She’d be starting her new job in less than a week.
She’d been in her new place two days.
And now, after settling in, and coming to grips with the fact that her stint with Brian and Isabelle was over, after getting used to the idea that Brian might never call her back, having realized that whatever he might have felt for her was due to mere proximity, there he was, begging for her help once more.
Of course this would happen.
But she knew going over wasn’t about him—she’d do just about anything for Isabelle, and she couldn’t stand the tortured cries of the little one over the phone.
As she drove to Brian’s home, she wondered, was she doing the right thing staying in Washington? Would Brian just keep roping her back in, manipulating her into being in his life when it was convenient for him?
Was she really considering moving elsewhere once she managed to get on her feet again? How often was she going to run when something didn’t work out the way she’d planned?
What she really needed was to be honest with herself and get firmer about what she really wanted.
You want him.
She needed to get back on the course she’d set for her life—getting comfortable at her new job, and in her own place…Happy accidents are a thing! She didn’t need to settle down and have a family now—she was still in her twenties! Late twenties…
Shut up, tiny voice, she answered back; after all, there was no real rush.
But one thing at a time, and tonight, she’d enter Brian’s home, do whatever she could to soothe the baby, then leave.
She didn’t need to talk Brian then—it would be no use trying to force a conversation about the status of their relationship, especially since he’d made so little effort to address things before.
She had learned it wasn’t a good idea to push a guy into a corner; never present a verbal ultimatum. Just do you, and if the guy came to his senses, so be it. If not, so be it, but there was no use making some dude grudgingly cuff himself to you.
If Brian wanted to talk once her mission was complete, so be it—she’d let him talk and listen to what he had to say, tempering expectations.
The future between the three of them looked muddled, but her own future, as an independent, self-reliant woman satisfied with her choices, looked quite bright.
“Karen,” Brian said, his distressed face immediately stripping away her defenses.
He looked so relieved to see her, and before she could exit her car properly, he had gathered her into his arms and crushed her in a bear hug.
“It’s only been a few days,” she said, although she certainly understood the feeling. It hadn’t felt like a few days at all—it’d felt like weeks!
Brian pulled away only to clasp her hands. “I fucking missed you,” he said. “What the hell’s been happening? I feel like I’m losing track of time...” He shook his head. “I’m getting ahead of myself here. Let’s go inside.”
As soon as she reached the threshold, Karen heard the baby’s cries. She ran to her. “I can’t believe she’s been crying all this time. How long has it been?”
“Too fucking long,” Brian said, his eyes red. He looked like he hadn’t slept in days.
Karen spoke soothing words to the child as she held her, intermittently making gentle shushing sounds. The baby started calming down a little, but she was still fussing.
Karen blocked out Brian’s presence and started singing a song she used to sing to Isabelle in her earlier days, and the effect was almost immediate—the baby relaxed into her arms, her cries fading away. Then she let out what sounded like a huge baby sigh as her eyes started closing.
Karen kept rocking the child gently, the singing reduced to a humming for a few moments more while Brian stood there like a statue, looking dumbfounded. She wanted to say something snarky to him but didn’t want to break the moment.
When she was sure Isabelle had relaxed into the rhythm of sleep, Karen slowly made her way to the baby room, eventually laying the child down in her new crib.
She stood there a moment, humming a bit longer for good measure, then quietly made her way out of the room. Brian was still exactly where she’d left him. She gave him a tight smile and a shrug, then started heading toward the door.
Brian caught her hand as she was about to head past him. “Where do you think you’re going?”
“Home,” she whispered back. “My work here is done.”
“I don’t want you to go.”
“Okay...”
“I...I don’t know how we fell out of touch, but I’ve been trying to reach you for a while.”
“Oh. Well, I figured since you sent that text about needing me to back off while you spent time with your family...”
“Wait, what? Oh, fuck. Karen, Deidre sent that text—she hid my phone from me one day, got into somehow, and apparently, caused minor chaos. I think she deleted a lot of messages from you too.”
“Oh, boy,” Karen said, her shoulders slumping a little as her energy dropped and the implications set in.
“Yeah. It got so bad having her here, I kind of had to fire her—even though she’s not hired for anything per se. I just did it this morning—told her not to come back here.”
“I doubt she took that well.”
“In the moment, sure—but I’d called in a favor and had hefty backup in case she tried anything.”
Karen let out a heavy sigh. “Now what?”
She’d meant what he was going to do about securing his life when it came to the unstable Deidre, but he seemed to take it another way.
“Now you and I get back on track.”
“Ah, yes. Where you tell me all the things I want to hear to keep me...lingering?”
“What are you talking about?”
“Have you slept with anyone else since we’ve been looking after Isabelle?”
“No.”
“But we haven’t discussed monogamy. What are we—if anything—beyond two people working so closely together, they fall into bed every now and then?”
“Karen…”
“You had other ways of contacting me—you knew where I lived, you have my social media...”
“I just didn’t think anything was wrong! It was a complicated time and our schedules were being readjusted. But I never went a single day without contacting you somehow. Did I?” He seemed genuinely uncertain and confused.
“Well, in any case, it wasn’t just a matter of saying ‘hey.’” How could she put it? “You emotionally abandoned me.”
His eyes looked so sorry. “I never meant to,” he said, pulling her closer.
She knew what was coming. “Don’t you do it.”
He teased her cheek with a gentle slide of his fingers. “Do what?”
“Don’t you try to seduce me without...”
“Karen, you have to know by now—I thought I was being obvious.”
“About what?”
He stared into her eyes for a moment, holding her face in his large hands. “I love you,” he said simply.
Her whole body stilled, and she couldn’t respond.
“I want to be with you,” he continued, “monogamously, daily, eagerly. I guess I never said it out loud because it seemed so weird to call you my girlfriend when you’re so much more than that. Whatever the word is that encompasses you being my closest friend, my companion, my lover...”
“I think, ‘girlfriend.’”
“Sounds too frivolous, and you’re anything but. You’re a wonder, Karen, and I was dead serious about wanting to keep you in my life. I have to admit—it cut me when you said you were heading home a few minutes ago because as far as I’ve understood it, this is your home. With me.”
He leaned down and touched his lips to hers. Pulling back, he looked in her eyes before landing a rougher kiss on her. He pulled her tightly to him, and she felt his masculine planes—his hard chest, his firm abs, his growing cock.
So you’re committed, she wanted to ask, but hadn’t he already told her as much? Did she really need those specific words?
He’d said he wanted to be with her, that he was... her boyfriend, for lack of a better word. Yeah, he was right—the term didn’t sound sufficient for what they had.
He picked her up and started carrying her toward his bedroom, and she hoped they were able to keep their voices down. Once they got inside, he ripped her clothes off, and she realized she was in for some rough lovemaking tonight.
Brian took her wildly—as if they’d gone months without each other—grinding against her passionately as his large cock plowed her welcoming depths.
They came hard together, eventually flopping onto the bed side by side, completely spent.
Karen realized she had a ridiculous smile on her face as she started drifting off to sleep. “I love you too,” she mumbled before dreamland took over.
Karen’s eyes popped open, and she immediately realized it was still night. Her cell said it was three forty a.m., and she had a familiar sinking feeling in her stomach.
She sat up immediately, suddenly wide awake, then glanced at Brian’s pale, sleeping frame. He looked so content and peaceful—why bother waking him in case she was wrong?
She got up, wrapping a sheet around herself as she remembered Brian’s cameras, and tiptoed toward the baby room.
She got closer and closer to the crib, dread slowly building. When she saw inside, she closed her eyes tightly and shook her head, trying to make sure she wasn’t actually dreaming.
“Oh no,” she said softly, staring at the empty crib. “No, no, no, no...”
“Karen?” she heard a masculine voice say, one trying to be quiet but not quite nailing it.
She didn’t answer, glancing around the room stupidly—as if the ten-weeker could’ve crawled out of her crib and might be hanging out in a corner, chewing on a teddy bear.
When she sensed Brian’s presence at the threshold, she turned to him with tear-filled eyes. “She’s gone,” she said, her choked voice barely above a whisper.
Brian immediately became alert, his gray eyes popping open as he ran toward the crib. Then he left the room and started turning lights on, running through the home.
Karen joined him, looking for signs of forced entry. She had a pretty good idea who was behind this—Deidre or someone working on her behalf.
“What should we do?” she asked as he rushed past her, but Brian was on a mission. Once he was done flying through the house, he sped to the outside.
Karen wracked her brain for the next sensible thing to do, still in a sort of stupor. Call 911?
Of course! Do whatever you can to get an AMBER alert going. The baby needs you again; you can help save her once more.