The Secrets That We Keep (2 page)

I
hesitate, not knowing why he seems so angry with me. I regain some confidence, push aside my worries and I put a smile on my face and respond.

“Hey baby, I’m sorry, I was at the
spa and traffic was awful!” I run my hand through my hair nervously. “I got here as soon as I could.” He says nothing but has a look on his face that I can’t quite place. “Why are you home so early? I didn’t expect you until tomorrow night,” I say, still trying to gauge whether his obvious frustration is with me or with work. I walk towards him with my arms out, trying to get a hug.

He smirks at me and pulls
my petite frame into his large one. He is 6’1”, I am 5’5”, and I love feeling so small and safe in his arms. He brings his hands to my face, caressing each cheek with his thumbs and slides his hands further into my hair, pulling my face up to his and kisses me. A long, slow, amazingly delicious kiss. Oh how I had missed him.

Julian pulls away and looks at me and finally answers
my question.

“I just wanted to get back to you as fast as I could
.” He winks at me and then pulls me into him and rests his chin on the top of my head while wrapping his arms around my waist.

“I was just disappointed to get here and realize you weren’t even here.”

I sigh into his muscled chest. “I missed you. I’m glad you’re home.”

“I’m glad I’m home too
.”

“Are you hungry?” I ask
. “I can make you something to eat real quick. I went to the grocery store yesterday so we’re all stocked up.”

“Yeah, I’m starving,
” He says while rubbing his stomach. “I’ll just take a sandwich and some chips or something, babe.”

“Okay
,” I say while smiling at him.

I grab his hand and we walk
downstairs and into the kitchen. He sits on one of the two barstools that are at the little island in the middle of our kitchen, and I start grabbing all the “fixins” for the sandwiches. As I’m pulling the ham and turkey out of their containers and putting them inside the French loaf bread, I glance up at him and notice he has a strained look on his face. It’s obvious something is bothering him.

“What’s wrong
, Julian? You’ve got something on your mind, I know it.” I’m thinking it’s probably work related. There are a lot of times when he comes home and seems frustrated, angry or just stressed out. I always ask what’s wrong but he never really goes into detail. He will just say, “Oh don’t worry about me baby, it’s just work stuff.” So I leave it at that. If he doesn’t want to talk about it, he won’t, and I won’t force him.

“
I’m fine babe,” he answers. “Same ole, same ole.”

Whatever that means, I think to myself. I shrug
. “Are you sure? You can talk to me about it if you want. I promise I’ll just listen.”

“I’m fine
,” he says, smiling at me. “I’m home with you now, and that’s what matters.”

Well, couldn’t
be mad at that answer. I smile back at him, lean over the counter to give him a quick kiss.

After making the sandwiches and putting everything away, I put our food on a
couple of plates for us, pour us both some sweet tea and take a seat next to him.

“So,” Julian asks while taking a bite of his sandwich. “What all did you do while I was gone? Did you mis
s me as much as I missed you?” He bumps my shoulder and winks at me, then says, as if he just remembered something important, “Oh and are you gonna be ready for
dessert
soon?”

I snap my head in his direction at the word
dessert
, because he said it in such a way that I knew actual dessert isn’t what he’s talking about. I’m proved right when I look at him and he’s grinning at me mischievously. I laugh and roll my eyes jokingly at him.

“All I did was pine after you and sit around with the phone in my hand waiting for you to call,
” I say in my most dramatic voice. “I definitely missed you more than you missed me. I was pining after all, and yes,
dessert
is all I have been thinking about while you were away.” Okay, so maybe I am being slightly sarcastic, but hey, that’s me.

He scoffs
and narrows his eyes at me. “Ha ha, very funny, Annabella. So you haven’t been thinking about
dessert
? Am I the only one?” He has a devilish grin on his face as he leans back in the chair and turns his body to face mine and looks at me with those beautiful eyes of his.

I am
instantly ready for
dessert
. “Well, I could go for some
dessert
right now,” I say as suggestively as possible as I run my hand from his knee up to his thigh and then bite down on the side of my bottom lip.

He gives me a crooked grin
and runs a hand over the side of his face, scratching at his stubbly facial hair. He always has the 5 o’clock shadow look going on, and it looks perfect on him. I hope he never shaves it off.

“I have quite
the appetite, Annabella,” he says, leaning towards me. His slight Cuban accent makes anything he says sound ridiculously seductive.

I’
m captivated as he cocks his eyebrow and gives me a knowing smile. He slides his hand to the base of my neck, gripping a bit of my hair and giving it a slight tug. I close my eyes and let out a moan and before I can open my eyes again, his mouth is on mine.

I put my hands on the back of his neck
, trying to bring him closer to me; I can’t get enough of him. Right as our hands begin exploring other areas, his phone rings.

“No fucking wa
y,” he growls. “I’m not answering it.”

I am just fine with that. I ru
n my hands over his broad shoulders, down his chest and finally trail his defined stomach. My hands get to the bottom of his shirt and they find the warmth of his skin. His right hand grabs my ass and pulls me closer to his body and I let out a throaty noise while my lips and tongue explore his.

His phone goes
off again. Ugh! Could they have worse timing!

“My beautiful Bella
,” he murmurs while kissing my neck “I missed you so much.”

Julian is the only person who calls me Bella and that’s the way I like it. Only he can make such a simple name sound so beautiful.

He lifts me up and walks around to the part of the island where the counter is clear, and sits me down. Positioning himself in between my legs, he’s still kissing me ferociously.

Then his fucking phone goes off again! I am
sexually frustrated and the person trying to get in touch with him clearly doesn’t realize they are about to get yelled at by a sexually frustrated woman if they don’t stop! The little voicemail or text alerts keep going off as well. I pull away and let out a defeated sigh.

“Just see who it is. T
hey clearly aren’t going to quit anytime soon.”

Julian let
s out a few cuss words while stalking towards his phone. Maybe he’ll yell at them for me. He’s scrolling through his phone when it starts ringing again.

“Fuck!” He quickly answers
it. “What is it?” he asks angrily. There is a pause as he listens to whoever is on the other end. “I’m just fucking busy, what do you want?” Then he starts doing what he always does when he’s on the phone. He paces. He can never sit still when he is on the phone. It drives me crazy to watch him walk through all the rooms, but that is just something he has always done. I can’t hear all of what he is saying because he is going in and out of all the rooms, but he doesn’t sound too happy. I think maybe this is his work related problem that has him so stressed out.

I hop off the counter,
gather the dishes and start rinsing them off and putting them in the dishwasher. I grab a sponge and start wiping down the counters, trying to keep my mind from all the sex I wished was happening right now. After the counters are clean, I stand there tapping my fingers on the table trying to figure out what to do next. I was hoping he wouldn’t be on the phone for too long.

After about ten minutes,
he still hasn’t come back to the kitchen so I assume he is still wandering the house. I don’t even know which room he may be in, but I know I’m not going to just wait in here doing nothing. I leave the kitchen and climb the steps to go to our bedroom. I figure that’s the perfect place to be when he’s done.

When I g
et to the top of the steps, I hear him talking on the phone in the office.

The door i
s slightly open, but I can’t see him. When I get to the landing at the top, the floor creaks loudly. Stupid creaky floor. I hate that! The computer room is to the right and our room is to the left. I turn left and head towards our room; the floor creaks the whole way. Before I get to our bedroom, I notice he isn’t talking anymore. Thinking maybe he is done with his phone conversation and might be heading out to find me, I wait by our door, ready to lure him in with me. Then I hear him again, but he is much quieter, almost whispering. Then the door to the computer room closes completely. Hmm.

A
s I am lying on the bed in our bedroom, I can’t help but think about Julian and his phone conversation. I’m curious as to why he started whispering when he heard that I had made my way up here. Then for him to close the door to really make sure I couldn’t hear him was just out of the ordinary. Julian normally doesn’t care if I hear his phone conversations. I try not to think much into it. It could be about a case he is working on or something, but then again, he has never acted like he didn’t want me to hear about his work. I normally don’t ask many questions. It’s too complicated for me and I don’t act like I understand everything he has to say about it.

  
Julian works as an Investigative Specialist with the FBI. What I know about his job is that he spends a lot of time looking for clues to help solve crimes and will sometimes have to work undercover. I’m not going to lie, his job scares me and makes me nervous. I always worry about him even though I know he can take care of himself, but I guess it’s my job as his wife to worry about his safety. That’s probably another reason we don’t discuss his job too much.

Swinging my legs over to the side of the bed, I sit up and push myself off. I think about calling my friend Jade. I haven’t spoken to her since Friday night when we had gone out. Last I saw her, she was leaving the club with a guy she had just met there. Typical Jade. Always meeting and leaving with a new guy almost every time we went out. She’s my crazy single friend, but I think she’s really trying to find
the one.
She’s just not going about it the right way. I love her to death though.

I poke my head out into the hallway and notice that the door to the computer room is still closed. Julian must still be on the phone. I walk downstairs to grab my cell from where I left it when I had come in earlier. I notice I have a text from Jade and from Michelle. I read Jade’s first.

Jade:
Uggghh! I feel like ass.
I laugh out loud and reply back.

Me:
Haha!
Why? We went out on Friday, it’s Sunday. You can’t possibly still be hung over. How was the new guy?

I then click on Michelle’s text.

Michelle:
I’m so mad I didn’t go out Friday and get to see this new guy Jade picked up. I need details!! She sent me some drunk texts that night, and a couple yesterday too. Let’s meet up for dinner tonight and chat.

Me:
I know, I wish you would have come with us. Jade ditched me all early. New guy was cute but that’s all I know. Don’t think I can do dinner. Julian came home early. Yay!

Jade:
Well I drank yesterday too. Don’t judge me. I think I messed up with the new guy. We shall discuss soon.

Me:
No judging over here. I’m talking to Michelle now too. She wanted to do dinner but Julian came home early so let’s plan for another time, but soon! We are both needing details! Love you!

Michelle:
aww, okay girl. Yay for having your hubby back! Just shoot me a text with a day and time and I’ll be there!

Me:
Will do! Talk soon!

I put the phone down and turn to walk into the living room. I see Julian emerging from the computer room and making his way downstairs. His demeanor is hard to read. I take a deep breath and approach him.

“Hey, is everything okay?” I was
hoping his conversation was going to be short and that we’d be able to get back to
dessert.
He looks up at me and I swear I see a mixture of sadness and confusion in his face. It was brief, but I saw it.

“Oh, you know…”

“Work stuff,” I finish for him. I already know that’s what he was going to say. He gives me a sad smile and responds with, “Yeah, I’m sorry, love.”

“It’s okay
.” I know I must look disappointed because he grabs my right hand with his left and brings his right hand up to my chin, tilting my head to meet his gaze.

“You are first in my heart, you know that right? Sometimes work just gets in the way, but you are always going to be first in my heart.” I nod and smile and he continues. “Let’s go grab a drink. I could use one.”

We keep a well-stocked bar in the house. We don’t drink often, but we do like to have a nice selection of liquor for when we have get togethers. Plus when people do come over, they always bring a bottle of something and our collection continues to grow.

I take a seat at the island in the kitchen while he grabs a couple of glasses
from the cupboard and pulls the liquor out from the mini bar. He has decided on Crown and Coke, and grabs the Vodka and some Cran-Grape juice for me. He doesn’t say anything while he pours the drinks and I don’t either. I just watch him, trying to get a feel for his mood. It looks like he’s thinking pretty hard about something. It’s almost like he isn’t even here with me. I’ve definitely seen this look before and it’s because he gets so caught up in his work all the time.

He puts the glass in front of me and stays where he is, he doesn’t try to come around and sit down. I look up at him and smile. “Thank you
.”

“You’re very welcome
,” he says with an adorable smile.

I take a sip of my drink. “
Mmm, this is perfect. You could be a bartender.”

“I’m a man of many skills
,” he replies.

I
almost expect to see him grinning at me, or maybe giving me a wink as he says this, but he has a bit of a far off look in his eye. He’s not really looking at me, but past me. He finally seems to snap out of it and looks back down at me.

“So, what have you been up to lately? Anyt
hing exciting?” he asks, genuinely curious.

I’m a bit thrown off because I always tell him what I’m doing. If I’m not working, I’m at
home or hanging out with Jade and Michelle. Nothing too exciting. Plus while he was gone, I talked to him on the phone and pretty much gave him the boring rundown of my days.

“Uh, no, nothing exciting.
Just went out with Jade on Friday, and yesterday I was out with some clients, taking their engagement pictures. That’s about it.” I take another sip of my drink. Well, more like two or three sips. “I thought I told you that on the phone when you were gone.”

He nods
. “Oh yeah, that’s right.” He takes a big gulp of his drink then puts it down on the counter and smiles at me. “I love you so much Annabella.” He finally walks around towards me and pulls me up and into a hug. “Always and forever, no matter what.”

My heart swells. He alw
ays knows how to make me feel loved unconditionally. I look up at him and put my hands on both sides of his face. I rub my thumbs across his scruffy whiskers and say, “I love you more.”

He shakes his head and gives a short laugh. “Not possible
.”

I let my hands drop to his chest and then lower onto his
abs, I look up suggestively at him while I let one hand drop to the bulge in his jeans. I’m hoping to get us back on track to
dessert.

“I
gotta go,” he forces out. At least he looks disappointed by having to say this, but I’m still not happy and don’t understand why he has to leave.

“You just got home, why do you need to leave?” I don’t try to hide the annoyance in my voice. I am annoyed!

“I gotta check on this information on this new case I’m on. I’m sorry baby, you know I am. I just have to do this. I’ll try not to be too long.” He gives me his adorably sad puppy dog face and I try to hide the smile that’s about to appear on my face. I can never stay mad at him long.

“Oka
y, fine. Stop with the sad face,” I say with a smirk. “Just hurry okay? Will you be home for dinner?” He looks up at the clock and makes a face and I already know I’m not going to like his answer.

“Umm, I don’t know about that. By the time I drive into the city and do what I have to do and then drive back
, it might be a little late for dinner. I’ll just pick something up for myself. Why don’t you go out with Jade or something?”

I know he’s just trying to placate me by suggesting I go out with my friends. Luckily for me, they wanted to go out tonight anyway. I just hope they haven’t made other plans already. At least by meeting up with them I won’t be lonely in the house. Plus I’ll get all the gossip on Jade and her new lover. The idea of a girls night full of delicious food, drinks I’m sure, and some good gos
sip makes me happy. I would rather be with my husband, but this will be just fine.

“That’s
fine; I’ll get in touch with them and make plans.”

“Okay baby, I’m glad you won’t be by yourself. I feel so bad having to leave you, but work is work. You know?”

I nod because I certainly know how his work has the ability to mess up some good plans.

“It’s fine, don’t worry about it.
I know how it goes,” I smile at him because I don’t want him to think I’m mad at him. I know if he had a choice, he would choose to be with me. I just also know that his job is important and I’m hoping once he goes and takes care of whatever it is, that he will come back and be in a better mood.

“Alright, well I’m going to head out then
, and I promise to be as fast as I can.” He gives me a wicked smile and leans into me and says, “But when I get back, fast isn’t going to be the way I handle your body.” He rubs his hands down the sides of my body, grips my waist and pulls me to him. His hands drop and cup my ass and he gives a gentle squeeze. His face is in my neck, giving me soft little nips and kisses.

“
Mmmm,” we both moan at the same time.

“Well you better get out of here before I tie you up in here s
omewhere and never let you leave,” I say to him while forcing my body away from his.

He lets out a laugh. “Okay, okay, I’m leaving.” He saunters towards the front door and right as he’s about to close the door behind him, he pokes his head back in.

“Annabella?”

“Huh?”

“Just so you know, you’ll be the one tied up when I get back,” he says in a deep, throaty voice. He throws me a wink and a smile and then walks out.

I sigh and walk to my phone to call the girls.