ran back and grabbed her yoga gear, slinging the duffel bag over her shoulder before storming out of her apartment. Adding to her irritation this morning, she had to take a cab back to the softball field because of Axel’s overly protective actions of the night before. Since he’d insisted on driving her back to her place, she didn’t have her car.
She could ask Autumn, Mia and Cricket what she should do, she thought. After their workout, they would go out for dinner and she could explain the situation to them. She thought about Autumn’s position in the Thorpe Group and bit her lip in indecision. It might not be a good idea to tell the office manager about this. But then shook her head. Autumn was her friend. They’d shared other things and this would just be one more. She trusted Autumn’s advice and knew that her friend could separate herself from the situation and give her an unbiased opinion. Besides, Mia was engaged to one of the other partners and Kiera suspected that there was something going on with Cricket and Ryker. So they were all connected somehow to the owners of the law firm.
As she stepped into the cab and gave the driver directions back to the softball field, she considered her options again from their perspective. Maybe it wasn’t such a good idea, she thought as the cab made its way through rush hour traffic. She didn’t want to put her friends into an awkward position.
The day was tough but she plowed through her work, getting kudos from several senior lawyers on the briefs she helped them with. But she was relieved when it was finally six o’clock and she could get out of the office. She’d tried to stay in her office and out of sight as much as possible, not wanting to run into Axel today. Her feelings were a bit too raw to see him so she avoided as much contact with her co-workers as possible.
When she walked out with Autumn, she breathed a sigh of relief that she’d successfully avoided Axel all day. As she drove with Autumn to their yoga class, she found out that Axel had been out of the office all day in court. Kiera was so relieved that she took several deep breaths, feeling instantly better.
The four of them changed in the locker rooms of the gym, laughing and joking about the day. Autumn and Mia had been friends for a long time, but Kiera already felt like these three women were her sisters. They’d laughed and dined together and she felt a kinship with them that she’d never felt with her other friends in the past.
Axel had endured a miserable day, irritated with everything. His client hadn’t followed his advice so there had been a potential lawsuit over some problems with materials coming into the country. He’d fixed that, but it had required him to drive down to the waterfront, then to the courts again so he could defend his client in front of a judge.
At least the day was over, he thought, rubbing the back of his neck to try and relieve the stress. It might not have been such a horrible day, but the beginning had left him furious with the world in general and one lovely, irritating and stubborn woman in particular.
Axel drove through the evening rush hour, still furious over Kiera’s responses this morning. Or her lack of the response he wanted to hear. He couldn’t believe she’d curled up against him all night, knowing that she wouldn’t be here in a year or two.
How could she react to him like that and all the while, know that she was going to move out of his life? Didn’t she realize how precious this thing they shared was? He’d dated other women, of course. But none had ever touched him like she had. Oh, they might have touched him physically but Kiera struck something deeper, more elemental and he knew that she felt it too.
He hated the idea of her moving on, of another man touching her like he wanted to touch her. He’d had her at his house, in his bed and he was right back to trying to figure out a way to make her want to stay, to live with him forever.
His phone rang and he glanced at the caller. Since it was his brother Ash, he pressed a button on his steering wheel to answer the call. “What’s up?” he