Sweet Peril (The Sweet Trilogy #2)(64)

My heart sped up. I shouldn’t read it. It wasn’t my business. Yet, I found myself opening the paper. It was a gasoline receipt with a note on the back. Pretty handwriting.

K—Thanks for having everyone over last night. You know you could have told me a long time ago that you left someone behind in Georgia. At least she has a cool name. Let me know when you’re ready to move on. I’d love to pick up where we left off. I promise not to be all weird at work.

xoxo Anna

My throat had gone dry and my heart pumped in hard, erratic spurts. I flipped the receipt over to see the date. Two days ago, Thursday. He’d told her about me. But how far had they gone?

I was bolted to that spot in the hall when Kaidan came around the corner from taking out the trash. His eyes went from my face to the note, and back to my face. He paled.

“I heard a rumor,” I began, needing to stop and swallow in order to wet my throat. “That you’re not working. Is that true?”

“Mostly,” he answered, sounding hoarse. “I work if whisperers come around and when my father gives me a task, but even with Marissa’s nieces it’s not usually sex.”

Because those girls were more valuable as virgins. I fought a wave of nausea and kept my voice steady. “Were there whisperers here when you had people over?”

His head moved back then forth. “No.”

He hadn’t been working. I crumpled the paper in my fist and continued to load the washing machine, picking up clothes from the floor and shoving them in.

“Anna.”

The water came on, loud, when I pushed Start, and I measured the liquid detergent, then poured it in. My hand shook and I couldn’t see straight. A tear fell and I wiped it with my shoulder. Well, it looked like my tear ducts were back in business.

“Ann, please. Listen.”

He’d called me Ann. I shut the lid and faced him. The sight of my tears gave him pause. He dug his fingers into his hair, keeping his hands on his head.

“That was after I’d spoken with Marna. I believed you and Kope were together, even though Marna said you weren’t. I was certain you’d fall in love with him. Those were not good days for me.”

My blood pressure was through the roof, but I tried to think about how he must have felt, and how I’d feel if I believed he was in love with someone else. Icy envy jabbed me. I closed my eyes and leaned back against the washer.

“Did you sleep with her?”

“No. Almost, but no.” He paused and whispered, “It wasn’t nearly as hard to stop as it had been with you.”

I kept my eyes shut. I hated this. It was unfair that some other Anna could have him, or almost have him, while I loved him but had to keep my distance and be careful. I hated imagining him whispering “Anna” in her ear and turning to her instead of me.

“I’ve mucked it right up, haven’t I?” he asked. I opened my eyes again, and he was in the same position, hands on his head, eyes desolate. “I’d been good for so long, Anna. You wouldn’t believe how good. Nearly eight months I’d gone. After Kope rang me I expected to hear something, but over and over Marna told me nothing had happened. When I saw you on Valentine’s Day I was going to tell you everything. Then I rang Marna, expecting another no, but she hesitated . . . and there was nothing worth being good for anymore.”

It was more than he’d ever revealed to me, and I could see it took a lot for him to force each word out.

I wanted to be mad. To scream at him for being so stupid when it came to matters of the heart. For being so careful with me and so reckless in every other way. He could see the hurt in my eyes. I know, because it was reflected back at me in his own. How much more could we hurt? How much more time would we waste?

We had one night. We had now. I held out my hand. He stared at it then brought one of his hands down to meet mine. I squeezed it and pulled him to me.

“No more,” I told him. “No more running in the wrong direction.”

With a look of disbelief, he leaned down to kiss the path made by tears on one cheek, then the other, whispering, “No more.”

Emotions were running high when I took his rough cheeks in my hands.

“You run to me,” I said, pulling his mouth to mine.

He pushed forward until I was against the stacked washer and dryer, and his knee slipped between my legs.

“To you,” he whispered, his breath hot against my mouth. “I swear it.”

The kiss became fast and frenzied as we pulled each other closer with greedy hands until Kaidan broke away and breathed against my ear, “Let me see you again.”

“What?” I tried to pull back to look at him, but he held me firm and kissed the freckle over my lip before whispering with that low voice in my ear.

“Let me undress you. Not all the way . . . just as you were today at Blake’s. Please. Let me see you again.”

OH.

I listened to my heart pound five loud times in my ears. Did I dare? I wanted to. I wanted to push the limits with him. I nodded and felt his fingers at the bottom of my tank top. I lifted my arms as he pulled the shirt over my head and dropped it at our feet, leaving me in my pink bra. My heart still pounded overtime. To make things fair I found the edge of his T-shirt and lifted, letting my fingers brush against his taut sides. He groaned and was kissing me again, the heat of our bare skin rubbing like flint, ready to spark a fire.