Shattered (6 page)

"I feel like I haven't seen you in forever. How have you been, Dallis?" Miranda asked, motioning for the waiter.

"I've been okay." I smiled lightly. "Just taking things one day at a time."

The waiter made his way over. After ordering turkey and provolone paninis, we made small talk about the weather, the deli, and anything else except for the massive elephant in the room. Being that I have no patience for nonsense, I brought the small talk to an end, startling Miranda.

"Why are you talking about bullshit?" I asked, catching Miranda off guard. "I know you didn't drag me out today to talk about this constant rain," I said, waving my hand to the side of me, "or this damn deli."

"I just haven't seen you. I didn't want to immediately jump into your sorrows." She half smiled, half cringed at the word
sorrow.

"It's fine. I can't stay in perpetual hell, right?" She cocked her head to the side and just as she was about to speak, I continued. "I've been here before. I'll work myself out of it."

"I know you have, I just worry. Is Colby helping? He
was
your rock after the passing of your dad."

"He helps, when he isn't driving me bat-shit crazy." I chuckled.

Miranda laughed with relief, happy to see me let loose a bit.

"What's he doing now? I swear you two are like vinegar and water, but somehow you make it work."

"He's doing his best, I guess," I said, shaking my head lightly.

"You guess?" Miranda questioned, scooting her chair in closer to the table to hear me.

"Yes. He's been so busy with work, and when he isn't working he's being Colby." Miranda nodded her head appreciatively. She knew better than anyone else what it meant for Colby to be Colby. "He's been on this marriage kick, which I'm not ready for, and it's led to quite a few arguments."

"Let me ask you this, and don't bite my head off."

I puckered my lips at her words.

"After all this time, why do you think you aren't ready to marry Colby? Do you love him?"

I paused for a second. "Of course I love him, and I can't say why I'm not ready, I'm just not. Colby has everything most girls would want in a husband. Money, good looks, and adoration, but, his condescending attitude is the biggest turn off."

"Colby Shaw has been a condescending ass since the day I met him. What's so different now?" she asked, rolling her eyes as she spoke.

"I don't know," I said with finality. I wanted to end this conversation since it didn't feel as if it was going anywhere. I moved on to a much lighter topic of discussion, seeing as though the talk about Colby was just making me angry again. "How's work going for you?" I asked, finally hitting on something that made Miranda perk up.

"It's going great. By the way, your office space is ready when you are." She smiled. I returned it, but didn't say anything. Since Miranda and I had merged our businesses together, she'd transformed one of the rooms in her small building into an office space for me to work out of. "Have you been shooting at all?" she asked, eager to keep me talking.

"Yeah," I sighed, "I was actually up at Queen Anne lookout and I shot a few up there yesterday." I stopped and took a deep breath. "Look, I'm going to go back to work tomorrow, I need to get my life back on track," Miranda's eyes glowed with compassion, "And stop looking at me with those gosh damn puppy dog eyes. They make me want to punch you."  

She laughed and I finally joined her. We spent the rest of our time making jokes and engaging in light hearted conversation. The weather was no indication of our moods. We were uplifted, while the rain picked up and continued to crash down.

Later that evening, I was halfway through my shower when I heard Colby come into the room. I glanced at the clock hanging on the bathroom wall, just above the two pictures of Colby and I on one of his parents' yachts, and I noticed it was only 6:15 p.m. With the hours that he'd been working, I was shocked to see him home at what I considered early. He strolled into the bathroom and undressed, making his way into the shower and, wrapping his bulging arms around my body, pulling me in close. I relaxed myself into his embrace and allowed his arms and the hot water to wash away the tension that had been building inside.

We took turns washing one another. Colby had to kneel down for me to get every inch of him, but we made light of it, and the physical closeness that had been noticeably absent in our relationship was once again back and welcomed. While kneeling, Colby laced soft kisses on my stomach and used his large, sensual hands to caress every inch of my wet, slick body. He slowly stood and pulled me up with him. Standing with me in his arms, he ran delicate kisses along my neck, down my shoulders, and up to my lips. His moist, full lips touched mine ever so gently, and the water running down his face added to the smoothness of his kiss. He thrust his tongue into my mouth, pouring out every ounce of passion that had been built up since my nightmarish ordeal had taken place. I met him with the same raw intensity he was giving me. I missed him, and from the feel of his expert tongue flicking wildly with mine, he missed me too.

Colby raised me up in his arms and brought me down ever so gently onto his awaiting cock. It felt like it had been years since I had felt him inside of me. He was bigger than average, and the further he dug, the more my tightened walls flexed to accommodate the intrusion. I wrapped my legs around his waist and began to move, sending shock waves throughout my body. The feel of Colby inside of me reminded me just how much of him I had missed in the past few weeks--I wanted him more than anything at that moment. Once we got comfortable with a hard, steady rhythm, I tightened my grip around his neck and lay my head on his shoulder, allowing him to take over and finish me off.

Colby squeezed my ass with the tenacity that he was using to pound into me. The harder he pounded, the more of a quivering mess I became in his arms. His cock sent sparks to every nerve ending in my body, making me convulse with pure pleasure as I whispered inaudibly in his ear. As he inched close to his release, he picked up the pace, making me feel like a jack hammer had been placed inside of me. He moved with great intensity, grunting and squeezing me tight, and in almost perfect unison, we came together. I death gripped his back, and Colby firmly held me, as we spilled ourselves all over one another.

Panting wild rabid animals and trying to catch our breaths for what felt like minutes, Colby slowly lowered us into a soft, languid mess on the shower floor. We sat for a few minutes, hands intertwined, and after staring at one another in complete silence, I nestled my head into his rock hard chest. He rubbed the top of my head and whispered, "I needed that."

I looked back up to his face and, his eyes were filled with satisfaction, his comment rubbed me the wrong way.

"I needed that, too. Thanks for asking."

He looked to meet my gaze and smiled, obviously unaware that his words had highly annoyed me.

"You know what I meant, babe." He kissed my forehead then nestled his head back down with mine. I did know what he'd meant, unfortunately. I knew it all too well.

We slowly made our way out of the shower and into the bedroom where I lay down in the bed, dressed in absolutely nothing and relishing the satin sheets that Colby had purchased in my absence. The sheets had cost more than what I was comfortable spending on a month's car payment, but it was his way of surprising me, and since we'd been apart for so long, I didn't put up too much of a fuss.

He sauntered over to his side of the bed wearing nothing as well, and slid under the sheets, pulling me close and kissing the top of my head.

"Hey, babe," he said, now running his fingers through my hair, "I made plans for us to go out with Greg and his girlfriend, Kelsey, on Saturday night."

I sat up, my face in a tight scowl, and removed his hand from my hair. "What do you mean you made plans for us? What happened to asking me first?"

He sat up. "It's no big deal, Dallis. Greg asked if we wanted to go to some new coffee- bar and I said yes. His girlfriend, Kelsey, will be there, so you'll be fine."

"It has nothing to do with who'll be there, Colby. I'd just prefer that you let me in on plans for my weekend before committing me to something. You have no idea if I already had plans for Saturday night," I said with a scorching level of bite in my tone.

"I knew you didn't have plans this weekend," he said in a tone surely meant to make my blood boil.

"And how did you know that?" I asked, trying hard to keep the wrath out of my voice.

"Because if you'd had any, you would have told me." He gave his explanation with a high level of arrogance and it made me want to smack him, but I refrained.

"Well then next time why don't you extend me the same fucking courtesy?" I said, in a clipped tone that made Colby sigh. He didn't say another word.

Turning over to wrap myself in the luxuriousness of the satin sheets, I closed my eyes and fell into a deep sleep.

The sound of the rain drops hitting the roof woke me. I lightly wiped my eyes and squinted to adjust to the light. Colby was getting dressed for work and when I was able to focus, I watched as he worked a slight hint of gel through his spiky, blonde hair. He looked over at me, saying, "Good morning," but his stoic demeanor put me off. He was probably still a bit miffed from our conversation last night. Truth be told, I was too, although I wasn't going to start my day off with it.

"Good morning."

I got out of the bed and made my way into the bathroom to brush my teeth. I stood in front of the mirror, brushing and watching Colby fuss with his hair. When he finished, he washed his hands and then spritzed a couple of sprays of cologne. It was strong and husky, and usually made me want to cuddle him, but while I did have the urge, I refrained and continued brushing my teeth.

Colby stood and watched me in the mirror for a few seconds before saying, "Meet me at my office for lunch today."

I finished brushing and rinsed out my mouth before replying.

"I can't. I'm going to be swamped today trying to get back on track with my own work."

He looked at me inquisitively. His eyes narrowed and his mouth opened just a slit. I looked back at him and he asked, "You're going back to work already?"

"Yes," I replied definitively, "Don't you think it's time?"

"No, actually, I don't. It hasn't been that long, Dallis"

"It's been too long. I need to get back to a sense of normalcy. Miranda has my office space all set up and I'm ready to start taking clients again… to start filling my time."

He sighed heavily, but didn't say anything. I didn't take my eyes off of him and he walked over to where I was standing and leaned down and kissed me softly.  I didn't pull away, but I also didn't give anything extra to the kiss. He pulled back and murmured, "See you later," then left for work.

Being my own boss definitely had its perks. I didn't have a set time to head into the office so I went in only after I had taken a long run and come home to a filling, hearty breakfast of bacon, eggs, and a cream cheese, blueberry bagel.

Miranda had scored a killer deal on an office space in the U-District, and while I didn't love the fact that we would be submerged in the college crowd, I couldn't complain either. I walked in to find Miranda beaming at me. She briskly walked up and took my hand, leading me back to my little room that was now my makeshift office. I liked what she'd done with it, taking some of my photos of the city and having them framed and strategically placed on the walls. While the walls were a subdued mauve color, the splotches of brightly colored paint that framed every picture on the wall was a definite nod to our tastes and personalities. I looked around the room in appreciation.