"Not a chance," she says. "You're going to have to try harder to get rid of me, Wilson." She leans in and kisses me again. "Because I’m not going anywhere."
My other hand comes up and holds her face. "Stubborn, stubborn, stubborn woman," I say as my lips crash down on hers. Her tongue comes out and meets mine, and here in the middle of my kitchen, I silently tell her that I love her.
Chapter 31
Frances
His hand comes up and holds my face. "Stubborn, stubborn, stubborn woman," he says right before his lips crash down on mine. My tongue comes out to meet his, and my body settles into his. The last time I kissed him, his body went tight, and I knew something was up. "So stubborn?" he asks when he kisses me softly.
"I’ve been called worse." He laughs, and I can finally see the light back in his eyes.
"You need to call your parents." He leans in and kisses my neck. His arm goes around my waist, pulling me closer to him and palming my ass with his hand. "And plan a time and place for a meet-up.” It’s my turn to go stiff.
“Um, why?" I ask, placing my hand on his chest as I play with the button of his shirt. My body fills with nerves.
"So I can talk to them." He looks at me. "I need to tell them my side." My stomach flutters when I think about him going to talk to my parents to somehow protect me.
"Before you talk to them," I say, "can we talk about us for a minute? What the hell happened?" I ask him the question that I’ve been asking myself this whole fucking time.
He stands and shakes his head, rubbing his hands over his face. "I have no idea." He looks me straight in the eye. "The only thing I saw was what they showed on television. I haven’t even seen the tape." He puts his head back, looking at the ceiling.
"It’s from when we were in the living room," I tell him, and his eyes turn so fast that if I wasn’t looking at him, I wouldn’t have seen it. He storms out of the kitchen and walks to the living room. He walks to the couch, ripping the cushions off. Then goes to the side table and tosses the remotes onto the floor. He tosses everything around the couch to the floor. "Get my phone," he says as he flips over the coffee table. "So we can see the angle."
"It was straight ahead," I tell him, looking at the couch and then looking at the fireplace right in front of the couch. Picture frames line the mantel, and I walk over to them, studying each frame. "This is it." I pick up the picture of him in the middle of the ice from the winter classic and turn the frame over to see the USB slot.
"What are you, James Bond?" He rips the frame out of my hand. "I didn’t put this here," he says with his teeth clenched. He is so angry that he has a white-knuckle grip on the frame.
"Well, someone did." I look at him.
His eyes go big now. "My ex," he says, and my blood turns to ice. I knew he wasn’t a virgin, but the thought of him with someone else is just too much for me to bear.
"When was she here last?" I ask, and the heat runs up my neck as I wait for him to answer the question. I mean, we said we were exclusive not long ago, but before that, nothing tied us together.
"A couple of weeks ago," he says, and I try to maintain my poker face to make it seem like I don’t care. "She was naked in my bed when I got home." His hand goes tighter around me when he says the words. "I kicked her ass out of the house and didn’t even sleep in the bed that night until I changed the sheets."
"What was she doing here?" I want to kick myself for even asking him. I shake my head and hold up my hand. "Forget I asked. It’s none of my business."
"Of course it’s your business," he says. "She wanted to talk about getting back together."
I take a step away from him, trying to joke about it. "Great." I smile at him, but inside, my heart is racing, and I feel like I’m going to throw up.
"I told her it was never going to happen." He puts his hands on his hips. "And it had nothing to do with you or us."
"Good to know." I look around to see if I can sit anywhere because my legs are suddenly feeling weak.
"We were together three days." I hold up my hand again.
"Can we not?" I say when he stops talking. "She might have had that camera in the house longer than you think." I look around now. "And there could be more."