Page 48 of Frozen Flames

“I said kneel.”

Submission is written all over her face as she swallows before she kneels in front of me in the kitchen. It doesn’t take much for me to picture her without any clothes on, to imagine how soft her porcelain skin would feel everywhere.

I trace my thumb over her lip before using it to tilt her chin upward. “Promise me you won’t leave this job,” I say as her lips part.

“I can’t promise that. You have another woman in your life.”

“It’s not going well, not at all. Fuck, Claire, I don’t know what we’re doing, but we’re barely together.”

She shrugs, her eyes pleading with me to get my shit together. “Then now might be the right time to figure it out.” And just like that, she stands, shooting me a look filled with appreciation and annoyance before she grabs her stuff and goes.

The second she leaves, my dick goes limp.

And then I feel like crap.

For toying with both. Neither of them deserve my indecisiveness.

With Gemma…what’s left there is complicated, it’s messy, but perhaps it could be resolved.

I’m not sure.

Then there’s Claire. She brightens my days like fucking sunshine.

She makes me happy.

And that’s a dangerous burden to put on someone.

That’s when I realize that Gemma did text me that she’d be working late—I missed it, too busy stabbing her in the back with Claire.

I notice that it’s almost nine o’clock, and the thought of what she could be doing working this late with a boss she went riding with triggers me.

I call her, and her phone fucking rings and rings. I expect her not to pick up until she does at the last second.

“Hey…” she says, though she sounds different. Something’s off.

My fingers are tapping repeatedly on my leg. “What time will you be back?”

She clears her throat. “I’m heading out soon. Why? Do you need anything—”

“I’m fine…” She has the audacity to act like she cares about me. Or perhaps she wants to make sure my disabled self is okay and free from harm.

“Are you sure?”

Oh, she’s good.“Yeah.”

“Okay. I’ll see you soon.”

I squeeze my phone in my hand when we hang up.

I know she’s lying.

How could she do this to me, to us?

After everything we’ve been through, all the promises we swore to each other.

I wheel down the hallway back and forth, back and forth. I need something to keep my mind from the edge.

Because my mind is at the edge, I feel it.

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