Page 39 of Be My Valentine

“I’m sorry.” She said.

Mark clenched his jaw. That damn expression again. The hated attitude of perpetually apologizing.

“Are you sure? Do you mind?” He looked into her eyes searching for the truth, but she lowered them sharply.

“I’m sorry if you’re sorry too. If you didn’t mind, though, then, well… I liked it too.”

What the hell did that mean?

“You’ve been spending too much time with Emma.”

Kate couldn’t help but laugh and Mark’s heart filled.

He took her by the hand, and they arrived at the car. He was about to open the door, but instead brought her fingers to his lips.

“I liked it, a lot, I’d say.”

Kate’s excited smile was a release.

“Could we… could we talk about it after Saturday night?” she asked him “I’m really nervous and I don’t think I could handle it if I had to go through it all at once. That is, if you want to talk about it, of course. You don’t have to.”

He pretended to think about it.

“Yeah, I can wait a few days, with the right dose I should be able to do it.”

“A dose… of what?” Kate asked without understanding.

“Of you.” Mark silenced her with a searing kiss, trapping her between his body and the door. With exasperating slowness, he caressed her starting from her cheek, touched her neck, the curve of her breasts, and would have gladly left his hand for a long time on Kate’s round butt, but he felt her retreat.

Too fast. There was no rush, though. She was his.

They didn’t say a word as he walked her home. Kate laid her head on his shoulder and Mark smiled.

Chapter 16 / Kate

You look at the stars, my star,

And I wish I were the sky

To look at you with a thousand eyes.

(Plato)

She had never slept worse. The memory of Mark’s hands and mouth had haunted her all night. The way she had surrendered to him on the couch had been totally out of character; if he had undressed her at that moment, she was sure she would have offered no resistance. She should have controlled herself! At least in the parking lot she’d taken his hand off from there, I mean, someone could have come along! As she turned over for the umpteenth time under the covers, she thought that Mark had also seemed rather out of control: who knows if it was normal for him, if he was like this all the time, with all… yeah, all the women he had collected. She wasn’t being silly. Mark was an attractive man, a respected professional with plenty of money: who could assure her she wasn’t just a passing whim? How did he deal with the latest arrivals? Kate blinked as dawn filtered through the folds of the curtains: how naive had she been? She slapped her palm on her forehead and jerked from the pain. Idiot! She had risked sleeping with him without thinking about the possibility of being dumped the next day. She was the problem.

Weird!

Blue eyes, raven hair, a smile, all too rare, that took her breath away… and she was ready to take off her panties.

She had definitely learned a lot from what had happened to her mother, who at twenty-one had found herself alone with a daughter to raise. She shuddered at the thought. She was so terrified that she had started taking birth control pills even though she wasn’t dating anyone: she could never be too careful. She wanted children, but not to raise them alone: she wanted a family, a partner with whom she could carry the responsibilities together. She couldn’t allow herself to have a child at twenty-three: she had to graduate, find a job and then… maybe they would take their father’s beautiful blue eyes. Children? Father?

Stop it!

Where was her head? She was rambling. Fortunately, she had bought time, only a few days, but at least she would be able to set the record straight.

She got up to go to Emma: she wanted to make sure she was okay and check that there were no last-minute problems.

In fact, she already had two problems to solve: two dresses to get ready as soon as possible, one for that very evening. She heard her mother still upstairs and called her, placing her in front of the open doors of her closet.