Page 103 of Reckless
His World
Xerses
I kissed Kelly.
Will power kept me from going further earlier.
I made it through the terrace, through the foyer, through the short exchange with my mother and whatever it was Charlie tried to say that Hope physically shut down before it reached me.
Finally I made it into my room, out of my shirt, and into the shower.Nothing stopped my mind from the replay the exact sounds Kelly had made when my mouth first touched hers.I was going to need stronger methods than cold water and bad judgment to get through the night.
The cold water did not help.
She had kissed me back, actively.She had kissed me back like the choice was hers and she wanted me too.That was what kept replaying.
I laid in my bed after the shower but sleep eluded me.
“You do not lie awake because a woman kissed you back,” I said.“Even if it was Kelly.”
I turned over.Sleep eventually came in spurts.
By eight-thirty, I had already had coffee, ignored three messages from Roman about work I didn’t feel like doing from a family house, and stood at my window long to watch the ocean go from gray-blue to silver where the sun hit it.
The compound moved into daytime around me.Staff and voices.Tea service.Somewhere downstairs, my mother directing flowers as if their placement affected market conditions.
I should have been able to settle but instead I found myself listening for Kelly without meaning to.
I left my room and the second I made it downstairs, I saw her, Kelly.
She sat halfway down on the sunlit side in a pale dress that should have looked softer than it did.The color made her skin look warmer.Her hair was still damp at the ends, falling over one shoulder.She had a glass of tea beside her and was listening to Hope with exactly the sort of half-smile that had become unsteady to me in direct proportion to how private it felt.
My body recognized her before my face had a chance to choose neutrality.
And her eyes found mine.
For a second it felt like the cove again and her taste and how she breathed my name replayed.
Then she blinked, looked down at her tea, and everything came rushing back.
My mother noticed.She smiled into her own glass like a woman who had discovered proof of life where she’d already planted hope.
“Xerses joon,” she said as I took the chair beside Kelly.“You’re late.”
“It’s not even nine.”
Kelly looked at her tea like she was using the glass to avoid the room.
I sat and my chair brushed hers.
“Good morning,” I said.
Her fingers tightened on the tea glass before she turned.“Good morning.”
“You slept.”
“Is that an observation or a question?”
“Neither.You look rested.”
