Page 54 of Inarticulate

Keenan: Savannah? Let me talk to her, okay? I can smooth this over without involving more people.

She re-read his messages, hating that it was the most logical strategy when her anger demanded blood. Trust was going to have to play a role in this thing between them. Anyway, it already did. Her reputation was in his hands, and at the moment, she was content to allow it.

Savannah: Okay.

She would step back and give him the opportunity to pull Penny into line. It was the best move for her, seeing as her position was already under scrutiny due to the condom heist and now the lingerie display.

Distancing herself was the best option. She had to play it cool. Be careful. And most of all, she needed to trust that he wouldn’t be sharing a bed with Penny tonight, no matter how much her cousin’s taunts were currently haunting her.

Email

Date: 24thDecember

Subject: How did the lingerie look?

Dear Savannah,

I’m not the type of man to be intimidated when walking into a lingerie store. In fact, the morning I picked out those items for you was akin to foreplay at its finest. I imagined stripping you of every item I passed. I could’ve spent my life savings in one purchase just knowing that the skimpy material would adorn your skin.

I still wonder what you would’ve looked like in the items I bought for you. I wish I would’ve had the opportunity to see you in them before you shoved the package back in my face.

You deserved to keep them. You also deserved not to go through the heartbreak that caused you to give them back.

I want you to be aware of something, though. Do you remember the day I sent you that package? Do you remember the messages you sent back? One of them was a chastisement for leaving you to wake up alone. Do you ever wonder why I did that? Do you ever think back and see how I was trying to protect myself from you?

The first night in your hotel suite, I left as soon as you began to wake. I hadn’t noticed how much time I’d spent lying there watching you. I memorized the way your features changed as you dreamed. The way your lips twitched. The way your breathing hitched.

I was even more careless the night in the penthouse. I slept peacefully beside you until morning. I woke up with the scent of your hair in my lungs and the softness of your body against mine. I awakened to an extra beat in my chest that I already knew I wanted to keep.

I didn’t want to let you go. I suppose it’s clear I still don’t.

When you told me about your argument with Penelope, I knew it was the beginning of the end. Hope vanished as if it was never there, and I became frantic for the briefest of moments with you.

I’m not an optimistic man. I’m a realist. And the devastating reality of what Penelope could do with your feelings for me made me panic. She held all the power. She held our relationship in her hands.

It wasn’t easy speaking to her. Penelope is extremely protective of our past, present, and even the future. But the realistic part of me had thought our discussion had sunk in. I told myself you were only in Seattle temporarily, and the measures I’d taken with Penelope were sure to work for that amount of time.

It could’ve worked out. It could’ve remained perfect.

I guess I became complacent, too blind with thoughts of you that I didn’t notice how truly wrong I was. It’s a weak excuse, but I told myself that I hadn’t lied to you.

How could I, when I’d never said a word?

But now we both know I was deceiving you with every breath. Every touch. Every kiss.

I’m sorry. I’ll forever be sorry.

Please, let me show you how sorry I am.

Keenan

Chapter Nineteen

Savannah enteredthe lobby the next morning to find a group of staff hovering around the reception desk. They spoke in hushed whispers, around eight or nine of them hunched together like a mob of angry villagers, only the occasional sentence being raised to a level where she could hear the caustic tone.

“Good morning.” The cluster stiffened at her voice. One by one they looked her way and muttered greetings before disbanding to a smaller group of Kelly, Grant, and Amanda.

“I guess it’s not a good morning?” she addressed Kelly, who stood on the working side of the reception desk, one elbow resting against the top counter. “Did I miss the memo for the staff meeting?”

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