“Oh?” I ask, incredibly intrigued.
“It’s nothing,” he shrugs it off.
“Okay,” I say and drop it, as he won’t say anymore if he doesn’t want to.
“There is something that I need to speak to you about,” he says carefully. “But not here, I never know who’s listening,” he adds with a sardonic smile.
“Tell me about it,” I agree. “Um, actually there is something I need to speak with you about as well. In fact, all of you.”
“Can I go first?” he asks.
“No,” I say. “I need to say what I have to say. I am running out of time and my husbands are going to be furious with me.”
He cradles me in between his legs. “Do I need to worry?”
“Don’t think so, it’s a short and embarrassing story that I will tell you all. Meet me in the clearing in the woods at midnight and we’ll talk,” I say.
“The clearing in the woods at midnight? Why so clandestine?” he asks with a laugh.
“Well, it’s 9 PM now, I have a few things to take care of and then I need sleep before I have to go tomorrow.”
“Go? I am not liking the sound of this,” he says and rubs his hand over his face, but I pull it away. I know he is getting agitated and I want to reassure him.
“One thing though. Why have you not been around much since I woke up?” I ask.
He gets that shifty look on his face again and I stare at him until he answers, “I guess I just thought it would be easier to reconnect with your husbands if I wasn’t here,” he says eventually and I can tell he is lying his arse off.
I let him off with it because he obviously doesn’t want to tell me the real reason. It doesn’t matter, Cade will find out, I have no doubt. “When is it ever easier for you not to be around me?” I ask with lowered lashes and he gathers me back into his strong embrace.
“It’s not,” he says. “I die inside when I am not with you.”
What? That is very dramatic coming from him at this point in our story. “Never leave me then,” I say with a soft smile.
“Never,” he says ferociously. “You are mine, Lizzie, and I love you.” He kisses me and I get a pang of nostalgia of when it was just the two of us. This is a bad road to head down, so I pull away from him.
“I’m going to get showered and changed and then we can all talk,” I say as I climb off the bed.
I make my way over to the bathroom and turn on the shower. I step in and he steps in behind me, picking up the soap.
“Allow me,” he says. “I am already going to be beaten for making love to you when you should be resting.”
I burst out laughing and stand for a moment under the jets, enjoying the warmth of the water. He can see my bliss and says, “I envy that of you.”
I open my eyes and he is staring intently at me. “What?” I ask.
“That you can feel the heat. I miss it,” he admits with a shrug.
“Well, I shall have to warm you up in another way,” I say with a lascivious smile and pull his mouth to mine.
He chuckles and says, “Not complaining.”
As I kiss him, I suddenly go cold. Freezing cold on the inside and I pull away from him like I have been doused with Arctic water.
“What?” he asks, worried.
“Uh, I, uh,” I stammer. How can I tell him to get out? I turn my back to him and slow my rapid breathing. I am coming over in one of my showery panic attacks. I hadn’t even remembered until I kissed him that I cannot shower with anybody anymore. It just seems so natural and not at all wrong
with him.