“Thanks for coming with me, Mum,” Dianna said. “Will he be much longer?” They were sitting in the waiting room for the doctor, who was running late…as usual. Dianna’s doctor was great, but because he was great and took time with each patient—more time than the allotted ten-minute appointment time—he was perpetually late. “He shouldn’t be too much longer,” Dianna said with a sigh. “You don’t have to stay. I can just text you when I’m ready to go home.” “Don’t be ridiculous,” Fran said. “I’m here now. I may as well hear what he has to say.” Dianna held in a sigh. She wouldn’t have called her mother, except she was in too much pain to drive herself. It wasn’t a flare-up, or at least she didn’t think it was. This was just the typical pile-on that happened when she got her period. There was a reason women were told not to schedule waxing or tattoo appointments when their period was due…it hurt more. And this doctor’s appointment was just one of her usual check-ups.
Dianna watched Fran change before her eyes. It was like one of those morphing videos. Her mother had turned from an indignant prickly cactus to a loving and doting mother. “Nice to meet you,” Jack said, reaching out to shake Fran’s hand while looking at Dianna with concerned eyes. “And you,” Fran said with an eyelash flutter. “Dianna didn’t tell me her neighbor was such a handsome man.” Oh God, kill me now. Her mother was flirting with Jack, which was…awkward to say the least. Jack smiled tightly. “Is everything okay?” Jack asked Dianna, extricating his hand from her mother’s. “Are you feeling any better?” “Oh, she’s fine,” Fran said before Dianna could respond. “It’s just a touch of the flu. She’ll be fine in no time.” Dianna rolled her eyes. There was no way her mother would admit to anyone that Dianna had her period, nor would she admit her daughter had the ‘not real’ disorder of fibromyalgia. Perception was everything to Fran and no one could sho
Jack grunted when he looked at the display on his phone. “Dahlia,” he practically growled when he answered. “Hi Jack,” Dahlia said with a weary sigh. “She wants another chance, doesn’t she?” Jack asked. “Of course she does,” he answered his own question, not giving Dahlia a chance to speak. “How many chances does she expect to get? How many times am I expected to put Riley through this?” “It’s not that simple, Jack,” Dahlia said. “It never is with her,” he growled. “Look, Jack, she had reasons for not showing up last time—” “Excuses,” Jack snapped. “Kara always has excuses.” “Okay, granted. In the past, she has been flakey, but I believe her this time. She wants to see her son, Jack.” “And what about Riley? What if he doesn’t want to see her? Does she even care what he wants?” “She just wants a chance. Can you give her that?” “You told me that last time,” he said. “You told me if she didn’t show we wouldn’t have to go through this
“I want to kiss you,” he whispered, leaning toward her. “Can I kiss you?” “Yes,” she breathed, her breath on his lips moments before he sealed his mouth over hers. He missed kissing her. He knew it was his own fault that it had been days since he’d kissed her, and now that her lips were on his, he couldn’t remember why he’d been intent on pushing her away. Riley shifted between them and Dianna broke the kiss, looking down at Riley first before lifting her eyes to Jack’s. “What are we doing, Jack?” she asked in a whisper. “You keep sending me mixed messages and—” He leaned in and brushed his lips on hers once. “I know. I’m sorry. It’s complicated.” “I know it is,” she said, pulling back from him and putting more than physical distance between them. “It’s complicated for me too.” He quirked an eyebrow. “It is?” She waved the comment away. “I just mean with the game launch and everything. I can’t do serious.” “I can’t either,” he said, looking
“Oh, honey, I wish I could,” Rosie said. “But I have an open house that day. What about one of your sisters?” “They’re doing a spa day together,” Jack replied with a sigh. “It’s okay, Mum, I’ll figure it out.” Jack hung up the call and leaned back in his office chair. Fucking Carter. Jack was certain the guy had somehow known no one was available to babysit, but then scheduled the interview for Jack, anyway. Carter did shit like that just to piss him off, Jack was sure of it. “Who pissed in your cornflakes?” Finn asked, coming into the room and flopping into the chair opposite Jack. “Carter,” Jack replied. “He scheduled an interview with Thomas Blayne from Odinica.” “Are they the ones who are developing VR gaming systems?” Finn asked, sitting forward in the chair. “Yes,” Jack replied, running a hand through his hair. “But it’s next weekend and I have no one to look after Riley.” Finn winced. “I would look after Riley if I could—” Jack waved Finn’s comment away. “It’s o
“Long day,” she replied, forcing a smile to her face. Jack looked at her for a long time before he nodded. “We should talk.” Before she could say anything, Peyton got the attention of the room and started asking about what food everyone wanted to order. Dianna hardly paid attention and just agreed with what everyone else decided on. She was too hung up on the whole ‘we need to talk’ thing. What did he want to talk about? Was he going to call off whatever it was that was happening between them? Was it about tomorrow night? Was there still going to be a tomorrow night after the way she flubbed that text message today? He pressed his thigh into hers, and her anxiety eased just a fraction. She looked up at him and he was looking at her like he could read every single emotion that had crossed her face like it was a pop-up ad. She opened her mouth to speak, but Finn sat beside Jack, taking his attention from her. “Did you find someone to look after Riley?” Finn asked.
Dianna tried to ignore the pain as she cleaned her apartment. She stripped the bed, scrubbed the bathroom, and even put away her clean laundry. She was nervous about the coming evening; nervous and excited. She had to keep moving, or she thought she would go insane. And still, the pain built. It didn’t help that she pushed herself and ignored the warning signs. She fought back the desire to collapse on the couch and rest. Her brain was too busy to rest, and she wanted her apartment to be spotless for when Jack arrived. She couldn’t relax, no matter how much her body demanded it. The day seemed to crawl by, which was good in one respect—it gave her all the time she needed to clean her house—but it was also bad because it wound her body up in a tight spiral of anxiety. Yes, she’d slept with Jack before, but this felt different. This was planned, not spontaneous like it had been last time. Jack was coming over for sex and there was no way she could paint a different picture. Th
“I like that look in your eye,” he said as he crawled onto the bed between her thighs. “What look?” she asked. “The one that tells me you want me as much as I want you.” His hot mouth found her nipple through the sheer lace of her bra and Dianna let her head fall back and a moan escaped her lips. “I do,” she replied. Her shoulder stiffened. Holding the position was hard and the pain was stealing her attention, so she let herself fall slowly back to the bed, reducing the strain and relieving the ache. Jack followed her down, a low growl of approval in his throat. It hummed against her skin and sent a flood of warmth through her body. Her aches and pains dulled, not completely disappearing, but ebbing away to the background of her mind while those wonderful, lusty hormones overran her nervous system. Again Dianna wished she could produce a synthetic equivalent to use for pain relief. Jack nipped her with his teeth and lifted his head. “Where’d you just go?”