Unsuitable

Sheets are tangled around my legs. My mouth feels like the inside of a toilet. And my head is kicking a steady beat.

Groaning, I force my sticky eyes open. After a few blinks to clear them, my stare is met with a ceiling that doesn’t look like mine.

It’s not my ceiling.

Sharply turning my head, ignoring the pain it causes, I see that I’m not in my bedroom. It looks familiar, but I’m not sure…

Where in the hell am I?

I quickly sit up, my head going woozy. I press my hand to my head as panic makes my heart beat hard. Then, I realize that the bed I’m sitting in is the bed in one of the guest rooms at the Matis Estate.

What the hell am I doing here?

And then it all comes flooding back to me, like a bad movie.

Ah…fuck.

I saw Jesse yesterday, and he told me that he hated me. I press the heel of my hand to my chest, pushing against the pain that pierces it.

After Jesse, I found my way into a bar.

Got drunk. Cute Bartender. Drunk-dialing Kas. Him coming to the bar to get me. Putting me in his car. Falling asleep…

Why did he bring me here? Why didn’t he take me home? What time is it?

My eyes swing to the clock on the nightstand, catching on a glass of water sitting by it.

Seven thirty a.m.

As in, seven thirty a.m. on Sunday morning?

Shit!

Cece!

She’ll be worried sick. I didn’t call her, like I said I would, and I was out all night.

Ripping the bedsheet off me, I jump out of bed, looking for my bag, but it’s nowhere to be seen.

But I do see my dress from yesterday hanging over the back of the chair at the dressing table, and my shoes are on the floor by it.

I glance down at myself to find that I’m wearing a black Kasabian T-shirt that hits the backs of my thighs.

It must be Kas’s T-shirt.

That means he…

Oh dear God.

He undressed me and changed my clothes. I still have my bra and knickers on.

Thank God.

I yank the T-shirt off, getting a lungful of Kas’s scent as it passes over my face. I grab my dress and pull it on. Then, I quickly make the bed.

I grab the glass of water and down it. Taking the glass with me, I grab my shoes and the T-shirt, so I can put it in the laundry.

I let myself out of the bedroom and into the quiet hall.

Heart thumping, clutching my shoes and Kas’s T-shirt to my chest, I make my way downstairs.

I glance at his office door, which is closed.

I have to talk to Kas. First, to thank him for looking out for me. Then, to ask if I still have a job. And, if I don’t, then beg him to give me my job back.

I’m not averse to begging in this instance.

I’ve screwed up so bad.

It won’t look good for me if Toby finds out that I’ve been sacked for getting drunk and behaving like a complete idiot.

And it will look even worse to Anne. It could set me even further back with Jesse.

Not that Jesse and I could get any further back. He wants nothing to do with me.

But I need to prove to him that I’m here to stay. And here to stay means, I need this job.

Taking a deep breath, I head for the kitchen to put the T-shirt in the laundry basket. Then, I’ll go to his office and face the Kas-wrath.

I push open the kitchen door, and my heart falls out of my chest when I see Kas sitting at the kitchen table, staring down at his phone, an empty plate and a cup sitting in front of him.

He’s wearing jeans and a fitted T-shirt that shows off the lines of his body. His hair is a little messier than usual, one side tucked behind his ear.

He looks good. But then he always looks good. I hate that.

His eyes lift from his phone to me.

His look cuts right through me.

“Hey,” I say, swallowing past my nerves.

“Hi.” There’s no tone to his response, giving me nothing as to what he’s thinking.

I move slowly toward him through the kitchen. His eyes stay trained on me the whole time.

I slip into the seat across from him. I put the empty glass on the table, my shoes on the floor next to me, and hold his T-shirt in my lap.

I don’t really know where to start, what to go with. My eyes drift around the room and then hook onto my bag, which is sitting on the counter.

I really need to ring Cece, but I need to speak to him first.

But he beats me to it. “Your phone kept ringing and ringing. I didn’t want to wake you. I figured it must be important, whoever was calling, so I answered it for you. It was your friend, Cece. She was worried that she hadn’t heard from you. I told her that you were here, you were safe, and you’d be home in the morning.”

He spoke to Cece. Oh my God.

Well, at least she wasn’t left worrying about me all night. But that is going to be one hell of an interesting conversation I’ll have with her later.

“Thank you,” I say. Then, I can’t help but ask, “Why didn’t you take me home?”

He pins me with a stare that has me squirming in my chair. “Because I didn’t know where you lived. You passed out before telling me.”

“My address is on your employee records,” I challenge.

“Which are here.”

Oh. Yeah.

“How did I get to bed?”

He gives me a look that clearly states he thinks I’m dumb. “I carried you.”

“I was that out of it, huh?”

“Yeah. I don’t think a bomb going off would’ve woken you up.”

“Sorry.”

“Don’t be. It was funny, listening to you snore.”

“I don’t snore!” I say, aghast.

His lips curl up into a stunning smile, and he laughs.

A memory of me telling him yesterday that he had a beautiful laugh and that he should laugh more slips into my mind.

“Do I really snore?” I ask him.

He grins and nods. “Like a pig.”

I like that he’s smiling, so I don’t fight him on it. “Must’ve been the alcohol because I don’t snore normally.”

“Hmm…yeah, must’ve been.”

I can hear the laughter in his voice. It makes my heart swell.

I curl my fingers around his T-shirt and then remember waking up in it.

My face flushes. “Did you, um…” I bite my lip. “Undress me?” I wince on the words.

There’s a long silence.

I peek up through my lashes at him.

And I would be lying if I said that I didn’t see the flash of heat in his eyes. Or that I wasn’t affected by that flash of heat.

“I thought you’d be more comfortable in my T-shirt. But don’t worry, Daisy. I was the perfect gentleman. I barely looked at all.”

“But you did look a little.”

Oh my God. Did I actually just say that?

I want to die in my seat, but I force myself to hold steady and keep his gaze.

Kas’s expression doesn’t falter. Not even a flicker.

Then, his lip curls a little at the corner.

I’d like to say that I’m unaffected by that as well, but I’m totally not.

I’m squirming, and I’m hot in places that haven’t been hot in a very long time.

“Well, thank you for taking care of me,” I manage to say. “And for the loan of the T-shirt. I’ll wash it.”

He lifts a shoulder in a half-shrug. “Would you like some coffee? Something to eat?” he offers as he gets up from his seat, taking his plate and cup along with my empty water glass.

I nearly fall off my chair in shock. “Um…coffee would be great. Thank you.”

I watch him pour us each a coffee. Then, he adds milk to mine. I didn’t even realize that he knew how I took my coffee.

He puts my drink down in front of me and then sits back in his seat across from me, holding his drink in his hand. “You should eat something. I’m guessing you have the hangover from hell?”

I watch him take a sip of his coffee.

“I’ve felt better.” I offer a small smile. “But I don’t think I can manage anything at the moment.”

I curl my hands around my cup and lift it to my mouth, taking a small sip.

God, it tastes good. He makes damn good coffee.

I put the cup down, keeping my hands around it. I look him in the eye.

He’s already watching me. The look in his eyes seems curious. Like I’m a puzzle that he can’t figure out.

I wonder if my eyes reflect the same. Because I honestly cannot figure him out.

He exudes this harsh exterior, but beneath all of that is a guy who will get in his car and drive to London to pick up his drunk employee, bring her back to his home, and take care of her.

Warmth spreads across my chest.

“I’m really sorry about yesterday. Calling you when I was drunk. The things I said…” I briefly close my eyes in embarrassment as the words flood back to me. “Passing out in your car. You having to take care of me. I am so, so sorry. And I know I acted like a complete idiot, and I deserve to be fired, but I really, really need this job.” I lean forward, putting my arms on the table, and I clasp my hands together. “And, I swear to you, what happened yesterday will never happen again. Never, ever.”

“Why did you go out to a bar alone and get drunk?”

His question throws me.

“Um…because, I’m stupid.”

“You’re far from stupid, Daisy. Although getting that drunk while alone in a bar was a pretty stupid thing to do.”

“There was a compliment in there, right?” I smile, and his lip twitches.

But his face quickly goes back to serious. “Anything could’ve happened to you. You get that, right?”

He was…concerned about me?

Well, color me surprised.

“Yes. It was stupid. I was just—”

“Trying to numb the pain.”

That shoots my eyebrows up. I knew Kas was smart, but I never took him for perceptive. Especially when it comes to me. Honestly, I thought he was ignorant to everything having to do with Daisy Smith.

“You said something about your brother last night…” he adds, letting his words hang.

So, apparently, he’s not that ignorant.

Sadness prickles my skin at his mention of Jesse.

But I’m also taken aback that he wants to talk to me about this.

I really need to keep my job, and if telling him about this stuff means I will have a job at the end of it, then so be it.

“I went to see him yesterday. It didn’t go well.”

“Why not?”

I blow out a breath. “He blames me for him being in foster care, and he’s right to. I was all he had left in the world, and when I went to prison, he got taken into care.”

“Where are your parents?”

“Our dad is dead. Our mother is…gone. When I was sixteen, she ran off with her drug-dealer boyfriend. I guess she didn’t want to be a mother anymore. Jesse was only six. I knew, if Social Services found out she was gone, they’d take him away.

“I’d been practically raising Jesse since he was a baby since our mother cared about drugs more than us. She’d always used drugs. She had somehow managed to stay clean while she was pregnant with Jesse; maybe she cared a little more back then. But, after our dad died, that seemed to tip her over the edge. I’d just finished doing my exams when she disappeared on us. So, I did what I had to. I got a job. It was hard in the beginning, but we managed. Things got easier when I got the job at the jewelry store, as I was earning more money.”

“The jewelry store you stole from?”

I let out a humorless laugh and say in a droll tone, “Yeah, the jewelry store that I stole from.”

“So, why did you do it? You had everything to lose. Why risk it?”

I stare into his face, weighing my options. Tell the truth or the truth that everyone believes.

I know he won’t believe me, but I decide to go with the truth.

“I didn’t risk anything. I loved that job. I didn’t steal from those people. What I did do was make a huge error by trusting someone.”

His expression hasn’t changed. It’s blank and unreadable, like always.

I wait, expecting him to tell me that he doesn’t believe me.

So, I’m surprised when he says, “Trusting whom?”

“A man.” I let out a bitter laugh. “Well, I wouldn’t call him a man because a man wouldn’t do what he did to me.” I wrap my hands around the cup again, needing its warmth. I stare down into the coffee as I continue to talk, “My boyfriend, Jason—well, now, ex-boyfriend. We’d been together for about four months. He seemed like a good guy. A decent guy. I wasn’t so keen on his family…especially his brother. I’d heard things about them…not so great things…but Jason was good to me. I’d never had someone be good to me before. And he was good with Jesse. So, I trusted him. And he stabbed me in the back. I don’t know for sure exactly how it happened…but I know I went to prison because of Jason and, if I’m guessing correctly, his brother, Damien.”

I see Kas’s body stiffen, and I feel a tension rise in the air, like static electricity covering my skin.

I lift my eyes to his, and I’m startled by the anger I see in them.

I’ve seen Kas angry, but this…this is a whole new level of anger that I’ve never seen before.

I flinch inside, unsure of whether that anger is directed at me or not.

I wonder if I should keep talking, but I figure I can’t make this any worse. I need this job, so I take a deep breath and continue on, “The night of the robbery, Jason was staying at my place. Jesse was staying the night at his friend’s house. I only ever let Jason stay over when Jesse was staying out.” I don’t know why I tell Kas that, but it feels important to me that he knows that I always put Jesse first.

“I think, while I was sleeping, that Jason gave my access key to Damien. You know, I said I’d heard things about him. Well, those things were that Damien was trouble, into bad shit—carjacking, robbery, and the like. I think he used my access key, let himself in, somehow disconnected the CCTV inside the shop, and robbed it.

“Then, he brought my key card back to Jason. He put it back in my bag. Damien also gave him a piece of the stolen jewelry, which Jason so conveniently planted in my apartment. And, when the police came searching my place, there it was.

“Jason also told the police that he wasn’t with me at all that night. That he spent the night playing cards with his brother and friends and hadn’t seen me. I couldn’t prove otherwise. I had no witnesses to prove he’d been with me all night, so I was screwed. Basically, I was set up.

“The police charged me with theft. I was put in prison until my trial. I was given a court-appointed lawyer because I had no money to pay for my own, and I’m pretty sure my lawyer had only just gotten his law degree. I didn’t stand a chance. I was found guilty and sent to prison for three years. I served eighteen months and was released on parole. And here I am.

“I lost everything…Jesse…my job, my home…my freedom…because of him.”

I lift my eyes back to Kas, not really sure what to expect.

But there’s nothing. His expression is blank, his eyes devoid of any emotion.

Disappointment slams into me.

That disappointment quickly turns to panic when he stands abruptly. My fearful eyes follow him up.

“Get your things,” he tells me. “I’ll take you home.”

I rise slowly, my heart banging against my rib cage. “Mr. Matis…please…I—”

“You still have your job, Daisy.” He walks past me, heading for the door. “And you can call me Kas from now on.”

His words from the first day I met him come back to me. “My friends call me Kas.”

I guess he believes me.

I’m surprised at how much that matters to me. How much his opinion actually counts. To know that me just saying the words once to him was enough when a jury full of people didn’t believe me.

I blink back the tears threatening me and swallow back the Texas-sized lump in my throat. Then, I grab my shoes and bag and quickly follow after him.