Changing Everything (Forgiving Lies #2.5)(36)

“Of course, when do you need me?”

“As soon as you can get here.”

“I’m on my way.” After ending the call, I dropped my phone on the bed and looked back over to where Paisley’s head rested on my chest, and pressed my lips gently to hers before sliding out from under her.

“Where you going?” she mumbled as I pulled my jeans on.

I wanted to keep all this from her, but I didn’t want to lie to her. I took in a deep breath as I thought of what to say to her, then decided to go with the truth. “I need to go to the police station to see if I can ID the person from the cameras at O’Malley’s. I’ll be back with breakfast soon.”

“So they’ll know if . . .” She trailed off. Her eyes, heavy from sleep, still told me everything she was feeling. Confusion, confliction, worry . . . but they were so distanced I doubt she saw me nod.

Walking over to the bed, I leaned over her and kissed her more firmly this time. “I love you, Pay.”

Paisley wrapped a hand around the back of my neck to keep me there a few seconds after the kiss ended. She looked like she wanted to say something, but eventually released her hold on me, and said, “I love you too.”

Just as I got to the door to leave the room, she called out my name to stop me. When I turned to look at her, she was sitting up and shaking her head. “I don’t want to know if it was . . . I just don’t want to know.”

With a nod, I left the room and walked down the hall, and found Jason pouring coffee in the kitchen. “Do you have a shirt I could borrow?”

“Yep. There are travel mugs in the cupboard, get one.”

I switched places with him when he left for his room, filled a mug with coffee, and finally located the matching lid by the time he came back out with a shirt.

“It’s big on me, should fit you,” he guessed as he tossed it toward me.

Shrugging into it, I grabbed the mug and turned toward him. What I was about to say must’ve been clear on my face because he leveled a glare at me.

“She’ll be fine. Just go take care of whatever you have to do.”

“Thank you.”

“Stop thanking me.”

I smirked as I walked past him. “Only if you let my girl get hurt.”

“I still value my balls and my life.”

Turning to look at him, I shrugged. “Then I’ll keep thanking you.”

I WASN’T AT the department long. It had still been light enough out when he took a bat to the windows, and thank God O’Malley’s didn’t have piece-of-shit security cameras, because there was no questioning who the guy was in the video.

I still just didn’t understand how Brett could smash out all those windows in broad daylight in a crowded parking lot, and no one saw him. But, as the officers had told me the night before and then reminded me again while I was at the station, it happened a lot more often than people realized.

After picking up breakfast for everyone, I went back to Kristen and Jason’s, determined to make Paisley have a good weekend. I’d told her about my dad and Rachel earlier this week, and then with this, I didn’t want her focusing on all the bad shit. And if I was being honest with myself, I didn’t want to keep focusing on all the bad shit. I knew with the first, their worries were now gone . . . but I didn’t want last night to put a strain on us. I would make sure Paisley was safe, but I didn’t want her worried about Brett doing something else. I didn’t want her to keep wondering what bad could’ve happened later on down the road if she’d chosen him.

So as soon as I saw her, I dropped the breakfast on the table and pulled her into my arms as I walked her back to the guest room, my mouth never once leaving hers. This time, I didn’t touch her. This time, it wasn’t about anything sexual. This time was about telling her words I couldn’t figure out how to form into sentences, with a kiss. This time was about showing her what she did to me and what she meant to me as I rested my body weight on top of hers on the bed. This time was about breathing the words “I love you” over and over as I trailed kisses across her neck to tease the sensitive spot behind her ear.

When I finally let us leave the bed to eat breakfast, Kristen and Jason both gave us looks like they’d known exactly what we’d been doing . . . but they had no idea.

I’d wanted to show Paisley what it felt like to have different experiences sexually since she’d never been given that attention before. I’d wanted to worship her body for these two weeks before I had sex with her. But I’d had no idea what just kissing her could do to us.

The passion that had filled the tiny room had followed us throughout the rest of the day. Touches were softer and lingered, looks lasted longer, and her smiles all hinted at a secret between us that no one would ever figure out.

And with every touch, with every look, and with every smile . . . I fell more in love with her.

September 28, 2013

Paisley

ELI AND I had started grossing out Kristen and Jason this afternoon with our “love fest,” enough to the point where Eli had finally taken me out of their house. Even though he hadn’t told me why he hadn’t wanted to leave, I’d known. I knew he was trying to keep me somewhere where he thought Brett wouldn’t find us, and that theory was proven once we’d left. After swinging by my apartment and telling me to pack a bag, he’d spent the day driving us up and down the beaches in Southern California, and going to all my favorite places along the way. We didn’t get back to his apartment until close to 10 P.M., and while I’d been excited to get back since it had been such a long day, I was now wishing I was anywhere but here. Well, anywhere as long as I wasn’t alone with Eli. Because Eli was now hovering over me and stealing my breath with teasing kisses and bites down my throat, and I just remembered that I desperately needed to avoid anything sexual with him.