Page 98 of Follow the Rhythm
I couldn’t talk yet, so I pressed a kiss to her hair instead.
We lay catching our breath until the water cooled around us.
Later that night, in bed with Jess curled in my arms, we finally got around to talking about the album.
“What are you going to do?” She was drawing circles on the forearm I had wrapped across her stomach.
“I have no idea. Johnny set up a meeting with Ellis so we could talk about it, but I don’t know if I can stand to be in the same room with him.”
“You think he leaked it, then?”
I sighed. “I don’twantto think that, but I don’t know who else it could’ve been.”
“The Ellis I knew wouldn’t have done that. Sure, he’s a dick sometimes, but this is just… horrible,” she said sadly.
I was afraid the Ellis she knew, the one I knew, was gone, but I didn’t say so.
“You should still meet with him,” she said firmly. “Give him a chance to explain himself.”
“I’ll just lose my temper.” I took a deep whiff of her scent. She must have been pumping out soothing pheromones because a deep sense of calm settled over me.
“I still think you should go.” She snuggled her back closer to my chest.
“I know. But you should come with me.”
She stiffened slightly in my arms. “Why?”
“Because whatever decision we make, it concerns you, too.” And it did. She was part of the calculus of my life now. “I also value your opinion and want you to have a say in whatever comes next.”
She huffed a bit. “Damn it, Kieran. Stop turning me on; I’m trying to go to sleep.”
“Sorry, I just want to remind you how much I respect you as a person,” I said, smiling into her hair.
She elbowed me in the ribs.
“You’ll come then?” I asked.
“Yeah, I will,” she whispered. I thought I could hear a strange note of sadness in her voice, but I chalked it up to being exhausted from how many times I showed her just how much I missed her.
“Thank you, love.” A purr started in my chest, and Jess snuggled closer again.
“Love you,” she said sleepily, planting a kiss on my palm before intertwining our hands.
“Love you, too.” I listened to her breathing slow and deepen, lulled by my purr, until sleep pulled me under, too.
Chapter 30 - Jess
“Are you sure you want to go to this meeting? We could just go back to the flat. I have some ideas on how to spend the afternoon,” Kieran said, shifting gears effortlessly as he pulled onto the expressway, which made my heart flutter. Apparently, I found everything he did attractive.
“I think you’d regret it if we didn’t,” I said, carefully neutral, while my stomach did cartwheels.
We pulled up to a nondescript brick building in an older part of the city a few minutes later. It read “Flounder & Horst, LLP” on a sign above the blacked-out door.
“A lawyer’s office?”
Kieran shrugged. “Johnny picked the location.”
The lobby was just as nondescript as the outside and completely deserted. The chairs were upholstered in crinkly beige leatherette that matched the carpet. A plant was dying in the corner.
