Page 58 of Crumbling Truth
He cupped one hand around the back of my neck and leaned in to kiss me, the kind of deep, thorough exploration I’d come to expect from him. When he finally drew back, he grinned at me.
“I suppose we’ve got all afternoon, huh?”
Bythetimeheleft for dinner with Oliver and Julian, I felt like every inch of his body was imprinted on mine. Heleaned down to kiss me goodbye and I barely had the energy to respond.
“How am I supposed to make pleasant conversation when all I can picture is you all sexy and naked here alone?” he growled against my throat.
“Sexy? I have become a puddle of womanly goo,” I complained.
Theo laughed. “The sexiest puddle I’ve ever seen. Text me if you need me to come back and service you again.”
Determined not to let him have the last laugh, I shot him a mournful expression. “Your stamina is something to behold. I guess you must get it from your father.”
His face froze in a mask of horror as he pulled away. “Why would you know that?”
“I walked in on your parents here once, before I moved in. They were banging on your mother’s desk, it was over there,” I said, pointing to the corner where my dresser now stood. “I didn’t see much but if your mom’s commentary was an indication…”
Theo groaned and dropped back onto the bed, burying his face against my belly. When he shook his head back and forth, mumbling a stream of what I took to be simply the wordnoover and over again, his hair tickled my skin and I tried valiantly not to knee him in the face as I contorted. Apparently, he realized what was happening, shot me a devilish grin, and set about tickling me in earnest.
I shrieked and shoved at him. “You have to go! They’re waiting for you!”
With one final nip to my hip bone, he stood up again. “That was a low blow, Malek,” he said grumpily. “I don’t want to think about my parents having sex. Ever. I scrubbed every flat surface in the house when I first got here, you know.”
A laugh burst from my lips, but he was still shaking his head despondently. It took another three minutes to shoo him out of the guest house before silence finally fell around me once more. For a while, I stayed there in my puddly state, listening to the quiet that had been my companion for so many years.
It felt different now.
Instead of the peace I usually drew from the silence here, it now seemed oppressive and unsettling. I rolled my head on the pillow to check that my phone was still on the nightstand, then curled up on my side and closed my eyes.
If I was honest with myself,everythingfelt different now that Theo had come hurtling into my tidy little world.
What would happen when he was gone again?
The question brought on a curious ache in my midsection, right below the spot where he’d pressed his face moments ago. I could scold myself for the next few weeks, remind myself that I knew all along this was a limited interlude, but by this point I was fully aware it wouldn’t stop the feelings from growing.
Even if it shattered me into a thousand pieces, this would still be far from the worst mistake I’d made. Trusting Steve Pautler was solidly in first place, as far as mistakes went. On the contrary, this thing with Theo had brought me back to life after a long hibernation.
I’d already gathered all the broken pieces of myself and glued them back together; I could do it again if I had to.
“For fuck’s sake,” I muttered aloud, flopping onto my back. I was certainly not going to spend an evening by myself wallowing in the misery of Theo’s eventual departure.
Once I finally regained enough energy to move, I ran a bubble bath, poured a glass of wine, lit a few candles, and put my e-reader in a zip-top bag. I had plenty of reading to catch up on during my slow season, along with a Netflix queue I’d probablynever manage to get all the way through even if I never worked another day in my life.
A night on my own should've been a welcome break from having someone else around all the time lately.
After my bath, I put on my comfiest pajamas, threw together some dinner, and settled myself under a blanket on the loveseat to watch a rom-com I had been saving for just such an occasion. I’d been enjoying life as a single woman for years. A handsome, talented lover wasn’t going to change that.
And if the occasional texts Theo sent throughout the evening to check in made my insides flutter a little ridiculously, I blamed it on the wine.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Theo
Dinnerwasdelicious,thecompany was wonderful, and I spent almost the entire evening counting down the minutes until I could return to Esther’s side. If Oliver’s wry smile was anything to go by, I didn’t do a very good job of pretending otherwise.
“If I didn’t know better, my friend, I would think you were falling for her,” he said, leaning back in his chair.
I groaned as I swallowed the last bite of the steak Julian had grilled to perfection. “Don’t say that.”
