He swipes my cheekbone with his thumb. “Maybe we’re better.”
“I live with my parents, Kill. You’re an international celebrity, and I’m twenty-one years old and working at my very first job, ever.”
“You had a rough year; that’s understandable.” He shifts uncomfortably on his feet. “So you, did you…?” He licks his lips. “You lost the baby?”
“Yeah.” My heart still aches when I think about it; my mind often drifts to all the unanswerable what-ifs.
His arms wrap around me, my cheek presses against his sweaty shirt, and as much as I should be a little grossed out by it, I’m not. I wrap my arms around his middle and allow him to hold me close because, for those few seconds our bodies are pressed together, it feels like he’s right. That nothing has changed between us.
“You never should’ve gone through that alone,” he whispers against the top of my head, pulling me from the place we were just a couple of nights before he left for London.
I step back and out of his arms, needing the space to think straight. “I didn’t. Mom and Blake were there.” I lean back on the weight rack, but Killian rights the weight bench he tossed and offers it to me. I sit on it, and he takes the one just a couple of feet away. “I thought that was it, ya know? That I’d lost the only connection I had to Clifford and he’d leave me alone. The only problem was he didn’t believe I was really pregnant to begin with.”
Killian’s brows drop low and anger boils behind his eyes.
“When I told him, he accused me of lying, like I was trying to sucker him into a relationship.” I laugh at the absurdity of it now. “I lost the baby before I really started showing, so naturally it seemed to confirm his assumptions and the harassment got worse.”
“Why didn’t you go to the cops?”
“Because I was sick of being everyone else’s problem. I got myself into the mess. I wanted to get myself out. I was also humiliated. Half my professors now know what I look like naked, thanks to the photos Clifford posted all over campus.
“I didn’t tell anyone, not even my mom. Then one night when I was babysitting Jack and Mindy was out, someone broke into our apartment. He cut up my bed, my clothes, broke everything, didn’t steal anything though. I called the cops, and they didn’t find any suspicious fingerprints. But he left one of those pictures on my nightstand. I told the cops about it, which was”—my entire body blushes with the memory—“so embarrassing.”
“Did they lock the fucker up?”
“I couldn’t prove that the photo came from him rather than from one of the many I found and picked up at school. I told them I didn’t keep the ones I found at school. I destroyed them as soon as I’d found them. They said they believed me but they couldn’t prove it and suggested I get a restraining order.” I shrug. “Once Blake found out…” I cringe, remembering his fit of rage. “You can imagine.”
“How is this asshole still breathing?”
“Get this…” I lean forward, elbows to my knees. “You can’t kill someone for harassment. Go figure.”
The corner of his mouth twitches.
“There he is…” I point to his mouth. “I see you in there, Killian McCreery.”
He covers his face with one hand, peeking through his fingers. “Oh no…is my nerd showing?”
“A little.” I giggle.
“That’s not good. Ya know I have a rather studly reputation.”
“Oh, don’t think I missed it. Your”—I do air quotes—“reputation takes up half the state of Nevada.”
“Aww, Ax, baby.” He grins all crooked and cocky and breathtaking. “Jealousy isn’t your color.”
I fake pout. “That’s not the color of jealousy, Kill. That’s disgust.”
His jaw drops in mock offense. “Oh yeah?” He holds both arms up and flexes. “How’s this for disgust.”
I lean back and yawn, exaggerating by patting my hand to my mouth. “Excuse me, whew. I just suddenly got so bored.”
He coughs out a laugh, and I grin at how good it feels to have him back like this, realizing now how much I missed it.
His smile falls, and his amber eyes become thoughtful. “I want to see you again. What are your plans tomorrow?”
“I’m booked tomorrow from ten to four.”
He frowns. “All day, huh?”
“We can meet for breakfast.”
He shakes his head. “I can’t. I promised Fleur I’d take