AllFreeNovel
Share Us
After sending a small prayer to whoever’s up there listening, I keep walking. My feet pad on the marble floors. One hesitant step after the other.
Stop. Listen.
More silence welcomes me. And warmth. Thank heavens for the warmth. As Carter predicted, I got cold once we unfolded ourselves from his Porsche and into the parking garage of their building.
He didn’t pin me with an I told you so, though. Carter isn’t petty, unlike some people are. Never him. What he did was shrug off his suit jacket and drape it over my shoulders before promising to bring my two duffels later and leaving for the pharmacy.
I grip the edge of the wall where the foyer ends and the penthouse begins, angling my body. Peeking into the first floor.
No one’s in the living room area. The kitchen’s also empty.
I shake my head at myself. Even if Killian were here, all he’d do is run in the opposite direction.
A metaphorical punch in the gut still hurts.
Yeah, yeah, inner voice, whatever. I’m not in the mood.
Carter swore Killian doesn’t hate me. That he doesn’t mean to be an asshole. That he wants me. Us.
And I choose to believe him.
I have this.
Confidence injects into my veins, and I march forward and into the kitchen. The empty kitchen.
The relief I thought I’d have doesn’t follow. Now that I see Killian’s off somewhere doing something else, I can’t help but feel a tiny bit disappointed.
Shake it off, Amara, you’re just confused. You said so yourself.
What’s meant to be will be. I slip out of Carter’s jacket, inhaling his scent before placing it neatly on the kitchen island.
Next on my list is tea. My flayed nerves could really use some right about now. I waltz around the kitchen, fish out two mugs from the cupboard for Carter and me, and put the teapot on the stove.
The tea boxes, though. I always forget where they put them.
“Hmm.” I rise on my tiptoes, opening one cupboard after the other. Oh, here it—
“Hello, Amara.”
“Help!” I scream, snapping my eyes shut.
My heart races a mile a minute.
When it shouldn’t.
Clarity chases away the panic when I realize the voice belongs to Killian. Fuck the guy who broke into my apartment. Bastard.
I hope Carter got him good. I hope there’s a limb missing from the man who put me on edge like this.
“Am I so terrible that you need someone to save you?”
With a hand on my chest, I whip back to stare at Killian. “N-no, I—”
He’s standing on the landing of the second floor, a hand on the railing. Once my heart rate settles into something acceptable and not a borderline heart attack, I take the rest of him in.
His normally styled dirty blond hair is disheveled. Mussed. Sexy. Black cotton pants hang on his tapered hips.
He’s shirtless.
