His Unexpected Lover Page 0,28
last night, Kiera,” he said, standing at the bottom of her bed and looking down at her.
Kiera looked at him curiously, pushing her curls out of her eyes and sitting up, making sure to keep the sheet over her nakedness. She ignored his raised eyebrow and focused on what he was asking her. Something about a question? She didn’t remember any questions. All she remembered was the incredible, wonderful heat of him as he held her close throughout the night. Even though he’d woken her up several times during the night, she hadn’t slept so well since….well, for six years.
“What was the question again?” she asked, not fully awake. But even if she were, she wasn’t sure she would be able to concentrate. Not with Axel standing there at the end of her bed in only the pair of shorts he’d worn last night to the game and nothing else. All those rippling muscles and broad shoulders were very distracting.
“Why haven’t you decorated this place?” he challenged, his hands fisted on his hips.
Kiera leaned back against the pillows, trying to determine what time it was. “Decorating?” She glanced at the clock across the room from her bed. “It’s before six o’clock in the morning and you’re asking why I haven’t decorated my apartment?” She tried to remember what day it was but everything was off kilter at the moment.
He looked across the room as well and smiled slightly. “I guess your inability to wake up to an alarm clock hasn’t changed, eh?” he shook his head. “Still need to put it across the room so you’ll get up out of bed?”
She blushed, remembering how he would wake her up when she was trying to shut off the alarm clock. He used to laugh and tickle her, then make love to her until they were both panting and wide awake.
She shrugged about her trouble waking up in the morning as if it were normal. “It works for me,” she said softly and shifted uncomfortably. “What are you doing?”
He glared at her. “You thought I’d left, hadn’t you?” Her blush was all the answer he needed. “Kiera, why haven’t you decorated this apartment?” he demanded.
Kiera sighed and looked down at the comforter, pretending like she didn’t want him to come right back to bed with her and make love to her one more time. “I just haven’t gotten around to it yet.”
There was a long silence while she waited tensely for him to respond. She wasn’t sure what to say to him, how to explain the barrenness of her living area.
“You’re not staying, are you?” he guessed. But it wasn’t a question. “You’re only here for a little while, just enough time to get The Thorpe Group on your resume before you move on to another job.” He watched her carefully and, by the guilty look in her face, knew that he’d guessed accurately.
She looked around, trying to think of some comment that would appease him. But he was right. And she knew she looked guilty.
“How long were you willing to stick it out, Kiera?” he demanded, becoming angry with her lack of forthrightness. “A year? Two years?”
She shrugged slightly. “Why do you care?” She slipped out of bed and grabbed her robe. “And how can you judge me when you were doing the same thing years ago? When we first met, you didn’t bother to even unpack some of your things,” she countered, referring to the boxes he’d kept in his closet that contained all the things he hadn’t needed and so he hadn’t bothered to find a place for in his apartment. “Don’t judge me for doing the same thing you did.”
He was livid with her refusal to understand what they had together. She was purposely being obtuse. “Except the position with the Supreme Court was just that, a temporary position. I went into it knowing that I wouldn’t be staying with them.”
“So what’s wrong with me doing the same thing?” she yelled back at him, feeling defensive at being caught. She wished this conversation hadn’t happened, but she wasn’t going to lie to him. Besides, of all the people she knew, Axel was the one person she thought would understand.
Axel’s hand went through his hair, messing it up with his frustration. “The difference is that my position in Washington, D.C. started out only being a temporary position. A job with The Thorpe Group isn’t temporary. Nor do we offer positions to people who think we’re just a stepping stone.”
That