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Everyone murmurs their goodbyes and files out of the room.
“I have a meeting downtown in half an hour,” he says to me, not bothering to look up from his phone. “I’ll meet you at home for dinner around nine, okay?”
“Can I come with you?” I ask, just wanting to know what he’ll say.
“No.” Brutal. To the point.
I’ve gotten used to our unspoken truces, so when he turns into cold Kingsley, it hurts all over again. Even if this time, I may have asked for it.
I hug my notebook to my chest and wait for him to leave the conference room before following him. But he abruptly stops and I bang into him, almost falling over, my knee buckling under me.
He grabs my arms. “Wow. Easy.”
“I’m fine,” I say, taking a step back, shaking his hands off me.
He lets go immediately. “What’s going on with you today? Are you tired? I told you to stay home and rest if you ever need it. You’ve gone hard this week.”
“I said I’m fine, Kingsley. You better go. You don’t want to be late.”
He follows as I basically sprint to my office, hiding my face behind my folder, trying to hide how his touch affected me.
“Do you need a car?”
“No, I’m just going to take an Uber to visit my friends at the hostel.”
I expect him to argue, and for a moment, it looks like he will, but he just says, “See you at the house at nine.”
I walk around for an hour after I leave the office, just trying to make sense of what I saw. It could be totally innocent. Or it could not be. And I don’t know enough about him to know which it was. I just know I saw the looks on those women’s faces. And the effect of Kingsley on women. I’m firsthand evidence.
No emotions. Forget what happened.
Easy for him to say.
My phone buzzes, and I grab it with the faint hope that he’s changed his mind and is asking me to join him.
But it’s not.
Instead.
Unknown Caller:Hey Luna. I’m close. You know what to do. Get it ready.
Tar creeps up my throat and coats my tongue, and I spin around, not sure what I’m expecting to see. But there isn’t one thing or anyone out of the ordinary.
I pull the jacket tightly around me and flag down a cab to the hostel.
Enough walking for today. I want to be somewhere safe.
It’s past ten p.m. when the taxi pulls up outside the house.
I hadn’t meant to come home so late, trying to time it so that I’d come home at around the same time he did, but time had slipped away, and then it had become almost impossible to get an Uber.
Not that he’s my warden, but I’m going to garner a guess that whatever’s waiting for me inside that house is not a warm welcome. Kingsley Baxter doesn’t exactly seem like the guy who likes tardiness.
The house is quiet when I knock, deciding not to use my key, and Theodore opens the door to let me in.
He looks amused and doesn’t say anything except “You might want to go into the dining room. Or not.”
“Any chance I might be able to… not?”
