TEMPORARY MATES PERMANENT CRAVINGS novel Chapter 95

95

Cameron

The papers on my desk stopped looking like words; they were blocks of ink and signatures that still needed to exist by morning. My coffee sat untouched beside the files, a thin skin forming on top. Ink stained the side of my finger where the pen kept slipping.

Franklin yawned and dragged his hand down his face, eyes squeezed shut. He stayed in his chair even though his leg bounced under the table and his eyes kept drifting to the clock.

“Are we planning to stay here all night?”

“I have to finish this.” I flipped another page and signed it without reading.

“You already said that.”

I signed another document and shoved it into the completed stack. “Then leave. I’ll finish by myself.”

He stared at me, mouth pulled tight, like he wasn’t buying any of it. He pushed his chair back and stretched until his shoulders cracked.

“I do need sleep. Some of us don’t run on alpha stubbornness.”

I waved my pen toward the door without looking up.”

He reached the door and paused with his hand on the handle. “You’re not going to ask?”

I knew exactly who he meant, and I kept my eyes on the paperwork anyway.

“I know she’s fine.” I signed another page. “The house is secure.”

Franklin exhaled through his nose and rubbed his forehead. “That’s not what I meant.”

“Then what? She has everything she needs.”

He walked back to the desk and stayed standing, arms crossed. “What’s wrong with both of you? You’re both so tense that she’s scared to even talk to you.”

I stopped writing.

Why would she be irritated when I took her into safety?

Then again, she was pregnant and locked in a house with guards at every door.

“You should call her,” he said. “She’s alone there. And you know she won’t ask for anything.”

“There’s no need.”

He let out a short laugh and shook his head. “Fine. Don’t stay up too late.”

He left and closed the door behind him.

I stared at the paperwork, picked up the next file, and kept telling myself I wasn’t thinking about Lisa.

Sending her to the safe house had been the right decision. It removed risk. It removed temptation. It created space where there needed to be space. If I was serious about fixing things with Evangeline, then I had to act like it. I had helped create this mess; pretending otherwise was cowardly. Control was part of responsibility.

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I still remembered the way she looked at me when the guards closed the door behind her.

I read another page, signed it, and reached for the next until the letters smeared together. Pain crawled across iny shoulders. I rubbed the back of my neck and leaned over the desk, forearms pressing into the paperwork,

I meant to straighten up, but everything went dark.

I opened my eyes to a quiet office, the desk lamp still burned.

My neck throbbed from the angle. I pushed upright and a blanket slid off my shoulders. I didn’t remember anyone putting a blanket on me.

Franklin must have come back. Or someone else had seen me passed out like an idiot.

I stood, rolled my shoulders, and paced beside the desk until the stiffness eased. A mirror hung near the cabinets I looked up and barely recognized the man staring back. Shadows sat under my eyes. My hair stuck in different directions. My skin looked gray.

I turned away.

The day moved forward whether I wanted it to or not. Voices carried through the administrative building halls; phones rang nonstop; someone argued outside my office door. Everyone needed my attention. Everyone needed something. I gave instructions, approved requests, listened to problems, solved what I could. Leadership did not pause because your personal life was complicated.

By late afternoon, my head felt heavy. Coffee stopped helping, and I was grateful when the day ended.

Eyangeline called earlier to say she wanted us to have dinner as a family. I was going to respect that, so I left the office before eight.

She waited downstairs.

When she saw me, she hurried over, smiling wide, and grabbed my face to kiss my cheek. Her arms wrapped around me, but I didn’t pull her closer.

“I thought you wouldn’t come.”

“I said I would.”

Her scent wrapped around me and my stomach turned. I forced myself not to react. Maybe my body would adjust. Maybe my senses would get used to it. The thought unsettled me, so I pushed it away.

Nadia already sat at the table. Plates were set. Steam rose from the food. Cutlery scraped against ceramic. Nadia’s phone lit up beside her glass.

Franklin joined us a minute later.

Conversation stayed light until Nadia set her fork down. “I think Desmond might propose.”

Evangeline lit up. “I told you he loves you, didn’t I?”

“That’s fast,” I said.

Nadia shrugged. “It’s not. We’ve known each other for years.”

“Do you love him?”

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She leaned back and picked at her nails. “What does love have to do with it? He has everything I need. Stability. Power. Respect. He knows how to treat a woman.”

I glanced at Franklin. He kept eating without looking up.

“Just make sure you’ll be happy,” I told her.

She gave a small smile. “Happiness comes with the right choice.”

Evangeline reached for her water. “I’m glad Lisa is out of this house. At least now things can start settling between me and my mate.”

I set my fork down; the metal hit the plate harder than I intended. “What?”

“Are you going to deny it? I don’t have to worry about you sneaking off to go fuck her.”

I pushed back in my chair. “Seriously, Evangeline, will you ever trust me again?”

She shrugged. “With everything I saw, there wasn’t much trust left to begin with.”

“Come on, Eva,” Nadia said. “At least give him the benefit of doubt.”

Evangeline dropped her napkin beside her plate. “Please. Can we not do this now? Let’s just eat.’

No one argued.

We finished dinner in silence, and I kept my hands wrapped around my glass so I wouldn’t say something worse.

And the whole time, I kept thinking about another house across town, and whether she had eaten.

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