilian trip floated through his mind. Then he let it go. “There’s plenty of time for that. Right now, you’re the only adventure in my future.”

  “Swell.” She leaned forward, braced one hand on the arm of the couch and hissed in a breath.

  “What’re you doing?”

  She flashed him a look of pure irritation. “I’m going to check on the twins. Then change clothes. Put on something a little less constricting than my jeans.”

  Frankly, he preferred her in something more constricting. Like a suit of armor with a chastity belt. That would be good. But since that wasn’t going to happen, he took a breath and got a grip on his rampaging thoughts. What he had to do here was focus on his anger, he told himself firmly. Just remember that she’d lied to him. Hidden his children from him. That should take care of the raging need clawing at him.

  “All right, let’s go.”

  She paused and looked up at him. “I can do it myself.”

  “Sure you can. You’re a superhero.” He drew her to her feet. “So do me a favor. Stop fighting this so hard. Pretend to need my help. Make me feel manly.”

  She snorted a laugh. “Like you need help with that.”

  “I think that was a compliment,” he said, following her toward the hall and presumably, her bedroom.

  “You don’t need a compliment, either.”

  “Harsh,” he said, amused in spite of the conversation. Walking behind her, his gaze dropped to the curve of her behind, defined by the worn, faded denim that clung to her body like a second skin. His body stirred again and he gritted his teeth.

  She walked slowly and he could sense the pain that accompanied every movement. Didn’t seem to stop the sexual thoughts dancing through his mind. But a part of him admired her steely determination to keep going in spite of whatever pain was gnawing on her. She refused to surrender to it. Refused to give in to what had to be an urge to curl up somewhere and whimper.

  Hell, she was stronger than him. When he broke his leg off the coast of Monaco in a car wreck during a race, Colt had bitched about the pain to anyone who would listen.

  Even Connor had lost all patience with him by the time his leg had finally healed. But in his defense, Colt thought, he wasn’t the kind of guy to be content sitting in a damn chair and watching TV. He needed to be moving. Doing. Chasing risk and searching for that next shot of adrenaline. Life was too short to not try to wring every last drop of pleasure out of it.

  Too damn short. Those three words rippled through his mind, dragging up the past from the shadows where he’d hidden it. Smothering a tight groan, Colt shoved that past back down again, refusing to acknowledge it. Refusing to even look at it.

  The past was done. What counted was now.

  Of course, the past was what had brought him here, to this house, today.

  He watched her quietly approach a closed door off the hallway and carefully turn the knob, making no sound as she stepped inside. Colt hesitated, knowing that his children were in there. Emotions choked him as she turned to look at him, a quizzical look on her face.

  Colt knew she was expecting him to follow her in and see the twins as they slept. But he wasn’t interested in seeing his kids for the first time while in front of an audience. He could wait a bit longer to see the babies who had brought him here. And he’d do it in his own time.

  Hell, he realized with a start, he was actually nervous. He couldn’t even remember the last time he’d felt the skitter of nerves racking his body. Colt had faced down volcanoes, killer surf, parachutes that didn’t open and broken skis on the steep face of a so-called un-skiable mountain. Yet the thought of meeting his children for the first time had him backing away from an open doorway as if it were a gateway to some black, dangerous pit.

  So he waited while she fiddled with blankets and murmured soft sounds of comfort and love. He was finding it hard to breathe past a knot of sensation that he recognized as it grew inside him. This wasn’t nerves. This was a familiar, buzzing feeling settling into the pit of his stomach. He felt it every time he stood at the tip of a mountain, jumped off a cliff, rode forty-foot surf. It was that surge of adrenaline that let him know he was alive. That he was about to risk it all. About to put his life on the line and either change it—or end it.

  He didn’t care which.

  “Colt?”

  She was back in the hall, with the babies’ door closed, and she was looking at him. He stared down into those green eyes he’d never really been able to forget. “What?”

  “I just thought you’d want to see the twins...”

  “I do,” he assured her, getting a tight rein on the runaway sensations pouring through him. “Later.”

  “Okay then.” She walked past him slowly, heading to the end of the hall and another closed door. Looking back at him over her shoulder, she reluctantly acknowledged, “You were right before. I think I will need your help getting out of these clothes.”

  In different circumstances, getting her undressed would have been Colt’s highest priority. But things were different now. They weren’t lovers. They were...what? Enemies? Maybe. Sure weren’t friends. Exes with children. He looked at Penny and saw misery in her eyes and it wasn’t hard to identify the reason. Couldn’t have been easy for her to admit to him that she needed help. Especially from him. Right now, things between them were strained so tight, the tension in the air between them flavored every breath.

  And it wasn’t only the situation with the twins that had them each walking a fine line. It was the sexual chemistry still buzzing between them. But chemistry didn’t have to be acted on, did it? Nodding, he said, “Fine.”

  His brain was busy, racing with too many thoughts to sort out, and that was just a
s well. If he kept his anger burning, he’d be able to ignore the rush of desire already pulsing inside him.

  He followed Penny into her bedroom and took a second or two to look around. A full-size bed on one wall, bedside tables and a tall dresser. There were framed photos on the walls—hers, he was willing to bet—of the beach, parks and two smiling babies.

  They were beautiful. Both of them. His heart gave an unexpected leap that staggered him. His children. Yes, he’d get a paternity test, but just looking at those two faces caught forever and trapped behind glass, he knew they were his. They looked like him. They each had the King black hair and blue eyes and he could see his own features replicated in miniature.

  “They look like you,” she said softly.

  His throat squeezed shut and he could hear his own heartbeat hammering in his ears. He kept his gaze fixed on the photos. It seemed he was going to be seeing his children for the first time in front of an audience after all. “When did you take the pictures?”

  “Two weeks ago,” she said. “We went to the park, which is why Reid has sand on his face. He tries to eat everything he finds.”

  A tight smile curved Colt’s mouth as he looked at his son’s mischievous face. There was a sparkle in the tiny boy’s eyes that promised trouble. And his sister had that same flash of something special about her, Colt thought. His children. And he didn’t know them. Had never heard them. Had never held them. His heart took another leap and he forced himself to turn from the framed photos to the woman sitting on the edge of the bed.

  “You cheated me, Penny,” he ground out tightly as a fresh surge of anger washed over him. “Nobody cheats a King and gets away with it.”

  Four

  “Cheated you?” she countered, green eyes glittering. “You walked away, Colt. You cheated yourself. Out of the kids, out of what we could have had.”

  Shaking his head, he took a step back from her and tried to keep his voice down in spite of the raging fury inside him. Seeing his kids there on her wall, realizing just how much of their lives he’d already missed, had stoked the fire of his anger until it felt as if he were being consumed.