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“I mentioned it. My dad didn’t take it well. He laid down an ultimatum. I could stay and finish my degree in New Zealand but there wouldn’t be a place for me here in governance. So I left.”
A heavy exhale rang out from next to him.
“Without a goodbye?”
“Stella.” Aleki reached out and clasped the hand holding her straw, wrapping her chilled fingers in his. “You were not the kind of girl a boy relishes saying goodbye to. I was afraid that if I talked to you again, kissed you, I would lose all reason and stay. My people needed me. But more than that, I needed them. I needed to prove that their money and their faith in me had not been wasted.”
“Yes,” Stella’s full lips twisted wryly. “It’s such a terrible shame to have your faith in someone wasted.”
He removed the shake from her fingers, placing it on the bedside table. A drop of condensation ran down the side, pooling on the polished concrete like a tear.
“Did you hate me after?”
“Yes.” Her quiet candor cut through him. “A little for the leaving, but mostly for the lying. I went to the clinic for a checkup after you left and saw you on a magazine cover in the waiting room. That’s when I realised who you were. It felt like everything we’d been through, all of the late nights, the cram sessions, the paella and chocolate buffets in the library, everything had been tainted. I didn’t put a lot of emphasis on the fact that I lost my virginity that night, but the fact that I’d lost it to someone who I’d never really known made me bitter. It took a long time for that wound to heal.”
“But it did?”
Stella shrugged and snuggled back down so her head nestled back on the pillow. Her voice grew heavy with fatigue.
“Mostly. I had quite a few one night stands after that. I left while they were sleeping, just like you had done to me. I never called them back or gave them another chance. Giving someone else the opportunity to hurt me seemed like madness. There were some nice guys, some good times. But none of them have lasted. I tell myself it’s this business, the hours. But it’s not.”
Regret tore through Aleki at the resignation in Stella’s sleep-leaden tone. He’d been a scared young man - barely more than a child - when he’d left her. He’d never considered that his actions might have affected Stella past the walk of shame home and a simmering resentment for him.
“Is that why you don’t believe in love?” The question slipped out unbidden.
She huffed out a sardonic laugh, even as her eyes drifted closed. “I believe in love just fine. I see it every day in my work. But it’s not in my future.”
“And that’s why you agreed to marry me?”
“Yeah.” Her soft lips curled in a small smile. “My child deserves a father who loves it more than anything. You can be that. If you couldn’t, I wouldn’t be here.”
Aleki’s gut tightened as she spoke. Nothing but a baby daddy. Well, he couldn’t fault her honesty. She was following the terms of their agreement to the letter. Stella had never been much for sentimentality. He reached out and stroked several escaped strands from her ponytail back off her forehead. The cool tresses felt at odds with the warmth of her brow, and he kept stroking, light little repetitions, as her breathing grew heavy and even.
When he was sure she was asleep, he rolled to the side of the bed and kicked off his shoes. His shirt and pants followed, and he slipped beneath the crisp cotton of the coverlet wearing only his boxer briefs. Reaching out, he captured one of her lax hands in his and linked their fingers together as he closed his eyes. He couldn’t erase the mistrust he’d caused the mother of his child in the past, but he could make damn sure she woke up to find him there in the morning.
* * *
Stella loved a great many things.But nothing compared to the languid joy she felt when it came to waking up slowly in clean sheets and sunlight. Her Wellington apartment faced the east and with a lack of neighbours on that side, she rarely pulled her bedroom blinds, just so she could wake up like this - soft and warm on her stomach, nestled in thread counts higher than her credit card limit. The sticky weight of slumber loosened its hold as she turned her face towards the light, little pinpricks of gold settling behind her closed lids like a torch under blankets.
Burrowing her cheek deeper into the plush pillow, she stretched out a little. Just enough to stir her blood, send a few light endorphins skittering through her blood. Like every morning, she wiggled her toes while she ran through her To-Do List for the day.
And… nothing.
Stella frowned, scanning back in her mind for a reminder of what she had on today, but her ever-present internal catalogue of tasks remained stubbornly blank. She stretched again, arching her back this time and her hip grazed against something firm. She moved once more, rubbing her hip against the foreign entity even as she registered a muffled noise beside her.
Eyes flying open, she jerked up into a sitting position.
“Stella?”
“Aleki?” She glanced around the room quickly as recollection struck, then returned her gaze to him. It was a mistake.
Aleki Esera was stunning in suits, gorgeous in gym gear and fantasy-fuel in traditional Avalian garb. She’d Googled it. But in bed?
Breathtaking.
His short dark hair tufted up in soft-looking peaks, unencumbered by product. Stubble coated his square jaw and his eyes, the colour of rich milk chocolate, swam with a drowsy tenderness that made her want nothing more than to snuggle into the crook of his arm and inhale him. And his body… dear God, his body.
Bronzed skin for miles, taut over the planes and ridges of his torso and arms. A sprinkling of dark hair covered his chest and narrowed as it traveled down beneath the brightly coloured quilt to the lap she’d been grinding her hip against. Flat brown nipples peeked out from the crisp curls. Dizziness hit Stella like a brick as she flashed back to tugging on one with her teeth the night of Mae and Luke’s wedding while Aleki pinned her against the door to her room with her dress bunched around her waist and his hands firm on her arse.
“Fafine aulelei?” Aleki’s voice ripped her from her lust-soaked memory. “Are you alright?”
“I...um...yes.” Except she wasn’t because she was stuttering like a fool and the memory fireworks were still going on behind her eyelids, image after filthy image of fevered debauchery. She shook her head.
Be gone, mental sex memoir!
“Why are you here?”
Aleki raised one thick eyebrow. “We are engaged.”
