Chapter 14 #2
“Do us both a favor and forget about it. Move on, I have.” I put my head back on the couch and rub my hand over my eyes. I keep my eyes closed and turn off the TV with the remote in my hand. She’s so close to me I feel her leg brush against my thigh.
“What’s her name?”
“Why do you want to know?”
“It will make her seem more real, like you’ve moved on. Telling me her name isn’t giving away anything about your new private life.” I hear her voice soften and drop a little with her next words. “When you called me after the holidays and we were together…”
My eyes open, and I see something in her akin to uncertainty or maybe insecurity before I close my eyes again. It’s not my job to reassure her anymore. “Paige, you knew what it was. It was sex. I didn’t make you empty promises of a life together and a happy ending. It was just sex for me.”
“You were using me,” she says, the tone in her voice going a bit flat. “Is she the same girl you were talking about the Sunday morning I saw you in the office?”
“Yeah.”
“So you were still with her when we were together in January?”
“No. We broke up right before that happened.”
“Like I said, you were using me to get over her? Silly me. Here I was holding out hope one day we would get back together. Be the perfect legal team with the perfect powerhouse family. The Sinclairs and the Alexanders. What’s her name, Nick?”
Exasperated, I give in. “Catherine. Her name’s Catherine.”
“It’s a nice name. Nicholas and Catherine, has a nice ring to it, regal. She must be drop- dead gorgeous to hold your attention. With all I have going on, I couldn’t keep you. What does she look like? Does your father like her? I know he likes me, and he’s a hard man to please.”
She’s fishing, and I’m not giving up any more information where Cat’s concerned.
The more she knows, the more trouble she’s going to be.
I’m done with this talk. I’m about to tell her so when I feel her hand on my face.
Before I even get my eyes open, her tongue darts across my parted lips, slipping inside.
The kiss lasts two seconds too long. My brain finally recovers, registering what’s happening.
I push her back, wiping my hand across my mouth and jerking forward.
“What the hell was that, Paige?” At my anger, she stands up quickly and walks to her room out of my reach.
“Relax, Nick, it was one last kiss. You don’t have to tell your girl. Neither will I…but, I’m sure if you do decide to tell her...or she somehow finds out you were alone with me for days and nothing happened…she’ll believe you. Love is blind. See you in the morning.”
“Fucking bitch.”
As sweet as can be, she says, “Don’t worry. I’m not offended by that, since you never loved me in the first place, right?” She tosses her hair back and smirks at me before going in the room and closing the door.
Needing to hear Cat’s voice, I go into the bathroom and lock the door.
I sit on the bench outside the shower and lean my head back against the wall, dialing her number.
When I hear her voice, it’s music to my ears.
I feel like shit for not telling her what’s going on.
If I tell her, she probably won’t believe me.
I don’t want to go home to an empty house without her or my baby.
“You must miss me an awful lot. Didn’t we say goodnight already?”
“All right, fine, bye.”
“No! I’m playing. You can call me a hundred times a night if you want.”
“I might have to do that, I miss you so much.”
“I wouldn’t mind if you did. The bed feels empty and cold without you next to me. I miss my occasional morning wakeup call.”
“I’ll be home soon to fill that empty space, tuck you in at night next to my heart, and give you an extra special wakeup call that will curl your toes and your hair.”
“I can’t wait. But what am I going to do till then? I’m all alone in this big bed—”
“Close your eyes.”
“Why?”
“Woman, stop questioning me, do as I say.”
“You missing me isn’t making you less bossy.”
“No, it’s not. Now close your damn eyes so I can give you something to look forward to.”
“Yes, sir.”
“That’s what I like to hear. Pretend I’m there with you in the bedroom standing up naked.”
“I like where this is going.”
“I thought you would, be quiet and let me finish. My hand is in your hair, and the other one’s lightly caressing your body.
You’re wearing my white robe, looking cute and sexy at the same time, like only you can.
Your robe falls open, revealing your beautiful, naked body to me…
High firm breasts that are so sensitive I can make you come with one flick of my tongue across the very tip of your nipples. Can you see us, Cat?”
“Yes.” Her voice is low and husky, and I know she’s aroused.
“Take your shirt off.”
“It’s off.”
“Damn, that was fast. Now I want you to close your eyes again, because I know they’re open.”
“How do you know that?”
“I know you. Follow directions and lick the palm of your hands.”
“What?”
“Just do it. Lick them in a slow circle making them as wet as I’m about to make you.”
She pauses for a minute. “Okay, I did it.”
“Rub them against your nipples in a circular motion just the way you like me to do it while fondling your breast. Tell me, how does that feel?”
“Good.” Her voice rasps.
“I wish I was there to see you when I make you come from my touch, my hand stroking up and down your beautiful body.”
“So do I. If you were here, would you play with me until I begged you to stop?”
I smile to myself because if I was there, she would be screaming my name already.
“Babe, If I were there, I’d slam you up against the wall, rip your legs wide open, and slam my dick into your white-hot little pussy and make you scream my name. I would ride you so hard and fast, till you couldn’t take it anymore, begging me to stop.”
“Mmm hmm. When exactly are you coming home?”
“Soon, babe, real soon. Now put your shirt back on; this fantasy is to be continued when I come home.”
“Nick, you can’t get me hot and bothered then tell me we can’t have phone sex.”
“I just did. I miss you, and I’m saving it all for when I get home. Phone sex won’t do justice to the things I’m going to do to you.”
“Are you sure? Because it sounds to me like you’re being a wet pussy tease.”
I burst out laughing. “That’s the first time I’ve ever heard that term.”
“Well, it’s true! You can’t tell me things like that and not deliver anything.”
“Don’t worry, tell your little cat to simmer down. It’ll be way better when I’m live in person, having you moan all over me.”
“I have no doubt you will,” she mutters.
“I love you.”
“I know you do.”
“You better know. Go to sleep. Get my baby some rest.”
I can’t wait to go home to her. I would have gladly had phone sex with Cat, but not with Paige in the next room.
It doesn’t seem right; bad enough I’m not telling her the whole truth.
I should have done what my instincts told me when I saw Paige lying on my couch: kicked her peach-colored ass out.
I already told her to keep her mouth shut about us sharing a room.
She agreed, but that was before she got disgruntled and stuck her tongue down my throat.
In the middle of the night I wake up with another damn panic attack.
My dream is the same, except for the end.
Blood everywhere, Kate screaming, holding her swollen stomach, but when she looks at me it’s Cat.
This time it ends with her screaming at me, calling me a liar and she says she’s leaving me, and that this time she won’t be back.
I try to calm myself down by getting my breathing under control, one of my arms slung over my eyes.
My heart rate is almost at a steady beat until something brushes against my arm.
I look to the side and see Paige kneeling next to me beside the couch.
This is all I need; why the fuck is she in here?
“You were talking in your sleep. I couldn’t make out what you were saying, but you seemed agitated, and you said her name. Are you okay?” she asks me, moving her hands across the back of my arm in what I would consider a caress.
Her touch is making my blood boil over. So is the concern in her voice, which she should have had when I told her I had a girlfriend, but instead she stuck her tongue down my throat to fuck with me.
“Get your goddamn hand off me.” Her hand falls away from me as I get up.
Grabbing my phone off the table, my leg brushes past her shoulder as I make my way out of the room at a brisk pace and into the bathroom, slamming the door behind me and locking it.
I slide down the back of the door, hitting Cat’s contact, needing to hear her voice.
The only thing I want and need is her. To hear her say she loves me as much as I love her and she won’t leave me again.