KristoI should have gotten her to sign a contract with all the money I’d already put out, but I couldn’t do it. Fuck my life if it blew up in my face again, but I couldn’t.She looked over her shoulder at the condo and winced as though remembering how tiny it was in there, remembering all the space she had in my apartment. I wanted her back there, filling the space. I still wasn’t sure exactly what it was that made me want to keep her around, but it was there and undeniable, and I never found myself lacking what I wanted.“I need you to be the buffer between me and my dad’s new wife,” I went on, pushing hard, knowing I was close to getting what I wanted so badly. “I need someone there to make sure I can actually remember her name. She likes you better than me, remember?”“You’re a total asshole, you know that?” She rounded on me again, but there was defeat in her voice. She knew how this was going to go, just the same way I did. I grinned.“Sure, I do,” I replied. “But that doesn’t m

AmayaI was pretty sure I did a solid job keeping up the front that the two of us had built together. But this time, I was building up a front of my own, as well. The last time I had been here, those lines between reality and unreality had been so blurred, too blurred, as I’d found myself seduced by his sweetness, by the way his family treated me and the way they seemed to embrace me. But now I just sat there and quietly ate the food and let Kristo do the talking, ignoring his hand where it came to rest on my upper back, ignoring the way his fingers traced casual shapes on my neck the whole time. Did he know how torturous this was for me? Did he know how much it hurt, to have him play the loving husband but know we were returning to separate beds and separate lives as soon as this was over? I was going to keep my heart locked up tight because if I let a man like him near it, it was going to shatter.“You should call me when you get a chance.” Karen swooped in and planted a kiss on my

KristoI served up and took my seat opposite her, grabbing myself a water from the fridge.“You want a drink?” I asked, and she shook her head and took a spoonful of the curry, blowing on it softly.“No, I’m fine,” she replied calmly. That tone of voice was the thing that was driving me the wildest because it seemed so removed, so uninterested, so bored. Like she couldn’t wait for me to shut up and stop talking already. I sat down slowly, letting out a long breath as I did so, trying to get a hold on my annoyance. It had been a long day at work, that was all. I could handle myself.“How was your day?” I asked carefully, and she shrugged.“It was fine,” she replied. “And yours?”“It was kind of stressful,” I replied, eyeing her, waiting for her to respond with something, anything. But she just nodded.“I’m sorry to hear that,” she replied mildly. She took a bite of her food.“This is nice,” she remarked. Everything had suddenly become so bland with her, as though she had shaved the rou

Amaya“You too,” I replied as the two of us undressed each other. My hands were shaking as I plucked at his shirt and unbuckled his jeans, and there was still some part of me, paranoid, that was reminding me this wasn’t going to make getting over him any easier. But I didn’t care. After how distant we’d been, I craved the connection to him, that way of pulling ourselves back to each other the way I needed right now.Once he had me fully naked and I had stripped him down, he pushed me back on the bed and ran his hands all over my body. I traced the muscles on his shoulders, wondering once again what the hell a man like this was doing interested in someone like me. He could have had his pick of supermodels with a body like that, yet he touched me like I was fine velvet, expensive, precious, rare.He was already hard, his cock pressed against my inner thigh with an eagerness, and I just wanted to feel him inside me. He was kissing me as he reached over to the bedside cabinet, making out

Kristo“It’s going to be all right,” I promised her as I helped strap her into the harnesses. Up front, Nathan was getting everything in hand for us to fly. I had called ahead with the details this morning, and I was looking forward to getting out of the city for a while, especially with Amaya on my arm.“You took my airplane virginity and my helicopter one.” She managed to tease me, even though I could still see the slight panic pulsing in her eyes.“I think that’s it for airborne vehicles,” I jibed with her, hoping it would distract her. “Unless you want me to fire you into space.”“We’ll see about that,” she replied, and she tensed as the safety checks were finished the rotors began spinning above us. “Oh my god, this is crazy.”I suddenly realized she’d reached over and was grasping my hand tightly, her knuckles so tensed, they looked as though they were going to pop out from under her skin. I squeezed her hand, letting her know it was going to be all right as the pilot pulled up