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Brody’s hand fell over his face, and his head gently shook back and forth. “All right, I’m sorry. You’re right, I should have called you.”
“Come home, please. Please, come home.”
My body locked up when I heard her desperate plea, and I watched as Brody’s hand moved and he turned his head to look at me. Even in the dark I could see the war he was fighting as he listened to his wife cry on the phone and watched my every move.
Olivia said something that was now too low and mumbled for me to hear, but Brody’s expression suddenly looked like he was in pain.
“I’m finishing up a report, I’ll be back soon.” Without waiting for her to respond, he ended the call and reached out for me, but I stopped his hand.
“Stay. Please.”
His jaw clenched shut, and he shook his head once. From the way his eyes studied my face, as if trying to memorize it, I knew he wouldn’t. Twisting away, I got off the bed. I needed to get away from him before I lost it.
“Kamryn, don’t do this, I’m sorry. But you know I—”
“I know. You have to leave, Brody, it’s fine.” I quickly grabbed up my clothes on the floor and dashed into the bathroom.
“Kamryn!”
Once I’d dressed, I pressed my hands to the marble counter as I bit down on the inside of my cheeks to keep from crying. I’d gone into our relationship knowing we wouldn’t be able to have this—nights together with nothing standing in the way—but after the night we’d just shared I’d let myself hope.
Olivia’s call had been like a slap to the face. I couldn’t do this, I couldn’t be this person. But as Brody came up behind me and eased his arms around me to press our bodies together, I knew that for this man, I would. I would go through anything if it meant he was mine in the end.
“I’m so sorry,” he said softly before pressing his lips to the sensitive spot behind my ear. “Please don’t be mad. I couldn’t handle it if you were.”
I kept my eyes trained on my hands gripping the countertop and nodded, not trusting my voice anymore.
“One day . . . one day we won’t have to do this anymore. I’ll come home to you, and get in our bed, and never leave. I swear.”
My vision went blurry, and I closed my eyes tightly against the tears.
How was it possible that I was already falling so hard for this man that the thought of him anywhere but beside me had me feeling like I was drowning and unable to pull in the air my body needed to live? I was quickly becoming addicted to him and the way he made me feel with the smallest of touches. We were dangerous together, but I knew I couldn’t live without him.
“Forgive me,” he pleaded, and suddenly his body and warmth were gone. As much as my mind and body screamed at me to follow him, to beg him not to leave, I was rooted in place for long minutes until I heard the door shut and his car start up in the garage.
Taking shaky steps back until I hit a wall, I slid down until I was seated on the cool floor, and the tears I’d been holding back fell mercilessly as desperate sobs racked my chest.
Brody
May 20, 2015
THE SECOND OLIVIA’S car pulled out of our dri
veway, I was rushing to pull on clothes and running out the door. I needed to go to Kamryn. I needed to try to fix what I’d probably destroyed the night before.
Waking up to Kamryn telling me Olivia was calling me—being pulled out of my perfect moment with Kamryn to have the truth of our situation thrown in my face—had been agony. There was no other word for it. We’d decided when we began that we would go slow, and Kamryn knew there would be days at a time when I wouldn’t be able to see her or even talk to her. But that had changed last night.
It had killed me to see the look on her face as I talked with Liv, and everything in me had been yelling at me to stay with Kamryn, to take care of her. Then Liv brought up Tate, and I remembered why Kamryn and I had agreed to keep this quiet: I needed to make sure Olivia was going to be okay first. So I’d given in.
Olivia was asleep in her own bed by the time I got home, though, and had woken me before the sun rose this morning to the sounds of her screaming and throwing dishes across the kitchen. I’d wrapped my arms around her to stop her from grabbing for more. She responded by screaming at me not to touch her because I was a baby killer.
Olivia needed help, and I needed Kamryn.
I pulled into Kamryn’s driveway, frowning when I found her garage door open from the night before and the door leading to her house still unlocked. Shutting the garage door, I let myself in and jogged through her house, calling her name.
The sound of bare feet on hardwood met me before I saw her quickly turn the corner in the hall.
“Brody, what are you doing here? How did you get—”
