“I don’t really know.” He looked around at me gleefully, cupped my face with his hand and stared into my eyes. “You are quite something, Ria. I don’t get you at all.” His eyes were curious, bright.
In a way that made something flip excitedly in my stomach.
Melting into his hand, I could only murmur. “I don’t quite get you either.”
“Hmm. Am I such a mystery to the clairvoyant?”
I smacked his hand away from my cheek. By now, I knew he was teasing me by insisting I had psychic powers, since I made it constantly clear that I was not a believer. “That’s Miss Clairvoyant to you.”
As my breathing slowed, unfortunate and sensible thoughts began to enter my mind. Like, who was going to pick up my Rider Waite deck now? How were we going to go back to the tarot reading after just having mind-blowing sex under Forest’s desk? And... when was I going to tell Forest that his malicious half-brother had sent me the first time we’d met?
Oh god. Apollo. Why did I have to think about him now?
Because I had to admit to Forest that he’d sent me for our first meeting. If I didn’t admit it soon, it’d build up inside of me and I’d never get over it. And he’d never trust me again, if he would at all, anyway.
I couldn’t do it now, though. I needed time to figure out how best to do it. For now, I had to get out of here.
I pretended to look at the time. “Shit! Sorry, I’ve got another appointment to make. I’m obviously not going to charge you for the time, we, er... You know. But can I make it up to you – finish the session next time?”
He nodded, a smile still about his lips, even as a little disappointment entered his expression that I had to run off so soon. Oh god, he was handsome. And I’d managed to make him laugh. And he’d managed to make me feel... something quite – and I hated to say it – magical.
I scrambled out from under the desk before he could kiss me again. He slowly raised himself up into his office chair, still fully undressed.
I started pulling my clothes back on, trying not to admire his well-sculpted form. “You aren’t going to get in trouble for not answering your door before?”
He leaned back lazily in his chair, hands behind his head, and fixed me with a look, one eyebrow raised. “You do remember I’m the CEO, yes?”
Sometimes, I actually did forget. He was so personable when it was just me and him. Almost like a real human being and not some robotic billionaire tech whiz. “Oops. Of course.”
He watched me as I finished dressing, snatched up my handbag and made for the door.
I glanced at his chest for just one last peek before my guilty retreat. “Be a darling, would you, and pick up the deck for me.” I winked. “Keep it for my next visit.”
* * *
Two busesand the subway were enough to put lustful thoughts straight out of my head in the short term.
But, lying in bed in the safety of my home, snapshots of memory kept rising up and coming back to me. A remembrance that none of my vibrators could truly satisfy, no matter how hard I tried.
While I was preoccupied with arousal I couldn’t be consumed by guilt about Apollo. I could even tell myself I wasn’t really guilty after all.
Forest couldn’t make it next Monday, so I had two weeks to figure out how to break the news to him. It wasn’t like me to run from a confrontation or a hard conversation, but this one was already layered with so many levels of complication.
And another level of complication was about to arise.
A few days after our meeting, I got the phone reminder telling me that my period was due. The day passed. I attributed it to stress, but my grandmother’s prophecy kept coming back into my mind.Two pink lines...
A week after my missed period, I took the pregnancy tests in a public bathroom. I sure as hell wasn’t taking them at home, where my supposedly-psychic grandmother watched my every move.
And there we were. Two pink lines. Just as Grandmother had predicted.
I didn’t know what was worse. That my birth control had failed, or that my Grandmother might actually be psychic.
FOREST
Sylvester: @Forest, have your eyes gone square from so long staring at computer screens?
Forest: I have no idea what you’re talking about