Page 75 of Perfect Satisfaction

Finally, we’ve all fallen down and are giggling.

West Moore giggle? Something is very, very wrong.

Arek’s still touching me. Shaking me.

I wake with a start, yelling, “What? What is it? Who needs to die?”

That’s when I squint enough to see Arek kneeling before me, his face chalk white. “You tell me.”

And he’s holding onto my bruised arm gently.

But his face is a mask of absolute fury.

CHAPTERTHIRTY-FOUR

Complete happenstance I was there too when the owners of Hudson Investigations—Caleb Lockwood, Keene Marshall, Colby Hunt, Cal Sullivan, and Sam Akin—were dining tonight at Gramercy Tavern.

Should the world be on high alert all five men were together in New York City as one rarely sees them together?

—StellaNova

He presses my fingers to his cheek and whispers,“Just tell me, Ursula. Who hurt you?”

I push myself to a sitting position and try to clear the fuzz from my brain. Yawning, I ask bewildered, “What are you going on about?”

Arek turns my arm and I blink. “Well, that’s one of the more impressive ones they’ve left behind.”

I yank my hand out of Arek’s and shove my blanket to the side. Reaching for the ice pack on the floor, I find it’s warm. Leaving the cocoon of my blanket, I get to my feet and head toward the kitchen to exchange it for a cold one.

When I whirl around, Arek’s eyes are trained on my ass. That’s when I realize how little I’m wearing. Normally I’m fully dressed in front of him. Scurrying over to the sectional, I wrap myself back in the blanket before snatching the towel from the floor where it fell.

That move causes Arek’s attention to move back to my arm. His face is serious. Kneeling in front of me, he briefly touches my hand before he pulls it away. “Do we need to call the police?”

“The police?” I repeat.

“Ursula, there’s a fingerprint.” He hesitates before lightly drawing his finger just beneath my elbow. “Not to mention a band mark.”

“Arek, I had bloodwork done today.” It’s not a lie, though there’s no way I’m telling him the complete truth. If he didn’t care enough to find out about who I am, he doesn’t get this part of me. Still, I do try to alleviate his concern. “Swear to you, I’m okay.”

“Bloodwork caused a bruise to run halfway up and down your arm? The phlebotomist should be shot.” His fingers gently run over the bruise.

Since I know I’m banished to hell to pay for sins I never committed, I’m suddenly grateful for the nap I just had. I know without a doubt I’ll never be able to sleep tonight under his gentle ministrations. “I’ve always bruised like this. It’s nothing. I have pale skin and blood rises to the surface. It will be gone in a day or two.”

“How did I not know this?” For a moment, there’s true anguish on his face, as if not knowing this about me causes him pain. It actually hurts him.

I can’t stand it. For a moment, I want to break down and tell him all my secrets, all the truths. Then bitterness swamps over me.It wouldn’t make a difference, Sula. He’ll never believe you even if you tell him everything from your brothers to Send Me an Angel. You mean nothing to him.

Just like your mother meant nothing to your father.

Still, I get lost in the concern on his face. I give myself that moment to remember before I cock my head to the side and use humor to bring Arek back from whatever edge he’s standing on. “Just imagine how much worse it would be if I were into S&M—I mean more than being spanked. I’d be cuffed and...”

Immediately his face becomes horrified. “God, you’d be a poster child for the ER. Someone would cuff your hands and you’d bruise from tip to toe.”

We both laugh and for a moment, walls are lowered. My hand touches the tiny ruby in my nose—the stone he hasn’t noticed I changed, my mother’s diamond tucked safely away. Whereas I can’t stop noticing every little thing about him that’s changed.

Cataloging the differences between the man who crawled on the floor of the airplane and the one before me has been something I’ve done slowly so I don’t alert him to the fact I’ve been doing so. His hair is longer, wavier. His laugh lines have spread out around jade green eyes. The broken nose he claims he got falling out of a tree visiting his grandfather looks more distinguished now with a slightly thicker beard shadowing his jaw.

Then there are his lips—full and lush while smiling, which is rare.