AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He wished he could feel the same way about his own love life.
God, he’d made a fucking mess.
“So, tell me more about this woman. You said you met her this week. What’s she look like? Is she good in the sack? Wait—don’t answer that last one. I don’t wanna know.” She shuddered.
Grinning, AJ answered, “You’ll be happy to know I haven’t had sex with her. We mostly spent the week chatting, getting to know one another.” And discovering that spending said time with her was more like a chore than a gift.
Spending time with the Swan that showed up on Monday made him realize that…he really didn’t know the woman like he thought he did.
And he told Sally just that, opening himself up to her. She was the only family he had left, and he adored her completely. Out of anyone in the world, he trusted her to give it to him straight.
After he was done spilling his guts about Swan and his week with Denise, Sally sat in silence, her gaze caught on his face, her eyes penetrating yet thoughtful.
Finally, she took his hands into hers again, and squeezed tightly.
A flash of memory…the two of them, sorrowful, grieving, standing alone and lost over the grave of their mother. In that moment, they’d only had each other. Now, their little family had grown—in number and strength. And he couldn’t be more grateful to his little sister for being part of it all.
“Did you ever consider that you’re just projecting what you want on to her? That you want this to be the perfect woman so badly, you’re seeing perfection where there really isn’t? That you’re seeing something real where there is only smoke and mirrors? I mean, come on, you don’t even know if this Denise woman is the one you’ve been talking to online. She could be an imposter. Anyone can be anyone on the internet—we’ve all seen the Dateline Special.”
“Yeah, but the kiss at the holiday party. That was real, and it was fucking fantastic.” More than. It had shaken him to his very soul, and he was still recovering. His thoughts never far from that dark room, those dark promises in her kiss, the sultry sound of her voice, the cock-hardening sounds of her moans as he took her mouth.
Fuck. Now was not the time for an erection. Not when his sister was shredding him and the mess that was his love life to pieces
“Yeah, the kiss. The one in the dark conference room. What’s that about? How can you kiss someone without seeing them? Was it like two blind people bumping faces? You had to have at least touched her, right? To see if she was really…well, female. Boobs, brother. Did she have boobs?”
“One thing at a time, Sallina, shit.”
She raised her hands in grudging surrender and stared at him expectantly. Practically vibrating in her seat. He was surprised Sylvester hadn’t sensed a disturbance in the force and come running—as tuned into Sally’s moods as he was.
“And, yes, Denise has boobs.” If it was Denise in the dark that night. Shit! Now Sally had him thinking it. “I think we’ve talked about Swan-slash-Denise enough tonight.”
“Wait,” Sally blurted, “you said women, meaning more than one. One is the catfishing Swan, so who is the other woman?”
He definitely wasn’t opening the Maeve can of worms tonight. He was worn out emotionally, mentally, and physically.
“Another time, sis. Right now, I need to go home, take a long shower, and get some fucking sleep.” If he could. The night ahead looked like a long one, his thoughts even more confused than ever. His heart more twisted and bleeding than ever.
Was Sally right?
Could his interest in Swan just be a figment of what he really wanted? Was he projecting onto the silhouette of a woman the details and emotions of what he wanted with a “real” woman?
Was he really that desperate to know love? To give love? Was he turning into the male version of his too trusting, too eager, too needy mother?
And what about Maeve?
He couldn’t ignore the pang in his belly—and lower—when he pictured her…nor the ache in his chest when he thought of her.
Email/conference room Swan and Maeve.
How was it possible to miss two different women with the same amount of yearning? How could he desire two different women with the same level of scorching want? What kind of man did it make him that when he’d first thought of meeting Swan…he’d pictured Maeve’s face?
Was he more like his lecherous, cheating father than he ever wanted to admit?
