Page 54 of Temptress

“I, um...” I looked at the door, then back to Sloane. This was a woman I’d let consume every part of my life for months now, and all of a sudden, I didn’t know how to be around her, what to say. Only a few hours ago I couldn’t get enough of her, now everything felt awkward and uncomfortable. “I’m going to stay with her tonight. There’s no reason you should stick around in those shitty chairs back in the waiting room. You should just head home.”

“Oh.” Her throat worked on a swallow. “Okay.”

“Do you need me to call you a cab or something?” Christ, I was a piece of shit.

She smiled, but it did nothing to mask the sadness in her eyes as she shook her head. “No, I can request an Uber. Don’t worry about me. Just take care of your girl, yeah?”

I nodded, my throat feeling tight and scratchy, like I’d just gargled with sand. “Yeah. I will.”

She came over and lifted up on her toes, pressing a kiss to the corner of my mouth. I had to close my eyes against a whole new wave of emotions at the smell of her perfume and the soft brush of her lips. My hands balled into fists with the need to touch her, but I stuffed them in the pockets of my jeans to keep from reaching out. It was this clawing need I had for her that was the problem in the first goddamn place. I couldn’t let it control me anymore.

Her eyes burrowed into my own like she was trying to see straight into my head, to what I was thinking, but I purposely kept my features blank.

“Will—will you text me later? Let me know how she’s doing?”

I nodded. That was the least I could give her. I knew she cared about Darcy. She’d never made her love for my girl a secret, so I wouldn’t leave her hanging.

“Yeah. I can do that.”

“Thanks,” she said quietly, her voice small. “Then I guess... I’ll talk to you later.” I stood motionless as she turned and started back down the hall, the sight of her hunched shoulders and lowered head like a branding iron in my chest. But I couldn’t let myself focus on that. I knew what had to be done. I just hoped I had the balls to actually do it.

* * *

Sloane

I hadn’t been able to sleep at all the night before. After the Uber dropped me off at home, I bounced back and forth between worrying about Darcy and worrying about Silas. Something was off, I could feel it down in my bones. Our goodbye at the hospital had been so awkward it had been painful.

Literally.

I’d left with a sick feeling twisting and rolling around in my stomach It had plagued me all night long and I hadn’t been able to shake it.

Anxiety clawed at my insides all night to the point I felt like I was coming out of my skin. I couldn’t sit around and do nothing, yet the idea of leaving the house held absolutely zero appeal. I didn’t even want to go out in my garden.

I started a book only to give up after the first chapter. I tried catching up on a couple shows I had recorded, but my mind would drift within the first five minutes. I even tried to choreograph a new number for the club, but my energy ran out before I made it past the first verse.

I was coming out of my skin, and there was nothing I could do to alleviate the tension. I lost count of how many times I’d checked my phone to see if there was a call or text from Silas.

I’d even gone so far as to draft a million different messages to him, only to delete them without sending. I wanted to talk to him. I knew that if I heard his voice, it would get rid of the creepy crawly sensation beneath my flesh.

But there was no way I was going to take him away from his daughter, not even for a second. She needed him more than anyone.

I filled my day with mundane tasks, busting my ass to keep myself busy, because as long as I was moving, my mother’s voice in the back of my head wouldn’t be able to get to me. By noon my entire house so clean, there wasn’t a surface you couldn’t eat off of. My kitchen floors were so shiny, I could actually see my reflection in them. The bedding in every single room had been washed, dried, ironed, and the beds remade, whether the sheets had been dirty or not. Hell, I’d even gone so far as to vacuum my curtains. There wasn’t a speck of dust to be foundanywhere, no grime or mold or dirt.

Once the cleaning was done, I’d occupied myself with baking all of Darcy’s favorites, from peanut butter cookies to blondies and every other thing I’d discovered she’d liked in the time I’d gotten to know her.

When my phone dinged at a quarter to three in the afternoon, my heart jolted at the sound and I practically dove for it, hoping to see an update from Silas.

The message was from him, but nothing about it soothed the storm that had been brewing inside of me all day. In fact, it only made it worse.

Neighbor From Hell:Be home with Darcy in a few. You got a minute to talk?

A minute to talk? What was it he wanted to talk about. If he just wanted to fill me in about Darcy, he could have done that over text. But he hadn’t. He said he wanted totalk, but whatever he had to say wouldn’t take long.

A pit formed in my stomach, the gnawing, empty sensation threatening to overtake me.

Me:Yeah, sure! I’ll see you in a bit. Tell Darcy I said hi and I baked all her favorite treats.

The message was marked as read, so I knew he’d seen it, but he didn’t bother responding.

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