Deception (Infidelity #3)(84)

“Stop!” Charli said with a giggle. “I’m gross and need a shower before we eat.”

“You had me worried.” I smoothed back the unruly locks of her auburn hair, strands that had gone rogue during her run. “I’m not used to getting home and finding you gone.”

“I sent you a text.”

“I know, but I like you here.”

“I tried to get back here first. Pat had a rough day and wanted to run…” Her eyes sparkled, forehead shimmered with perspiration, and muscles quivered from her exertion in the cool weather.

I couldn’t not voice my assessment. “Damn, you’re beautiful.”

Charli’s face bowed, burrowing into my chest. “I’m disgusting. Give me ten minutes.”

“No.”

“No?” Her eyes opened wide.

“I just turned our dinner to warm. And well, with you in my arms, I’m feeling a little dirty myself.” I arched my brows as I emphasized the word dirty.

“Oh.” The gold of her eyes shimmered. “In that case. I have some good news.”

“You do?”

“Yes,” Charli said, taking my hand in hers. “I’ve got an absurdly large shower off my room. Since you don’t really have a room anymore, thus no en-suite bath, I’ll let you share mine. No sense wasting water.”

“Beautiful and a conservationist. How’d I get so lucky?”

“I seem to recall a ridiculous pickup line by a pool…”





LIGHT ASSAULTED MY eyes as the beige walls of our bedroom suite swayed, the ornate woodwork no longer present in straight lines but in undulating waves as it bowed against the contrasting color. Slamming my eyes shut, I held tight to the mattress as if it were a life raft capable of jettisoning me into the ocean’s depths. Surely that made the most sense. Instead of being on a bed in an old Southern manor, I was being tossed at sea on a succession of whitecaps.

The rocky waters had my stomach reeling and head pounding.

A migraine.

Scrunching my lids tighter, I forced all light from my eyes. The movement caused my face to ache. It didn’t matter. I knew from experience that even a smidgen of light could be all it took to send my body into a full-blown revolt. The way I felt, I wasn’t sure I could swim to the shore or find the attached bathroom. Everything was too far away. If only I could sink into my pillows as if they were clouds made of fluff, not hard, fiber-filled units.

With attention to my breathing, I exhaled twice for every inhale. Slowly the racing in my veins slowed and my body relaxed just a bit. I tried to listen to the room around me, praying that I was alone.

I hadn’t had a headache this bad in years, not since I’d started the preventive medication that I took religiously. I fought to recall the night before. The day before. Anything. It was a fog covered in dark smoke. My memory was a cool, damp spring morning and visibility was zero. I knew the terrain. I’d navigated it for what seemed like forever, but I couldn’t find a recognizable marker.

I slowly reached for the bed around me and patted it softly as I confirmed that I was indeed alone.

The breathing had helped.

Inch by inch, I moved toward the edge of the mattress, slowly as to not incite a stampede of hooves that waited upon the plain for the first rock to fall.

With my feet nearing the floor, I attempted to rise, to sit upward.

How could a woman who weighed less than one hundred and twenty pounds have a head that easily exceeded a ton?

It was so heavy, too heavy.

I bit my bottom lip as I pushed off from the bed.

Success.

I was sitting.

Slowly, I tried to open my eyes. Only one at first, allowing just the faintest of light to penetrate my darkened world.

Glaring.

Draperies that covered nearly two walls of our suite were opened, allowing the Georgia sun entrance as it streamed inside, blanketing the room in an assault of illumination.

Morning? Afternoon?

I had no reference other than I was certain it wasn’t night.

My phone and a clock were only a few feet away, but I knew that focusing on the little numbers would be that first rock, the one to start the avalanche, the one to incite the stampede through my body. Like Mufasa from the Lion King, I would certainly perish.

With my head held securely in my hands and my elbows on my knees, I worked to clear the fog. I recalled taking my medicine yesterday and the day before. I understood how it worked. Missing doses lessened its effect. The medication took nearly a month to reach its effective dose. I would never miss one, not even one.

Last night Alton and I had been to a dinner out near the coast. The eloquent seafood restaurant was refined and catered to Georgia’s elite. It had been our first time out in public with Bryce and Chelsea. Not only had she accompanied him to Evanston for another deposition, they’d made more than a few appearances around town. The locals were beginning to talk. Though I knew it was only a matter of time before Alexandria heard the rumors, I couldn’t bring myself to be the one to tell her unless it was in person.

That was one of the topics I’d planned to discuss when I visited New York City. My plans had been foiled as I waited for Alton to leave on one of his trips. They normally occurred frequently, yet lately he’d stayed in town. I wasn’t sure if it was because of the Chelsea thing, but he’d cancelled his last trip. It was the week I’d hoped to visit Alexandria. Jane had called and asked if we could reschedule.