Page 16 of Cruel Fate

She throws back the floral comforter and scoots across the bed inviting me in.

I lie next to her, and she covers us. I shiver, but not because I’m cold, and Stella wraps her body around mine, her breasts pushing into my side.

Right then I’m glad I took care of myself before seeking her out. I still want to push her onto her back, slide her panties down her slim thighs. Spread her legs apart and lick at her until she comes, then plunge my dick into her over and over until I explode, but cuddling works, and I wind a strand of her hair around my finger. “Thank you.” She didn’t have to let me do this.

“Can you talk about it?” she whispers. Her voice floats around me, silk ribbons in the air, tying me to her. I feel safe, and a knot of fear loosens. I didn’t realize it until now. How scared I am.

I swallow around a dry lump in my throat, and the words stick in my mouth. Where do I start? “Six months ago, my parents went to a wedding in Paris and they were flying home. The plane went down during a storm. By the time the authorities could begin a search, the plane had sunk, most of it, anyway, and only the pilot’s body was recovered.”

I haven’t spoken about the crash aloud to anyone. Not to Ash. Not to my therapist, whom I skip out on more than talk to. Not to Lucille when she asked for details about what happened. What I know can be accessed online or in an old newspaper. I’ve never needed to say the words. Never wanted to.

“Do they know what caused it?” Stella asks, her lips grazing my skin.

“No. They blamed the storm. Lightning maybe, or the pilot was disoriented because of the clouds, but so many pieces are missing, nothing can be determined.”

“I’m so sorry, Zane.”

Stella shifts, pressing closer, molding her body to mine like she’s trying to protect me from the words I’m speaking.

I wrap my arms around her and hold her close. Pretend she and I are in a cocoon where no one can disturb us. I could be happy here, alone with her forever. Having nothing but her body and...maybe one day I can get her to fall in love with me.

“Stay with me,” I whisper, but I don’t know what I mean. Tonight? Tomorrow? Always?

“Okay,” she says, brushing her lips against my cheek.

I drift, grappling for the sleep that’s eluded me since the day my parents died.

“Ash told me to stay away from you and Zarah.” Her voice is quiet.

I’m almost sleeping, and her words barely penetrate my exhaustion.

She must have taken something Ash said the wrong way. He would never interfere with one of my relationships if he knew it made me happy. I mumble something. I have no idea what I say or what she hears.

I sleep like I did before the crash took my parents’ lives. I need her and I search for her as sunlight streams through the window, but her side of the bed is empty.

She’s gone.

I’ve been skating these past few months. I know it and my employees know it. The company is barely floating, it’s only thanks to my dad’s friends and business partners she’s not at the bottom of the Renegade River.

I’ve leaned on them too heavily, and it stops today.

Stella breathed new life into me, and she’s given me the courage to start doing the right thing.

I’ll need her help, though, and Sunday afternoon, I boot up my company laptop. I haven’t used it in so long my password expired, and I call the IT desk and ask them to reset it. I could have gone downstairs and bothered whoever’s working overtime, but I’m sitting in a pair of basketball shorts, sipping coffee, hard as a rock.

I woke up stiff, my boxers pulled down around my hips, my cock sticky. I hope my first time making love to Stella wasn’t in my sleep.

Telling my dick to calm the fuck down, I open Stella’s employee file.

This Simon Carhart can’t say enough nice things about her, and I wonder for a second if they’re screwing.

I dismiss the idea. Something like that travels through the gossip vines pretty quickly. Maybe not all the way up to me, but no one has noted anything of significance like that in either of their files.

All the clerks under Carhart have only nice things to say. Carhart’s supervisors have only nice things to say. The HR employees who work with him have only nice things to say.

I look at his salary and the number of times he’s been promoted. Carhart’s not making enough. I approve a promotion he was turned down for last year. He was smart enough to hire Stella and he deserves it.

Turning my attention back to her file, I sip my coffee. Lucille raised her eyebrows, me being up before noon on a Sunday, but I saw a bit of relief in her eyes, too. Everyone’s been worried about me.

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