Page 70 of Perfect Satisfaction

Facts and figures are muddled with anguish at being so close to the warmth I would have sold my soul to be near mere months ago. Maybe Arek’s soothing touch could have relieved some of the pressure building in my head.

Now, we’re so divided, an ocean might as well separate us instead of a lake of satin.

I close my eyes and whisper fervently, “Please.”

I wouldn’t say I’m praying for time to speed up, but maybe that’s exactly what I’m doing.

Then I’m flung back to the nights in London when I’d do the very same thing as a young girl at fifteen after my mother died.

Beg.

“Please, just let me go home to America,” I begged him.

“You are a Moore, Ursula. You will not return to ‘live with your friends.’ I doubt they are suitable anyway.” My father never even looked up from the paper he was reading.

“I bet they care more than you do!” That got some reaction. His fingers tightened briefly on the papers he’s clutching. “In fact...”

“Enough!” West bellowed, as he surged to his feet. “Now, I’ll be out of town for the foreseeable future.”

A boom outside the window makes me jump, jerking me from the memory and slamming me straight back into my nightmarish pain.

I’m hurled into another living memory. The first weekend JB came home from boarding school to find his baby sister installed in the home he, himself, wasn’t welcome to live in. Tears leak from my eyes as I recall doing the unthinkable to save the remarkable man now known worldwide as Joshua Basset.

I just hope one day when I’m judged, someone is proud of my choices.

Enduring West.

Saving JB.

Defending Angie.

Leaving Arek.

The last causes the sob to finally rip from my throat.God, wasn’t it enough I fell in love with a man just like you, Father? A man who barely let the ink dry on his vows before his head was swayed by a beautiful woman? Did you have to rub my nose in it by making me sleep next to him for the next year?

I shift. I’m nauseous because as hurt and furious as I am, there’s a comfort I’m not alone in this nightmare of West’s making. But I’m devastated knowing he’s able to sleep because he never used to sleep when we were tangled together.

Winding my hair around his wrist, Arek tugs my face closer. “There’s enough time we’re apart. I’ll sleep then.”

Hooking a leg over his hip, I tip my face back. My breasts brush against the light sprinkling of hair that covers his chest, causing my body to shiver. “Then what do you want to do while I’m here.”

Arek hoists my leg higher. My other leg falls open leaving me completely exposed to him. “Can you take me again?”

“There will never be a time I won’t,” I vow.

He notches his cock head at my entrance. Giving me a moment to adjust, before he slowly pushes himself inside me.

My breath catches just as a watery chuckle emerges.

“Ursula, if you’re going to cry for your lover, go into another room. Some of us have to be at an office in the morning,” Arek grouches.

My tears dry up instantly, causing the throbbing behind my eyes to increase. I don’t apologize. I don’t owe him an explanation. Instead, I reach for the baby soft blanket I brought with me from my suite and wrap it around me.

Pretending it’s the arms of someone who cares.

My eyes burn until slowly, mercifully, they flutter closed. It may have been just for a heartbeat, but soon my phone is pinging me.

I’m reprieved from these hours of hell. It’s time to get up.