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I didn’t know what I was thinking, kissing him the way I had.
Or maybe I did.
Almost eight months ago, I’d made the hardest decision of my life—the decision to free myself from Stan. No matter how much it hurt, no matter how hard it was, I made the choice to start fighting for myself. For my life. For my health. For my son.
And Sunday night, at Zeke’s apartment, I’d wanted to fight for him, too, even if it was only for one night.Thatwas why I’d kissed him.Because I’d wanted just one taste of him for myself.
“And how are you doing?” he asked, and I told myself it was my imagination the way his voice lowered just a hair.
“Good.” I opened my notepad. “How are you?”
“Good.”
We were both lying. Both struggling to move past the line we’d crossed—and the incredible sex we’d fallen into. I couldn’t speak for Zeke, and I was sure he’d had more intimate partners compared to my one, but I’d never had sex like that before. His kisses… touches. Pleasure. Orgasms.Nothing came close.
There was no comparison to that night, and if the air between us wasn’t still charged with the same energy, I almost would’ve believed that something that incomparable had to be imagined.
I didn’t have any delusions. I knew any kind of relationship was out of the question, for him because of the boundaries that already existed between us, and for me, because of Jake. Until I had equal custody over my son, I couldn’t think about having another man in my life… especially since the last one had almost destroyed it.
But one night… was one night. One toe-curling, incredible, magical night. And now it was over.Like Christmas.No one expected Santa to stick around for a few weeks and continue to hand out presents… or orgasms.
We were adults. This wasn’t the ‘pretend it never happened’ kind of thing, it was the ‘it happened four times… and now, we were done with it’ kind of thing.
“So, the next group arrives on Thursday—”
“And I have their welcome packets together.” I placed my hand on the stack of folders on one corner of his desk. “Once you have everything you need from them, I’ll go through the tour, introduce them to everyone, and get them settled.”
When I looked up, I caught Zeke staring at me before his head tipped, and he nodded. “Great,” he said and cleared his throat. “I know it’s still over a month away, but Benny was asking me about the Beach Bash, do we have a list of—”
“All the activities and businesses that need volunteers, and which of the girls have signed up for which.” I passed him the papers over his desk.
Every year, all the profits from the Beach Bash were donated to the hospital. In addition to the food and fun events, there was also a large tent of donations from local businesses to be sold for charity.
“On the list are still the vegetable baskets from the garden to auction off like we did last year, but some of the girls and I know how to knit and crochet, so we’re going to do some handmade softies and donate them straight to the NICU.”
“Softies?”
“Little toys. Bunnies. Octopus,” I explained, leaning forward to point lower on the sheet as though he wouldn’t be able to find it.
Instead of his eyes going to the spot by my finger, his attention turned to me. To the straight line of sight down my shirt I’d just given him.
My breath snagged, and a warm coat of goose bumps lifted on my skin. My nipples furled, remembering the heat of that stare on my bare skin, hot enough to feel like an actual touch.
The intensity of the way he’d wanted mewas enough to make my knees weak.
“Gwen said they like to give the preemies something to hold onto so they don’t try to grab at any of the tubes,” I said, pulling our conversation back to safe shores as I quickly sat back down.
A familiar ache heated between my thighs, so I crossed my legs to stop it. Of course, my pebbled nipples still showed through my shirt, but at least he pretended to be focused on the documents in his hands, perusing them slowly to let the tension leak from the moment.
“This is… incredible,” he said and looked at me. “You’re incredible.”
So much for letting the tension leak.
My jaw went slack, heat flooding my cheeks. “Zeke…”
“I’m not going to hold back from giving praise when it’s due, Kenzie,” he said, his tone stern. “Regardless of what’s happened between us.”
I couldn’t stop my small smile. I’d tried to do so much for Stan when we first started dating and then after we had Jake. He wanted me to be a stay-at-home mom, and I wanted to do what I could to help him—to make his job less stressful since he was providing for all of us. I cleaned the house, prepped and made every meal. Took care of everything for Jake. Hosted parties for him and his friends and coworkers. Ran volunteer events. But no matter how much I did, there was never a compliment from Stan, let alone gratitude. It was all… expected.
