Second Chances

by Gray, Christle

  “Hello Kristin,” from behind her she heard the lilting voice she often heard in her dreams, tormenting her and comforting her at the same time. Even now, the sound made her heart flutter and her hands tremble.

  She stiffened in surprise, and her pulse raced.

  Kristin turned slowly to gaze into those piercing brown eyes she had lost herself in so many times. Those eyes that had seen instantly through to her soul, touching her in ways she’d never thought possible, making her believe foolishly in love once again.

  His chiseled jaw and sensual lips beckoned to her as always, even though the features were a little more drawn and haggard. His tall frame towered over her, the outline of his lean muscles straining the fabric of his T-shirt.

  Her breath caught in her throat and she took an involuntary step backward as she mustered the courage to speak. “David, what are you doing here?” She tried desperately to control the trembling in her voice as well as her hands.

  David’s head cocked to one side as his eyes flicked past her to the painting in the window, then back to her. “You’re selling it?” His voice grew hushed.

  “It’s on display only, not that it’s any of your business.” Kristin’s anger flared to the surface, the acid rising in her stomach. She had finally started to make real progress in getting over him. Why did he have to come back now?

  “What do you want, David?” Her voice cut through the air between them as her blood burned hot.

  “I want to talk to you.” His dark eyes pleaded with her, right along with his voice.

  She turned away from him and stared at the ground in front of her. “I’m quite busy right now.”

  From the sound of his shoes on the pavement she knew he’d moved behind her and she stiffened. The heat from his body caressed her back. “I feel like we have some unfinished business to attend to, and you could at least listen to what I have to say. Could we go inside, please?”

  She shook her head, but didn’t turn around. “I don’t think so.”

  David’s hands lighted on her shoulders. Kristin winced at the fire in his touch. “Please, lass. I just want to talk.”

  An involuntary shudder rippled through her body as her protests fell dead upon her lips. As much as she wanted to avoid being alone with David, the idea of baring her personal life on a busy London street repulsed her more.

  “Very well.” She sighed and her shoulders drooped in defeat.

  David followed her back into the gallery. As they neared her office, they passed the main exhibition room, where all her paintings were on display. Kristin turned around at her office door and found David standing in the middle, scanning the room, his mouth hanging open.

  Though Kristin had made some amount of inner peace with her relationship with David, she didn’t want him here right now. He had come to talk, and she wasn’t going to let him stick around any longer than necessary.

  “Are you coming or not?” She hoped her impatience came across in her voice.

  David’s head whipped abruptly in her direction, before he crossed the room to her office, following her inside. Kristin shut the door and folded her arms across her chest. “So, talk.”

  He stared at her for a moment, his expression lost, like a little boy. After that horrible conversation with Sophie, Kristin was sure she’d never see him again. He was supposed to be starting a new life with that woman, a baby on the way. Not standing here in her office, bringing up memories of a love better left buried.

  “You look great.” His lips curved into a weak smile.

  Kristin rolled her eyes. Was he for real? “If that’s all you’ve got, then you’d better leave.”

  David took a step toward her, his brow creased with…confusion? “Why are you so angry? You’re the one who left me waiting at the curb, and now you’re acting like I should be punished for it.”

  The anger in Kristin’s gut blossomed into fury. Damn him. Damn him for coming back, now that she had finally found the strength to move on without him. And there he stood, acting like he was innocent in the destruction of their relationship.

  The hands at her sides balled into tight fists. “Why would I want to fight for a relationship built on lies? Why, when you were more than happy to carry on with that bitch, Sophie, behind my back?”

  David held his hands up in a gesture of defeat and took a few steps backwards. “I told you that Sophie snuck into my room in Glasgow. Nothing happened between us.”

  The air in Kristin’s lungs came in gulps as her breathing became erratic. “Really?” She opened a drawer and tossed the photos onto her desk top. Why she’d kept them, she didn’t know. “Because this doesn’t look like nothing to me.”

  He shot her a confused glance and snatched the photos from her desk. His eyes grew wide. “Where did these come from?”

  “Where do you think?” Kristin spat the words at him. “Your lovely fiancé, Sophie, dropped them off just as I was about to leave to go and meet you. Imagine my surprise, seeing proof of your true nature.”

  David shook his head and held the photos toward her. “These are why you gave up on us?” He tore the stack in half and tossed them into the air. “These are nothing but lies, taken out of context.”

  Kristin folded her arms in front of her, to cover her chest that heaved with boiling, hot rage. “Tell me, then. What light can you shed on those lovely photos?”

  His dark eyes burned with fire. “To get those photos, Sophie would have had to set up a camera out of sight in my room.” He moved to stand directly in front of Kristin, his eyes locked onto hers in a heated stare. “That was what she was probably doing when you found her in my room in the first place.”

  Her throat turned to ash. Was that what Sophie had been doing? Setting a trap for David to push Kristin away, once and for all?

  David let out a small sarcastic laugh. “She planned the whole thing, deliberately throwing herself at me to get ammunition to chuck at you. After her stunt at the awards ceremony, I should have suspected she wasn’t finished with her games.” He paced the small room.

  Kristin swallowed against the desert in her throat. That woman had Kristin ensnared in all of her webs like a spider. “What happened at the ceremony?”

  He stopped pacing and stared at the ceiling. “She took a moment that the director wanted as a kiss on the cheek and turned it into her lips planted squarely on mine. A show for all the cameras.”

  Kristin glanced away from him and shook her head.

  He grasped her by the shoulders and her head snapped up to meet his gaze. “I pushed Sophie away that night. Nothing. Happened.”

  She wanted so badly to believe him. She removed his hands and stepped back from him. “That didn’t look like you were pushing her away.”

  David growled in frustration. The sound was primal. Elemental. “Of course she wouldn’t show you that part. She wanted to drive us away from each other.” His shoulders sagged with the release of a large breath. “Looks like she succeeded.”

  Some of the fury melted out of Kristin’s body as she stared at him, his eyes ablaze with fire and despair. It would be just like Sophie to manipulate the entire scenario illustrated by those photos into something that would drive a wedge between her and David. She mimicked him and pulled her hands through her hair. Damn, confusion was etched into every part of her being.

  They stood in silence, as Kristin’s heart throbbed in her ears, fighting to return to a more normal pace.

  David shuffled his feet and stuffed his hands in his pockets. “I’m happy that you’re finally able to show the world your talent. What caused this big change of heart?”

  Fear skittered along her spine. “I just decided it was time. Time to break from the past and start over. And, I needed the extra room in my apartment.” She couldn’t tell him that the child they’d made out of love gave her the strength she’d needed for all of this. Not right now. Maybe not ever.

  “I see.” He nodded. “I always thought your talent should be showcased to the world
.”

  Kristin tried to take a deep breath. Her chest was tight, like a steel band encased it. Too many emotions battled for dominance inside her, which made being in David’s presence suddenly suffocating. “I think you should go, David.”

  His hand raked through his hair again before he crossed his arms over his lean chest. “Do you still love me?”

  A lump formed inside Kristin’s throat. David always had been good at asking those tough questions. The band around her chest tightened even more. “I don’t have the answer to that. It’s a moot point, anyway.”

  Panic raced to grip her. She had to get out of the room. Kristin tried to walk past him to open the door to the office, but David grabbed her arm firmly. “I deserve an honest answer after everything we’ve shared. I deserve the truth.”

  His touch on her bare skin electrified her. This was all too much. Kristin wrenched her arm free from his grasp as the room blurred out of focus. She wobbled on her feet and reached out to steady herself. David frowned in concern as he tried to help steady her. But, the gesture only served to irritate her. Kristin waved him away. “David, why don’t you just leave and go back to Sophie?”

  David’s face contorted in pain at the force of her words. “Sophie and I are not together. We were never together.”

  Kristin stilled and concentrated on her breathing while her vision re-focused. She peered at David silently. Why was he not with the mother of his child, and why had her remark cut through him so deeply? “But what about the baby?”

  David moved forward and grasped Kristin’s shoulders again. “How did you know about that?”

  Kristin gulped as his dark eyes swallowed her in their murky depths. “Sophie told me. That same day she brought the photos, she said she was pregnant.”

  David released his grip on her and opened and closed his mouth. He inhaled a quivering breath.

  “Sophie seemed so excited about having a baby, and begged me to try and be a family. I tried to make a parental relationship with her work. I no longer had you to build a life with, so I concentrated on the baby. Sophie and I are not together.” David paced the small office again as he spoke.

  “Go on,” Kristin urged him when he paused. Her body leaned lightly against a filing cabinet for support.

  “We fought a lot and I stuck around because I wanted to try to keep some sort of eye on her, for the sake of my child.”

  Kristin’s hand moved involuntarily to her stomach, something she had started doing unconsciously to comfort herself since she found out she was pregnant.

  Just like the twisting of a wedding band.

  She clasped her hands in front of her instead.

  David stopped pacing and turned his gaze on her. “I guess you don’t read the tabloids, because what happened has been all over them.”

  Something had happened? Kristin furrowed her brow. Ingrid read the tabloids. She hadn’t said anything.

  “I don’t, but you can tell me.” The words tumbled uncertainly from her lips.

  He took a long breath and let it out slowly. His eyes glazed over as he struggled to speak. “Sophie lost the baby.”

  Kristin’s hand flew to her mouth as the shock of David’s words gripped her in sharp claws, shaking her violently. Sophie was psycho, had the woman done something to deliberately hurt the child inside of her?

  Trembles rippled through her, a mixture of anger and sadness rolling around in her stomach. “What happened? Did she do something?” Her voice cracked with the question, her grief for him genuine.

  His eyes widened as he reached out and took her hand. “I don’t think Sophie really wanted a baby. She just used the pregnancy to lure me back. She developed a complete disregard for the fact that whatever she put into her body affected the child she carried.”

  The warmth of his hand around hers spread to her heart. “At least the fear of the exposure of what she did gave me my freedom.”

  His dark eyes clouded with deep sadness over losing his child. Scratch that. Over losing his child due to the actions of Sophie Miller. She didn’t want to imagine that grief. The problems she and David had paled in comparison to the loss of that little life. She threw her arms around him and squeezed. “I’m so sorry, David.”

  She held him for a moment, while he cried silently into her hair. Tears fell from her own eyes for him, and what had been taken away so abruptly. If he felt this type of loss so deeply, could he have really done anything to hurt her like she’d thought?

  David gently pulled her arms away, stepped back out of her embrace and wiped the tears from his face with the back of his hand. He reached and brushed away her tears with his thumb, then tilted her chin to meet his eyes. “Please tell me you believe I would never betray you like Sophie wanted you to think. I can’t bear it if you truly think that about me.”

  Her shaking hand flitted to his wrist. She opened her mouth to speak, but words did not form. Those photos had tormented her since that day in her office. Were they really just a product of Sophie’s cruel calculations?

  Her eyes closed against the ebony storm of David’s gaze. The chaotic torrent of fear, loss, love, and desire inside her made any rational thought a fantasy. Every atom of her body wanted her to trust him, but her mind refused to give in.

  Warm lips brushed hers briefly. She stiffened at first, then sank into the sensation. Tingles radiated throughout her body. She had missed him so much.

  David’s mouth left hers and he straightened, his hands finding his pockets again. He always did that when he was nervous.

  A smile quirked at the corners of her mouth, but she held it back.

  “I can see that you need time to ponder that request.” As he stood and stared at her, the warmth of his kiss lingered.

  Kristin nodded, her words frozen on her lips.

  David moved toward her and cradled her face with both of his hands in one swift movement, causing her to jerk. “I still love you, lass. I’ve never stopped.”

  Those eyes were almost supernatural in their power over her, seeing so easily into all her hidden places. How did they do that?

  “I don’t want to force the issue with you, so I’m going to go.” David released her face and strode to the door, turning as his hand lighted on the doorknob. “I’ll see you soon.” He opened the door and disappeared from sight.

  She closed her eyes and tried to steady herself as she reeled from David’s words. He still loved her. After everything, he said he still loved her. Could they work at trying to be happy together again? Could she take that risk so they would have another chance?

  Her life was so different now. She was stronger, more self confident. But David had a lot to do with that. His love had helped her access that confidence and strength, so she could rely on it by herself. Would it work for them at last?

  She rubbed a circle on her temple, opening her eyes. There was also the baby to tell him about. Being upset like this couldn’t be good for the little thing. She inhaled and exhaled to calm herself as her hand flitted to her stomach again.

  Could this be their second chance?

  ~~~

  The gallery buzzed with excitement as Kristin walked slowly around the exhibition room. Small groups of people gathered around each of her paintings, discussing the works in loud voices as they drank champagne and ate the appetizers Ingrid had picked out with the caterers.

  Kristin nodded and greeted everyone as they passed. Her face beamed with her smile, her insides bursting with pride at her achievement. She was really doing it—living her dream.

  Fully entranced by the activity and customers in the gallery, Celia hurried toward her. Her friend’s favorite little black dress showed off her model figure and her green eyes danced. “Two pieces have already sold, and we’ve only been open fifteen minutes!”

  She hugged Kristin. “I think this may be one of the most successful debut artist shows Haven has ever had.” Celia kissed her on the cheek and waved at a tall man in a dark suit across the room. “I have to go. Darren Rex
all wants to speak with me.” The woman practically bounced to the other side of the room.

  Kristin laughed. If it was possible, Celia might even be more excited than she was.

  Her eyes darted around the room and found Ingrid bending the ear of a tall, blond man. Kristin crossed the room toward her friend.

  “And don’t forget to spell her name right. So many people are careless with that, and an artist’s name is their livelihood.” Ingrid glanced up as Kristin approached. “Darling. I was just talking to Gerald here, who is thinking about writing you up in his column tomorrow.”

  Gerald smiled thinly and straightened his blue tie. His expression didn’t scream happiness. More like irritation. Maybe Ingrid had been laying it on a little thick. She was a press agent as well as a best friend, after all.

  Kristin stuck out her hand to shake Gerald’s. “That’s fabulous, Ingrid. Tell me, Gerald, would you actually like to speak with me?” She flashed a look of disbelief at her friend’s forwardness with the columnist.

  “Now, now. Don’t give us reason to believe that whole temperamental artist stereotype.” Ingrid winked and Kristin giggled. “Besides, I think you might be too busy to talk to Gerald right now.” Ingrid’s gaze shifted past Kristin’s shoulder, and she turned to see what had caught her friend’s attention.

  David stood directly behind her, and she ended up staring into his chest. She took a step back to see his face. Her pulse immediately sprinted straight to the marathon pace. Apparently, he hadn’t been kidding when he’d said she’d see him soon.

  “David, what are you doing here?”

  He wore the taupe suit she had first seen him in. And it still fit him like a glove. Her body screamed for his touch as she remembered how each muscular curve felt under her fingers.

  “Well that’s no way to greet someone. How about hello or how are you?” Kristin’s cheeks heated at the sight of his dimple deepening with a smile.