Page 28 of Forbidden Harmony

He rubbed her lower back as his racingheart slowed. Fuck, she was so goddamn beautiful. She wiggled against him andhe pulled out reluctantly as she straightened. She turned around and the lookon her face had the apology falling immediately from his lips.

“Sunshine, I’m sorry.” He pulled off thecondom and dropped it into the waste basket.

“It’s fine.” Her voice was too loud andhigh-pitched as she yanked up her jeans and panties. She was fumbling with herbra and she winced when the shoulder strap dragged across her tattoo.

“Wait, hold on,” he said as he pulled uphis own jeans and buttoned them.

“I really should be going now,” she said.He could hear the tears in her voice, and he cursed inwardly.

“Addison, I’m sorry.”

“Please don’t,” she said in a strangledvoice as she finished putting on her bra. “Please stop saying you’re sorry.”

“Can we just talk about this?”

“No, I don’t think that’s a good idea.It’s late and I really need to go.”

She pushed past him and grabbed her shirtfrom the counter.

“You need a bandage on the tattoo.”

“I don’t, it’s fine, really.”

“Addison!” His sharp tone made her freezeas she reached for her purse. “Just wait for a minute.”

She stayed where she was, her hands clampedtogether across her flat abdomen as she stared blindly at the door. He quicklygrabbed a bandage, a damp cloth and the paper with cleaning instructions. Hewiped her tattoo and placed the bandage over it, taping it in place.

“Take this off in the morning.” He shoved thepiece of paper at her. “Here are the cleaning instructions. Follow them carefully.”

“Okay,” she said as she pulled her t-shirton.

He walked around her and unlocked the frontdoor. She refused to look him in the eye, but he could see that her cheekswere bright red and there were tears in her eyes as she hurried out the door.

“Goodbye, Preacher,” she said. Withoutwaiting for a response, she nearly ran down the street and disappeared into thedarkness.

“Goodbye, Sunshine.”

Chapter Eight

“You did what?” Kira sank into a kitchenchair and stared at her.

“I also got a tattoo,” Addison said.

“Addie, who cares about the damn tattoo!”Kira shouted. “You slept with Preacher last night. Preacher!”

“You guys were the ones who told me Ineeded to have rebound sex,” Addison said.

“Yeah but not with Preacher!” Kira staredat Grace. “Gracie, why don’t you look surprised?”

Grace shrugged. “There’s always been tons ofsexual tension between them and I caught Addie and Preacher making out at theBeaver on Friday night.”

“Grace!” Addison said as Kira’s mouthdropped open. “You promised you wouldn’t say anything!”

“Does it matter at this point? You just toldus you boned him. Who cares if he was kissing you and feeling you up outside thepub?”

“He was feeling you up outside the pub? I,like, go to Willington on one Friday night and miss Addison losing her mind,”Kira said.

“He saved me from a bunch of drunk guys in theparking lot, okay? I was grateful to him.”

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