13. Chapter 13
13
Kelly
I stared at the most recent texts exchanged between Lindsey and I days before. She had insisted she wasn’t upset with me, but I had doubts. With the cat out of the bag about Rose, I wondered what they were going to do. I wondered if Rose had told Lindsey about the kiss. Maybe that was why she wasn’t messaging me. I hoped not. My stomach hurt just thinking about it. I felt guilty, not only because of the kiss, but because when I thought about it, guilt wasn’t the only thing I felt. My body was on fire. I could still taste her mouth.
I sighed and brushed my thumb along the side of my phone for a second before making a decision. It didn’t matter if Rose hadn’t told her yet. I would.
Me: Hey, can you meet for lunch tomorrow?
I sent the text after debating for a long moment. It had been almost two weeks since I’d seen my sister. We’d only been exchanging texts back and forth, awkward, short winded and full of tension and tone that I struggled to process. Hopefully she’d agree to come to lunch with me. We needed to talk.
I had not told her about knowing about her marriage yet, and that was another bomb I needed to drop.
I stared at my phone for a solid ten minutes with no reply. Well, it was after nine, so she was probably asleep. The only time my sister had ever stayed up later was with me.
“Great,” I mumbled, “Another thing to feel bad about.”
I sighed and plopped down on my bed long enough to plug my phone in and place it on my nightstand. I headed out of my room. I’d had a long day at work and spent most of my time afterwards in my bedroom. I could go over and see if Emily wanted to chill for a bit, but usually she texted me if she wasn’t too tired.
So, instead, I plopped down on the couch beside Taylor. Her brothers were playing a game on the floor in front of the TV, and she was scrolling on her phone.
“How long are they here for?” I asked her.
Taylor looked up at me, her eyes tired and a little red. She looked over at the guys on the floor, as if processing what I had asked.
“Oh, uh, just a couple more days,” she told me. “The three of us are getting an apartment together in Cali.”
I blinked. “Oh, no one told me you were moving so soon,” I said warily. After all, she’d made a point about being there when I’d agreed to move in.
“Ah, yeah, we just decided a few days ago. I’ve been wanting to move there for a while, but didn’t want the only people I know there to be celebrities,” she mumbled.
I sighed and looked to the side. “That makes sense,” I said slowly. “Does Malak know?” I asked.
She nodded. “Yeah, I told him about it earlier, while you were at work,” she replied and went back to looking at her phone.
I wasn’t sure how to feel about it. Taylor and I hadn’t spoken very much in the last two weeks, but she was the only person living there that I hadn’t either fucked or been thinking about fucking. Not that she wasn’t attractive, she just…well, she never really seemed to have that vibe about her.
I found myself curious.
“Do you have a partner?” I asked her.
She looked at me, surprised.
“If you want to tell me,” I added.
She looked to the side for a moment and then nodded. “Yeah, she lives in the UK,” Taylor explained. “She plans on moving here in a few months. She also wants to be in California, so that’s part of why I’m moving there.”
“Oh, long distance, nice,” I chuckled and looked over at her brothers. “Will she move in with you and the guys?”
Taylor nodded, “Yeah, it’s a three-bedroom place, so plenty of room. We’ll have our own place eventually, but expensive there.”
“Yeah, so I hear.”
The conversation quickly died down, Taylor putting in her headphones and zoning out to whatever she was listening to on her phone. I watched the video game being played for a bit, but war games weren’t really my thing. So, eventually, I was restlessly wandering the apartment. Pacing up and down the hallway, the kitchen, popping some grapes into my mouth every now and again.
“What am I doing?” I mumbled, “Grey, Rose…Malak.” I sighed.
I could barely get any of them out of my head. I should have been relaxing, doing something to myself, but instead I was pacing, waiting for Malak or Grey to get home. Sex with Grey had been…good, great even. It was sudden, quick, a rough and dirty comfort fuck, but it had only left me wanting more. From who? I wasn’t sure. All of them, maybe.
My face flushed deeply just thinking about it.
I shook my head and decided I was going to take a bubble bath. That was what I needed. Some quiet, peaceful, relaxing time alone.
I grabbed a change of clothes from my room, my lavender scented bubble bath, a thick and smutty book, and headed for the bathroom.
For an apartment with four men and two women living it at that moment, the bathroom was pretty clean. I had noticed that Malak was the most organized and tidiest out of all of us.
I started the hot water, stripped out of my clothing, poured the bubble bath in and when the level was right, slipped into the decently sized bathtub. I sighed, and leaned my head back for a moment, being careful not to let my hands go underwater. My hair was tied up messily on top of my head to keep it dry.
Good girl.
Malak’s voice played in my head. I nearly jumped at this sudden thought. The memory of his fingers on my chin and jawline. His body was so close to mine, the way he smelled, the tone of his voice.
I sighed, and my gaze shifted down to a break in the bubbles. I saw the scar peaking out from under the water and the soap. My throat tightened.
I remembered Malak asking me about it, the way he’d grabbed me, the tone of his voice asking who had hurt me. I wanted to hear it again. I wanted to feel like someone was just as angry as me, instead of pity.
I groaned and scrubbed a hand over my face.
“Just relax,” I mumbled.
I sunk down a bit further into the water and soft bubbles, but I couldn’t shake the feeling. I squeezed my thighs together under the hot water and whined softly. I could rub my clit raw, but it still wouldn’t give me what I wanted. Malak’s strong hands on my plush body. His mouth on my neck.
Grey’s bite marks on my neck and shoulders were almost completely faded, and I couldn’t help but imagine what Malak’s could look like. Him marking my body, claiming me.
I wasn’t sure how long I’d been in the bathtub, torturing myself by not letting my hand go between my legs. Thinking about Malak’s cock filling me again and again. Maybe even Grey taking me from behind while Malak’s mouth captured my nipple. Rose’s fingers massaging eagerly at my clit.
I flinched out my day dream when there was a knock at the bathroom door.
The water was cold.
“Hold on!” I said. I got out of the tub as quickly as I could without falling and grabbed my towel. I wrapped it around my body and pulled the plug in the tub. I grabbed my clothing and headed for the door. Sliding about six inches on the tile. I gasped and braced my body to steady myself against the door. I had forgotten to grab a new bathmat from the closet after the laundry had been done.
I exhaled in relief when I didn’t fall and break my ass, and opened the door.
Taylor was standing there.
“Sorry to bother you, but it’s been like an hour,” she started.
I shook my head. “No, it’s fine. I needed to get out anyway,” I insisted and brushed past her.
I was grateful for the rug just outside of the bathroom. I dried my feet as best as possible and headed down the hallway. I was paying careful attention to my feet on the hardwood when suddenly I went crashing face first into a familiar chest.
“Woah!” Malak said and caught me by the shoulders.
My entire face and body flushed as I looked up at him and he eyed me from head to toe in the towel that I was just barely managing to cover my entire body with. A strip of skin along the side peaking out.
“Sorry!” I huffed.
Malak chuckled, “Well, damn,” he mumbled.
He looked tired, and there was something else there that wasn’t sure of. Guilt, maybe?
“How was…the bar and grille?” I asked him.
Malak blinked and then nodded. “Everything’s good, as always.”
I smiled. “It’s great that you’re so involved in your business, a lot of people aren’t.”
He chuckled, and there was a twinkle of something mischievous in his eyes.
“Yeah,” he replied and eyed me again.
I remembered I was naked, only wrapped in a towel, and flushed again. As I was moving to step past him in the hallway, I caught a familiar scent.
Vanilla and Liliac. Something else, something that was less of a perfume and more a personal scent.
Rose.
She always smelled like that. I furrowed my brow. Why would Malak smell like her?
I paused for a moment. Taking in the scent of his shirt and skin again. He smelled like he usually did. Woodsy and a little like cinnamon, Grey’s scent lingered on him too, but there it was. Rose.
I shook my head. She’d said she knew him, but I wasn’t sure if I should believe her.
I was being crazy, projecting. I tried to convince myself of this anyhow.
“Oh, sorry,” Malak said, thinking he was in my way. He stepped more to the side.
I blushed, glad he didn’t notice I was smelling him, and hurried to my room.
A sigh of relief escaped me as soon as the door was closed. I draped the towel over the chair I’d gotten for my room and quickly pulled on my panties and pajamas before climbing into bed.
Just get some rest, check to see if Lindsey replied in the morning. If she hasn’t, you can go see her.
That morning, Saturday morning, I still hadn’t heard from Lindsey. I shot her another text.
Me: Is everything OK?
I laid in bed, staring at it. It was after nine in the morning, so I knew she’d be awake. Ten minutes, nothing. I sighed. I was going to need to go over there and check on her. Though I felt a particular frustration at the fact that she hadn’t come over or called me to check on me, despite telling me she wasn’t a fan of me living where I was.
I shook my head. Lindsey got a pass. There was a lot going on.
I rolled out of bed, tied my hair up into a loose ponytail and smoothed the edges of my hair as best as possible. My stomach growled angrily.
“I’m going,” I mumbled and crept out into the hallway. I didn’t hear any sound from the living room. As I got closer to the kitchen, however, the scent of coffee filled my sense. I rounded the corner into the kitchen and there he was. Malak. My face flushed as I thought about the night before, him seeing me in just a towel. The confusing scent of Rose on him.
I shook my head and tried to move on.
“Morning.” I yawned and stepped over to lean against the counter.
“Namaste ,” Malak replied. His voice was rough.
I beamed. I knew that one! “Namaste !” I repeated excitedly.
Malak blinked, and a smile cracked onto his tired face. He chuckled. “You are adorable,” he insisted.
I flushed. My gaze shifted, and I processed that he was shirtless.
I gulped.
Malak’s chest was toned yet not flexed in that moment, so it still looked quite soft. His stomach was softer than I’d expect, and a happy trail of dark hair lead into his pajama pants. My eyes flitted to his strong biceps and arms, the veins in his arms and hands quite pronounced.
A slow exhale escaped me, and I looked away from him.
“Coffee?” Malak asked.
I shook my head. “No, I’m going to see Lindsey. I’ll probably have some coffee there, but knowing her, she probably already ate hours ago, so…” I trailed off and turned around, looking for the bagels in the cabinet.
“Damn,” I mumbled. All out.
I looked over at Malak again. He was just standing there, drinking his coffee, looking incredibly climbable.
“You know what, I’ll just eat there,” I insisted and started forward.
Suddenly, Malak grabbed my arm. I gasped.
“What’s that?” he asked
I looked up at him, confused.
“On your thigh,” Malak said. His face dark.
I blinked and looked down at my legs. I’d almost forgotten about it for the first time in a while.
The fading pink scar on my leg. I quickly brushed the oversized t-shirt I was wearing down to cover it.
“Nothing,” I insisted
Nothing I want to talk about.
Malak turned me to face him.
“Who did that to you?” he asked.
I tugged away from him, my stomach rolling, and I tried to shake the memories away as quickly as possible.
“I don’t want to talk about it,” I insisted.
Malak growled softly, “Who hurt you?”
I panicked. I pulled the first thing from my mind that I thought would end the conversation, take the focus off me.
“Why did you smell like Rose last night?” I asked.
Malak’s face shifted from angry to surprised.
“Kelly,” he started, “There’s things you don’t know…” he started.
My stomach lurched.
I couldn’t handle more secrets being poured onto me.
I whirled around and raced out of the kitchen to my bedroom.
Malak didn’t follow me. Some part of me wished he had.