Me: Take your time. I’m going to take a bath and relieve some tension. I’ll see you later.
Damian: Keep the water warm. When I get home, you can relieve mine.
I smile. I can’t help it. The man is a complete mystery. He’s always there when I need him, flirts like it’s his profession and walks around half-naked like it’s a uniform, yet hand holding is the only base he’ll cross . . . until that kiss. My insides clench as I remember his lips pressed to mine, his teeth gently biting my top lip as he held me tight. My lips are still on fire and now, these texts . . . shit, we’ve crossed the line and I only have forty-five minutes before we make that crossing a permanent move we can never recover from.
Jumping into action, I take a shower, resisting the urge to ease the burn Damian ignited in me. He started the fire; he’s the only one who can put it out.
Stepping out of the shower, I stand naked in the bathroom. The workouts I’ve been doing this past month have been paying off. I’m toned in places I didn’t know I had muscles; my breasts look larger and firmer resting above my taut stomach. Confidence I’d never possessed before ripples through me, and I throw on my white terry cloth robe, and a pair of stilettos.
There’s a knock on the door, and a warm heaviness settles deep in my belly. I throw open the door, expecting to see dark eyes and a sexy grin waltzing into my apartment. A cold blast of February wind smacks me in the face, along with a strong dose of reality.
“Hi.”
Fuck.
“Matt.”
He walks towards me, his eyes boring into mine, and my feet move backward as he steps uninvited into my apartment, closing the door behind him. I think I left my lungs outside. Suddenly, I’m having a hard time breathing.
His dark hair is styled—perfectly. His white, straight teeth are hidden behind his knowing smile. Those blue eyes that at once had my heart melting, now give me a sense of anxiety.
The wind picks up outside, it howls through the windows and I get the urge to go out and be swept away by it, to leave this place once and for all and start fresh, restart my life my way.
“What are you doing here? I thought I told you not to come.”
He eyes my outfit, his mind clearly spinning, and I begin to regret my decision to walk around in nothing but a robe and stilettos.
“I told you I wanted to explain in person.” He takes a step closer. “Did you really think one text was going to keep me away?”
Holding my robe closed tight, I meet his stare. “I have . . . plans.”
A dark and perfectly groomed eyebrow lifts in my direction as he once more hungrily scans my outfit. “Cancel them.”
His hand reaches towards me and unties the only thing keeping my dignity in place. The robe falls open on each side and Matt now has a front row seat to the body I’d just been so proud of.
I watch as his breath catches, his eyes eagerly traveling over every curve and crease on my body.
Dread overtakes my system, working its way from the pit of my stomach through my throat and to the tip of my tongue. I’m frozen in place, knowing I need to close my robe, cover my naked body from his lust-filled eyes, but the shock of my exposure hasn’t settled in yet and I can’t seem to move. His eyes travel from my body to my face and reality settles in.
As he stands in front of me hunger radiating off him, it becomes evident that my body is not immune to his touch, my nipples hardening, my breath catching and a slow ache that had already begun is becoming more pronounced.
Without asking permission, he reaches for me, placing his hand on the swell of my hip and pulls me towards him. The smell of his designer aftershave lingers on his smooth skin, the hint of mint escapes his lips and I’m reminded that he’s not a man’s man. He’d never flaunt his sweaty abs for the entire world to see. He doesn’t have rough calloused hands to massage my feet. His white button-down and navy trousers speak volumes to the life I’d live if I ever gave in to this.
He is a far cry from the man who lives in track pants, no shirt and a beanie. My insides begin to revolt at the touch of Matt’s hands on my body.
I take a step back, closing and securing my robe. “You don’t get to touch me anymore. You have a wife named Helen.” If I keep saying her name, she becomes real. I can’t pretend she doesn’t exist and neither can he.
He stiffens. “Helen was a business deal, Addison. I marry her, I get to own a piece of her dad’s company. We all came out winners in the end and no one, including Helen, expected the marriage to last longer than it has.”
“Not me,” I whisper.
He tilts his head, trying to understand what I’m talking about.
“I lost. I didn’t come out a winner in your deal.”
Concern marring his perfect face, he leans against the wall, and takes a deep breath, “Shit. No, you definitely lost and I’m so sorry for that part of the arrangement. But now, Addison, now I can give you anything you ever wanted. I can love you forever, and you’ll never have to worry about a dime again.”
I glare at him. “I never cared about money, Matt. We could have been the poorest people around as long as we were together. Don’t use that as an excuse for your lack of commitment.”
Holding my robe closed tight, I watch as his mind searches for a way to get me to understand. “Maybe that’s how you felt, Addy,” He pushes off the wall and stands in front of me. “But I needed to be able to come back to you with the world on a silver platter, or I wasn’t going to come back to you at all.”
“You didn’t come back for me, Matt. You said as much last time you were here. You weren’t ever coming back.”
He flinches, and I know I’m right. “You forgot about me. You forgot about us,” I whisper.
Sighing deeply he takes a step closer. “I could never forget about you, Addison. What we had . . . shit, Addy, I’ll never love like that again. But I fucked up leaving you and I figured you’d moved on. How could you not have found someone else?”
“Because my life fell apart the moment you left! My dad died, Matt. Do you have any idea how hard that was for me? I lost you, then my dad, and I was broke, working two jobs to get myself through law school. You stopped calling, never checked up on me. You broke my heart Matt, and I didn’t have time to put it back together. I can’t put myself through that again.”
His shoulders fall, and his eyes soften. “Addison,” he grabs me around the waist and pulls me to him. I tense, and his eyes darken, the blue looking more like the ocean than a clear fall day. Resting his cheek against the top of my head, a small groan leaving his throat. “I didn’t come into town last month to find you, but I sure as hell went to Joe’s with you front and center on my mind. The fact that you were there . . . my insides shouted at me, ‘Here’s your second chance, don’t fuck up again.’ I don’t love Helen, and I never did. If you believe anything, please believe that.”
For a second, emotions I’ve tried hard to tamp down rise up, and I do believe him. But that doesn’t mean I can trust him.
His hand slips inside my robe. Curling his fingers around my ribs, his thumb resting right under my breast, he kisses my forehead. “I don’t know how to stay away at this point, Addy.”
Opening the robe once again with his other hand, he trails a finger along the round swell of my exposed breast, his firm grip on my side not allowing me to move an inch. “Don’t push me away, Addison. Not when it’s so clear you want this too.” Gently he runs the back of his finger along the tip of my nipple and involuntarily my breath catches.
A loud knocking begins at my front door. “Green Eyes, it’s me. Open up.”
Matt’s eyes meet mine a flicker of doubt clouds them, his head tilting to the side.
Damian.