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Tension grew, stretched, dragging her resistance to its limits.
He gave a tight nod.
She exhaled.
He released her, and she rubbed at the marks his fingers had left on her skin.
“No need to show me out.”
Nathan stalked to the couch and snatched up his jacket but didn’t wait to put it on. She realized that was the most uncontrolled emotion she’d ever seen from him. Under all circumstances, he was cool, collected.
With a decisive click, he closed the door behind him. The precision reverberated with a more pointed statement than it would have if he’d slammed it.
Numb, heartbroken, she sank into the couch and stared at the flickering flames, unable to chase away the cold…and the stunning, shocking hollowness.
* * * *
“You did what?” Andi demanded. “What in the ever-living, Christ-giving, Satan-sucking balls are you thinking?”
That wasn’t the type of support Kelsey had thought she’d get from her best friend. But she should have known better. “You’re not helping.”
“Oh. Sorry.” Andi made a show of cleaning out one of her ears. “Okay. Start over. I clearly didn’t hear you right.”
Kelsey exhaled and reached for her wineglass.
After Nathan had left, she’d sat on the couch for a full hour before she’d forced herself to get up and shower and dress in something other than club wear.
She’d spent the next two hours moving about the condo listlessly, shifting papers, looking at photographs only to put them back down without even really seeing them.
Two days ago her life had been filled with excitement and adventure. And now the adrenaline had seeped away, she’d been left raw.
Unable to stand her own company and her tumultuous thoughts any longer, she’d put on a pair of sheepskin-lined boots, jeans, a jacket and a scarf and headed out of the door.
Mr. Martinez had been in the hallway, and he’d flattened himself against the wall, clutching the lapels of his robe. “Oh. You have clothes on. I was preparing for another heart attack.”
She’d shaken her head.
“Twenty years ago, I could have taken that. But now? Ay, mami.”
She’d grinned, but she’d remained in place until after Sinbad had rolled past, cheeks twitching.
The man had scooped up the rodent, hurried inside and slammed the door.
Wanting to keep herself busy, she’d headed out for a long walk then ended up in the museum district. Not finding anything to entertain her, she’d wandered around aimlessly. Eventually, feeling sorry for herself and realizing she hadn’t eaten anything other than a scone all day, she’d entered a small, trendy restaurant. It was generally the type of place that would energize her. But late on a gloomy, alone, broken-up Sunday afternoon, it had made her even more depressed.
She’d picked up her phone and sent a message to Andi saying she needed company, ASAP.
Andi, true friend that she was, had responded with two questions— Where are you? Have you ordered wine?
When the waiter had come over to take her order, Kelsey had ordered a bottle of the restaurant’s finest merlot.
Andi had breezed in less than thirty minutes later, sporting a raven-colored bob.
“It’s a wig,” she’d explained as she’d sat down and filled a glass. “Didn’t have time to do my hair. Now. Talk while I drink.”
Kelsey had given her a thirty-second update, starting with the fact they’d gone to Deviation and ending with the announcement that she’d ended their personal relationship.
“Give it up, girlfriend,” Andi said. “I need more details. Start at the beginning and let me absorb it this time. He got you to Deviation, and then what?”
Kelsey swirled her glass and let the wine dribble back down. “He gave me a flogging on the Punishment Pole. Then we went into the bar while I remembered what day of the week it was.”
“Then he ripped your clothes off you in the hotel room? Don’t you think it’s fucking hot that he couldn’t even wait to get you home?”
Especially since he was so conscious of every expenditure. “It was.”
“Everything went okay? I mean, you didn’t fight or anything?”
“No.” She glanced down, remembering the way he’d done her up the ass.
“You’re blushing! It must have been good.”
“Yeah. It was. We grabbed a Starbucks before heading home. And then he asked me to move in with him.”
“You’re telling me that Nathan Donovan took you to a club, flogged you hard, got you a nice hotel room, asked you to move in with him, and you rewarded him by dumping him on his hunky-dunky-hottie ass? Have you lost your gray matter?”
