Lust & Lies Box Set-Sexual Awakenings, Excess, Predator & Prey

“I have a company to run, deadbeat,” she murmured.

“That’s going t

o hurt you,” he quipped as she shrieked in pain. Devin’s silky voice summoned me over the phone, “Hello, Taylor, you ready to come out of the woods yet so I can spend a day with my fiancée?”

“I’m not marrying you,” Nina barked as she snatched her phone back.

“You are marrying him,” I argued.

“I know,” she said, and I heard a door close behind her. “I’m thinking a solid year of groveling.”

“It’s been a year, Nina.”

“Okay, two.”

I laughed as she dug in. “How are you?”

“You saw me three months ago.”

“And you were too thin.”

“I’m fine.”

“Have you heard from him?”

“No, and I won’t.” I killed any emotion the idea brought. “Did you deal with the Organic Orange disaster?”

“Taylor Ellison, back to all business,” Nina mused.

“Always.” If there was one thing I discovered about myself on my hiatus, it was that I loved my job.

“I’ll take it as a good sign. Yes, it’s dealt with, thanks to you. I could really use you back. I mean, I know you are working your ass off, but it’s not the same.”

“I know.” I wanted to offer her more, but I couldn’t. I was consulting for her but, I couldn’t bring myself to dive fully back in. I was getting there.

“Hurry up, okay?”

“Okay.”

“Nina!” Devin barked in the background.

“I’m coming!” she yelled. “God, he’s such an ass.”

“So, go kick it.”

“I will, bye.”

An hour and a half outside of Memphis, I drove past the dilapidated town square and felt my chest tighten. I let out a heavy breath as I drove the rural route past a haunted house where my nightmares played out and down the road that divided my heart. I stepped out of the car and stared at the pond and the faint outline of a little girl with clown hair and a dark headed boy splashing in the water. The new spring breeze whispered through limbs full of leaves above me and an eerie calm settled over me.

“I’m your first kiss, Red. Nothing will ever change that and you can’t do a thing about it.”

I let myself break for the boy I fell in love with. The boy who tried to protect me from the monsters lurking down the hall from my bedroom. The boy who gave me as much of a childhood as he could. The boy who loved me. I thought of our last day at the pond when I’d made a promise I would always keep to that boy, and I kept my memory there and didn’t let it drift to a single day after. And then I thought of the son he left behind with the same beautiful blue eyes.

“I’ll teach him how to ride a bike. I’ll show him how to float. He’ll have it all, I promise you. I love you. Always.” I wiped my tears as I took one last look at our forgotten pond. “Goodbye, Laz.”

I drove out of Dyer for the very last time.

“Okay, just let me show you this last thing.” Amber scrolled through her phone and began sorting through the fabric samples in front of her while Joseph looked up at me with big eyes. “I bored.” I laughed as Amber frowned between us, then sighed.