Eluding Nirvana (The Dark Evoke Series Book 2) (14 page)

I was pushing myself up in the heart of the bed, gathering the edge of the comforter and stretching it across my chest when Liam spoke from the doorway of the walk-in-closest at the foot of the bed.
“Good morning, baby,” his voice was soothing yet strained as he continued fixing his black tie into place.

“Morning.”

Steadily making his way toward me, he asked, “How are you feeling this morning?” When he took position on the edge of my side, the mattress dipped.

“Hurt.” I sighed,
although I found the strength to force a nervous, tightlipped grin through my blatant honesty when his hand gradually lifted.

By some means
, I mustered the strength to combat my body’s natural response and not recoil from him. Liam’s degree of guilt was discernible not solely by the look on his face, but in his velvety enriched voice as he breathed, “Oh, Kady,” while his fingertips smoothed over the arch of my left cheekbone. His handsome, clean shaven face contorted in blatant shame when he witnessed me striving to restrict a wince at the faintest of connections. Had I not the strength to suppress the full extent of my pained reaction, I was certain it would’ve added to his guilty disposition. I couldn’t do that to him. He shouldn’t need to feel guilt. He hadn’t forced Brittany to fabricate the bullshit which resulted in our actions.

“It’s okay. It doesn’t hurt.” It did. It stung
and throbbed like a bitch.

Immediately after withdrawing
his hand from my injured cheek, he dove into the back pocket of his suit pants. It was when his wallet was opened and one of his credit cards was being held out to me, that I couldn’t mask my confusion any longer.

“Here,” he thrust it at me once more.
My perplexed scowl remained fixed on my face as I accepted his offering with caution. “Treat yourself. Get your hair done, nails, feet the works.”

I shook my head, dubious.
Where was this coming from? “What about me staying inside? I don’t think I can go––”

“Baby, will you please listen,” he interjected with hooded eyes,
in that instant, I shut my mouth and a tender hand came down to rest on the comforter covering my thigh. He continued, “I want you to get your hair done. Get your nails and feet done. Buy a new outfit, something that will stun everyone at the Hyperion tonight.”

A
stealing crease worked its way across my brow.

“
You haven’t forgotten about tonight’s DeLaney Constructs gathering for the new contract have you? The entire workload and their plus-ones will be there, Kady.”

Shit, how could I have forgotten about that damned event? Liam had been organizing it for the last month.
But, then again, I had been designing the interior of the house for the last month, so no wonder it had escaped me. “Of course I remember,” I lied.

The distance closed between us, and
my dried, withered lips were swiftly and accordingly slanted over by his soft, minty mouth. “Good,” the small presses of his lips as he mouthed it against me was then removed when he drew himself away and reared up. The mattress shifted once again. “I have to stay behind tonight, so I’ll send a car to pick you up at about seven and I’ll meet you there.”

“Okay.”

“And umm,” shrugging on his navy suit jacket, the plastic card twisted between my fingers. “Take someone with you today. I don’t want you on your own.”

When I suggested I call Liv and have her accompany me, the idea
was swiftly overturned, with Liam’s insistence that I avoid being snowed under by Liv and her God forsaken guilty conscience, which has been making a meal out of her for a while, it would seem. I needed to take time to relax and enjoy
myself
. Apparently, I deserved it.

“What about Laurie?” he proposed
with an arched dark brow.

“Good idea. I’ll ask her.”

Once again he strolled toward the bed, the mattress swallowed his fists as he leaned into me and bracing his weight through straight arms. He planted a chaste kiss on my lips. “Good. Treat her to something, too.”

“You are being awfully generous this morning, Mr. DeLaney,” I teased with a sheepish grin.

He chuckled briefly. “Don’t complain, Miss Jenson. I have one last request.”

I had already responded with a quick, “Anything,” b
efore I even considered what this ‘request’ may be.

Seemingly ashamed, remorseful even, h
is head was lowered. “Could you please…” he wavered, drawing in another breath, I could feel the power he was striving to muster to push past his hesitancy as he faintly rolled his forehead across my own.

“Could I what?”

“Could you wear your sunglasses please?” he whispered, reserved and unsettled.

W
ear my sunglasses? That was an unusual request if ever I did hear one. Nonetheless, I nodded my acquiescence and with a brief peck on the lips and a ‘thank you’, Liam left for work, leaving my house keys and large, Jackie-O styled sunglasses on the bedside unit.

It wasn’t until I shunted myself out of the terribly alluring bed and made a beeline to the en-suite and gazed at myself in the vanity mirror
, during which I patiently waited for the pressure and temperature of the shower to stabilize, did I notice why Liam made such a trivial request. My left eye was turning an ugly darkened purple, while the white of my eye had a minor red tinge. Yes…very large tinted lenses and a make-up artist’s never ending supply of cosmetics was definitely going to be needed on that day.

Within fifteen minutes,
my wet body was being rapidly toweled of trickling, warm droplets, when I caught sight of the round, red mark which coated my thigh; all it did was add insult to injury. The day before my body was a temple, unblemished, just as it always had been. And now, I had two screaming flaws, and all from one catalyst.

Nevertheless,
I refused to let the happenings of the day before tarnish a new day––a day which was important to Liam and the business. So going about my business, I dropped everything that I needed into my red leather shoulder bag, when a piercing, double beep informed me of Laurie’s arrival. For the second time in as many minutes, I checked myself in the full-length mirror. Sporting my red gauze blouse shielding a black camisole and tucked neatly into my black fitted pants and finished with red heeled pumps, I looked both casual yet sophisticated––something which I’d never have achieved without Liam and his tirelessness mission of: modify Kady’s fashion sense. I was ever grateful that I listened, and he’d succeeded.

My bag was snatched from the bed, before I made a hastily retreat down the stairs and out of the door.
Head hanging down, I slipped my shades on as I descended the front steps.

A
very lively, “Good morning, sunshine,” greeted me as I slipped into the cherry-red Honda. When the door was firmly shut behind me, my seatbelt was fixed into place. “What’s with the Jackie-O’s? It’s not that sunny, you know.”

Awash by a form of protectiveness and defense, I wrenched my gaze
to the woman who made up for her lack of height by teasing and ribbing, and frowned. The only words the voice in my head could repeat was: ‘
It was my fault. He did what he felt he needed to do’
. Making an attempt to veer away from the subject, I flipped her off with the typical, ‘migraine forming’ excuse.

I thanked my lucky stars that Laurie was so down to Earth, that she actually believed me.

Laurie and I made a day of it. We talked, we laughed and we teased. We sat in a booth in a quiet bistro sipping a glass of wine and enjoying a light lunch, while watching other patrons and making up little scenario’s, and possible conversational topics that they were engaging in. My hair was now comfortably on my shoulders, my layers flicked in every direction creating a shaggy-like look which bounced and swished. I loved it. Laurie opted for dark purple nails which matched her bangs, while mine were coated in a rich, glossy chocolate.

The only
item left of the agenda, was to buy an outfit for that night’s event.

It was 3:15
p.m. when we stepped through the royal blue door and into Marcela’s Obsession. The bell sounded its inviting jingle as I closed the door behind me.

“Good afternoon, can I help you?”
Behind the glass fronted counter, a middle-aged, impeccably dressed woman greeted us; the assortment of jewelry behind the glass sparkled as the light seared through and ricocheted off each gem.

“No, t
hank you. We’re just browsing.”

Up two narrow steps I climbed when I spotted exactly what Liam had said he wanted me to get, ‘something that will stun everyone’.
My jaw plunged the floor, and I was sure my specs would soon be joining it. The overly-large frames were tipped down onto the tip of my nose allowing me to examine the ensemble clearly, when a firm hand crashed onto my shoulder. “Wow!”

“I know. It’s…” words failed me.
One thing I knew for certain was that, whoever wore this dress would definitely have people stunned at something like tonight’s event.

“You got to, Kady.
I’m sure he would kiss your fucking feet if he saw you in that. Either that or turn into a puddle of mush before your very eyes.” Damn, Laurie was swearing? She must have felt passionate about it, because Laurie very rarely swore.

Without thinking, I
lifted my shades from the tip of my nose, to rest atop of my head and resumed examining the material and cut of the dress. The material was cold and a little rigid between my fingers, but as I inspected it further, I silently considered whether the mark on my thigh would be screened by its length. The last thing I wanted was something that ugly to be put on display.

“What are you thinking, Kady?” her gentle voice penetrated my silent musing.

My lips tipped and my lower lip found itself snared between my teeth. “I’m thinking…Liam is going to turn into a puddle of mush when he sees me tonight.”

The
release of her high-pitched, demented squeal had me laughing from my belly. I removed the hanger in a daze, checked the size and turned to face the woman bouncing up and down with a degree of excitement rivaling a child getting ice-cream, when she came to an abrupt halt. Her face fell and as her hand was raised to my face, I jolted on instinct. “What the fuck happened to your eye?”

Shit.
How could I have been so damn stupid? I hastily fumbled with the frames which were still sitting comfortably on the top of my head, and attempted to pull the mask over my contusion. It didn’t help though. Laurie batted my hand away and glared at me with rooted expectancy.

“Well?”
her terse question bounced in the mute void between us. Allowing the silence to swell, it wasn’t long before she jumped to conclusions as I strove to find a believable answer to her pushy query. “Did Liam hit you?”

Okay, so she wasn’t jumping to conclusions
as such, but it was my responsibility to make sure she thought she was. “No, don’t be so silly,” a deceitful mirthless gurgle vibrated around the lump in my throat, the corners of my lips twitched as my overactive right hand motioned with the gushing of my words. “I tried pulling that damn front door open last night when you left, and it hit me straight in the face––” The conviction behind the words which were being rapidly strewing together was absent. Quickly becoming desperate to remove that shrewd scowl from her face, I would have thrown just about everything I had at her to deviate from the subject––Hell, I did. “It didn’t happen to Pooh Bear’s friends when they pulled him out of that honey tree.”

Nope…nothing was going to thaw that expression from her face. Hazel eyes stared at me almost…pitifully, knowledgeably. It was an expression I urgently sought to remove myself from being under.

Setting my glasses back onto the bridge of my nose, I took the dress and approached the narrow steps. “Come on, I want to buy this dress before someone else comes in and decides they want it.”

The
footsteps from behind me were shadowed by her small cynical statement, “Funny. You didn’t seem to have any problem with the front door this morning.”

Blood boiled over in my vein
s, my heart was a steel drum pounding an erratic rhythm in my chest. My legs and hands trembled as I considered every avenue which I could take to stop people from jumping the gun and thinking the worst of my boyfriend––a man who had been supporting and looking after me for all those months, a man who wouldn’t intentionally cause me any harm. A man, who with everything he had, even if it meant overriding his morals and values, would do anything to make me see the fault in my behavior, just to make sure that we survived as a couple.

As I handed over Liam’s credit card to the sales assistant, I knew what I had to do.

Maybe if I began to believe my lies myself, others would believe me, too.

There seems to be no element of time when you study yourself in the mirror, and you’re enthralled by what’s staring back at you. In the bedroom, I stood at the foot of the bed, admiring myself before the Grecian themed, full-length mirror.

I turned left, I turned right,
and I struck several model-worthy poses while pouting my lips. Pathetic, I know, but even so, I felt an element which had been lying dormant for so long slowly awaken: the sense of desirability. Everybody in the world wants to feel desirable, it’s a fact. I think there’s even a quote about it being an irresistible desire. And with each ticking minute that passed, that feeling was being revived.