Page 100 of The Attraction

His hands are both clutching the side of the counter, and his arms locked straight has the muscles in his shoulders tensing, and it’s a very welcome sight for me to be reminded of what that body looks like under that shirt that is straining over his back. Mmm, now that looks like a perfect breakfast, and I haven’t even seen the food yet.

“Morning, firecracker,” he calls over his shoulder, and I can’t help but laugh because that’s probably a fair name for me.

“Couldn’t help yourself, could you. Although every breakfast order this week has started with a pet name, so why would today be any different. So what color is my ribbon today?” I ask with a smile on my face.

“White,” he answers as I take the last few steps needed to be behind him. He slowly turns around, and I almost die as I take one look at him.

“Forrest, oh my God, what happened to your face?” I gasp, and every rule I had given myself before I walked through the door of no touching is totally thrown out the window as my hands are on him, stroking the bruises.

Both of us are breathing that little bit quicker having our bodies so close. It’s that same reaction I have every time he comes near me, and I can see I still affect him too.

“Umm, yeah, that’s what we need to talk about. Can we eat first?” He looks down at me sheepishly.

“Not a fucking chance, start talking right now,” I demand.

Why do I have a feeling that the use of firecracker was because he knew what was about to come?

Just once could my life be boring and stop throwing me curve balls? Surely that’s not too much to ask.

ChapterTwenty-Two

HARPER

That sick feeling I had outside the front door is back again. It’s like every time I take a step forward, there is something pulling me back.

“Are you okay, who hurt you, when did this happen, why didn’t you call me, why didn’t anyone tell me? Fucking Flynn, I’ll kill him. I hate secrets. Secrets get people killed.” My panic is raging, and the words all come out at lightning speed as Forrest leads me to the couch, and I don’t stop him when he sits and pulls me down on his lap. I actually need to be close to him right now, to be touching him.

“Aghh.” He tries to grunt quietly, but I hear it, and I know that the bruising is not just on his face.

I go to start rambling again, but he places his finger on my lips. “Shhhh, take a breath. I’m okay. It will all be okay.” He strokes his hand up and down my back like he does when I’m upset. It’s so calming and puts me in a place where I can slow down my brain from racing so erratically.

He is looking at me with so much happiness in his eyes, even though he is in pain.

“Please, Forrest, I need to know,” I beg him to start talking.

“I know, beautiful, and I’ll tell you everything, but you need to promise to hear me out right until the end. Can you do that?”

“Who are you kidding, of course not, but I promise to try. Now stop stalling.” I place my hand on his face again, and he sinks into the softness and closes his eyes for just a moment, then slowly opens them and starts to talk.

“I’m just going to rip the band-aid off and tell you the overview, then we can work through what has happened this week.” His words tell me I’m not going to like this, but I guess I already knew that. Giving him a slight nod, he continues.

“On Monday, I flew to Chicago…” My body immediately goes rigid, and I open my mouth, but he shakes his head at me, and I just glare at him as he continues. “…with a plan to confront Chester, to provoke him enough that he would fight me so I could get him locked up again. It worked, he’s in jail, and you’re safe now.”

The words are spinning in my head, and I’m trying to get them to make sense.

“What, how, I—” I can’t talk. I want to scream at him, but I can’t actually put a sentence together.

“I know you are going to be furious with me, and I understand that, but I had to do something. I couldn’t let you live in constant fear. And if you wouldn’t let me protect you, then I had to do something to take away the threat. He had started searching more extensively about not just you but your family and bought a fake passport, so time was running out. I can’t lose you. So, yell and scream at me all you want, throw something if you have to. Do whatever you need to do, to let out your emotions, but please, don’t leave. I’m begging you to let me tell you everything.” His arms tighten around me like he is holding on to me just in case I run, and as angry as I feel right now, I can’t hurt him again, not after what he has just done for me and my family.

“Oh, I want to scream, loud and like a crazy woman, but that will come later. But right now, I have so many questions I actually don’t know where to start. For the first time in my life, I’m struggling for words.”

Forrest starts laughing a little until I can tell it hurts him.

“Your ribs?” I ask, worrying what injuries he has.

“Yeah, they are bruised, but I also have some stitches from a small laceration on my side from his knife.” I can see he is bracing for what is coming.

“Knife? What the fuck, Forrest, he had a knife?! You could have been killed.” Tears spring to my eyes as he reaches up and takes my face between his hands.

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