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There’s the other part that wonders if I just screwed things up.
Then I think about the hurt in her eyes. The hurt I put there when I snapped at her. Shit.
Guilt works at me, a lump growing bigger in my stomach. Ari is scared and stressed and instead of being patient, I let my own fear and frustration get the best of me.
Dropping my phone, I head after Ari. Although she’s been spending the nights in my room, I have a pretty good feeling she’s notin there now. So I knock lightly at her bedroom door, softly asking, “Ari, can I talk to you? Please?”
Silence drags and I wonder if she’s going to ignore me. But after a few seconds, I hear a dull, “Fine.”
She’s sitting on the bed, still in her work clothes, her shoulders drooping. I walk over to the bed, hesitating before I sit down. “Can I?”
Ari sighs. “Of course, Cash. It’s your house.”
Her features are tight with stress and there are bluish smudges under her eyes, and all I want to do is pull her into my arms and make everything all better. This protectiveness I feel toward Ari is even stronger than before—when I think about someone hurting her, it makes me crazy.
“It’s your bedroom,” I tell her, sitting down close enough for our legs to touch. “And you live here, too. If you don’t want me here, that’s your right.”
After another long pause, Ari shifts so she’s facing me, folding her legs like a pretzel in front of her. “I’m sorry I walked away like that,” she says quietly.
That’snot what I was expecting.
“Even though I was upset,” she continues. “I should have stayed and talked it out.”
Ari’s quiet apology deflates the last of my frustration. “I’m sorry, Ari. For snapping at you, and just assuming you would want the same thing.” I reach for her hand, sighing in relief when she doesn’t pull away. “I just started thinking about all the bad things that could happen, and…”
I take a breath, holding her gaze. “When I think about you being hurt, or scared… all I want to do is protect you. To keep you with me, so I know you’re safe. I know that’s not what you want, but—”
“It’s not that I don’twant it, Cash.” Ari scoots closer to me, her knees resting on my leg. “I’d be lying if I didn’t say the idea was tempting. Staying here, not worrying that something could happen when I’m at school—a fire alarm going off, or a bomb threat, and Kyle’s outside waiting for me…”
Fuck. I didn’t even think about that. I can’t help myself, the sudden jolt of fear has me lifting Ari into my lap. “Please don’t say that,” I whisper into her hair. “I’m freaked out enough already.”
Ari snuggles into me, and my heart unclenches. “Sorry,” she murmurs. “But Cash, I can’t hide all the time. And I worked really hard to get where I am. I like my job. It would be one thing if I chose to quit for a good reason, like raising kids, or—” Her cheeks go pink. “Anyway. I’m not going to quit because some asshole forced me into it. I can’t.”
“I get it.” I really do. As much as I want to keep Ari behind reinforced walls and barricades, I understand.
Twining her fingers with mine, Ari tucks her head under my chin. “It’s a bad day for you to hear about it. That’s why I was hesitating.”
“It’s okay.” Although Brett’s raging face as he left my office will stick for a while.
“It’s not okay.” Her lips press against my throat, feathering light kisses across my skin. “Was it really bad?”
I lean back, pulling Ari along with me, so we’re laying on the bed together. She turns into me, draping her leg over mine, lazily tracing the buttons of my shirt. “He was upset. He thought I was going to promote him. Or give him shares of the company.”
“Oh, Cash. I’m sorry.” She starts unbuttoning my shirt, trailing her fingers down my bare chest as she goes. “That must have been so hard.”
“He’s not the first person I’ve had to fire.”
“Still.” Ari kisses a line across my collarbone. “This was different.”
My shirt is completely unbuttoned and tugged free from my pants. Slim fingers drift lower, slipping under my waistband. Suddenly, everything else that happened today doesn’t seem as bad.
“Maybe I can help you feel better,” Ari suggests. “And I think it would make me feel better, too.”
I pull Ari on top of me, capturing her mouth and teasing it open, nipping and sucking and tasting. She hums at me, a little purr of pleasure, and grinds her hips into me.
Pulling away for a moment, I fall into the luminescence of her eyes, so pure and sparkling. She’severything.
“I think that’s a great idea.”
