Page 108 of Touch Me Not: Anniversary Edition

He leaned over and placed a butterfly kiss on her lips. “I love you, Lily.”

“I love you too, Nikoli.”

He smiled and kissed her softly once more, but her eyes were drooping shut.

“Sleep, sweetheart, just sleep.”

Chapter Thirty

New York City

Six Months Later

Lily looked around and decided the apartment was starting to look like people actually lived in it. The place had been bare when she and Nikoli toured it last month. Nikoli loved it, but to her it was too big. They didn’t need this much space, but Nik, being Nik, had to have it. She could have done with a place half this size.

Breaking down the last of the empty boxes, she put them on the kitchen counter to take to the recycling bin. Their floor had a room to drop trash and recyclables for someone to pick up later. Another luxury she could do without. All this made her nervous. Nikoli wanted to lavish her with material things, and all she really wanted was him. She hoped he knew that. That his family knew that.

His family. She shuddered thinking about all the people who’d want to touch her, to hug her. She couldn’t handle it. She still had problems with being touched. It caused severe panic attacks. Just last week at the mall, she’d had a full-blown meltdown because someone accidentally bumped into her. It was a phobia she was working through, thanks to Nikoli and her psychiatrist, but she was still a long way from being better.

They’d been here for a few days, but because of work, she’d gotten out of the meet and greet. Out of the hugging.

Tomorrow was the wedding, though, and there was no getting out of that.

She needed to get her mind off it. She’d unpacked everything already, so she checked her email and noticed her new boss had sent her several assignments. Reading might get her mind off her fear. She printed out everything, separated the pages, and laid them out on the coffee table.

Once she had a cherry Dr. Pepper in hand, she settled down on the couch and picked up the first set of pages. It was the first three chapters of a novel submitted by a hopeful author. Lily’s job was to read it and send a written summary of her thoughts to her new boss, literary agent Thelma Ross. She’d interned for her last summer, and Thelma had been impressed that Lily was able to be blunt but fair. It earned her a place as her assistant when she’d graduated from Boston University last month.

She’d gotten through the first two sets of pages and a boatload of notes. The first one hadn’t been ready for the publication, but the second one held promise. The full manuscript would be worth a read-through. The author’s voice was unique, and her characters were gripping. Well written and just as well thought out. Exactly what Thelma was looking for. She’d worked with her enough to know where her tastes ran. What a lot of authors didn’t understand was that if an agent didn’t connect with the story, no matter how good the story might be, they’d never be able to sell it because they’d never be able to put their full passion behind it.

As an author herself, she understood the pain of the rejection letter. She had probably thirty of them in her inbox. She’d never delete them. They served to remind her that just because she’d gotten thirty nos, she’d gotten one yes. Not from the literary agency she worked for either. Thelma turned her down flat. That stung, but she understood it. It wasn’t a story her boss connected with. But her literary agent was wonderful, and she’d sold the book and garnered a three-book deal in the series.

Which she should be working on, but truthfully, the first book had been her and Nik’s love story, and she wasn’t sure where to take book two. They’d gotten their happily ever after. Where could the second book go from there?

It was a dilemma and why she’d not even started a single word despite the fact that the first three chapters were due to her agent and then the publisher in the next two weeks. It was another reason for the massive stress she felt. Which was partly why she’d been so sensitive in the mall. Stress made her phobia worse.

But how to tell Nikoli about her fears where his family was concerned and the stress of the book? He seemed so happy, and she couldn’t bring herself to tell him she didn’t want to get within a hundred feet of his family. Not after Kade had tried to hug her in the hospital. Another full-blown panic attack. It upset him, and she couldn’t blame him. What person reacted like that from just a hug?

Her.

Her phone started ringing, and Adam’s smiling face lit up the screen. He’d been in their hometown in North Carolina on his family farm since graduation. His dad asked him to come lend a hand before football training started, and of course he had. He’d even dragged Mike along with him.

The two of them had been drafted into the NFL. They’d not said a word to her or Janet, Mike’s fiancé. It had been a huge shock to everyone. Lily knew Adam had always dreamed of it, but when he got engaged to Sue, all that seemed to fade away for him. Mike wanted to work on Wall Street when he graduated, but Adam talked him into submitting their names, and they’d been accepted into the draft. Not that Lily was shocked. They’d had amazing stats all throughout their college football careers.

“Hey, you,” she answered. “How’s farm life treating the pro ballers?”

“Boring as usual, but we just landed at the airport. Tell Nik thanks for having a car waiting for us.”

“Sure thing. You want to catch some dinner, or are you guys too tired?”

“Dinner would be good. Not sure if Mike will make it, as Janet jumped him as soon as we got to the hotel. We’re both glad to be off the farm, though. Honestly, I couldn’t wait to escape.”

He usually loved being home. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.”

“This is me you’re talking to. You can’t lie to the human lie detector.”

“You can’t even see my face.”

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