Scared of Forever (Scared #2) by Jacqueline Abrahams

massage?”
    “Of what?” I laugh.
“If it’s this, then I may need a longer recovery,” I say,
pointing to my dick.
    “Your back, dummy,”
she laughs.
    I lay on my stomach and
Emily straddles my back, her soft and lean fingers kneading
purposefully into the muscles. She rakes her nails down the back of
my neck, and sends delicious shivers coursing through my body. “Em?”
I ask. “What was that all about? I mean you’ve never been—like
that.”
    “Hmmm,” she says,
concentrating on her task.
    “Not that I’m
complaining!” I add quickly.
    “I just missed you,”
Emily replies, her voice rising in an awkward way. I’ve never heard
that tone before. It unnerves me.
    She lays down flat
against my back. I can feel her breathing as she runs a hand through
my hair. I can’t imagine being anywhere else right now. Still, my
mind drifts to Aria. And I picture her alone. And
I hate that thought.
    Emily sits up and I
follow, pulling her head to rest on my shoulder and wrapping an arm
around her. She nestles in closer to me.
    “Blake?” she says
softly. “What happened to make you hate your brother so much?”
    I consider the
strangeness of the question. What
exactly has my brother been telling her? “It was
something minor that just got out of control.”
    “What happened,
though?” she persists.
    “He smashed my first
car, we fought about it, and never really made up,” I say
confidently.
    Emily is silent for a
few moments. “Seems a stupid reason to be so angry at each other,”
she finally replies. “I mean, your family can buy another car like
the rest of us buy cheeseburgers.”
    “Yeah, well, siblings
fight over dumb shit. It’s what happens when you have someone
permanently invading your space,” I say. “Has Tyler been talking
to you?”
    “No,” she replies
simply. “I just realized that I don’t know very much about who
you were before we met.”
    “Would that change
how you feel about me now?” I ask nervously.
    “I don’t think so,”
she replies. “Unless it was something unforgiveable.”
    “You’d really leave
me?” I ask.
    “No, I’m not saying
that,” Emily defends. “I’m just saying that if there was
something huge that happened before in your past, I’d expect you to
tell me about it. And you would, right?”
    “Baby, there is
nothing to tell,” I say, leaning forward and kissing her softly. “I
forgot to mention, we have a charity dinner next Saturday. My
mother’s a guest speaker, so we kind of have to go.”
    “Sure,” Emily says
and stands shortly after to turn the kettle on. From my seat, I can
see her standing in front of the mirrored splash back. She traces a
line gently over her lips. Even from here, I can see the small smile
that forms on her lips and the faraway look she has in her eye. It’s
a far cry from the game of twenty questions we played a few minutes
ago. She looks lost. Lost in a blissful memory.



Chapter 10:
Emily
    The following few days
drag by mundanely. Blake and I spend Sunday curled up in front of the
TV. On Monday, I go to work as usual. Tuesday passes by exactly the
same way. By Wednesday, I’m wondering why I haven’t run into
Tyler lately. A few days ago, every time I turned around, he was
there. I know he’s still in his apartment. I see the light filter
in from the crack below the door when I come home. Not
that I’m looking! Or counting down the days or hours or
anything.
    The last time I saw him
was the day we went to the Hamptons together. The day he kissed me.
The day everything became so awkward. He had apologized profusely for
the kiss. I had dismissed it as quickly as it had happened, because
really, I didn’t know what else to do. The ride home from the
Hamptons had been torture. Two hours of awkward energy and silence.
The last and only words I had said to him were to thank him for the
day, and goodbye.
    But that kissed had
stayed with me. Not only was it eating away at my conscience because
it was so wrong,