Read Online Blackout by Rosalie Stanton - Free Book Online Page A

sunset—”
    “Is it wrong to want to see you again?”
    Her heart swelled, but she knew not to push it. “I just don’t see how anything between us could work when everything up to now has been either misdirection or an outright lie. What sort of functioning relationship comes out of that?”
    “That’s the purpose of dating.”
    Kenzie kept her gaze on the ground. “It just doesn’t work that way.”
    “Actually, it works that way all the time.”
    “Not for us.”
    “Why not?”
    “Because I’m not an idiot.”
    Lennon paused. “Okay. Dunno where that came from, but we’re agreed there.”
    “Do you have any idea what I have on my plate?” she replied. “I have a job to look for, a brother to put through school—”
    “Which is why you’re taking the file.”
    “Would you stop being so freaking noble? It’s wigging me out.”
    “Sorry.”
    It was beyond difficult having a conversation like this without looking at him, and though Kenzie was loathe to abandon his embrace, it had to happen sooner or later. The implied intimacy didn’t do her any good. She scooted away and climbed to her feet, doing her best not to acknowledge her whining muscles or the hurt look on Lennon’s face.
    “This can’t work,” she said, her voice unwavering.
    Lennon stared at her. “Why?” he demanded. “Why can’t we even try?”
    “Because we can’t.”
    “Is this a woman thing I’ll never understand?”
    Kenzie waved an arm. “Look at how we got here! You never said anything to me. I never said anything to you. You got me fired and I broke into your apartment. We haven’t had a single honest moment together.”
    “I think our time here has been honest.”
    “Forced honesty.”
    “And more than that.”
    “It’s been wish fulfillment,” she insisted. “Nothing else. None of this would’ve happened were it not for the power outage, or whatever the hell happened out there. If this hadn’t happened, we would’ve fought and you would’ve had me arrested.”
    “But this did happen,” Lennon fired back, also rising to his feet. “You can’t go around basing whatever it is between us on speculation about what might have been. That isn’t fair.”
    Kenzie held his gaze as long as she could before shifting focus to the elevator’s far left corner. “Look,” she said, “I just can’t do this now.”
    “Why not?”
    “I’ve only been with one other man, and he tore me up.”
    “I’m not going to answer for another man’s crimes.”
    “I’m not asking you to,” she said. “But I am asking you to understand that honesty is important to me.”
    “I think you’d be hard pressed to find anyone for whom honesty isn’t a virtue.”
    “You’re making this hard.”
    “I’m just trying to keep up,” Lennon countered.
    “I don’t regret what happened here, but…does it really have to mean anything? Can’t it just be what it was?” Kenzie looked at him again, but didn’t maintain eye-contact for more than a few seconds. “I’m not asking you to answer for Hunter. You’re a thousand times the man he is. But I’d hope you could at least understand why I might be gun-shy about anything more than…this.”
    There was nothing for a moment. She didn’t look at him and he didn’t respond. How long they remained like that, she didn’t know. When Lennon moved again, it wasn’t toward her, rather to collect the file and the tape she’d left on the floor. He closed the space between them and pressed both items against her chest, at last directing her attention back to his warm, albeit hurt eyes.
    “Take these,” he whispered.
    “I don’t want them.”
    “They’re both yours.”
    “I already told you I won’t be responsible for you losing your job.”
    “Not even for your brother?”
    “No. We’ll find another way for Scott. I can’t walk away knowing whatever I do here affects your career.”
    “It doesn’t. Whatever happens is on me, not you.”
    Kenzie shivered.