AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Thank you.” Without so much as a look at anyone else in the room, she packs her briefcase, ignoring the unpleasant shouts of her aunt as she’s led from the office.
“Take the rest of the week, Camilla,” Dan states, heading for the door himself. “We’ll discuss everything come Monday.”
“That won’t be necessary,” Camilla states, refusing her boss’s suggestion. “I have too much to do here to let this stop me.”
“If you say so.” Dan grunts, turns his attention to me, and shakes his head. “Maybe you can talk her into taking time.”
“Man, you know her, she’s got her mind set. She’s not changing it.” I chuckle, speaking the truth.
Dan grumbles a few choice words under his breath while leaving the office and closing the door behind him.
A few minutes pass before Camilla is ready, and when she is, she meets my gaze.
“Let’s just go. I don’t want to talk right now. I need peace and a drink.”
“I can give you both, baby.” Nodding, I hold out my hand. I’ll get her home, make her a drink, and let her work or chill out. Whatever she wants. Afterward, the two of us will talk about what happened with her aunt. Not that there’s much to talk about except for the fact she’d spoken to Dan without me knowing about it. Still, that’s not a big deal.
What is, is making sure she’s good and not stewing on shit that she doesn’t need to be stewing over.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CAMILLA
If I could say one thing about my life right now, it would be that it feels as if I’m on a roller coaster. A never-ending one of twists and turns. I don’t know how to explain it.
Everything with my aunt and with Lynch it’s been mind-boggling. I can hardly focus on work with everything swirling around me. Maybe I should take the rest of the week off. Get my life back under control.
To say the least, what my aunt decided to do to me has seriously gutted me in ways I didn’t expect it could. Helena is the last blood family I have left. My dad’s parents died when I was ten. Mom’s family, I don’t know who they are. She said she didn’t have any contact with them. I wouldn’t even know what name to look for when it comes to searching for them. Not that I want to. I remember my mom telling me stories about how she left home for college and never went back. She cut ties with them and never regretted it. Said they were bad blood, and I didn’t need to be subjected to it. She’d even stated that Dad and I were the only family she needed.
I hadn’t thought of that in a long time. It makes me wonder if they could be as bad as she made them out to be. I mean, my dad and grandparents were amazing people, whereas Helena, my dad’s sister, is nothing more than a gold-digger. Which is something I wish I’d figured out long before now. Maybe if I had, Lynch and I wouldn’t have lost so much time together.
We’re lucky to have a second chance, and I know this. I don’t deserve it, but as he would say, I’m taking it. He’s mine as I’m his. After our conversation, well more or less him setting me straight, things have been good between us. Not that I haven’t still struggled, but with what happened at the office, I’m done struggling. It’s like something inside me clicked fully into place. Something that didn’t have anything to do with sex, which has been nothing but spectacular.
Even this morning, when he’d taken me over my desk, it was way, way better than fantasy.
“Why didn’t you tell me you asked Dan to handle your shit?” Lynch asks, breaking the silence between us.
On the way home, he hadn’t spoken, which was fine. I needed to get my head together. I still haven’t completed this task, but he waited until we got to his house.
Rather than answering him, I toe out of my heels and set my briefcase on the dining table, then spin on my heel to face him. I cock my head slightly and take him in as I ask a question I hadn’t asked in years. “Can we go out on the bike? Spend the rest of the day just riding?”
Lynch blinks and looks surprised by the question, a sly grin forming on those kissable lips. Lips that were on mine just hours ago while he’d been inside me, my legs wrapped around his waist with my skirt up around mine. Afterward, I hadn’t even been able to put my panties back on. He ripped them in the process of getting inside me.
“You wanna go out on the bike. We’ll go,” he states, closing the distance between us, hands coming to my hips. “You change, and we’ll go, but first answer me and tell me why you didn’t tell me about Dan handling your shit.”
“I didn’t tell you because I was waiting for news to see what he was able to do regarding Helena,” I answer, shrugging.
“You could have told me while waiting.” Lynch tightens his grip on my waist. “Wouldn’t have stopped you. Just don’t like being blindsided by anything. Last several years, I dealt with enough shit that blindsided me and my brothers.”
“What do you mean you were blindsided enough?” I want to know more about what’s happened in his life since we were apart.
At the clubhouse Sunday, I’d gotten to know the other women, those who are ol’ ladies. They told me some of their stories. All of which I found scary. I’d even gotten to see Ela again. She hugged me and whispered in my ear that she knew I’d come home where I was always meant to be. Lynch later explained to me how eccentric Ela really is. How she told him years ago about letting the anger go.
“Every damn time one of my brothers got with their ol’ lady, drama ensued. We’ve had brothers shot and others hurt. Pulled out of fire. Hell, Nora was taken and hung over a pit filled with poisonous snakes.”Nora told me about that, and as scary as that sounded, I think the other time she’d been kidnapped was scarier. “I ain’t about to have to deal with bullshit when I can be ahead of it just by knowing the slightest detail.”
I can understand that, so to communicate this, I nod and tell him so. “I see what you mean.”
“Good, ‘cause I ain’t mad about it, but from now on, talk to me. I’m not gonna question you on it unless it’s something I gotta question. When it comes to legal shit, though, I know you’ve got it. I’ll handle the rest.” Dipping his face down and getting in mine, he kisses me lightly. “Now, go get ready.” Lynch lets me go, eyes still on me as he drops his hand and takes a step back.
