And my sweater’s barely off before he’s on me, crushing me close, kissing, nipping, rubbing his face in the soft fall of my hair. Raising it over my head, and showing him the emerald nestled against my chest. I kick off my boots next, and unwind my scarf, and then I’m gripping the hem of my sweater.

Shrugging my winter coat off onto the floor. “No.” My boots scuff over his carpet as I take a step back, and then I’m holding his gaze. “I’m sorry,” he grates out, face etched with misery. He might not say the words, but it’s all clear as the daylight we’re craving on this island. The kind of passion he’s confessing to-the unfaltering commitment. By the time he’s done, my throat is tight for a whole different reason, and I’m blinking back tears. As though every word he clips out isn’t a balm to my raw heart. How he changed the course of his career, just to stay here with me.Īnd his brown eyes are guilty as he forces out his confession. He tells me about the move he had planned. In stilted, awkward sentences, Dr Alexei Galkin tells me what he’s done. Alexei Galkin is usually so reserved, so tightly controlled, and seeing him upset… He makes no sense, and now he’s agitated, standing in front of me with his chest heaving under his shirt. I don’t smooth it down like I’ve done before, even though my fingers twitch toward him.

Both.” Alexei rakes a hand through his hair, rucking it up at the back. “No, you weren’t going to tell me? Or no, you weren’t going to let me find you gone?” I may never warm all the way through.īut my words have gotten through to him, because finally, finally, he reacts.Īlexei scowls at me like he’s never scowled before, then grips my elbow and pulls me into his office. Okay, something forever, damn it, and the icy cold realization that hit me when I found the change of address notice in the post office stack-well. “Or were you going to let me knock on this door one day and find you gone?” I fold my arms over my chest, sweltering in my winter layers already. Hurt throbs in my voice, an accusing undercurrent, and my throat is so tight. “Were you ever going to tell me?” I hate how pathetic I sound. Dr Alexei Galkin stares at me from his office doorway, and says nothing. Stiff and startled, his eyes going wide behind those glasses.

Pool Girl by Cassie Mint