Well Built (Book Boyfriend #3)(56)

The panic that passed across Ella's features was instantaneous. "No one's here, Dad," she said, holding Kyle's gaze with a plea in her own for him to remain quiet.

"Ella, I heard loud voices. One distinctly male," her father insisted, giving the door another push, but the stopper beneath the bottom made it impossible for him to get inside. "What's going on in there?"

Ella never broke eye contact with Kyle. "Nothing," she replied, forcing an airy quality to her voice that didn't ring true, no matter how hard she was trying. "I'm just getting ready for bed."

Kyle actually found irony in this moment. Three months of sneaking into this house to spend time with Ella, and tonight of all nights her father discovered them together. He hated Ella's denial, that she was driven by fear, and he realized he had two choices. He could give in to the silent request in her eyes and slip back out the window like he'd never been here so she could open the door and prove to father that she was alone, or Kyle could confront the past that stood between them.

It didn't take him long to make his decision. He started for the bedroom door.

"Kyle," she hissed in a frantic voice, but he didn't stop his approach.

Reaching the only thing separating himself from Ella's father, Kyle kicked the rubber wedge out from under the door, then pulled it open. Charles gasped and took a step back as he stared at Kyle in shock.

"What are you doing here?" Charles demanded.

"I'm here for your daughter," Kyle said calmly, even as he felt Ella right behind him, her anxiety nearly palpable. "I'm here because I love her," he went on, despite the flush of rage spreading across the other man's face. "I'm here because I want her in my life."

"You don't deserve my daughter," Charles said, his features twisting with bitterness and resentment. "Your family is responsible for everything this family has suffered!"

"Dad, please," Ella said, trying to calm down her father. "Don't do this."

Charles started breathing hard, his chest rising and falling more rapidly. "It's true, and I don't want you anywhere near Ella. Ever."

Kyle's jaw clenched in anger. He was done with being condemned for his brother's sins, for his father's actions. For being accused of something he'd had no part of. "The only two people in my family who are to blame for anything, are my father and my brother. But mostly Todd, because what he did to Gwen was a really shitty thing and unforgiveable. But my mother has done nothing to deserve your contempt, and as for me, the only thing I'm guilty of is loving and caring for Ella. Back then and now."

The older man pointed a stern finger at Kyle. "Stay . . . away . . . from my daughter," Charles huffed, then grabbed at his chest as he stumbled backward.



       
         
       
        

"Dad!" Ella called out in alarm.

Shit, was the guy having another stroke? Instinctively, Kyle reached out and caught the man's arm before he could hit the wall, and in the next instant, Ella was next to her father, tucking herself under Charles' arm and guiding him down the hallway to the living room.

"Dad, you need to take deep breaths," she said, her voice quivering with worry and fear, even as she took control of the situation.

"I want him out of my house," Charles wheezed as Ella sat him down in a leather recliner, then she pulled a drawer open on the end table and retrieved a bottle of pills.

Kyle had no idea what was going on, and despite the older man's insistent orders for him to get out, Kyle wasn't about to leave until he knew everything was okay. "Let me call the paramedics," he said, reaching into his pocket for his cell phone.

"He'll be fine," Ella snapped at him, stopping Kyle before he could connect the call to 911. "He's not having a stroke. He's having an anxiety attack. He'll be okay once he calms down."

From Kyle's perspective, it looked equally bad, and he couldn't stop the twinge of guilt for pushing the man to his breaking point. "What can I do to help?"

"Nothing," she said, her voice as flat as the look in her eyes as she assisted her father in taking his meds. "You can't be here, Kyle. You need to go. Now."

Everything inside of Kyle went ice-cold, her words taking him straight back to the night when he'd lost Ella the first time, and the similar demand she'd made then, too: The only thing I want right now is for you to get out of my life.

The only thing missing was a slap to his face.

Without another word, he walked out the front door. He headed back to his mother's, picked up the duffel bag of belongings he'd brought with him for the weekend, gave his mom a quick explanation of what had happened, then drove to his condo in the city.