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As I laid on the couch, my eyes on the television, I snapped out of my thoughts when I heard a knock on the door. Though I wasn’t super outgoing, I wasn’t a complete recluse. Over the years, I’d managed to make a few friends in my building, so it wasn’t unheard of for someone to knock on my door in the evenings. It usually always involved a favor, but I didn’t mind.
Getting up to answer the door, I couldn’t conceal the shock on my face when I opened it to find Killian standing on the other side. When he’d left on Thursday, he’d said that he wouldn’t be back until Sunday night. The plan had been to meet up Monday after work, but there was no denying how giddy I felt with him standing in my doorway.
“Hey,” I said, my smile taking over my entire face. “I…I thought you weren’t supposed to be back until Sunday?”
His face softened, and that’s when I noticed how tired he looked. “May I come in?”
That got me moving. “Of course,” I rushed out, moving out of the way, so that he could come inside. “Sorry about that.”
“It’s okay,” he replied as I shut the door.
“Can I get you any-”
“Posie, we need to talk,” he said, interrupting my manners.
Dread started to settle in the pit of my stomach, and my first thought was that he was married. My first thought was that’d he probably flown home to see his wife, and…and he realized that he couldn’t continue to cheat on her. I pictured him with a stunning wife and two equally stunning kids. I searched my mind for any articles or hints that Killian might be married, but I couldn’t come up with anything.
“Uh…okay,” I said softly. “Do you want to sit-” Killian shook his head, and I knew that this was going to be bad. “Okay, so…what’s going on?”
“I haven’t been honest with you about something, and-”
“Oh, God, you’re married, aren’t you?” I blurted, my arms wrapping around my waist.
His brows furrowed angrily. “No,” he snapped. “What the fuck, Posie?”
“Well, what the hell am I supposed to think when you start out with something like that?” I snapped back.
I watched Killian take a deep breath, collecting himself. “Not that I’m fucking married,” he finally bit out. “I’d never cheat on my wife.”
“Like I’m supposed to know that,” I kept snapping, anxiousness causing me to act out rudely.
“You should,” he fired back. “Or do you always sleep with men that you think are the type to cheat on their wives?”
“Excuse me?”
Killian threw his hands up in immediate surrender. “I’m sorry,” he quickly apologized. “I didn’t mean that. I…I’m tired, and I had a long night last night.”
That smoothed my feathers a bit, but barely. “Fine,” I relented, needing a moment myself. “Let’s…move on.”
As I stared at him, I noticed that it was more than just his face looking tired. His blue eyes looked troubled. He looked like he’d rather be anywhere else than in my condo right now, and that just brought back the dreadful feeling that I’d been feeling a minute ago. Killian might not be married, but whatever he was about to tell me wasn’t good. Whatever he was about to tell me was bad, and it was going to hurt, only I didn’t know how much.
“I know, Posie,” he stated simply, and my stomach clenched with denial.
“Know what?” I asked, though I knew exactly what he was talking about.
“I know what happened to you in college,” he clarified, and even though I’d known that he had already suspected something, it hadn’t occurred to me that he’d known the details.
“How’d you find out?” I asked. “I mean…you were only gone one night. How-”
“I’ve known since last week, Posie,” he confessed, and his words felt like a physical blow. “I knew about it before that first kiss in my office. I knew it before we talked in the hallway on Monday.”
I wrapped my arms tighter around my waist in a false hope of keeping it together.
Killian had always known the details.
“How?” I asked, the word barely audible.
“I…I did a background check on you,” he admitted, and that immediately had my back snapping straight. “This one was a little more in-depth from the one that you’d taken as a condition of your employment with Birdwing.”
