by Penelope Sky
She was turned on her side, facing my usual position in the bed. She immediately fell into old habits, pulling the sheets to just below her shoulder. Her hand scooped her hair away, pushing it onto the pillow behind her.
I dropped my sweatpants then got into bed beside her. My body hit the soft mattress, and I could immediately feel the difference with her presence. The bed smelled like a woman, not a man, and the sound of her breathing filled the usual silence. The sheets bunched around my waist so my chest could feel the air that came through the vents overhead. I would normally pull her onto me or roll on top of her, but I kept my distance, lying on my back, with my gaze on the ceiling. I wouldn’t even allow myself to look at her, because the sight of her in my bed would make me think of things I shouldn’t.
She was still for minutes as if she was already asleep. Then she shifted toward me, snuggling into my side like it was too cold to sleep alone. Her face pressed into my neck, her nose right up against me, and she even placed her thigh over mine. Once she was comfortable, she released a quiet sigh, like she’d never been so comfortable.
Like this felt right.
I stared at the ceiling longer until I placed my hand on top of hers. Together, they rested on my chest, rising and falling slowly with my quiet breathing. Then she squeezed my fingers slightly, as if she wanted to make sure that I was real, that this moment wasn’t a fictitious thought in her head.
“I’m tired of forcing myself to stay away…to sleep alone, when this is where I want to be.”
“Then don’t.”
“Now that I’m here, I don’t think I could anyway.”
Eight
Annabella
When I was home all day, I didn’t have much to do. I worked on my laptop and kept up with paperwork, but there were other things I simply couldn’t do, like give tours to potential clients who wanted to have their wedding at the hotel. But I sent them pictures and spoke to them on the phone, just as I would if I were sitting in my office all day.
But it was still lonely not to have Sofia across the hall, not to interact with the other staff at the hotel that cared about making the place as beautiful as possible. It was a sense of pride for everyone there, from the chef to the janitor.
Just when I shut my laptop, Catalina texted me.
Hey, were you as hungover as I was?
Worse, I’d imagine.
LOL. You wanna go to lunch?
Like, outside the house?
Patricia is a great cook, but you need to get some vitamin D. It’s such a warm day. It’s only spring but it already feels like summer.
I knew Damien didn’t want me to leave the house, not when Liam could be waiting for the right opportunity to grab me. I really shouldn’t go anywhere…
Because that asshole says no? Her attitude was obvious in her words. Don’t be one of those women who obeys their man like a dog.
I’m not. I just know his concern is valid.
Look, if some guy bothers you, I’ll take care of him.
Obviously, she thought this was all a joke. I’m being serious, Catalina.
As am I.
I stopped texting, unsure what to do.
It’s just lunch, Anna. We’ll walk a few blocks, eat, and then walk back. But if you’re really that uncomfortable, I’ll come by there.
Now that I had a friend, I didn’t want to lose her. Hanging out at the house all the time wasn’t fun for anyone. And I wanted to be close with Damien’s sister, because I assumed my relationship with him might last forever. Alright. Just give me fifteen minutes.
Yaaaassssss.
She picked me up at the front door, and together, we walked down the street. She was in a short royal blue dress that had slits along the sides near her stomach, showing some skin but not enough to reveal her belly button. Her jean jacket hid most of it. She walked in wedges like they were flats, and she had a little brown purse that hung across her body. “It’s such a beautiful day.” She tilted her head back and held out her hands, as if she was absorbing the sun straight into her bloodstream. “Girl, if I could photosynthesize, I would.”
I chuckled. “I’m a sun person too.”
“I hate winter. Hate it. Hate it. Hate it.” She lowered her arms and spun in a circle as she kept walking. “See? Isn’t it nice to get out of the house?”
I had to admit it was. “Yes.”
“The only good thing about winter is you can screw in the back seat of a car without getting hot. Otherwise, winter serves absolutely no purpose at all.”
“I’ve never gotten laid in the back seat.”
“Never?” she asked incredulously. “You’ve gotta try it sometime.”
I could have screwed Damien last night in a comfortable bed with the fire crackling, but that didn’t happen. It would eventually be inevitable, and I suspected it would grow more difficult to resist as I continued to sleep with him. But it was the best night of sleep I’d ever gotten, and I had no regrets. “I’ll put it on my bucket list.”
We walked two blocks until we reached a small bistro.
“You wanna sit on the patio?”
“Sure.”
We moved to a table in the center of the seating area. All the other tables were taken, mostly by people who were there on their lunch break. Catalina opened her menu and looked through the options. “I want everything, but I’ll order a goddamn salad.”
“We came all the way here so you could order a salad?” I asked like a smartass.
“I know.” She pulled off her sunglasses and rolled her eyes. “But I’ve got to keep my weight.” She stuck out her tongue this time. “Trust me, if I could gain twenty pounds, I would do it in a heartbeat. I have no tits and no ass.”
“That’s not true.”
“You haven’t seen me naked, girl.”
“I can see your tits right now.” I looked down at her dress. “You’ve got something going on there.”
She waved me off. “Well, thanks. I would quit ballet if I didn’t love it so much. My feet are always blistered, and I have to stay at, like, eight pounds, but I won’t be able to do it much longer, so I’ll enjoy it while I can.”
I wished I were passionate about something like that. “I want to watch you dance sometime.”
“I have a performance almost every weekend. Have Damien take you.”
I doubted he would take me anywhere. “I’ll ask him.” I looked over the menu and didn’t give a damn about my waistline. I decided on something big and delicious before I put the menu down.
The waiter took our orders before walking away.
Catalina sipped her iced tea and glanced at another table. “Ooh…that guy is hot.”
I didn’t look, not out of loyalty; it just wasn’t instinct.
“He looks good in a suit.” She took another sip and stared. “I bet he looks even better without that suit, if you know what I mean.”
I chuckled. She was a woman deep in her youth, enjoying every second and savoring every experience. Not tied to any man and enjoying her beauty, she lived a young woman’s dream. “I’m guessing you aren’t seeing that guy anymore?”
“I am,” she said. “But it’s not serious.” She turned back to me. “He wants it to be serious, but I definitely don’t.”
“What’s wrong with him?”
“Nothing.” She shrugged. “I’m just staying single until I’m twenty-eight.”
I cocked an eyebrow. “Why?”
“Because that’s when I need to meet my husband, date for like a year, and then get married to pop out those kids. Getting married any sooner is too premature, at least for me.” She drank from her tea again. “I want a more mature man. They tend to need to be older to get that aged effect that I like.”
“You could date an older man right now.”
She shrugged. “I haven’t met one I like.” She glanced at the man she had just checked out. “He looks like he might be like twenty-eight, which is a good age, but I’m not ready to settle down yet anyway, so it
doesn’t matter.”
“You’re living the dream,” I said with a chuckle.
“It’s not for everybody. You got married young, and you were happy.”
“Yeah…and that blew up in my face.”
“But you were still happy,” she said. “It’s not like those years went to waste.”
I wasn’t so sure anymore. Sometimes I wished I could have met Damien sooner, because he seemed to be a better fit than Liam ever was.
“So, Damien tells me you’re his girlfriend.”
That didn’t sound like something he would say, so I was surprised. “Really?”
“Direct quote.”
He’d told me I was his, and that made me feel…a million emotions. He was loyal to me even though I had nothing to offer him right now. I wanted him and I missed him, but I was also overwhelmed with guilt, moving on from a marriage far too soon. The first time I got divorced, I waited months before I went on my first date. But now I was on the cusp of falling into a serious relationship, making love to a man who was already in love with me. It was so intense, it felt wrong.
“I’ve never seen my brother with a lady in my whole life, let alone living with one, so you must be the real deal.”
“I’m not living with him. Just staying there until—”
“Whatever. It’s still a big deal.”
I didn’t know what to say, so I drank from my glass of wine.
“That makes me happy, because I was afraid he would wait too long and end up alone. Then it would be totally up to me to carry the family lineage.”
“I’m not sure if he even wants to have children.”
“Don’t you?” she asked.
“Yes.” More than anything.
“Then he will.” She turned back to the guy she was eyeing. “I’m gonna give this hottie my number. I’ll be right back.” She pulled out a pen from her purse and scribbled on a napkin. In her feminine handwriting, she wrote the number in large characters so the digits would be unmistakable. “Wish me luck.” She left the table.
“I don’t think you need it…”
Just when we finished our lunch, I noticed a large man appear behind Catalina. With enormous shoulders, chiseled arms, and a pair of blue eyes that were brighter than a summer sky, he stared at me like a hunter that had just cornered his meal.
Oh shit.
“What?” Catalina signed the tab before she pushed it away. “You look sick.”
I couldn’t talk because I was in survival mode. My heart was pounding with adrenaline, my palms were so sweaty that I couldn’t grab a rope to climb to safety. Damien wasn’t there to protect me, and now that Liam had snapped, I wasn’t sure if I could do anything to stop this. I couldn’t reason with him. I wasn’t his wife anymore, so I had no power at all. I shouldn’t have come here. It was a mistake…a big one.
“Anna?” Catalina narrowed her eyes.
Liam came closer to our table and stared down at me, his eyes menacing. He ignored Catalina altogether, and the wedding ring on his left hand was terrifying rather than romantic. He stared at me like I was his property, like a cow that wandered past the boundary line. He’d come to retrieve me, to put a lasso around my neck and drag me home. “Get up.” He didn’t raise his voice because we were in public, but if I didn’t obey, there would be consequences.
“Liam—”
“Get. Up.” He leaned down so only I could hear. “Or I’ll make you get up.”
I breathed hard in my panic, unsure what to do.
Catalina raised both eyebrows and sized him up, looking from his head to his toes. “Who the fuck do you think you are?”
He ignored her. “Three seconds, Anna.”
“Three seconds until I kick your ass, bitch.” Catalina got to her feet, hands on her hips as she stood tall in her wedges.
“Catalina,” I said quietly. “Let it go.”
“Fuck no.” Catalina shoved him in the shoulder.
Liam moved slightly, probably because he wasn’t expecting a woman to actually attack him.
“Catalina.” I got to my feet quickly. “You don’t understand. He’s a fighter—”
She slapped him across the face, kneed him in the dick, and then kicked one of his knees with her massive shoe. It was like a Jackie Chan movie, hit after hit happening within seconds. “I’m a fighter too.”
Liam moved with all her hits, falling down because she’d struck him so quickly, hitting all his most vulnerable places.
Now everyone in the restaurant was staring.
“You’ve got three seconds to get out of this restaurant.” Catalina stood over him, victorious. “Or I’m gonna kick you in the face and knock out those two front teeth.”
He looked up at her, a scowl on his face and his expression full of the promise of retribution. “Fucking bitch.” He rose to his feet, staring at her with menace. “I don’t hit women, but I’m about to—”
She punched him so hard in the face, he fell back and fell on top of a table. The couple sitting there jumped out of their seats and backed away as the wooden table broke under his weight. Everyone gasped at the scene.
“Come near my girl again, and I’ll pluck your balls from your body like cherries off a tree. Bitch.” She flipped her hair then stormed off, strutting out of there like a queen who had just conquered a land.
I didn’t linger. I followed her and got the hell out of there.
When we were in the entryway of the house, I finally spoke. “Where did you learn to do that?” I was disturbed by what had just happened because I knew Liam had intended to whisk me away, to make me disappear so Damien would never be able to find me. I couldn’t believe we got away. The only reason we did was because Catalina surprised us both. I never would have moved against him that way because I knew I couldn’t win. He would have grabbed me by the arm and dragged me out of there. But with Catalina…she knew how to kick ass.
She answered so nonchalantly, like it wasn’t a big deal. “This guy I was seeing taught me a few things.”
“Was he a professional fighter?”
“No. He was just really into martial arts.”
“Maybe I should learn some things…”
“It wouldn’t hurt.” She pulled her sunglasses off her face. “Big men like that fight like brutes. But martial arts are about striking quickly and using the least amount of energy. He may be bigger and stronger than you, but you’re much smaller and quicker. It’s not about always landing a knockout punch. It’s about wearing him down until he’s incapacitated.”
“Good to know.”
“I’m sure Damien could teach you.”
“He knows martial arts?”
She shrugged. “My brother knows everything, so probably.” She pulled her hair over one shoulder and then returned her sunglasses to her face. “I should get going. If you see my dad, tell him I said hi. And sorry I asked you to lunch. Didn’t think that loser was stalking you like that.”
“Yeah…neither did I.” That meant he was watching the house, waiting for an opportunity once I walked out the front door. I guess it was smart that I wasn’t going to work anymore. If Liam had intended to grab me in the middle of a public restaurant, he wouldn’t give a shit about the hotel. “Damien is gonna be so mad at me…”
“Why? Don’t tell him.”
“I can’t not tell him.”
“Whether he knows or not doesn’t make a difference, right? He assumed Liam is watching the house, and he was right. My personal opinion is this. The less men know they’re right, the better.” She blew me a kiss before she walked out. “Don’t stress about it. No point in worrying about things you can’t change.”
I heard Damien walk down the hallway. His footsteps were so distinct, it was obvious it wasn’t Patricia entering his bedroom to make the bed and gather his dirty laundry.
I left my bedroom and joined him. I would have waited in there for him to come home, but I hadn’t officially moved in to his space, so I didn’t want to cross the line. It m
ight be an invasion of privacy.
His back was to me as he stripped off the jacket to his suit and tossed it over the back of the chair. He must have heard the door shut behind him, but he didn’t turn around. He loosened his tie and pulled it free from around his corded neck before tossing it on top of his discarded jacket. “I told you not to leave the house.” His fingers moved to his chest, and he unbuttoned his white collared shirt, allowing the fabric to fall free and slide down his arms. His muscular back was tense, all the lines separating groups of muscles as distinct as if outlined by the ink of a permanent marker.
I flinched at the tone of his voice. I was somehow more frightened now than I had been at lunch.
His belt came next, sliding out of the loops before he tossed it aside. As if he expected me to say something first, he didn’t turn around, like he was too angry to look at me.
I didn’t know what to say. I’d intended to tell him what happened, but not the second he came home, and not like this. We’d spent the night together in bliss, and I’d never felt so comfortable my whole life, like it was where I was meant to be. But now that fairy tale was over.
When I didn’t speak, he turned around. He looked at me with his fiercest gaze, his slacks falling low on his hips now that his belt wasn’t keeping his clothes in place. His tanned skin covered his thick abs, and there was a noticeable vein that disappeared into his slacks.
Now I was terrified for the second time that afternoon.
He took a step forward. “I told you not to leave the house—and you did it anyway.” His muscular arms were rigid in place, some of his muscles twitching as the adrenaline dumped into his blood.
I had no idea what he knew and how he knew it. Catalina could have ratted me out, but that seemed unlikely. She was the one who told me not to mention it in the first place. Put on the spot, I didn’t know what to say. Damien and I had become closer last night, but that seemed nonexistent now.
He moved a little closer. “I’m waiting for your response.” He stopped when he was a few feet away, both of his hands tightening into fists.
