Holiday Heat

He falls backwards, leaning his back into the posts of the railing. His eyes plead with me to understand. God, do I want to.

“You lied to me. I asked you why you were out here. I asked about this health emergency that brought you here and you didn’t answer me. You just let me fall in love with you!” I scream, leaping up and beating at his chest, my head falling forward, tears streaming down my face.

He lifts my chin and his tortured green eyes drink in my anger, my pain. “I’m so fucking sorry, baby. So sorry. I just couldn’t. Not right away. I was a selfish bastard and I wanted you to fall in love with me before I told you. I needed to hedge my bets. You are so damn important to me. I couldn’t bear to lose you. So I didn’t tell you. But I had every intention of telling you about my past. My health. You’re just so stubborn that I knew I needed some time.”

“When?” I ask, my voice breaking. “When would you tell me? When I went to see you in the hospital and your doctor mentioned the other one? When he outed you. Is that when you would come clean?”

“No! Absolutely not. I just needed to make sure that you would give us a chance.”

“You lied to me. I hate being lied to.”

“Yeah. I know, baby. I’m so sorry. But really I didn’t lie. I just waited to tell you something.”

“Something fucking important!”

“You still haven’t told me what happened with Dick! I asked you about that too and you said it was too painful.”

“Are you really going to equate your health and almost dying with a horrific dating story?” I glare at him, feeling my temper blazing out of control. But guilt edges in as well. Because I’ve got my own health issues to deal with and I haven’t mentioned those to anybody.

“No. Definitely not. But it’s important to you. It’s made you gun-shy and you won’t tell me what it was.”

“Richard and I met at Christmas at a bar. He acted like he was interested in me. In a future with me. He even talked about our future together. Then I came to find out, after he slept with me, that he had gotten ahold of my client list from my secretary, telling her that he wanted to throw a party for me, and instead he went behind my back and tried to poach my clients. Even got a few of them.”

“Shit! I’m so sorry. But that guy is a complete idiot. Giving up a future with you for some clients? Clients that are definitely not loyal or they would have told you. And not jumped ship!”

My heart jumps when he defends me. Every time I mention something, he stands with me. Defends me. I can see it in his gorgeous green eyes.

Love. He honestly loves me. He’s an idiot. But he loves me. My stomach flips.

“Are you alright? Should you even be having sex? They say that you shouldn’t have sex if you’re not healthy enough for it!”

I shoot him some side-eye, glaring at him when he laughs loudly.

Promise and Caitlyn snicker from the other side of the porch. “That is true.”

“I’m very healthy, baby. Believe me, I can have all the sex we want to. I go to my check-ups but I had a heart attack because I was working too hard and not taking care of myself. I skipped meals, skipped sleep, even forgot to drink for whole days.”

“Shit!” I slap him. “I’m not putting up with that kind of stuff! If you want to be with me, you need to take better care of yourself than that.”

I stop, realizing what I’ve said.

His eyes flare with hope, the green darkening. His lips stretch into a wide smile. “Are you saying that you’ll stay with me? Because you know if you want to be with me, I can’t go back to how I was in the office!”

“Of course not,” I huff. “You need to take breaks and take care of yourself. I actually probably need to do the same.”

“What does that mean?” He glares at me, pulling away.

I grimace. “Actually, I’m having some health issues as well. Some blacking out and other issues that my doctor thinks are stress-related.”

“Are you kidding me?” I roar.

Caitlyn screams. “Have you lost your mind? Your brother is going to kill you!”

“Relax. I’m fine. He just maybe thinks that I need to cut back on my hours a little more.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Maybe for the same reason that you didn’t tell me. I didn’t want to talk about it. And now I’m more worried about you. I haven’t had a heart attack.”