AllFreeNovel
Share Us
An idiot who wished, more than anything, that she had a way of reaching out to the man who’d never been far from her thoughts since she hit puberty. A man she’d honestly never thought she’d meet.
Stories & Secrets
Siennadecidedtotreatherself to one final holiday coffee before she became consumed with travel prep. Because it was freaking cold, as evidenced by the occasional tufts of white drifting down from the sky, and also because she was a grown up with her own bank account and she wanted to. She didn’t need a better reason than that. There was a Peppermint Wonderland Mocha calling her name and Serendripity was there to answer that call, thank the gods.
She almost didn’t want to leave the roasted coffee-scented warmth of the shop after getting her hands on the disposable cup. But most of the tables were taken, many by couples, and both lines were long enough that there wasn’t a lot of standing room. It was cold out, but it was also the Friday before Christmas. Shopping was more important than keeping warm, apparently. So she smiled her thanks at the familiar barista—who smiled wide in return—and ducked around the other coffee seekers. Almost.
In her attempt to avoid two chattering late-teens who’d just barreled in, she didn’t see the woman at the bar-style seat swing around to stand. The woman’s knees collided with Sienna’s and Sienna jolted, hot coffee spilling from the imperfect seal of the lid despite the little stick obscuring the drinking hole. The impact made her lurch, the burn made her fumble, and the way the woman jerked her legs aside only further threw off her balance.
“Watch where you’re going!” the woman snapped.
“Hey!” someone shouted from behind her.
Everything was a blur and all Sienna could think was that she hadn’t even gotten a sip of her drink yet, but she was definitely going down. The only surface she could reach to theoretically catch herself was the very woman who’d tripped her, and that required dropping the coffee. She’d managed to catch it, dammit, even at the cost of her own balance.
Then an arm shrouded in black swept beneath her and hauled her upright, locking around her torso and partially flattening her breasts. Her back pressed into a firm, blood-igniting chest and the breath rushed from her lungs. He released her just as quickly and stepped into her line of sight, as if sliding right through the very woman whose careless movement had tripped her up.
Sienna stared up into the gray-blue eyes of the man who’d haunted her dreams the night before. The man she honestly hadn’t thought she’d see again in her moments of consciousness. “Hi.”Hi? Really?
“It’s crowded here,” he said.
The woman cleared her throat pointedly. “Could you both get out of my way?”
Sienna turned, opening her mouth to snap back, but Fenn was faster.
“Shut up.”
The woman’s eyes widened for a moment before she slumped in her seat and dropped her gaze. As if suddenly unhurried.
Sienna blinked, confused and intrigued, and looked up again at Fenn.
His expression remained patient. “If you still want to talk,” he said, “I’d prefer we did so elsewhere.”
Her heart leapt. He was willing to talk! She grinned. “I was just leaving, anyway.” She stepped forward, switched her mostly salvaged coffee to the other hand, and hooked her arm through his before he could protest. “We can talk as we walk, or I suppose we can talk back at my house. Since you’ve already been there.” Inviting a man she’d technically barely met, who hadn’t exactly been forthcoming, back to her home was not something she would ordinarily be proud of. But he clearly knew where she lived, so she saw no point in holding to that unwritten rule.
Fenn required a moment of encouragement to walk with her, but allowed her to lead him out of the coffee shop. “Does your hand hurt?”
“Hm?” Sienna looked down, realizing she still had a couple of splattered mocha droplets on her skin. “Ah, not anymore.” She held the cup up. “Itisfresh, you know.” Her eyes widened and she brought them abruptly to a stop barely two blocks from the café. “You probably wanted a cup! I can totally go back with you and wait. I’m not busy. Worst thing that could happen is I’ll drink my mocha before yours is ready.”
He scrunched his face in brief, but visible, disgust. “I rarely drink coffee, and never those.” He motioned to her cup with his opposite hand. “I don’t know how anyone stomachs all that sugar.”
Sienna laughed. It wasn’t like she’d never heard criticism of her preferred caffeinated concoctions. “Sure, but you did just enter a coffee house. Why else would you be there? The snacks aren’t exactly filling, and most of them are sweet this time of year.”
“I was looking for you.”
She stilled. He’d been looking for her? She dragged in a breath and tightened her grip on her drink. “I thought you wanted me to forget you.”
His expression smoothed. “Clearly you didn’t.”
She rolled her eyes. “Do you think I’m that absent-minded?”
“Fenn?” The shocked feminine tone interrupted whatever he might have said in response and drew both their attentions toward the nearest intersection and a woman who was rapidly approaching them. She was model-gorgeous, petite yet curvy with long, billowy hair that had to be dyed to get that soft-yellow shade. She would have drawn attention even if she weren’t dressed for weather in a different hemisphere with her thigh-length skirt, and midriff flashing, V-neck top. She aimed a glare at Sienna for a lingering second, switched her focus to Fenn and swept a gesturing hand in Sienna’s direction. “What in the world is this? Have you been lying to me? Who is she?”
Sienna’s mouth fell open before she could catch herself.Holy shitballs.Had she just been caught in some kind of lovers’ quarrel? Yeah, that wasn’t going to work for her. “Um, excuse me. Sorry.” She attempted a polite smile despite the raging female’s returned glare, then moved her focus to Fenn. “Maybe you could’ve mentioned you had a person?” Was it just not her year? She slid her arm from his, doing her best to ignore the stab of pain in her heart. Attraction or no, she was no one’s mistress.
Fenn shot out his hand and snatched hers almost before it was free again. His gloved hand curled tightly around her bare one and he frowned. “I don’t. There was nothing to mention.” He faced the blonde again as she made an inarticulate noise. “This is the last time I’ll tolerate you making a scene, Florence. Find someone else to stalk.”
“No,” the woman, Florence, said firmly. She stomped forward in her heeled boots, as if she were going to attack Sienna. “I won’t lose to this random, mortal, trash.” At the last second she twisted around and threw herself bodily into Fenn, even reaching up to wrap her arms around his neck.
