Amaya“So, you’re happy to go for us again?” Indina, my manager, looked over her glasses at me. I nodded.“More than happy,” I assured her. “I really enjoyed the gala. I’m sure that this will be fun too.”“Good.” She nodded and then leaned in close as though sharing a secret with me. “I hate these kinds of things. Reason I got into library work was so I didn’t have to worry about fancy parties all the time, but it seems like it comes as part of the territory.I laughed and leaned back, touching the necklace around my throat. Kristo had given it to me a couple of days ago, a thank-you for Sunday. It was pale, delicate silver with a single pearl pressed into a small claw at the center, and I thought it was about the most beautiful thing I had ever seen.“Well, I’ve got you covered,” I promised her. “Don’t you worry. I’ll be there.”“Wonderful.” She nodded. “That’s all I needed you for. Thanks.”I headed back to work and bit my lip as I imagined going to another one of those big, fancy p
AmayaKristo seemed to sense my quietness and changed the subject.“So, this gala,” he went on casually. “Who’s going to be there?”“No one who’s going to be much use to your business,” I admitted. “It’s probably just going to be people who want to think they’re fancy and cultured schmoozing near a library. Not much.”“I’m looking forward to it.” He grinned, cocking his head at me. “And seeing you in a new dress.”“My wardrobe’s going to be twice the size by the end of this year,” I remarked breezily, but some part of me wanted to remind both him and me that this had an expiration date, no matter how endless it seemed right now.“That’s the plan,” he replied with a glance at me. I relaxed and found myself enjoying our date. We didn’t talk about anything in particular and certainly nothing regarding the future of our relationship or what would happen at the end of the year. I was just a woman, out with a man who seemed determined to charm the panties off her every chance he got. He le
KristoI crossed my arms and drummed my finger against my elbows, waiting for her to come out of the library. I was ready for tonight. Everything was in place, and I was going to show her a seriously good time.I knew she hadn’t meant anything by it when she’d made that offhand comment about us not going out enough, but it had been playing at the back of my mind ever since. She had tried to convince me it was nothing more than a remark, that she hadn’t meant anything by it, but she was right. We didn’t go out enough. There had been that trip with the helicopter a few weeks ago now, and since then, the only times we’d done anything were when we headed up to see her family or mine. She deserved better than that, no doubt. She deserved to be swept off her feet every chance I got, and that was precisely what I was planning to do this evening. Every time she expressed even the remotest dissatisfaction about anything, I found myself leaping to fix things up, not wanting her to leave again.
KristoWe headed down to the comedy show and took seats at the back of the room, hiding out in the dark together. I let my hand rest on her knee casually, even though I felt as though her skin was pulsing heat through my entire arm.The show was patchy, but the two of us laughed along anyway. I felt like this was so easy with her, like I didn’t have to worry about whether she was having a good time or whether she liked where I was taking her. She wasn’t a snob. She always expressed herself openly, and that was so refreshing after so long dating women who always plastered on a game face no matter whether they were having a good time or not. Amaya didn’t bullshit me. That was half the reason I liked having her around so much.“So, what now?” she asked when the show was over. Her eyes were bright, and it was clear she was far from being done with tonight.“I don’t know,” I replied as I handed her coat to her. “What do you want to do?”“Ooh, are we close to Central Park?” she asked, clapp
Amaya“Are you sure I can’t get out of this?” I asked, and I was only half-joking. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to get to know his sister better, but I was also exhausted after a long week of work, and I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to keep my energy up long enough to entertain her for a couple of hours.“I’ll call you in an hour and claim there’s an emergency if you want,” he suggested as he took a sip of his coffee, but I shook my head.“No, it’s really sweet of her to think of me.” I sighed, slightly hating that I had agreed to this. “I should go.”“My sister can be a lot. Trust me, I know,” he assured me. “If you need an out, you just call me, and I’ll take care of it.”“Don’t tempt me,” I warned him, and he grinned and reached into his pocket. He pulled out his bank card and handed it to me.“You take this, and get anything you want,” he told me. I tried to bat it away.“I really don’t think that’s a good idea,” I replied. “I’d feel weird, spending your cash.”“Get somethin
Amaya“Yeah, I just need a little help with the zipper,” I called back, and she tugged the curtain open, stepped inside, and did it up for me. I turned to the mirror. I bit my lip to keep from laughing out loud. It looked terrible. It was a few inches too long, the waist flopping awkwardly down around my hips and the bustline drooping nearly to my belly button.“Okay, that looks like crap.” Cleo shook her head and chuckled. “Maybe scrap this one, huh?”“Glad you said it,” I replied. Any tension that might have remained between us was gone. We went through the rest of the dresses she had picked out for me, and I tried not to think too hard about the price tags. This was just fun, after all, and I was sure I could suggest a place a little more in my price range when this was all done with and pick up something there.But then she handed me one last dress, deep green, a similar color to the one I had worn that very first night when Kristo and I had met at the gala. I slipped it on, and I
KristoWhen I woke the next morning, it took me a moment to remember who was in bed next to me. Not that I thought she was someone else. No, just that her presence felt so natural and so obvious that I couldn’t bring to mind a time when things hadn’t been this way.I slid my arms around her and planted a kiss on the top of her head, and she snuggled into me and let out a little moan. I couldn’t help but smile, still half-asleep. She felt so good next to me, so obvious and sweet and good. I loved having her here. I loved—I stopped myself dead in my tracks before I went a single word further. Nope. I didn’t love anything. Certainly not this and certainly not the woman lying next to me in bed. This was just a little fun, that was all, an agreement the two of us had made to work off her debt and get my family off my back. Remember?But as I watched her sleep, the slow, peaceful rise and fall of her breath soothed me, and I knew there was something more going on here. I was just getting s
KristoI made the rest of the drive down there so Amaya could catch up with her sister, and I glanced in the mirror and watched them talk. I loved the way their faces lit up when they were around each other, as though this was what they had been waiting for all day long. It was sweet, heartening to see, and I found my mind straying back to that point I had been trying to ignore since this morning. I wanted Amaya to always be this happy. I wanted that look on her face as much as humanly possible, and that meant inviting Jolene to live with us.I had considered it before, of course, just because it would have been easier for me having her at the apartment than it was driving all the way out here every single time I wanted to see her. I could have hired a home caregiver so everything was taken care of and cleared out the guest bedroom to make room for anything she needed to keep around. I was going to get that car anyway, the one that was built for her wheelchair, so that was taken care