Touch Me (You & Me 2)

the back seat.

“Is everything okay, sir?” He asked, sounding concerned.

“Yeah.”

After a pregnant pause, the driver closed the door before walking around to the driver’s seat to let himself in. Ben raised the partition as he searched for a little clarity on the way home. He had thought tonight would have a perfect ending—returning home with Katherine to relax as after a night of being sought after as ‘Mr. O’Leary.’ But instead he was going home alone, knowing that his woman was with her husband that he hadn’t know existed.

It was a wild triangle Ben couldn’t believe he had found himself in, trying to get to the bottom of things without causing any further trouble for Katherine. She had to understand how confused he was, so Ben decided against calling her, leaving it up to her to offer any sort of explanation.

But the idea of never hearing from her again brought an awful pain to his stomach. Their relationship had just begun to bloom and now he feared she would be snatched from his life altogether.

The evening clouds finally opened up and the rain trickled down the car window, obstructing Ben’s view of the city. Searching for the silver lining, he told himself the rain represented a clean slate.

It wasn’t that far from the event venue to his home, so the ride was relatively short. Ben’s driver remained concerned about his employer, but maintained his distance when Ben didn’t invite him in, as he was prone to do when he wanted to talk.

“If you need anything, just let me know,” he reminded Ben before leaving for the evening.

Alone in his massive home, Ben felt lonely. More so than he could recall from any other time in his life, his adult life anyway. Things didn’t feel right and he didn’t like not knowing where Katherine was or even that she was okay. He needed answers, but remained helpless without a way to contact her.

In an effort to kill time, he first ran on the treadmill, pushing himself to new speeds as he tried to expend the built-up frustration he felt. Even after breaking his personal best time, he felt no relief.

He ran for another mile, feeling his muscles begin to strain as his mind continued to run laps around the evening’s events. With time, his list of questions only grew longer. It was beginning to feel like he didn’t know Katherine at all.

It was devastating blow, considering the future he had envisioned for the two of them, and the life he thought he could finally have. His fear was that Rachel was right when she said he was turning into a work obsessed tycoon.

All Ben did was work, and every decision he made was with his business in mind. Katherine had given him another focus, and subtly opened his perspective to another way of living, one in which his personal life was equally, if not more important, than his professional life.

As he stepped from the treadmill, sweat dripping from his chiseled chest, Ben again found himself drawing conclusions to Katherine’s story. First, he wondered if she had children with the man, and had possibly deserted them to start a new life.

Doubting that, Ben reminded himself of the sweet natured woman he first saw at the bakery, busying herself with latte orders. She wasn’t at all interested in anything but doing her job well, and he had distracted her with lame questions trying to drum up a conversation.

It was all innocent without expectation, and in a way, Ben wished he could go back to that care-free time. There was nothing worse than feeling like he had wasted his time. For a man as successful as Ben O’Leary, time literally was money. Thinking of how much he could have gotten done while he had spent time with Katherine instead gave him a bit of a headache.

The new designs for the upcoming season were still awaiting his approval, and several meetings had been postponed to accommodate her schedule. As he tried to prepare himself for the seemingly inevitable disappointment of not seeing her again, Ben found himself struggling to abandon the affection he had developed for Katherine.

He wanted to forget everything he felt, including this woman he had chased throughout the city, a first for a man of his stature. Ben didn’t want to question what could have been, just return to what was. His thriving business was still intact with plenty of work to keep him busy.

But it wasn’t that simple.

He had fallen for the blonde hiding as a brunette. And suddenly, he felt even closer to Katherine as he realized the probable answer for a question he had been asking himself since he first met her. She was most likely dying her hair in an attempt to disguise herself, but why did she want to leave her old life behind in the first place?

With more answers came more questions, and Ben didn’t have a solution, so he tried to clear his mind with a hot shower. Before the water cascaded off his body, he thought of Katherine and how he had promised her a bath their last time together.

Everything reminded him of her, and the night passed slowly as he continuously wondered where she was and if she was okay. Ben hated being so helpless, but couldn’t think of a way to get to her, which meant he would have to wait in agony until she called him, but who knew how long that could be?

When he finally laid down for the night, Ben was exhausted, but more mentally than physically. His night had not turned out as he planned, and he was worried about Katherine, and their future together, if such a future existed at all.

Chapter Five

Katherine

AWAKENED BY A PAINFUL ache in her back, Katherine blinked slowly, trying to place the contemporary crown molding on the ceiling. It surely wasn’t her bedroom, and the memories came rushing back when her eyes landed on Tim’s scowl. Even in his sleep he was intimidating.

After a long night of fighting, Katherine found it difficult to sit up, her abdomen sore from a collision with a wall. After berating her while finishing off a bottle of brandy, Tim began shoving Katherine between threats.

He couldn’t believe she had actually moved on and started a new life without him, and vowed to take her to pack up her apartment first thing in the morning. He wanted Katherine to pack everything up and move back to LA, but the more she thought about it, the more certain she was that giving up her life as she knew now it wasn’t an option.

It had taken too long and too much effort for Katherine to build up to the safe space she now depended on. Her life wasn’t perfect, but she had the freedom to be herself and make mistakes. That was invaluable, and lying beside Tim, all the memories of their life came flooding back.