Total pages in book: 47
Estimated words: 46847 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 234(@200wpm)___ 187(@250wpm)___ 156(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 46847 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 234(@200wpm)___ 187(@250wpm)___ 156(@300wpm)
We step away from each other quickly.
Pain strikes through me, pain that feels real, physical.
“Hello?”
“What do we do?” Faye hisses.
Don’t make me do this, I think, but there’s nobody to direct that plea at.
Except myself.
“Wait here,” I say, my mouth dry, my emotions flipping over and over, crashing, spinning again.
What the hell have we done?
The worst part is I want to kiss Faye again, even when I can hear Lola walking around the warehouse.
“Okay,” she says. “I’ll get dressed.”
Don’t you fucking dare, I almost snap. I want you naked as you promised. I want to see that soaked innocent pussy without your panties, see how shiny your lips are for me, your thick thighs.
“Good idea.” I force the words out. “I’ll go and….”
Distract my daughter to give Faye time to get dressed.
Try to make believe this isn’t the worst thing I’ve ever done.
I turn away, brushing down my clothes, hating that I have to do this.
And yet knowing I could never regret that kiss.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Faye
I stand at the door, my ear pressed against it. My heart has never beat so fast. It’s like its sole job is to hammer so hard and so loud I can’t hear my own thoughts.
And maybe that’s a good thing.
It would just be traitor, traitor, traitor anyway.
The kiss lingers on my lips, phantom sensations teasing across my mouth, making my belly feel warm when I think about it.
One of my fingernails is a little bent from gripping onto Felix’s firm arms, squeezing tight as desire made me kiss him harder, our tongues finding each other.
I’m wearing my dress again, pulled quickly over my head, the material feeling clingy after the prospect of being naked with my man.
“Where’s Faye?” Lola asks, her voice quiet, coming from the other side of the big warehouse-office area.
There’s a pause.
I imagine Felix thinking, Don’t make me lie to you.
It’s the same thought that would come to me, and I hate it.
She hasn’t made us do anything. We made the decision.
Suddenly I’m sure Felix is about to tell her the truth, and part of me wants it. I can feel the relief it would bring, a break from the wondering. Hate us or accept it.
Accept what, though? The fact we kissed and shared some steaminess?
And I can’t stand the thought of Lola hating me.
It’s not like we can go to her with an actual definition of what we are.
We can’t just say, By the way, Lola, we really want to have sex. Or at least do intimate things.
Having sex is, by itself, a whole other issue with its own problems.
“She’s not here right now,” Felix says.
Lola laughs. “Well, duh. Is she scouting locations or something?”
“Yes,” Felix says gravely.
My hands smooth over my belly, my fingernails pressing the way they did into Felix’s arms. It’s like I’m trying to reassure our unborn baby, tell him or her it’s okay.
Daddy had to tell a lie to protect your sister.
That’s when the warped fiction ends. You don’t lie to a person to protect them…you do it to protect yourself. And that’s what Felix is doing. He’s protecting us like he always will.
Fuck.
How can I both condemn and approve of his actions?
Why does he confuse me so freaking much?
Except how much I wish he was back in here with me. Kissing me and touching me and making those animal noises of pure hunger.
There’s nothing confusing about that piece of this.
“I was wondering if you’d want to grab something to eat,” Lola says. “For lunch.”
“Let’s do it,” Felix says, then raises his voice. “In fact, I think I’m going to close up for the day. If Faye needs to come back to drop anything off, she can use the service entrance at the side.”
“Does she know to use that one?”
I do now.
“Yeah,” Felix says. “Shall we get going?”
I wait as they leave the warehouse. My fingernails claw through my dress and push against my skin the whole time. Felix goes up to his office, and I hear Lola walking around, making me wince every time it sounds like she’s getting closer to the door.
Finally, they leave, the heavy main doors closing with a thunk.
I lean against the wall, closing my eyes, telling myself I’m not going to cry.
I’m not going to start bawling my eyes out like a goddamn freaking…
But I am already, the tears sliding down my cheeks, the heavy sobs making me shudder.
It’s the magnitude of it, maybe, the sheer fact of what just happened.
I try to make sense of it in my mind.
Photoshoot…flirting…sexy stuff…kiss Lola….
But I’m leaving something out. The part where he left me alone made it extremely clear that he wasn’t coming back today.
Pushing away from the wall, I brush my dress down, calming myself. He needed to get rid of Lola, and probably, he didn’t want to see me again today. I remember the way he looked at me when we broke off the kiss, probably the same way I was looking at him – with regret streaked across his features.