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Abbe shrugged in response.
“How many boyfriends did you have before him?” he asked, looking almost insulted.
“Four. Well, three and a half. I shouldn’t really count the guy I dated in ninth grade. I only let him go to second base.”
They walked in silence for a while. “I’ve decided I hate him,” Rafe announced.
Abbe cracked up. “Oh my god, he would have hated you too.”
“Why?” Rafe asked, but not because he was offended. Just curious.
Abbe shrugged, debating whether or not she should tell him. He nudged her and she gave in. “Well, because you have a lot of money and he was sort of against amassed personal wealth. Especially if it was generational.”
“But he apparently had no problem telling you to close your no-kill animal shelter so he could live in the nice, big house that youinherited,” Rafe said with a fair amount of snark in his tone.
Abbe frowned, having to accept that what Rafe said was true. “He turned out to be a lot of things he told me wasn’t. But mostly I think it’s because when push came to shove, he ended up being someonehedidn’t think he was.” She took a deep breath. “Okay. Your turn.”
Rafe turned the corner that brought them back to his building and seemed to speed up. “What? There’s nothing to tell.”
“Oh, please!” she huffed.
“What?” he persisted.
“That’s not fair,” she said, allowing more space between them as they walked.
“Okay, okay,” he said, sensing she was right, and what’s more, that she was getting really angry with him.
He brought them to a stop before they were close enough to his front door to set the concierges fumbling to make him happy.
“I dated a lot when I was younger. I had a bunch of girlfriends through high school and college, but nothing that lasted longer than a year.” He looked down and shifted uncomfortably on his feet. “Then my dad died, and my life wasn’t about me anymore. It was about my family. I stopped dating entirely and just slept with a lot of women because that was easier.”
Abbe looked up into his face, lit askance by the golden glow of the Edison-stye bulbs outside his building. He had that subdued tone to his voice again, and now that she knew him better, she could see the insecurity in his guarded eyes. He was worried about what she would think of him.
“That sounds lonely,” she said.
His lips fell apart in surprise. “It has been.”
She lifted up onto her tiptoes and kissed him. He returned her kiss with relief at first, and then something else, something much more fragile. He was careful with it, and careful with her, stopping the kiss from becoming too passionate. When he pulled away, he rested his forehead on hers, his hands still brushing her toward him like he was trying to get her closer, without making her aroused. Abbe realized he just wanted a hug. She hugged him.
They walked inside his building holding hands and curled up in bed together, with Daisy sneaking onto the bed as soon as she knew Rafe was asleep. At some point in the night, Abbe guessed it was just before dawn by the way everything looked like it was filmed in black and white, she felt him reach for her. He held her for a long time, his fingers trailing butterfly-light over the sensitive sides of her breasts and between her thighs. She wanted to taste him. She rolled him onto his back so she could take him into her mouth. They were both shaking when he let himself slide inside of her.
“Shh, slow down,” he whispered when she pulled his hips harder against her. He rose up on his elbows above her so he could see her. “I want this to last.”
Abbe woke and sat up, alone in Rafe’s enormous bed.
Motion on the balcony outside caught her eye. Dressed only in a pair of loose pajama pants that hung low on his hip, he was pacing in the cold air, having an intense conversation on the phone. The windows were soundproof and Abbe couldn’t hear a thing, but from the tension on his face and the way he used his free hand to gesticulate, she could tell his voice was raised.
She watched him pacing around with Daisy shadowing his every move out on the patio-sized balcony, until he saw her sitting up in bed. His face broke into an apologetic smile and he lifted one finger, indicating that he needed more time. Abbe silently assented and got out of bed.
She went to his sister’s room and picked out a fresh pair of soft yoga pants and another matching cut-off sweatshirt that left a strip of her belly exposed, and shuffled into the kitchen. Rafe had one of those coffee machines that took expensive pods. They were out of her budget, but she knew they made stupendous coffee. She popped in a pod, pressed a button, and in thirty seconds she was sipping Italian heaven.
She heard the elevator ding and froze. Rafe was still out on his wrap-around balcony somewhere. She wandered toward the entryway, mug in hand, and hoping like crazy that it wasn’t Ray the concierge, coming in, who would see her braless, hair mussed, and quite obviously freshly tumbled, when she heard theclack-clack-clackof a woman’s heels across the marble floor.
“I’m gracing you with my presence!” came a sing-song voice. “Hey! Where the hell are you?” she called impatiently, her tone switching.
Abbe poked her head out from the kitchen area. “Hi,” she said.
A black-haired, blue-eyed beauty who Abbe guessed was just a bit younger than her, screamed and jumped about two feet in the air.
