Hornet's Nest (11 page)

“Are you okay?”

I nodded as I squeezed my eyes shut.

“Are you sure?”

A tear rolled down my cheek. He stopped moving as his thumb wiped it away. I opened my eyes and whispered, “It’s just been a while.”

“How long is a while?”

“Since you.”

Lance blew out a breath as he smiled and stole my lips again. His hands caressed my body as he eased deeper. I gasped as he pumped gently into me. He found that one spot on my neck, forcing me to thrust back at him. He hiked my leg higher as he leaned up. His jaw hung open as his hair flopped into his eyes. I brushed it away as he pulled a nipple in between his teeth.

“Fuck,” I cried out and he thrust into me harder. I met him each time as he pulsed into me. I dragged my nails down his arms. He leaned back, lifting my hips higher. I met his eyes as his stare waivered from my eyes to my chest.

“You’re so fucking beautiful, Katherine. I’ll never get enough of you.”

I cried out as the first wave hit. I clenched around him tight as he thrust deeper. He groaned and pressed his lips to mine. I cried out again as he tensed in my arms. His eyes bore into mine.

“My Katherine…”

He pressed his lips to mine and I unraveled in his embrace. His arms tightened around me as he moaned my name. He shifted his weight and pulled me to him, our chests rising and falling with every breath.

“The wait for you was worth it, but I never want to wait that long again.”

I shook my head and kissed him. He would never have to wait again.

AS I AWOKE to the annoyingly chipper alarm, I stretched and rolled over to lazily swat at my phone. I attempted to hit the snooze when I realized that I was pleasantly sore. The images of last night swirled through my head as it hit me.

Lance.

I turned over to see if it was real, but he wasn’t there. My brow wrinkled as I listened for the shower. Silence filled my apartment. I eased myself up and held the sheet over my naked chest. Surely, he was still here. As I wrapped the sheet around my naked body, I walked over to my bedroom door and opened it to the hallway. I carefully listened to… silence. I walked out into a lifeless living room, padded my way into a lifeless kitchen, and dragged myself into the foyer. The door knob was locked. The dead bolt was unlocked.

He left.

He obviously just left to get ready for work. He wouldn’t leave without saying bye. There had to be a note. I ran back toward the kitchen and checked the table, the counter tops, the fridge, near the coffee pot… nothing.

The bathroom
. The note had to be in the bathroom. I marched right in and threw on the light. Everything was as I had left it yesterday. Even the toilet seat was down. It was almost as if I’d made it all up. I didn’t though. I knew it wasn’t a dream. He wouldn’t play me again, not after the weekend. Everything had been all too real to be a game.

By the time I got to work, I was late and frazzled from overanalyzing the entire weekend. Everything was fine. I kept telling myself. But my past with Lance kept creeping up on me. With so much doubt I knew I had to make a choice to believe him or not. I chose to believe him. I had to.

I finally sat at my desk as the accounting department slugged around on a typical Monday morning. I turned on my computer and it dawned on me to check my phone. Hope seared through me as I dug in my purse to find my cell. A hopeful smile eased up my cheeks when I touched the home button. It fell just as quickly when no text was there. My heart thumped inside my chest, trying to keep his warmth surrounding it before the cold set in. I bit the inside of my lip as I clicked open my email. The last shred of hope vanished as I glanced over the dozens of emails in my box, finding none were from him.

I sat back and stared at my computer screen, resting my hands on my lap and letting my shoulders slouch. That pleasant soreness between my legs just became a constant ache. There didn’t seem to be anything pleasant about it at the moment. My mind was in overdrive and I just didn’t know how to stop it.

My Katherine…

He’d called me his. I wanted to be his. I had given myself to him.

So, where was he?

My chest emptied of hope as tears pricked the back of my eyes. It was silly to feel this way. But why would he sneak out like that in the morning? Why not get in touch with me somehow? This anguish didn’t consume me like it had after our one night in the country. It was only nine in the morning. I should seriously stop obsessing over it.

Any second now would be great.

Maybe he was late too, and this would all be sorted out soon. I shook my head and pushed away from my desk. I gazed out of my window across the city. I closed my eyes and breathed. I had to remember to breathe. I didn’t give him my lungs, just my heart.

“Hey, beautiful.”

A breath of relief escaped past my lips as a smile eased up my face. Everything was fine. I overreacted as usual. I turned around, and the life zapped out of me.

“Josh! Hey! Good morning!”

I hadn’t even thought about this guy all weekend. Didn’t I just go on a date with him Friday? He never crossed my mind once until now. This was definitely a sign that it wasn’t going to happen. He smiled while walking over to me. He bent down and kissed my cheek. Oh, this wasn’t good.

“Did you have a good weekend?” he asked while resting his hands on my hips. I smiled, scooting out of his hold and taking a seat in my desk chair, tucking my hands underneath my legs.

“It was pretty eventful. I had some friends come in from out of town, and I went to the Panthers game with my dad.” That sounded good enough. He didn’t need to know any other details.

“Lousy game, wasn’t it?” he asked, apparently trying to spark up a conversation.

“Uh, yeah. It was pretty bad.”

A feeling of guilt came over me. If Josh really was sincere in wanting to date me, I just couldn’t go all in. Even if my weekend became one huge mistake—as my past seemed to do with Lance—I still couldn’t put up the effort into what would turn out to be a high profile relationship in the Charlotte society. I didn’t think I could even give someone my all… unless it was Lance.

“So, listen,” Josh said, pulling me out of my thoughts. I looked up from my blank stare and met his eyes. “I know you and Lance are about to start digging into the trust project, but I would like to take you to lunch as a thank you.”

“Oh, Josh. That’s not necessary. It’s a part of the job.” I didn’t think lunch with both Josh and Lance would be good. It would most likely be a disaster.

“And the job is going to get you lunch. Besides, I’d like an excuse to see you.” His stare lingered for a moment before he turned away and said, “I’ll meet you downstairs at twelve- thirty.”

My eyes focused on my lap. I didn’t know what the hell was going on today. It was one of those days where I would rather be sleeping in a hungover coma.

“Hey.”

My head shot up and locked in with Josh’s eyes as he leaned against the doorframe. He really was something to look at, but he just didn’t do it for me.

His face relaxed with an easy smile, and he said, “You really do look beautiful today.”

Josh pushed himself away from the door and left my office. I stared blankly at the open doorway. A really hot guy wanted to be with me. Lance, as usual, was nowhere to be found after spending the majority of our weekend together. This whole morning had been ridiculous. I needed to find Lance.

I hopped up from my chair, a sense of determination creeping over me. I would not be sucked into the hole of Lance’s leftovers again—or at least feel that way. I marched out of my office and dodged a few people roaming from one cubicle to the next as the accounting department was finally springing to life. The screech of calculator tape echoed throughout the open department as I crossed to the opposite side. I reached his office and stopped. I took a breath and tried to clear my head of all worry. I would walk in, he would smile, and everything would be okay. I relaxed my shoulders and smiled as I walked through the door.

His chair was empty. His computer was on with the screensaver dancing on the monitor. My shoulders sagged. He was at least here. I just needed to find him. I left his office and darted back through the busy accounting department. I headed into the break room for some coffee. I didn’t really need coffee. My nerves were already shot, but I was hoping to find him in here. It was empty also, as was the carafe of my favorite blend. I settled for the medium roast instead. I left the break room and went the long way back to my office in order to pass his. I slowed when I came to his door. His chair was still empty.

The last thing I remember was Lance kissing my forehead and tucking my head under his chin. It was almost like it never happened, like our moment never existed. I walked back into my office, convinced that minimal work would be accomplished today, and sat in front of my computer. I sipped the hot coffee as I stared at the time. My email dinged, and as if a light bulb exploded in my head, I decided to just email him. There was nothing wrong with that. He would see it when he got back to his desk. My fingers flew across the keyboard.

To: LANCE WALTON From: KATHERINE KLEIN Subject: Hey

Hey Baby!  ;-)

Missed you this morning. Where’ve ya been? Come by when you get a chance, okay?

Katherine

xo

I pressed send. My nerves settled for long enough to get through a little bit of work, but Mondays were usually busy in accounting as were the emails being sent. Every
bing
from my computer caused me to stop whatever I was doing and I would end up just being alerted of some payment from somewhere that didn’t pertain to me.

For three hours, my heart lurched with every noise from my computer. For three hours, I had consistently gone to get coffee or water just to pass by his office. I also had to use the ladies room a few more times than usual. I had become obsessed. In the past six hours since my alarm woke me up, I had become obsessed with Lance Walton. I even stopped by Mr. Palmer’s office and pretended to have questions regarding the project just to ask if Lance had come to work, but Mr. Palmer wasn’t in today.

When I came back to my empty inbox, I noticed I had five minutes until I was supposed to meet Josh downstairs. This was going to be awkward. Josh believed we were starting something when I was asleep in Lance’s arms less than twelve hours ago.
Two-timer
.

I grabbed my purse and walked down the corridor to wait for the elevator. While standing, my phone beeped with a text message. I rummaged frantically to dig it out. The text was my mother reminding me of dinner tonight. Good thing because I had already forgotten about it. Finally, the elevator arrived. I stood alone in the empty chamber as the door closed behind me, descending down to the lobby floor. I stepped out into the busy lobby and found Josh tapping on his phone. He looked up at me as a smile grazed his face. He was hot. But he wasn’t Lance. He wasn’t the man who had made passionate love to me over and over again last night. He was also not the man breaking my heart today.

“Hey, ready for lunch?” Josh asked while placing his hand on the small of my back.

“Sure,” I said as he opened the door for me.

“Is the little bar and grill down the street okay? I have a deposition at two.”

“Of course, that’s fine,” I said as we walked down the block toward the bar that we went to last week. The silence was deafening and awkward. I didn’t know what to say. I pretty much shooed him from my apartment on Friday night.

“I was trying to rush things on Friday.” He broke the silence and I looked up at him while we walked. “And for that, I’m sorry. I know I probably scared you, but I really do want to get to know you better.”

We slowed as we neared the bar. I winced as I said, “It did seem a little fast.”

It was apparently only fast with everyone
except
Lance. He grabbed my hand to stop me from going inside, and turned me toward him. “Katherine, I’ll take it slow. I promise. I really would like a chance with you.”

I thought I could see the sincerity in his eyes. I wanted to believe it, but I just wasn’t able to start something with him when Lance was in my life. “Why don’t we start by being friends and see where it goes?”

His brow wrinkled as he absorbed what I was telling him. He nodded and said, “I think that sounds like a good idea, if that’s what you want, Katherine.”

“Yeah, if that’s okay.” It had to be okay. From this one walk with Josh, I realized I wasn’t going to give up on Lance and there was a very simple explanation for him leaving this morning. I wouldn’t let it get to me for the rest of the day. He was going to be at lunch. He was probably already inside. Lance was who I wanted. I would have to take it slow or I would surely scare him off.

“Of course, it’s okay.” We started walking toward the bar again, and as he pulled open the door for me, he continued, “I’ll be able to win you over eventually.”