Alessia
Still worried about Kristopher’s daughter, relief filled me when I got out of the shower and saw his message. The text had been short, and it was him essentially telling me that he was on his way over to see me. Considering the circumstances, I shouldn’t have been giddy, yet I was. It had been so long since I had even thought about a relationship, so knowing my feelings for him were returned had me feeling like a schoolgirl all over again.
I had no idea what he planned to do when he got here. We had literally just climaxed together when he’d gotten the phone call that sent him fleeing from my arms, so there hadn’t been any time to talk about his confession, or mine really. There was something off in the tone of his message, and it gave me a slight cause for concern, but I could just be buying trouble.
Instead of focusing on what might not even be the case, I chose to wear a thin nightgown, then curled up on the couch with a blanket as I waited on him to arrive. He didn’t keep me waiting long, and when I answered the door, my earlier fears about his wording came rushing back, especially when I looked into his eyes.
“What’s wrong?” My thoughts turned to his daughter, and it was like my heart literally dropped in my chest. “Is it Kaylee?”
He shook his head, then looked over his shoulder before hurrying inside. When he closed the door, I went to speak again but he pulled me close, then fused his mouth to mine. I surrendered immediately to him, even parting my lips so he could thrust his tongue inside. Clinging to him, I let him take whatever he needed from me.
I loved him, and because I did, I wouldn’t hold anything back from him. He continued to plunder the depths of my mouth with his roving tongue as his hands slid under my nightgown. When he worked one up my body, I assumed he would tear my silk panties away, but he instead just nudged them to the side. He toyed with my clit for a few long seconds, then moved his hand lower. I cried against his mouth when he inserted three fingers into me. My leg rose up, and I tried to move into a position where he could get better access.
This man set my body on fire like none other. Whatever he’d been in the process of starting ended abruptly as he quickly removed his fingers and took a few steps back. I looked up at him in question, while also trying to suck oxygen into my lungs. There was a wild, almost primal look in his eyes, and while I wanted to believe it was for me, something else lurked in those darkened depths that made me think otherwise.
“Kris?” I was starting to get worried because I had never seen him like this before.
“She knows,” he finally told me.
“She?” I asked, then I realized who he meant, and the color drained from my face. I had no idea what his soon-to-be ex would do with that information, but I could see why it would worry him. It probably had the ability to hurt him more than it did me, and I wouldn’t allow that to happen. “How?”
He let out a sharp breath, then scrubbed one large hand down his face. “She had us followed to Boston and caught us in a few compromising positions.”
“Oh,” I responded, then added, “I’m sorry. Is there anything I can do?”
His gaze rose to mine, and I could tell that he had already thought of something. Whatever it was had to be bad because he was hesitant to ask me.
“Whatever it is, just tell me.”
“She has to think that we’ve broken up,” he answered.
“Okay,” I told him. I could do that. There was very little I wouldn’t do for him. “Consider it done.”
He raked his hand through his hair. “It’s more than just keeping up a pretense. I can’t see you here, at the hospital, or anywhere else.”
“I don’t follow?” I asked. We work together. “Are you going to fire me?”
“Fire you?” He shook his head after repeating my question. “No, but I can’t eat lunch with you, or be caught talking to you while at the hospital. We also can’t talk to one another on the phone, or be seen anywhere else together.”
It was all making sense now. This was a breakup despite what he was saying. Tears pricked my eyes, and as painful as this was, I had to remind myself of why we needed to do this. “So, we’re taking a break?”
That seemed a bit more palatable in my head, meanwhile my heart was breaking into pieces. He had to have seen how this was affecting me because he pulled me back into his arms, then drew me close. The steady beating of his was like a soothing song, and my arms tightened a bit more around him. A few tears slipped from my eyes and rolled down my cheek. I had just gotten everything I had wanted, yet within thirty-six hours, I had lost it all.
“This won’t be forever,” he promised as he brushed my hair off to the side, then placed a few kisses on my forehead. “I’m going to have a phone placed in your locker. It will be untraceable, and the number to my burner phone will be the only one programmed into it.”
I choked back a sob. “It sounds so complicated.” I stopped there and squeezed him tighter.
“It’ll all work out because we love each other, Ale. I have to trick Hayley into thinking that she’s gotten one of the things she wants and—”
I raised my head and looked up into his face. “What all does she want?”
“Mainly money, but a part of me thinks that she wants me to suffer for some unknown reason. She—”
“She sounds like a bitch,” I interjected, and he chuckled.
“That’s a given. She hates me is another.”
“But why?” It was the one thing in all of this that I couldn’t figure out.