“It’s not a wardrobe, but welcome to Narnia.”
Okay,it wasn’t Narnia up here, but it was a nice apartment.
The main floor was open with a galley-style kitchen at the back, the only full bath tucked off to the side, and a dining table and cozy living space settled against the tall front windows that overlooked Stonebar Harbor. It was to the windows that Daisy went first.
My gut clenched. There were reasons I hadn’t brought her to the shop—reasons I protected this space as my own—and they were all wholly selfish. The fewer parts of my life Daisy touched, the better. The easier it would be for me to finally forget her.
So much for that. My plan was eviscerated by the gorgeous woman standing at my front windows, where anyone walking by would think she was mine.She and her baby.But they weren’t. The only thing that was mine was the pain of wishing it were true.
“I’ll clean up some of this stuff over the next couple of days. I’ve been using it…as a workspace,” I said when her attention finally shifted back to the apartment.
There were papers, folders, my laptop, photographs, and magazines spread all over the couch and coffee table. Along the wall, boxes of my stuff sat unpacked from my house.
“Bedroom’s up here,” I said just when her brows started to pull together, questions starting to string between them.What were the boxes for? Where did they come from? Was I sure no one was staying here?
Her gaze followed me as I climbed the spiral staircase up to the lofted bedroom, the wrought-iron stretching into a metal railing that overlooked the main floor. The metal trembled under my footsteps and then Daisy’s as she followed me to the loft. I held my teeth locked, hoping she would’ve stayed downstairs and waited to explore until I left.
“Bathroom was the door straight ahead when we walked in,” I said, trying to keep my back to her when she reached the loft.
The space was small, only fitting a queen bed, a nightstand, and a five-drawer dresser for clothes.
I guessed there was a silver lining to my sleeping on the couch these last couple of nights. The bedding was clean and freshly made, hopefully adding to the impression I wanted her to have: that no one was staying here.
I set her bags on top of the navy-blue duvet, again bothered by their weight and the conversation from earlier.
“Are you sure you have enough clothes? That you don’t want to go out and get anything?” I asked again.
“Yes.” She turned and gripped the railing.
“Don’t lie to me, Daze,” I charged, my voice low. “Because this feels pretty light, and I just want to make sure you have everything you need.”
“No, Max,” she said and whipped toward me, anger shimmering in her sudden tears. “I don’t have everything I need. I don’t have anything I need. I don’t have a fiancé. I don’t have a home. I don’t have—” She broke off, her full pink lips turning down in a bitter laugh as she came over and stopped next to me. “You want the truth? The truth is that I packed mostly lingerie because I was supposed to be on a honey-baby moon right now.” With an angry yank, she ripped open the zipper and dumped the contents of the duffel onto the bed. Whites and pale pinks and purples tumbled onto the duvet, the satin and lace pooling like hydrangea petals on the dark cover.
A jolt of anger went through me, and then it was suffocated by a blanket of lust.
My mouth felt like a cave of sand, everything suddenly painfully dry as I stared at the pile of delicate fabrics, imagining them against the pale of her skin. Stretched over the fullness of her breasts. Puckered at her hard nipples. Soft over her growing stomach.
There was no stopping the tension stringing through my muscles. The uptick of my pulse. The hardening of my cock. Reality was dipping its toes dangerously close to the deep end of my fantasies, and I wasn’t adequately—hell, I wasn’t eveninadequately prepared.
“I’m sorry, Max.” She reached for my arm, jarring me, and not in a good way, from my thoughts. Her left hand rested on my biceps. She was close to me now. Too close. “It’s not you. You’ve been…so amazing.”Then why did she make it sound like that was a bad thing?“I’m just overwhelmed, and I need time. Time to figure out everything all over again.” Her big, luminous eyesmelted into mine. “And I need you to stop treating me like I’m glass,” she murmured. “I can’t afford to be broken right now.”
“You’re not broken, Daze,” I said, my voice tangled between lust and loathing.
Shaking her head, I felt her pull her hand away, but it didn’t draw my attention until she placed it on her stomach. Then I saw it—her engagement ring still anchored around her finger like a giant beacon of hope. She said she knew Todd wasn’t coming back, but she still wore his ring. She still…belonged…to him.
“I’ll let you get settled,” I said and stepped back, my skin still burning under my shirt from her touch. “I’m going to give Erica a rundown of what you’ll be doing, and then when you’re ready, she can go over the details with you as far as routes for the upcoming days.”
“I can start?—”
“Tomorrow,” I finished firmly. “You’ll start tomorrow. Today is…orientation.” I defined this single day off in a way she’d be able to accept it.
“Okay.” Her head lowered, and her shoulders slumped. She looked like she just wanted to sag against something—against someone—and let them take all the weight from her for just a few minutes.
I wanted to be that someone.
I almost reached for her. Almost drew her to my chest, the words,“It’s going to be all right, I promise,”perched at the tip of my tongue, along with all the other ones I’d buried for years.
He never deserved you.
