Exquisite Betrayal (22 page)

As we say our goodbyes, we kiss and both try
to stretch it out for as long as possible.

“
Are you sure you don’t want to stay
with me tonight?” she asks.

“
It’s not a matter of wanting. You
know that. It’s a matter of sticking to my plan and what I think is
right this time. I’ll be damned if I screw it up again.”

“
You won’t.”

I grab her and kiss her, hard. We’re against
her front door saying goodbye, and it’s the hardest goodbye I’ve
ever known. “This is very difficult.”

“
I know,” she says into my mouth.
“Don’t go.”

“
Stop tempting me, dangerous girl.”
I’ve tangled up her hair during our time making out on the couch
and she looks so damn delicious, I want to taste her all over.
“Bloody hell, Fallon, you are so fuckable right now. If you could
see yourself.” I run my finger from her forehead down between her
eyes, over her nose and down to her lips.

“
Then why don’t you fuck me, Ryland
Thomas?”

“
You know bloody hell why. Now stop
tempting me so I can get out of here.” I kiss her once more and
release her. “I’ll call you when I hit the road in the morning,
gorgeous. Sleep well.”

“
As if.” She grins.

“
Dream about me, then?”

“
As if I have a choice.”

I catch a taxi back to Tilly’s. It’s going
to be a sleepless night for me.

***

It’s not quite light out when I get out of
bed. I should’ve simply left last night, but I didn’t trust myself
with the alcohol I’d consumed. Tilly and I say our good-byes and
then I’m heading back to Tahoe by seven a.m. My hand is itching to
call Fallon, but I want her to sleep another couple hours or so.
She probably won’t sleep tonight, since tomorrow is her first day
on her new job.

Visions of us kissing keep popping into my
head, and seconds later, I have a raging hard-on. Dammit! I’m going
to have to start wearing baggy pants because this is getting most
uncomfortable.

Leaving the congestion of the city behind,
I’m on the open highway with my head wrapped up in scenes for my
latest novel when my phone rings. I look at the Bluetooth console
and see it’s Fallon calling.

Tapping the button I answer. “Hey,
gorgeous.” When her voice echoes through my car over the sound
system, it makes me smile.

“
How come you didn’t call?”

“
I wanted you to catch some more rest.
I figured you’ll need it with your first week ahead of
you.”

“
I miss you already.”

“
Same here. Wish you were sitting next
to me in the car right now.”

“
Me, too.”

We’re both silent for a moment.

“
Ryland Thomas?”

“
Hmm?”

“
Do you want me to drive out this
weekend?”

“
I’m thinking about coming in on
Thursday night, depending on how busy your week is and how much I
can get done. I can stay at Tilly’s if you’re swamped.”

“
No! You’re staying with
me.”

“
Slow, remember?” I’m not sure if I’m
reminding her or myself.

“
I’m trying,” she sighs.

“
Okay. I’ll call you as soon as I walk
in the door.”

“
Be careful.”

“
I always am.”

***

Fallon is so occupied with her new job, I
barely speak to her all week with the exception of a few texts here
and there. The good news is that she loves it. I’m ecstatic for her
and I’ve been getting loads done on my own things. It’s Thursday
when she realizes she won’t be free until tomorrow night, so I
postpone leaving until the next afternoon.

When Friday hits, I get everything done in
the morning, the car’s packed and I’m on the road around three. The
metro rush hour looms ahead of me, but Fallon won’t be home until
after six anyway, therefore I’m in no hurry. I pull into the city
around six thirty and still no word from her. Since I haven’t heard
from her yet, I don’t know if I should head to her place or
Tilly’s. At the last minute, I decide to go to hers.

Scanning through some emails while I’m
parked and waiting, I finally spy her walking home, still wearing
that damn boot. I need to ask her when she gets to take that thing
off. When she sees me, her face lights up, but I can tell how worn
out she is.

“
Am I ever glad to see you,” she says
as she wraps herself around me. “I feel like I’ve run a marathon
every day this week.”

“
Well, I’m here so spoil you rotten
the entire weekend. Come on.” I grab my things and we head
inside.

She looks at me and asks, “You’re staying
here?”

Smiling, I say, “Yeah, unless you don’t want
me to.”

“
You know I do and thank
God.”

“
I didn’t say we’d do anything. I’m
just gonna sleep here, love.”

“
That’s enough for me.”

She asks for a glass of wine, so I get her
settled and pour her one before I check out her food and drink
supplies. After seeing that she needs some things, I inform her I’m
headed to the market. “Won’t be long.” I kiss her and head out the
door.

At the store, I pick up food for dinner and
things to cook her brekkie for both mornings. I also grab some
snack items and lunch things. It only takes about forty minutes,
however when I return, she’s asleep. That’s good; I let her catch a
quick nap while I cook us up some dinner.

As I cook, the aromas of the chicken
sautéing must’ve awakened her because I feel her arms slip around
my waist as she presses herself next to me. My body instantly
responds and suddenly we’re kissing to the sound of poultry
sizzling. One kiss and I’m quite lost in her.

“
I missed you, Fallon.”

“
I missed you, too.”

I switch my attention back to the dinner in
the pan while she stands next to me as I cook.

“
You spoil me.”

“
I haven’t even begun. So tell me
about your week.”

“
Oh, God, it was amazing. I love my
job. But I don’t have time to
breathe
.” I love the way she emphasizes the word
“breathe.” It’s so cute I want to kiss her again. I smile as I
listen to her.

“
So they have you running then,
huh?”

“
Yes! Kristie, my boss, wants me to
get a feel for how the entire business works before I start my
focus on critiquing. They’re going to keep me in the romance genre,
thank God. They even want me to go to the Romance Today Con in
Atlanta in April.”

“
Excellent. You know Tilly and I are
going. The three of us can go together.” Plans are materializing in
my head.

“
I’ll probably have to travel with the
Critics Abound team, though, just to keep up the pretense. Ryland
Thomas, I don’t want to exploit our relationship.”

Turning to her, I put my cooking utensil
down and grab her. “Fallon, I never thought you would.”

“
I just want you to know that. I’m not
even sure I want them to know that Tilly and I are friends. You
know. It might give them ideas or something. They already want me
to do a spotlight on you because they know you’re my favorite
author.”

I see where she’s heading with this. “Tilly
needs to weigh in on this, Fallon. We trust you to do the right
thing where we’re concerned. But it’s okay if people know that
you’re friends with her.”

“
I don’t know. We’ll see. Tilly knows
they want an interview.”

“
Either way, it’s great you’ll be in
Atlanta.”

We sit down to our dinner and as we eat, I
ask her about the boot. She looks at me a bit sheepishly. “The
doctor back home said to wear it for six to eight weeks. I was
supposed to follow up with him after four weeks, but I never did
because I don’t have insurance. I was just gonna wear it until next
week and see how it feels. My insurance through work kicks in on
February the second, so I can get it checked out after that.”

When I’m visibly upset, she grabs my
clenched hand and unfolds it. “Don’t be angry with me,
Sinclair.”

“
Angry isn’t the correct word, Fallon.
I’m upset.” My voice is soft. “You should’ve told me. You need to
see a doctor. What if it isn’t healing properly? Now it may be too
late to do anything about it.”

“
It’s fine. If it wasn’t, I would
know.”

“
No, you wouldn’t. You wouldn’t know
until later when other problems develop from it. Please don’t wait
until February. I’ll pay for you to see a doctor. I
want
you to see one. Please do it
for me.”

“
Okay. I’ll ask Tilly if she knows of
anyone I can call.”

“
Thank you.”

As she nods, I’m not satisfied with that, so
I pull her from her chair right into my lap. “The thought of you
having issues that would require a surgical procedure to fix it
worries me, Fallon. I don’t want that for you, love. Okay?”

She smiles. “I haven’t had anyone looking
out for me in a while.”

“
Get used to it.”

Now she laughs. I like that much better. I
clear off the table and we settle in for the night, watching a bit
of TV.

“
You like your new flat screen?” I had
Tilly purchase one for her this week. It’s a small one, but it fits
her apartment.

“
Yes and thanks. But you
have
to quit buying me
things.”

“
Says who?”

“
Says me, that’s who.”

“
Right then. We’ll see about
that.”

“
Ryland Thomas, you don’t have to buy
me anything to make me happy.”

I turn to face her. “Is that what you think
I’m doing?”

“
I’m not really sure.”

“
It’s not, Fallon. The reason I’m
buying you things is because the thought of you coming home to an
empty apartment, saddens me. It’s a lonely thought and you’re new
to this city, in a new job, so I thought a TV would help. I’m not
trying to buy your happiness or make you feel indebted to me in any
way.”

“
You’re very kind, you know, but
I
do
feel indebted to
you.”

“
Don’t. Think about it. Tilly and I
bought you a bed. Between the two of us, we spent three hundred
each. It’s not like we bought you the cream of the crop. And the
TV… it put me out a couple of hundred bucks. I have the money,
Fallon. You’re going to make car payments to pay off the Fusion,
therefore I don’t want to hear it anymore. And, I’m not kind. I can
be rude and an asshole. You’ve been on the wrong side of it, too,
so you know that.”

“
I don’t think you’re like that as a
rule, though. I think I struck a chord with you and you swung back
in self-defense. Or something like that anyway. People do terrible
things to each other when they’re hurting.”

“
Yes, they do. And say terrible
things, too. I’m just sorry it was you that took the brunt of it
all.” I shake my head because I hate the memory of it. “Our
beginning was so messed up on so many levels that… I don’t know.
You affect me, Fallon. And I’ll admit, it’s a bit
daunting.”

She grabs my hand and places it on her
cheek. “I know how you feel, although I’ve never experienced the
pain of having my heart broken like you have. I don’t want to ever
hurt you, Ryland Thomas. I’ll never be unfaithful to you. That goes
against every fiber of my being. If there ever comes a time when
things don’t work between us, I’ll tell you. But I won’t cheat on
you.”

First her eyes pull me in and then her
mouth, and the next thing I know, we’re making out like teenagers.
We’re both moaning and rubbing against each other, trying to get as
close as we can, but our damn clothing keeps getting in the
way.

When we stop for air, we’re both sucking
wind. We laugh. “I feel like I’m in junior high,” she says.

“
Don’t you dare tell me you made out
with a boy like this when you were thirteen.”

“
Ha, you’re right. I would never have
let one of those nerdy boys touch me like this back then.” She
giggles.

“
Your laugh even gets me hard,
Fallon.” I take her hand and put it on me to show her.

“
That wasn’t my laugh that did that,
you goofball.”

“
Uh-huh,” I say as I start to kiss her
again. The truth is, I’m about to bust through my jeans, yet I
can’t get enough of her mouth. I’ll never get enough of her mouth.
She kisses me like the world is going to end and she wants to
remember every single nuance of me so she can take it with her when
it does.

“
Ryland Thomas, are you going to
torture me forever?”

“
Only as long as you torture me.” I
get up and pull her with me. “I think it’s time we go and get some
sleep.”

“
I like the way you worded that. Sleep
and not bed.”

“
Ah, you caught that, didn’t
you?”

“
Uh, yeah.”

We get to her room and I undress her to the
point of her sexy underthings. “Fallon, where are your
nighties?”

“
I don’t know what you mean, Ryland
Thomas.”

“
Ah, being a bit cheeky, are
ya?”