The Risk by Caitlin Crews

Author:Caitlin Crews
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin Enterprises
Published: 2019-11-19T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER EIGHT

Darcy

BACK HOME, I told myself that everything was exactly the same.

New York was as noisy and exhilarating, anonymous and comfortable as I’d left it. I had the same life, the same responsibilities, the same routine. Morning class and endless, intense rehearsals as we geared up for the new season.

I was the same person who had left for a weekend in Paris.

I was fine.

“You’re welcome,” Annabelle had purred when I walked into our apartment after my long flight home. “I told you that you needed this and I was right. Think how much fun we’re going to have here now that you—”

“I’m not doing it again.” I dropped my bag on the floor and wanted to frown at her. Sternly. But I made myself smile instead, because I didn’t want her to know that I was...rocked. I wanted her to think I was like her and completely at my ease. “I wanted to do it once. And I did, so I’m done.”

Then, no matter how much she begged, I didn’t tell her a single thing about Sebastian. I told her about the performance. I commiserated with the fact she’d stayed here to understudy when, of course, Claudia hadn’t had so much as a stray sniffle and likely wouldn’t. I talked about the thrill of the burlesque, the unwieldy costume, and how different it had all been. I told her every detail I could recall about the club she’d been dying to see for years—at least, all the ones I could share under the conditions of the NDA.

But I kept Sebastian to myself.

Sebastian, who had been absolutely true to his word. Sebastian, who had kissed me and fucked me, made me cry his name, made me sob, and made me laugh. Over and over again.

We hadn’t gotten any sleep. After that meal and my refusal to extend our arrangement, he had applied himself to the task as if bent on leaving his mark on every square inch of my skin.

And he did.

But the fantasy was over. I’d walked out of that club into a sullen, wet Parisian morning—and the rest of my life—and I hadn’t looked back. I’d forced myself to stay awake and reasonably alert, and had marched through a few museums before whiling away a couple of hours at a café. I’d checked my bank balance and had just about fainted.

Then, finally, I’d gone to the airport a far richer woman than I’d been when I arrived, and slept all the way home on the plane.

I’d left the fantasy where it belonged. In a club I couldn’t access, across an ocean from me. I told myself that in time all that sensation would fade. My memories of it would become less vivid. That intense longing in me would dissipate.

I could comfort myself with the money I’d earned, and I did.

But one week passed, then another, and I kept waiting for my body to feel like...mine again.

Because, try as I might, I felt...different. And I knew it was me, because life in the corps was as it always had been and always would be.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.