Page 44 of Seaside Strangers
She gave a small shrug, her gaze faltering before dropping to his chest. “You can call me Moriah. It doesn’t matter now. You know who I am.”
“Do I?” His harsh tone made her flinch. “Apparently, I don’t know a damn thing about you.” His voice rose with each sentence, frustration bleeding through. “You lied to me. You lied from day one. And after everything that happened between us, you kept lying!”
“I’m s-sorry,” she choked out, pulling her knees to her chest and wrapping her arms around them. “I was scared. I didn’t know who I could trust. I was afraid of what would happen if I told you the truth.”
He jerked back as if she’d struck him.
“How could you… How could you be with me if you didn’t trust me?” His voice had dropped, low and rough, and she couldn’t tell if that was better or worse than the shouting.
“No! It wasn’t like that! I swear!”
His eyes narrowed, tension building in his expression. “It wasn’t? Then tell me what it was like,Moriah.”
She winced at the way he said her name, like it was something unfamiliar now. Swiping at her eyes and nose with the back of her hand, she glanced around, wishing for a tissue. Without a word, he turned and headed into the bathroom. A moment later, he came back with a box and held it out to her. Her heart squeezed at the small kindness breaking through his anger.
She took the box with shaky hands, pulled out several tissues, and blew her nose while he stood there, waiting.
“A-at first, I didn’t trust you, not fully. But the more we spent time together and got to know each other, the more I realized you were a really nice guy. And, I swear, when we made love, I completely trusted you.”
“But not enough to tell me the truth? You have a funny definition of trust.”
KC stormed out of the room, and a second later, he heard her break down. The sound of her crying carried through the open door, muffled like she was trying to hide it, but it still hit him square in the chest. Every instinct told him to turn around, go back in there, pull her into his arms, and make it better. Instead, he forced himself down the hall, out the back door, and onto the porch.
His uncle sat there expectantly, but KC didn’t slow down or say a word. He took the steps two at a time and headed straight for the beach, needing distance before he gave in to the urge to go back.
The moment his feet hit the sand, he broke into a run. He pushed himself hard, his stride falling into a relentless cadence, the burn in his lungs drowning out everything else. Running had always been the one thing that cleared his head, so he kept going, faster and farther, until his body finally started to give out.
Miles down the shoreline, he dropped onto his back in the sand, chest rising and falling as he fought to catch his breath. The cries of seagulls and the crash of waves filled the silence around him, but it did nothing to quiet the noise in his head.
How could he have been so blind?
He’d been trained to read people, to pick up onthe smallest signs that something was off. It was instinct by now. Trust the wrong person, and it could get you killed. Yet with Maura—Moriah, he’d ignored things that should have stood out. Maybe they hadn’t added up, but he hadn’t wanted to examine them too closely.
From the moment he’d seen her, he’d wanted her. That much was easy to admit. After that first night together, wanting her again had only made it easier to push aside the questions he should have been asking.
He dragged a hand over his face and stared up at the sky, the realization settling in whether he liked it or not.
Somewhere along the way, he’d fallen for her.
It was more than an attraction. More than desire. It was something deeper—something that made him overlook what he normally wouldn’t.
That was why he hadn’t wanted to see the truth. And that was why it cut as deep as it did now.
He pushed himself up, bracing his forearms on his knees as he stared out at the water. The answer to what came next didn’t come from training or logic. It came from something far more instinctive.
He wasn’t walking away.
Whatever she’d done—or hadn’t done—she wasin trouble. Real trouble. And until he knew exactly what they were dealing with, he wasn’t leaving her to face it alone.
First, he’d keep her safe.
Everything else… he’d figure out later.
Chapter Eighteen
Long after thetears had stopped, Moriah pushed herself to her feet and began packing the knapsack she’d lived out of for the past few months. She wasn’t leaving yet, but she would. That much felt inevitable.
When this was over, KC wouldn’t want anything to do with her—not that she could blame him. She’d lied to him from the start. Whatever they’d shared… it wouldn’t be enough to outweigh that.
