Page 40 of Lovestruck at Sundown
“Give it”—I jumped on the bed to gain some height advantage—“back.” My legs wrapped around his waist, and I kept trying to get it off his hands, like a koala on a mission.
He laughed, cleverly dodging my futile attack, pulling me with him onto the bed. We were both out of breath from the previous struggle. “I’m confiscating this.”
“No, you are not.” I laughed an exasperated laugh. “That thing cost a hundred and sixty bucks.”
“Well, I’ll get you off for free anytime.” He slid a teasing hand between my legs but pulled it away after a quick squeeze and rested it on the curve of my hips.
“I’ll want to use it whenever you travel for work.” I combed a strand of hair off his forehead with my fingers. “Maybe we can play with it … from a distance.”
He tilted his head with curiosity. “Okay, you’ve convinced me.” William took a long, steadying breath. Him leaving for long periods of time was something we didn’t want to talk about. Not yet. We’d been enjoying our time together in New York while he was in between jobs, but he had an upcoming project in Vancouver that would require him to be away for six weeks, and I was going to miss him like hell. “But if I catch you using this without my permission, there will be consequences, älskling.” He ran his fingers through my hair and rested his hand behind my neck.
“Yes, sir.” I leaned in and kissed him while stealthily moving my hand to snatch the vibrator away from his grasp. Afterbreaking off the kiss, I lifted myself from the bed to put it back inside my nightstand drawer. “And take two of these.” I poured two pills into my hand and offered them to him with a glass of water.
William sat up and did as he was told. He downed the entire glass and set it back on my nightstand before disappearing into his room through the magic wall, claiming to be right back after he brushed his teeth.
I did the same and changed into my pajamas. And when I stepped out of my bathroom, William was already lying on the left side of my bed.Hisside of the bed. My heart warmed inside my chest.
Silently, I climbed next to him and massaged his scalp as promised. He closed his eyes and fell asleep within a few minutes. I kissed his forehead and reached out for my phone.
My dad was going to be furious, but I would’ve chosen peace if he hadn’t initiated the unnecessary conflict that stemmed from his controlling ways.
Me:Thanks for the heads up, but I won’t need to move out. Turns out William’s the buyer. What a small world! So I’ll
continue to live here since he’ll be leasing it to me. I won’t
be needing your credit cards anymore, so you can go
ahead and cancel them.
Me:Oh, and we’ll have someone remove the surveillance camera outside my apartment door sometime during the week. I’ll ask Aaron to return it to you. I’ll keep the
panic buttons because despite what you think, I’m a
reasonable woman.
I hit send with a heavy sigh, knowing it was time to cut the umbilical cord.
October 9, 2010
It was almost9:00 a.m. when Nina and I were done running. We were headed to get some coffee because we both needed our morning fix.
“I feel weird without my phone,” Nina said. “It’s like a limb is missing. I don’t know what to do with my hands.”
“You’ll survive,” I said, pulling Nina into the coffee shop. Aaron waited outside. “I need caffeine more than I need my phone right now.”
Nina had forgotten to charge her phone last night, so she plugged it in at my apartment. I left mine, too, in solidarity. But I wasn’t as attached to it as Nina was. It was nice to be able to disconnect completely.
“I feel like Aaron’s been grumpier and more quiet than usual,” I said as we waited in line to place our orders. The delicious smell of coffee was making my mouth water. “I know he has a tough, cold exterior, but he’s usually a bit more … I don’t know. I can’t help but feel like he’s still mad about everything that happened last month. About me escaping and the domino effect it generated.”
“Have you triedtalking to him?”
“I have not.” I shook my head and looked over my shoulder at him standing right outside the glass window of the small coffee shop. “At least not since we flew back. But it’s not that easy. With Caleb, talking came naturally. That’s what we did. Talk all day. But Aaron is so hard to decipher sometimes.”
It was our turn to order, so we did a short intermezzo from our conversation to get that done and then stepped to the side while we waited for our coffees.
“A lot of things have changed,” Nina said. “Caleb died, you escaped, your dad probably wanted his head because of it, his job was on the line, and he went from having two partners he could rotate schedules with to having all the responsibility of your safety on his shoulders. And now you’re dating one of Hollywood’s most famous celebrities, which will only make his job trickier, and he knows it.”
I rolled my eyes at her about the celebrity thing because of how she said it, but she wasn’t wrong.
