“What the fuck, Matt, she’s pissed. I haven’t drugged her and I’m not gonna touch her. Her name’s Nina and I’ve known her years.”
Why the fuck am I explaining myself?
“It’s just that she didn’t seem too keen to get in the car with you, boss.”
“Matt, I’m not a fucking rapist. Now open the front door.”
I actually admire the fact that he’s worried about her safety but hate the fact that he thinks I’m capable of something like that.
He heads toward the big front doors of my house and unlocks them. My dad and Sandra are about somewhere, but probably over at their own place. I’m assuming the dogs are inside with them seeing as they’ve not come charging over yet.
I slide out of the car with Meebs in my arms. She wraps her arms around my neck and cuddles in closer and the urge to kiss her, hard, almost stops me in my tracks. I walk with her through the house to the kitchen and living room and lay her down on one of the big leather sofas. I’m surprised when I look up and see Matty standing watching me.
“This must be her phone, it was on the back seat.” He passes me a phone in a shiny pink case.
“Cheers.” He doesn’t move.
“Her name’s Nina Matthews. She’s thirty-one and owns a chain of hair salons called Amicus with her business partner Sophie Gardner. If she’s on the news tomorrow because she’s missing, then you know where to send the old Bill.”
He swallows and nods.
Fuck me. Do I actually look like a rapist or sex offender?
Yeah, don’t answer that.
Nina
Waves of consciousness slowly start to lap against, first my mind and then my body. I try to cling to my dream for a few moments longer. I can’t remember what it was about, but Conner was involved. I could feel him, smell him and then out of nowhere, a big fat tidal wave of reality comes crashing down on me. My eyes fly open.
He was here.
Right here.
Sitting in a huge leather bean bag.
Watching me.
“I fell asleep.” Yeah, when in doubt, state the obvious.
“You did,” he smiles as he speaks, and my heart and my belly perform a synchronised jig.
He’s so fucking beautiful.
I know he’s a man, but there’s just no other way to describe him. He has a beautiful face. Full plump lips, possibly the most kissable lips I’ve ever seen in my life. A strong square jaw, which right now, is covered in stubble. I shudder just thinking about how that would feel against my skin, trying so hard to remember how it had felt against my skin. I’d kissed those lips. Reed, the world famous rock star was, once upon a time, Conner Reed, my boyfriend.
I push myself up to a more seated position and look around the room that’s being lit by just a couple of lamps. There’s a huge flat screen television, a big open fireplace and an enormous leather sofa, identical to the one that I’m lying on.
“I’m in your house?” It’s a question, not a statement this time, as I’m not really sure where I am.
“You are,” again, he smiles as he speaks. His blue-green eyes sparkling in the lamplight.
I’m actually a little surprised. I’d imagined him to live in a penthouse apartment, filled with black leather and chrome furniture. This, this is beautiful. It’s a home, a real home.
“It’s beautiful,” I tell him.
“Thank you. It needed a lot of work when I bought it. My dad and my brothers helped me fix it up.”
My eyebrows shoot up at the mention of his dad. They never got along when he was younger. Well, it wasn’t so much that they never got along, it was more that his dad was always drunk and angry.
“Well, you all did a great job. I really like it.”
“I’m glad.” He smiles and it’s not his ‘rock star’ smile, it’s almost a shy smile. The smile of the eighteen-year-old boy he used to be, that I used to know. The boy that I loved so very much. The boy that I was so sure loved me.
I will not cry.
“I’ve imagined you here so many times, Meebs.”
I cry.
He gets up from the bean bag, but I put my hand out to stop him from coming closer. So instead, he just sits forward, resting his elbows on his knees, rubbing his hands together.
It’s not that I don’t want him closer, I do, almost more than my next breath. But first, I need answers.
“What happened, Con? What happened that night? What happened to us?”
He rakes his fingers through his hair.
“You didn’t come, Meebs. After all the plans we made, you didn’t fucking show.”
“I was in the hospital, I couldn’t just leave. I thought you would’ve come to me.”
He frowns, looking totally confused. Shaking his head, he says, “You said that earlier, about the hospital, I don’t understand. What hospital? Who was in the hospital?”