Breaking by Kent Claire

Author:Kent, Claire [Kent, Claire]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Published: 2013-06-24T22:00:00+00:00

Four

He was back in the library working when Lori called him again.

He’d managed to drown out everything else as he focused on writing and research for several hours, so he blinked in surprise when he glanced down at his phone and realized it was already after six.

“Hey,” she said when he picked up. “Do you want to do something for dinner? I’m not really in the mood for this banquet.”

“I better not. I’m getting some good work done.”

He heard her sigh, but she didn’t complain—which was a relief. “All right. I guess I’ll go to the boring banquet.”

“Everything else okay?”

“Yeah. I’d just rather be with you.”

He couldn’t help but smile, oddly touched by her grumbled words. “Me too.”

“You say that, but when I give you a chance to be with me, you say you need to work.”

“I really do need to work. I’ll be back this evening. There’s still my excessive horniness to address.”

To his surprise, she didn’t laugh. “I wasn’t really talking about sex tonight. I just want to be with you.”

He had no idea what to say to that and felt rather awkward—too much emotion leaving him briefly paralyzed.

“Ander?”

“Yeah,” he managed to say. “I want to be with you too.”

“Then why aren’t you?”

He blinked, having thought the conversation was ending and not expecting the blunt question. “What?”

“If you want to be with me, then why aren’t you?”

“I told you—”

“I know what you told me, but I just can’t believe that work is so urgent. You have months until your dissertation is due. You’ve been in Greece for six weeks, and you haven’t even given yourself a day to recover. If you don’t want to spend time with me, I’d rather you just say it.”

“What the hell are you talking about?”

“Nothing.” She sounded subdued. A little sad. “You seem like you’re…”

“Like I’m what?” Ander’s back stiffened slightly as he grew immediately defensive.

“I don’t know. Like you’re avoiding me.”

“That’s ridiculous. We had sex two nights ago. We had sex yesterday morning. We had lunch today and then had sex again. How exactly am I avoiding you?” His voice was sharper than it should have been because he knew—he knew—she was right.

“I don’t know how to explain it, but I know you. And I feel it. Something is wrong, and you won’t tell me. It just seems like you’re distant somehow.”

“I’m not distant. I’m working. I’m not sure what you expect of me, but I can hardly drop everything because you need attention.”

He knew how she would respond to his words and snide tone. He knew, and that was why he said them.

She was so angry now she was almost sputtering. “Have I once said I wanted attention? I want to know what’s going on with you, and you keep pretending it’s nothing.”

“How many times do I have to say it? There is nothing going on.”

She was silent for a long time, and Ander recognized she was reining in her anger enough to converse maturely.

Then she finally said, “You can’t really think I’m going to be okay with this.

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