She flinches but doesn’t open her eyes.
I want to reach out to her, to touch her, but if I do, she may flinch even more, and I don’t want that. I don’t want to do anything to harm this woman—or any woman. Not ever again.
“Katelyn?” I say again.
One eye opens this time and then the other.
“Is Mrs. Wolfe okay?”
The blare of the sirens in the distance drifts through to us. They’re coming closer.
I turn toward the sound. “It won’t be long now. We should go tell Mrs. Wolfe.”
Katelyn doesn’t respond, nor does she move.
“I’ll do it.”
I turn toward the door to the staff lounge when Lois comes rushing toward us. “They’re almost here. We’ll need to stay out of their way.”
“Yeah, of course.” I turn back to Katelyn. “We need to move. The paramedics are coming.”
She nods then, and when I tentatively take her hand, she doesn’t resist. I’m not sure where I’m going to take her. The staff lounge is off limits. The paramedics will head straight for that room. Back to her table? No. She needs quiet. Peace.
I don’t know how I know this, but I do.
Her hand is freezing cold, but still a spark shoots through me at the contact.
Outside?
Not really an option either. The paramedics will be blocking everything and we’ll have to walk somewhere to get away from them. I don’t want Katelyn to have to walk any more than necessary until she comes out of this funk.
Through the kitchen, then. The paramedics won’t go there, and there’s a doorway to the back alley, where we get deliveries.
“Come on.”
To my surprise, she doesn’t resist. She follows behind me, her hand still in mine, as we stride through the kitchen.
“Everything okay?” the pastry chef asks me.
“Yeah, Trina. This young woman just needs some air, and the ambulance is arriving for Mrs. Wolfe.”
Trina nods, and no one else questions me as we walk through the clattering sounds of the kitchen and through the door to the delivery entrance.
A stray yellow cat whisks by, and Katelyn gasps.
“It’s just a cat, honey. Just a cat. What can I do for you?”
“I should be with Zee.”
“The paramedics will take care of her.”
“But…she took such good care of me. I need to be there for her.”
“All right. I’ll take you back in if that’s what you want.”
She nods, so back through the door we go, through the kitchen, and out into the—
“Where the hell is my wife?”
The loud bellow comes from an Armani-clad businessman with black hair and wide blue eyes. Reid Wolfe. He looks just like his photos. I’ve never met him, but for a hot second, we traveled in the same circles. We’re the same age. Thirty-three.
Lois rushes to him. “Mrs. Wolfe is fine, Mr. Wolfe. She’s resting in the staff lounge. Come with me. The paramedics are on their way.”
Reid Wolfe looks stunned. His normally perfectly coiffed head of hair is sticking up in strange places, and his tie is loose and his jacket wrinkled. He and Lois disappear into the lounge.
The sirens get louder, and within another thirty seconds, paramedics are rushing in with a stretcher.
Katelyn gasps and freezes.
What now?
“Come on.” I take her back through the kitchen and outside into the alley again.
No cat this time. The sirens probably scared all the strays away. Sometimes, during my break, instead of going to the lounge, I come out here and bring scraps to the strays. There’s a mongrel I like. He has a blue merle coat and one blue eye and one brown eye. I named him Jed.
He’s not here tonight, but he’ll be back, looking for his evening meal. Once the commotion dies down.
“Easy,” I say to Katelyn. “She’s fine. Her husband’s here, and the ambulance will take her to the hospital.”
“I should have been stronger,” Katelyn says.
“Stronger?”
“I should have stayed with her. I owe her everything.”
“It’s okay. She’ll understand.” I have no idea if this is true, but what else can I say? What exactly does Katelyn owe Mrs. Reid Wolfe?
“She… She brought me here.”
“Don’t worry. I’ll get you a cab. Everything will be fine.”
She meets my gaze then. Truly meets my gaze, and I realize it’s the first time she’s done so.
Her eyes are beautiful, a light blue like the summer sky. The lightest blue I’ve ever seen, actually. And her hair, it’s also lighter than I thought. It’s not a honey blond but more of an ash blond. Not a dark root in sight. This is her natural color.
Her face is a perfect oval shape with high cheekbones and a rosy blush. Her lips full and pink, and parted just so…
I can’t help myself.
I lean toward her and brush my lips over hers.
She gasps and jerks backward, her back hitting the brick wall of the building. Her blue eyes widen nearly into circles, and her pupils dilate.
She’s scared.
Scared of me.
I don’t want her to be scared of me. I’m done scaring women. That was the old me. The new me…
Well, I don’t really know him yet, but I do know that he doesn’t want to scare women.
Especially not this woman.
I’m sorry. The words don’t make it to my lips. Because they’re only partially true. I don’t lie anymore—at least not beyond what’s necessary for my survival. That’s no longer me. So to say a blanket “I’m sorry” would be a lie. I’m truly sorry if I scared her, but I’m adamantly not sorry I kissed her.
I’d do it again.
And again.
In fact, all my strength is required at this very moment not to push her into the brick wall, shove my tongue into her mouth, and grind my quickly hardening dick into her belly.
But I made a promise to myself. No relationships—other than a few friendships—until I’m sure I’m ready. Until I’m sure I’m fully healed.
I will abide my promise. If I can’t keep a promise to myself, how will I ever keep a promise to Katelyn or anyone else?
I move backward a few steps, creating much-needed distance between us.
Then the words. “I didn’t mean to frighten you.”
And then her words…
“You didn’t.”
7
Katelyn
Luke’s eyebrows shoot up.
I can’t blame his surprise. My words surprised me as well. Indeed, I certainly acted frightened—gasping and backing away from him.
In truth, though?
The kiss felt…right, somehow.
The soft press of his lips to mine. Like butterfly wings. He didn’t push. He didn’t prod. He didn’t attempt to force my mouth open. He didn’t grab my breast.
Pure gentleness. That’s what it was.
Something I’ve never experienced before.
Even now, my heart beats like a hummingbird’s. And it’s not from fear.
I know fear better than most people do, and this isn’t it.
This is something I’ve never experienced. It’s a little scary for sure, but good scary. Good meaning I want to feel it again. I want to see where it goes.