AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“You need this more than I do.” I try to take off the scarf.
She yanks at my hand which is attempting to unwrap the scarf. “No, I don’t.”
I lower my other hand, reluctantly, feeling at a loss at being taken care of. I don’t know how to react. All my life, no one has ever looked after me just because.
I remember the stone in my pocket, and now this. Whatever Kendall gives me, no matter how immaterial, I end up treasuring. “I might never give this back,” I tell her, fingering the ends of the knitted scarf.
She tries to hide her smile. “It’s okay. I figured you for a hoarder.”
I can’t take my eyes off her as we stroll through the park. Even in winter, it’s lit up beautifully. There’s something different about her, something lighter, more relaxed.
I don’t realize that I’ve said it out loud till she looks startled.
Then something flashes across her face, and she looks up at me. “I – I’m happy.” She looks puzzled by it as if it is something foreign to her.
I can understand that. The minute I laid eyes on her, last year, was at a point when I had been starting to give up on ever finding her again. And now, here she was, safe and secure, in my bed, in my life.
I just hold her closer, this strange warmth in my chest warring with the coldness that’s resided there for years. “Let’s get something to eat.”
The next few days are spent in discovering each other, in and out of bed.
Learning Kendall’s body is something I indulge in at every given opportunity and I really want to extend our stay here, but we have to get back at some point and as we fly to the airport, she looks a little unsettled.
“What is it?” I ask after she sighs for what’s probably the fifth time in a row.
She slumps in the seat and puts her hands over her stomach, sullen. “I don’t want to go back.”
“I know.”
She droops even more. “Things are going to be awkward. I know they will. Don’t tell me they won’t.”
“You don’t know that,” I say unhelpfully.
She sighs again. “I can’t believe I climbed into bed with you so quickly. I mean I could have made you work for it a little bit, but no, I jump onto you like a horny little –” she struggles with the last word, ending lamely with “–thing.”
“Where did that come from?” Surprise courses through me, this completely random direction in conversation making me turn towards her.
“I’ve been thinking about it a lot. Twenty-seven years, I’ve been a saint, you tell me who you are, and suddenly I’m all over you.” She sounds annoyed.
I muffle my laugh with a cough. “If it makes you feel better, I was hell bent on seducing you. Besides…” I drop a kiss on her cheek, grinning. “I quite like how this turned out.”
She glances at me, reluctantly. “I’m sorry. I do this sometimes. Things go too well, and I just start picking it apart, looking for the flaws to tear it down myself before somebody else does. It’s a bad habit.”
“Kendall.” I wait until she’s looking at me and I cup her cheek. “It’s okay. You can pick and prod all you want. This is a massive adjustment for you and a little bit for me as well. But we’re together now. As long as you hold on to that, everything else just pales in significance.”
She leans into my touch. “Smooth talker much?” But the heaviness in her expression fades and she looks calmer now.
We board my private jet a few hours later and as we’re flying back, I realize that things will be vastly different, and I need to be prepared for it.
16
Kendall
“Let me get this straight?” Tracy is giving me a dumbfounded look. “So, you find out who he is, and then you get upset, and then you sleep with him?”
I’m sitting at the kitchen counter, looking like a child being chastised. “Well—kind of, yeah.”
“That is highly irresponsible, Kendall!” Tracy kneads the dough roughly, scowling.
