CHAPTER THIRTY
BAILEY
Even after my long hot shower, I am still trying to wrap my head around running into Talon last night. Trying to believe that I really am standing in his bathroom in his beautiful apartment. Trying to trust all of the amazing things he’s said to me over the last ten or so hours. He’s going to be my husband one day. I am standing the bathroom of my future husband.
Crazy.
He had set a pair of draw string pajama pants and a t-shirt on the counter for me. I would be swimming in the clothes, but that was ok with me. I have no idea how I am going to get back to my apartment with only these clothes, but I’m sure I’ll think of something by tonight. All I can think of right now is climbing into that huge bed and curling up under those super comfy looking blankets and finally going to sleep.
I wake to the sun barely peeking through the thin slits around the darkened Roman blinds. I am still really tired but I am also starving. Hunger wins this round as I peel myself out of the most comfortable bed I have ever slept in. The only thing that would have made it better was if Talon was in here with me. I will have to rectify that after we eat.
Talon is sitting at the large granite kitchen island talking on his cell phone. He has a pad of paper in front of him and is taking notes as he switches from talking to listening. I don’t want to disturb him but I can’t resist touching him now that I have no strings holding me back.
He doesn’t look up until I run my hands down his muscular arms. He turns his head just enough so I can give him a kiss as he listens to whoever is on the other end of the phone call. I let my lips graze his cheek and run gently over the outer line of his ear. Much to my pleasure, he straightens his back and clears his throat before speaking. “Alright then Alice, I’m going to get going. Thank you for taking care of that report for me, I appreciate it. I have some things going on this weekend so call Kali if anything important comes up and I will see you Monday morning.” Without another word the phone is roughly shoved onto the counter as he pushes his chair out causing me to quickly back up from my place at his back.
The look in Talon’s eye tells me I am going to have a difficult time keeping to my no sex rule with this man who I have been craving for way too long. I continue to walk backwards, heading to the foyer as a mischievous grin appears across Talon’s face.
“Where are you headed love?”
“I’m actually not sure. I was really tired when you gave me the tour this morning.”
“Why are you walking away from me Bailey?” he says in a teasing tone.
“Well, I just ummm…” I trail off as I try to come up with something clever, but my wits tend to fail me when Talon is around. He keeps stalking towards me until I run into the front door. Talon’s smile widens, looking no longer mischievous, but simply happy.
“Well, that works for me,” he states as he quickly approaches and wraps me up in his arms. After a deep kiss, his large hands slide down to the backs of my thighs and lift me up to his waist. With my back pressed against the door I wrap my legs around his narrow waist and glide my hands to the nape of his neck. He leans in to give me an extremely passionate kiss. He sucks in my bottom lip and I nip at his. He kisses and bites down my neck to the collar of his shirt I’m wearing. I go to remove my shirt and he catches both hands with one of his. We are both out of breath, winded, and panting. “What?” I ask, a little irritated that he’s stopping me. I want this man, badly. I do not want him stopping me.
“We’re taking things slow, remember?” he whispers in a taut and seductive voice.
“Are you serious?” I ask him as he continues to kiss and lick my neck.
“Mmmhhmm. Your decision love. I’m just following the rules,” he whispers across my lips while looking directly into my eyes.
“I don’t want you to follow the rules. Not today. Today, let’s be rule breakers.” That pretty much is said in the whiniest voice that has ever come out of my mouth. Something flicks across his eyes, though I can’t be sure what it was exactly. Then he gives me my favorite smile. Just as he opens his mouth to talk someone beats on the door from the other side. It startles me. I don’t let out a scream but I am surprised my eyeballs don’t pop out of my head.
“TALON! Open up or I’m coming in. I have to pee!” That sounds like Kali yelling at us.
“Really?” I whisper to Talon as he groans and gives me one more kiss before setting me down. I gesture towards my clothes and he laughs at me.
“You look great, don’t worry about it.”
“Who are you talking to? Open the damn door, I’m serious, I have to go,” Kali whisper-yelled again.
Talon opens the door and I use it as a barrier. I’m hoping she will head straight to the bathroom before seeing me. Maybe I can figure something out before she comes back in the room. When the door is fully open I can see a surprised expression on Talon’s face before he quickly rights it.
“About time! We were down at the coffee shop for lunch and you know how I feel about public toilets. We won’t be here long; I know you have that conference call today.”
“Hi Talon.” It is a small greeting. Two words. But from the southern accent on those two words I bet that Susan Davidson is standing just on the other side of the door. And I am on this side of the door, in Talon’s t-shirt, no makeup, and bed hair.
Perfect.
“Hey Susan.” She steps in front of him and gives him a kiss on the cheek. I just confirmed that you can take the girl out of the country but you can’t take the country out of the girl because my initial reaction is to punch her in the face. Not very lady-like, but I have worked really hard to be standing in this apartment with the man of my dreams and I’ll be damned if I have her as competition.
Talon clears his throat and Susan backs away enough to allow him to close the door. He reaches out to grab my hand and pulls me close as the closing door reveals me to Susan. To say she is shocked to see me would be an understatement. I should probably feel bad for the girl, but at the moment I am too uneasy with her presence to feel anything but jealous and a little nervous.
Talon smiles at me before looking back at a still shocked Susan. “Susan, you remember Bailey, don’t you?”
To her credit she wipes away the shocked look and stands a little taller. “Of course I do. It’s nice to see you again Bailey.”
Kali comes waltzing out of the hall bathroom and stops in her tracks when she sees the three of us standing there together. Her eyebrows furrow and she tilts her head before speaking. “Bailey?” she whispers, as though she might frighten me with the sound of her voice. I tighten my hand around Talon’s and he slips it around my waist, pulling me in even closer.
“Hi Kali.” Not knowing what to say first, I opt for a simple greeting to test the waters. She was my friend and I cut her out of my life without a word. I owe her a lot of explanations and apologies and can only hope she’ll be as forgiving as her brother is.
Kali looks like she has a thousand things to say to me as well and can’t articulate any of them. Thankfully, Talon walks to the kitchen with me on his arm in an attempt to break up the awkwardness. “Bay and I were getting ready to fix some lunch, would you like to stay and join us?” Neither one of them follows us nor do they respond to his question.
When we reach the pantry he pulls me into an embrace and kisses the side of my head. “It looks like you have some explaining to do to Susan,” I whisper close to his face in case they decide to pop into the kitchen with us.
“Yeah, I probably do,” he says regretfully. I kiss him slowly as I cup his face with both hands.
“I’ll give you a few minutes then. But just so you know, I hate the idea of leaving you alone with her.” I pull back smiling at him and he returns my smile with one of his own.
“Thanks love, I’ll just be a few minutes.”
I walk out to find Kali and Susan whispering in the foyer. “Hey Kali?” Susan stops speaking and they both lift their gazes to me. “Can I talk to you for a quick minute? I won’t keep her long Susan; I just have some groveling to do.”
“Um, sure,” Kali says timidly as she follows me down the hall to Talon’s room. “What are you doing here, Bailey?”
I take a deep breath to steady the nerves that appear with her angry tone. “I ran into Talon at dinner last night.”
“Ok. But why are you here?” I’m not sure what I expected from her, but I didn’t plan on her being so mad at me. I’m not sure how to handle it.
“Well, first of all, I want to apologize for not explaining things to you before I disappeared. When you let me go to your Hampton’s house with you, I desperately needed a friend and you were there for me, no questions asked. I will never be able to thank you enough for that.” Another deep breath as Kali nods her head in understanding. “That weekend, I fell hard for Talon. I haven’t connected to another person the way I did with him since I left home years ago. You know how amazing he is, so I don’t need to get into that part but just know that I didn’t take it for granted. I had every intention of leaving Hollister when I got back, but things changed the second I walked through his door. I don’t expect you to understand, but the decision I made to stay with him was not taken lightly on my part and was probably the most difficult decision I will ever have to make.” Kali moves over to sit on the unmade bed and wrings her fingers together while continuously nodding her head.
“I felt like I owed him an opportunity to get help and make himself better. At the time I was so focused on not making a hasty decision, that I could only believe what he was saying to me. He never did get the help he swore he would seek, but made a vast effort to control his anger. Then, that night of your business dinner party, he put his hands on me for the first time since my vacation with you.” I sit down on the bed next to her, grateful that she is willing to hear me out. I take her hand in mine before I continue.
“After Talon spoke to me out in the hall, I knew I shouldn’t and couldn’t stay one more night with Hollister. I am crazy about your brother. I just knew that what Hollister did to me was going to take some time to heal from. Healing my heart was a must before I could hand it over fully to Talon. He didn’t deserve to get put in the middle of my messy life and I was just hoping that he would still be single by the time I could offer my heart and love to him.”
“Did he tell you what you did to him? How he hid out here in his apartment for a month with the only exception being work if it was necessary? Did he tell you that I had to force him out of here after allowing him a month of self-pity? I missed you, and it sucked that you didn’t feel like you could confide in me, but I hate what you did to him. I don’t want to hurt you, but did he tell you that he’s been dating Susan?”
“Kali, everything I did was to protect Talon from getting hurt. I realize that he most likely couldn’t see it that way, but it truly was for his benefit. As far as him dating Susan, I actually did ask about her and he said he had gone on a couple dates but it was nothing serious. If it was I never would have come here this morning.”
“I believe you. I know you’re not a bad person Bailey, and really, I am sorry that you have had to go through so much. Also, I hate running alone, can you start running with me again, please?”
I laugh at her sounding so much like a little kid wanting out of time-out. “Yes! I miss running with you. How does Monday at five-forty-five sound?”
“Sounds good.” She starts towards the door before stopping and turning around. “And Bay? Please, please try not to hurt him. He’s in deep with you and I couldn’t handle watching him spiral out of control again.”
“You have my word Kali.” I smile softly and she gives me a sad smile before walking out of the room. I hate hearing all of those things that I did to Talon. It feels like she is ripping my heart of my chest. I go into the bathroom and splash water on my face before returning to the kitchen.
It is just Talon at the island with two plates of food and two glasses of what looks like iced tea.
“Hey love, you ok?” He doesn’t look like his conversation took a toll on him the way mine did. I guess that’s good, I definitely don’t want to cause anymore grief for the man.
“Yeah, I’m ok. What are we eating?” I ask in an attempt to avoid talking about the two women who just left.
“Turkey and Pesto paninis on Focaccia bread, with iced tea,” he answers while pulling out a barstool next to him.
“It looks delicious Talon. Thank you.”
“So I’m guessing your conversation with my sister didn’t go so well?” He never was one to let conversations go, so I might as well get it over with. But not before I dive into this incredible looking sandwich. Talon follows my lead and takes a bite as well.
“It went as well as can be expected. She shared her concerns with me and made sure I was aware of my wrong doings. Nothing I wouldn’t have done if I were in her shoes. It sucked, but she accepted my reasons and apologies and we’re going running on Monday morning,” I answer with a smile.
We finish our lunch while talking about anything and everything, yet nothing in particular. The conversation just flows from one topic to the next. I did steer it away from anything political knowing that Talon had strong views on everything and mine are mild to say the least. Once he gets started it is hard to stop him, so anytime he broached the subject I creatively steered him away. He catches on after a few times and promises to stay away from politics. But first he laughed at me and called me a wuss for not challenging him.