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Sixty-six
Henley
I’m not really sure how I got back to Boylston. I know that my bag was waiting for me at the concierge desk when I got there. When he hands it over, he gives me a puzzled look like he’s doing the math, but it doesn’t add up.
Three-thousand-dollar coat.
Thousand-dollar heels.
Several hundred thousand in jewelry.
And a twenty-dollar backpack with someone else’s name written across the front pocket.
I take it from the man behind the desk, shaking my head when he asked me if I need help with it, like I’m juggling a stack of steamer trunks instead of a single backpack.
“No thank you.” I sling the strap over my shoulder and head for the elevator.
The apartment looks exactly how I left it. Unbuttoning my coat, I toss it over a chair in the living room and look around. It looks the same, but it feels different. Empty. Cold. Probably because I know I’m not staying.
Carrying my bag into the bedroom, I drop it on top of the dresser before kicking off my heels and sitting on the side of the bed.
Conner volunteers at the library.
He’s helping my brother.
He’s doing well.
He has a girlfriend.
I feel laughter bubbling up in my throat, mixing with the tears. Through the blur, I see the piece of paper I left on the nightstand. Picking it up, I study the long line of numbers and letters, ending in its deceptively simple answer.
10500
When I asked him what is was, he told me it was poetry.
Falling back onto the bed, I press it to my chest, and close my eyes. Let myself be lulled to sleep by the steady thump of my heart of my hand.
I wake up to someone knocking on my door. It’s dark and the landline in the apartment ringing. The familiarity of the situation has me fumbling for the phone on the nightstand.
“Hello?”
“Miss O’Connell, this is Thomas at the front desk. There was a… gentleman here a moment ago—” The knocking grows more insistent. “I’m afraid he wouldn’t wait to be announced. He—”
The knock turns to banging. The kind that does not go unnoticed in a luxury apartment building. The kind that gets security called and the police involved. “It’s fine Thomas,” I say into the phone before tossing it down. I’m not even sure I hung it up before I run out of the bedroom. Through the living room to come to a sliding halt in front of the front door.
The banging suddenly stops.
He knows I’m standing here.
“Let me in.”
That’s all he says, his voice gruff and heavy.
Yes.
I open the door to find Conner on the other side, chest heaving slightly. Hands clenched at his sides. Eyes dark and little wild. A thrill goes through me when I see him. One I have no right to feel.
One moment he’s in the hallway. The next he’s across the threshold and kicking the door shut. And then I’m in his arms, being pulled down to the floor, the cold tile of the entryway, pressed against my back, though the thin material of my dress. His hands between my thighs, opening me, a shuddering gasp running through me when I feel his fingers hook around the lace between them to expose me. His hot, shallow breath, cool against the center of me, a moment before his mouth closes over my pussy, licking and sucking in frantic, greedy pulls.