Page 82 of My Heart Still Beats
“Just a hunch.”
She meets my gaze, and her eyes look different. Not haunted as they usually are. No. This time, I see fear but also indignation.
“Do you know who he is?” she asks.
“I don’t, but he won’t be bothering you again.”
She wrinkles her forehead. “It’s not that he was bothering me.”
“It’s all right. I’ve had him fired.”
She gasps. “Ben, why?”
“I had my reasons.”
She breaks from my hold and turns away. “Not because of me, I hope. I would hate to be responsible for someone losing his job.”
“No, Tessa. It had nothing to do with you. I didn’t even know you knew the man until just now.”
She calms down. “Okay. In all honesty, I’m glad he’s gone.”
“But you have no recall?”
She trembles slightly. “No. But I just had a feeling I knew him at one time, and it wasn’t anything good.”
Something about that bartender. Some connection to Tessa and to Dirk Conrad.
I’m not liking any of this.
I take her hand once more, and after we’ve both brushed the sand off our ankles and feet and put our shoes on, I lead her back into the resort hotel and see her to her room, which is right across the hall from mine.
Her lips are trembling slightly, and they’re so full and so pink.
How I ache to kiss them.
But I hold myself in check.
I believe, at this point, she would accept my kiss.
But the kind of kiss I want to give her? She’s not ready for that yet.
Instead, I kiss her cheek again, loving the texture of her soft skin against my own lips.
Then I take her key card from her, hover it over the reader on the door, open it, and watch as she walks in.
She turns back toward me. “Good night, Ben.”
“Good night, Tessa.”
She shuts the door, and I hear her click the deadbolt.
Then I enter my own room.
I fire up my computer, but the words are blurring.
Yeah, I had a lot of Wild Turkey.
I’ll deal with all this bullshit another time.
