Page 38 of Rescued By Midnight

Her mouth is mesmerizing. I can’t look away from her light pink lips. One kiss, one taste?—

No. I pull back, making sure she’s steady as I do.

Alice blinks, looking as shocked as I am.

We nearly kissed. I nearly indulged in the fantasy I’ve nurtured nearly since meeting this gorgeous girl.

“I’m—I’m sorry.” I stumble over the words, knowing they aren’t true. I’m not sorry. And I’d do it again.

But not now. Not when she’s recovering from her kidnapping and captivity. Not when she’s still trying to manage everything with Brayden.

Fuck, what if she goes back to him? I’ll lose her all over again.

The thought makes me want to throw down our plates, pin Alice to the floor, and fuck her until she forgets everything and everyone except me and Cody.

Not now, I remind myself. Maybe, if I’m extremely lucky, later.

15

ALICE - NOW

I lean against the kitchen counter, lost in thought while I watch Landon brown ground turkey on the stove. The aromatic scents of peppers and garlic delight my nose, and watching Landon move capably around the kitchen delights my eyes. His jeans are loose around the waist, so they hang around his hips, and his shoulder muscles bunch and flex, stretching his faded gray t-shirt.

Today’s therapy session with Cammie was harder than my last one. She asked some difficult questions about Seven Blessed Days.

It made me confused and uncomfortable. It’s one thing for me to question my own place in the church, but for someone like Cammie to do it is wrong. She doesn’t have the necessary background or knowledge. She doesn’t have the necessary faith in the Elders’ wisdom.

“Should you be allowed to question the Elders?” she had asked.

“Of course. I do it all the time.”

“Out loud? To their faces?”

I’d been quiet after that. Thoughtful. I’m still thinking about it. I’ll never forget something Elder Chaffin had said in a service when I was nineteen. He’d looked directly at me when he said, “The only thing worse than impurity is impertinence.”

I had just had an argument with my parents. I’d wanted to leave the church and go to college. They had said no, because I’d lose my level, and they would drop down as a result.

So, impertinence is a no-no. Questioning the Elders to their faces is a no-no.

But of course outsiders don’t understand what the church is really about. I didn’t when I joined, either. Even my parents expressed some reservations at first. “You don’t understand,” I told Cammie. “You have to be there to understand.”

She’d nodded and agreed, then switched to asking me about my life with Brayden, and my role in our marriage. She had been remarkably nonjudgmental about it, although I know not everyone agrees with the church’s views on marriage, and with the old-fashioned “traditional” roles Brayden and I held in our household.

Brayden never entered the kitchen unless he wanted me for something else, which makes it even stranger now, hours after therapy, to watch Landon cooking dinner.

He adds sautéed peppers and mushrooms to the ground turkey, sprinkling more spices on top. His cautious gaze slides over to me. “Doing all right there, Wonderland?”

“Yeah. Just thinking about some stuff Cammie said.”

He looks relieved. Was he worried that I’m upset about our almost-kiss from two days ago? I was upset, at first. Not that we nearly kissed, but that we didn’t kiss. We were drawn to each other. I felt it. I saw it in his eyes, how they darkened as he leaned in.

I’m pretty sure I’d felt his…his manhood harden against my lower stomach. My cheeks grow hot at the memory. I shouldn’t be thinking about him like that. Because of course he didn’t want to kiss me. The whole thing probably happened because he’d just seen Kim. Men have needs, and unless he’s messing around with women at work, those needs aren’t getting met. Every spare minute outside of work, he’s been here at home, and I’m here, too.

“Hungry?” Landon piles servings onto two plates.

“Starving. What about Cody?”

“He’s having dinner with his sister.”