Temptation - Leigh Lennon Page 0,65
could be biological brothers, but Kira who flies to my side so quickly. “Fuck, Eve, don’t do that shit to me ever again. I wanted to call the paramedics.”
I search the familiar surroundings. I’m not in the hospital, thank fuck. I should have known by all the light that I’m still in Jared’s penthouse.
“Um, thank you for that.” I must have had a panic attack. It’s the only thing that can explain the heart-pounding pain coursing through my body. “How long was I out?”
“Not long,” answers Taya. “I live a block away and hurried over.” She’s holding my hand as a sad smile tugs at her lips.
“Chadwick?” Surely, he’d come if he had been told.
She shakes her head, and I attempt to stand. “Seriously, why won’t you all let me see him? I fucked up. I’ll be the first to admit this.”
Jared’s head pops over Kira’s all the while Taya is pushing me onto my back. “This is the first time I’ve heard you say this. Never once in all the texts or the countless voice mails had you told me you fucked up.”
Had I not told him, or Kira, or even Taya how I realized I’ve been the one to hurt him so deeply in the last week as they blocked my way to Chadwick?
“Eve, honey, there’s time for this later. I think I’m going to call the club doctor to check you out,” Taya demands.
My body swims with the remorse I’d been keeping to myself since Josephine Westbrook knocked me over the head with common sense.
“I don’t need a doctor. I need Chadwick. I’ve been waiting to tell Chadwick everything.” I move from my back to my right side, attempting to swing my legs over the couch, and as I move to a sitting position, I simply think of Jo’s last words. “I hope you can make a decision you can live with.” I can’t live with the decision I made, and it is time I fix it.
“I met her,” I choke out, my hands covering my eyes to block the brightness from the outside.
On one command, Jared speaks. “Sophie, lower the blinds,” and whoever the fuck Sophie is, she obeys him. Fuck, even the blinds obey the Doms around here.
I’m too busy to worry about the invisible Sophie when Jared asks, “Met who?”
I close my eyes, soaking in the wisdom of a woman who’d changed my life and, in essence, hopefully her grandson’s if he can forgive me. The cliché of my story rings in my ears, but it doesn’t make it any less real.
“Josephine Westbrook.” All eyes are on me for an explanation. “I don’t know when, but somewhere in Pennsylvania, an older woman who looked maybe seventy sat down next to me on the bus. I’d been asleep when I woke to her. She didn’t say much at first, but as my text messages were dinging all around me from you three”—I swing my hand around, pointing at each person individually—“she became annoyed.” Jared laughs, and if I look close enough, his one eye waters, but he wipes it away.
“Anyway, she warmed to me eventually, asking me if I was running from something.” I lower my head in shame. “I was running from the best thing that has ever happened to me. When we entered the city, she spoke of a decision that reshaped her life, giving up her one love in return for a man who never had her heart like someone else. She was proud of the life she built but always wondered what-if.”
Jared interrupts me. “You say Pennsylvania?” I nod. “It’s where Lee Dimer is buried. They weren’t married, so his kids picked the place. After he died in a plane crash, Jo never flew again. She took the bus once a month, and Chadwick hated it. She had enough money to have a private driver, but the woman was so stubborn. She did what she wanted whenever she wanted to do it.” Everyone begins to snicker.
“Yeah, I now see the similarities in Eve and Chadwick’s grandma,” Taya teases.
I huff at their jokes, but there’s truth to it. “Anyway,” I stress, and all eyes are back to me. “She told me, ‘I hope you can make a decision you can live with.’ And when I saw her face on the screen and made the connection to Chadwick, I knew in my heart that he’s the one I couldn’t let get away. I’d never fully listened to him, made assumptions, and hadn’t given