Coming Home (Only Time Will Tell #1)

by Caroline Spencer

  He hangs up and I stare at the receiver with my mouth hanging open. “Well, someone’s fucked off.” I try to laugh but it sounds completely fake. “Nod, I’m crapping myself right now. I don’t know what to think. Could she do something like that?”

  Nod shakes her head slightly. “That woman socializes with his Mom, we all know she hates you…If she’s managed to do it, I don’t think it was single handedly.”

  Of course they all know that, thanks to Abigail being in one of the stalls at the ball.

  I don’t rush as I get up or walk to the office. I need some final thinking time because everything I’ve thought about saying to him has ran out of my head. Damn lines. Fisting my hand I go to knock on the door, but crap myself one final time. I don’t want to do this while he’s in this mood. I should have called him, it would have been a damn site easier, even if it’s the coward’s way. I only chose this route so I could judge him and see how he reacts, but that conversation flew off into the sunset leaving me grasping for words to say. And I never expected him to have such a foul temper when I did it.

  I go to attempt a knock again, but the door flies open before my knuckles even hit the door. I gape at him. His jaw is ticking, in rhythm with his pulsing neck. “You can walk then? I was about to drag you here.”

  “No need to, I managed it, eventually.” I stutter, stepping into the office as he steps back for me to enter. “What is it you want to see me about?” Stupid question. I can bet diamonds that it isn’t work related. The door clicks behind me as I walk to my seat, spinning around I find him leaning against the door, his head tipped back staring at the ceiling.

  He slowly drags his gaze to me, with me standing in the middle of the room feeling like a lost sheep. “You know what. I just have no idea where to start.”

  “The start is normally a good place,” I smile. “Did you keep my resignation?” Not that I want him to have kept it.

  His eyes narrow on me before he tugs at his perfect hair that will soon be coming out of his scalp at this rate. “Like hell I did! And don’t even think about writing another one out, if you do, I’ll make it impossible for you to get a job anywhere else in this country, one way or another.”

  I fight the smile that’s trying to escape me. Even though he’s pissed off enough I can’t help in this instance, adding fuel to the fire. “Fine. I’ll go back to England.”

  “Fucking hell, Cat!” he shouts, storming across the room so quickly I almost miss him. His hands are everywhere: my shoulders, my arms, my face. Does he think I’m going to disappear? “You’re not leaving me.”

  “Will you calm down?” I shout, backing away from him. He looks at me, breathing heavily as he watches me perch my backside on the edge of his Uncle’s desk. “Now, did you find anything out?” He stops breathing. His jaw slacks slightly. “Did I speak Chinese? Did you manage to find anything out?”

  “You want to know? You’re giving me a chance to explain?”

  “It looks that way.” I smile, shimmying back on the desk to get comfortable.

  Kyle breathes a sigh of relief before fishing something out of his pocket and throwing it my way. Catching it I look at the label and my stomach drops. “Lunesta? These things can knock you out, can’t they?”

  “Sure can. And has symptoms of grogginess the next day, which explains a thing or two. My Mom has a stash of these in her bathroom. I think Josie might have swiped them.”

  Wow. I didn’t think she’d go to that extreme, but it makes sense. Helps his story. “You could have taken these too. You could have grabbed these to cover yourself.”

  His shoulders sag as he rubs his face with both of his hands, the poor guy looks like he’s giving up. “But I didn’t. I found them in her things yesterday to keep myself occupied while I waited for a call that never came.”

  “Kyle? Come here.” He looks at me briefly, questioning me before making any movement towards me. Once he’s close enough, I pop the pills back in his pocket and grab hold of his blazer, tugging him closer so I can look in his eyes. “Are you telling me the truth? You aren’t just saying these things to mess with my head, making up elaborate lies to cover yourself?”

  He says nothing but matches my stare and I know in my heart that when I look into them, I can see his soul. He’s my Kyle, my K.C. “Cat, I would never lie to you. I wasn’t thinking straight when she told me about the check and I sure as hell didn’t want her anywhere near my bed. You think I’m deliberately going to mess us up?”

  I can’t speak so I just smile. What a wasted week.

  Clearly that wasn’t the whole reason he was in a bad mood. I also had to sit through him having a fit about dancing with that guy, leaving with that guy and once he found out, staying with that guy, all night.

  He’d spent the rest of Sunday apparently thinking about it, cooking up the scenarios about what had happened between me leaving the club and getting home. Apparently he “trusted me” but he didn’t trust him. He “knows how guys minds work” and hell, I got a million questions about what happened. Even had him in tears as he asked if I’d slept with him. Kyle had the nerve to ask me, that! Needless to say it erupted into an argument. It’s like we climb on hill just to face another.

  “Grow up, Kyle! My sex life is nothing to do with you!”

  “I think you’ll find, it is! Now will you tell me, did you or didn’t you, sleep with him?” he shouts, the words echoing through the building.

  “Shout it a bit louder, I don’t think my parents quite heard that! What is wrong with you? Why couldn’t you just leave it when I told you I believed you? You had to open your mouth and start again!”

  “Because, I deserve to know! Why won’t you just tell me?”

  Picking up a cushion off of the couch I launch it at him, hitting him. “Because, I refuse to speak to you about it while you’re in this mood.” Marching towards the door, my hand finds the door knob but it slips as Kyle intercepts me unlocking it, spinning me and pinning me against the door. “What. The. Fuck!”

  “Tell me. I’m fucking breaking inside, just put me out of my misery and tell me.”

  “Your misery? Do you honestly think I did?” I ask, squirming against him and trying to free my wrists from his hands above my head. “What do you want me to say? Yes? No? Or, go the whole hog and tell you that after I left, I didn’t have sex with anyone until you showed up at the fucking wedding?” I snap, as unbelievable as it might sound to other people, it was the truth. I’m not saying I swore off sex, but the hurt I went through with Kyle had me not wanting to look. Besides, they don’t make vibrators for nothing.

  His fingers dig into my skin. I stop squirming and look at him, his penetrating gaze making me unable to breakaway “What did you say?”

  “What?” I ask, breathing heavily.

  “The part about after you left.”

  I tried once more to release my wrists. Sighing when I couldn't, I repeated myself. “I didn’t have sex with anyone until you showed up at the fucking wedding. Happy? Booking me into a convent? Going to make—”

  My head connected with the door with a loud thud. His lips pinned me there, unable to move.

  He breaks away peering down at me, his expression tense and his jaw ticking. He asks me, “Are you serious? Only me?”

  Glancing from his eyes to his lips and back, I suck in my bottom lip before whispering, “Just you.”

  His lips crash into mine again, nipping at me until I grant him access. When I do, he makes quick work of turning me on and disintegrating my panties with his tongue in my mouth.

  He releases my hands, that have almost lost all feeling in them, and I slide them under his jacket, slipping it away from his body. I grip his shirt and yank it open. I haven’t got time for buttons these days. After I’ve discarded that, I run my hands down his chest and to his stomach, feeling the tensed muscles like they’re waves in the ocean, until I reach his dress pants. I stop and linger, running my finger over his skin.

  He stops kissing, and w
e both breathe for air. “You’re not stopping,” he informs me, resting his forehead against mine.

  Slowly, I slide my hand into the waistband as I look up at him. “Is that an order?”

  He nudges my legs apart with his and presses the length of his body against mine. “You waste no time getting the fucking shirts off of me,” he says as he dips his mouth to my ear, “I expect the same to happen with everything else I wear.”

  Placing a few kisses to his chest I start to work on his dress pants as he kicks off his shoes. It reminds me of us being teens, when we rushed to make the most of the moments that we managed to get alone.

  As they fall to the floor, his boxers included, I feel his hands slide around to my backside. He kisses my neck as he squeezes it in his palms, the kisses turning into hungry bites as his hands slide to the backs of my legs and he lifts me up.

  My legs wrap around him as he starts to ravish my mouth again, eating everything I give him and I do to.

  I wrap my arms around his neck, feeling his length push against me between my legs and swear in that moment I wish I hadn’t bothered putting any underwear on. As if he’s sensing what I’m thinking, his fingers quickly wedge between us and he yanks them to the side, the skin-on-skin contact has me sucking in a breath as I anticipate what I hope will happen next.

  He starts sliding his length against me, whispering between kisses, “You’re mine, always and forever. You’re not leaving me for anyone or anything, ever.” He has me biting on my lip as I feel him and take his words to heart.

  He wastes no time after either, carefully lining himself up and sliding in. My head falls back to the door as he slowly starts sliding in and out of me, inviting him to my neck, which he accepts. His mouth never leaves it as he kisses, nibbles and licks at my buzzing skin. “Oh God, Kyle,” I moan as his thrusts start knocking me into the door. I really want to care that they can hear us in the office, but for the life of me, I can’t.

  His lips leave my neck as he looks at me. “Say it,” he demands and I’m confused about what he actually wants me to say. “What?” I ask breathlessly.

  “Tell me that there has only ever been me. I want you to tell me again.”

  I’m struggling for air but I somehow manage to say each word in between his frenzied thrusts. “I. Have. Only. Been. With. You. It’s. Always. Been. You.”

  His head hits the door beside me as he groans and he sends my body higher, until I’m teetering on the edge of my own climax. My hands slide past his shoulder blades as my breathing becomes uncontrollable. As I dig my nails into his skin he mumbles a curse. He’s pushing me further and further over the edge with each grueling thrust. My mouth finds his shoulder and after a gentle, apologetic, kiss I sink my teeth into him as he rocks inside me once more and I go hurtling over, biting into his skin as my body is shaken from the power of my orgasm.

  Seconds later he groans loudly as he joins me in my release. His body is slick with sweat as he slowly stops pumping his hips, bringing my body down from its euphoric moment. But not my head, that still feels like it has clouds and birds spinning above it like in the cartoons. We should argue more if this is what the make-up sex is going to be like. I’m all for that.

  It was a relief to get back to the apartment last night. I must have had “just had sex in the boss’s office” written all over my face. And If I didn’t, I sure as hell gave it away the moment I walked in and went beet red.

  It hadn’t exactly been the worst day in the office, but Jesus, it was uncomfortable seeing a knowing smile spread across their three faces.

  Kyle came back with me so that we could talk about what was going to happen with Josie. I told him to give us time to try and dig up more evidence, but Kyle being Kyle got straight on the phone to her. Although he didn’t question her about the pills and Tuesday night, he had to tell her he was with me and wouldn’t be home.

  It warranted a face palm.

  For the first time since that day I walked into him, we spent a night in one of our apartments and didn’t feel like we’d be caught. We weren’t anxious about what would happen, it was just calm.

  Life up until that point felt like the choppiest sea on the planet and I was reveling in the feeling of how we could be if we could just get over what was happening. I didn’t want to feel like Josie or his Mom could do something to separate us. I didn’t want to feel scared whenever another woman came over and planted herself on his lap, or question his relationship with her. I just wanted happy and normal. I wanted people to see that nothing could break us, except us. And that was something I would be testing out soon.

  Our amazing night of eating takeout and a movie soon seemed to be over and although he wasn’t going home, I knew that tomorrow would bring reality back and the last time that happened, trouble started.

  Waking up to a new day the sun gleams in through the window, warming my face. I sense eyes on me. Squirming against him, I get myself comfy and a smile spreads across my face over the fact that he is still here and still in my life. “Good morning.”

  “Morning, beautiful. Sleep well?”

  “Hmm,” I murmured, poking his side. “My pillow got a little harder, but I still slept okay.”

  He says nothing so I slowly peek out of one eye and find him laid there smiling and staring.

  “What about you?” I ask, opening my other eye so that I could make the most of the view and keep it locked in my memory to get me through the day. The sun hit his face perfectly, casting just the right amount of shadow but also lighting up his face making him look angelic.

  “I was cuddled up to the comfiest bag of bones, ever. I slept just fine,” he replies, sweeping a strand of hair off of my face.

  “Kyle?” I ask, “Did you ever think about looking for me? Did I ever cross your mind after I’d gone and everything just stopped?”

  His finger strokes my cheek as he tells me, “The whole time you were gone. I wanted to hunt you down, throw you over my shoulder and drag you back here but I was scared. Scared that if I found you you’d have moved on and be happy without me. I had images of me actually joining Facebook and me clicking on your name to see pictures of you smiling and being happy with another man at your side. I felt ill just thinking about you getting married and having kids that weren’t ours.”

  I go still as he finishes with that, but I try and keep my composure. “You could have at least tried. It would have been good to know I still crossed your mind.”

  “The same could be said for you. Didn’t you think about looking me up?”

  “All the time,” I sigh, dragging my gaze away from his face. “I thought you’d forgotten about me, that was why I thought you stopped emailing me, anyway.”

  His arm tightens around me. “That goes both ways too. We both thought the same. We didn’t know until a few weeks ago that we both experienced the same pain.”

  Sure. That pain being partly due to his Mom.

  I wriggle out from his grip and get out of bed. The day has to start soon enough and at this rate, I’ll be late—even if it is the temporary boss who’s making me late.

  “I’m going to take a shower,” I smile. “I won’t be long.”

  He doesn’t budge, just places his hands behind his head and smiles back. The muscles in his arms seem to bulge twice as big as normal, and twice as more inviting. I lick my lips and contemplate crawling back into bed but shake the thought just as quickly; if I got back into bed, I’d never leave it.

  The water from the shower pours all over me, the droplets beating at my skin and making me think of Kyle laid in bed and all the things I’d rather be doing than going to work. The water pummeling my skin soon doesn’t become enough to resemble Kyle’s fingers digging into my skin as I grab the body wash.

  Before I can pour it into my hand it’s swiped from my grasp as Kyle places his hand against my stomach pulling me back towards him, the water just beginning to dampen his skin as he steps into the downpour. “Can I help you?” I ask grinding my backside a
gainst him.

  “You already do,” he murmurs, dipping his mouth into my ear nipping at the lobe. My body quakes as his breath travels down my spine and his fingers dig into my slippery skin.

  He steps away from me and I hear the sound of the body wash being squirted before his hands creep back to my body, lathering it up and gently caressing me as his fingers and palms clean every inch of my skin.

  Relaxing against him, I smile and sigh, as I feel somewhat relieved, yet long for his hands to continue. As if he’s reading my mind, one of his hands slowly sweeps from my waist, traveling lower to my sensitive flesh that’s screaming out for his touch.

  “Are you okay there, baby?”

  Placing a hand on top of his, I urge him closer. “Hm hmm…I’d be better if you carried on, though.”

  Kyle smiles against my neck as he says, “Is that so? I’ll have to see what I can do about that, then,” he says, moving his fingers between my legs, slowly rubbing my tender skin He starts kissing and sucking on my shoulder. “You taste amazing, sweet like honey,” he continues. “I could starve myself of food and just eat you for the rest of my life.”

  His fingers are working their magic, feeling stronger and faster. “Don’t stop, K.C.,” I moan breathlessly. He groans loudly, grabbing on to my hip and pulling me even closer.

  “I’m never going to stop, C.J. I’m never going to stop giving you pleasure. I’m never going to stop loving you or proving to you that you’re my everything. My life doesn’t have a meaning without you.”

  I splayed my hands against the glass and tiles of the shower, needing support as my legs begin trembling. His hands slides from my hip to my breast, my nipple becoming clamped between his finger and thumb as he rubs and twists methodically.

  My body can’t take much more, my head connects with his shoulder as he pushes me further, my orgasm starts rising taking over my body as I grasp for something to grab onto and finding nothing. “Oh my God, Kyle!” I scream as quietly as possible without telling the whole apartment block what’s happening.