One More Kiss (Affair Without End Book 2) by Susan Ward Read Free Book Online

used to be so good between us.
    Maybe my strange mood isn’t about us at all. Maybe it is knowing that now that I’ve finished USC that I need to start making some decisions, and that the decisions I make will matter. I’ve been scrambling like a madwoman since graduation trying to find a job and striking out everywhere. Or is it just the stress of always being fucking broke?
    That thought sends me to the bedroom to make sure nothing happen to Jeanette’s dress when Jack took it off me. I could never afford to replace it and Jeanette will have such a tizzy if it’s not perfect when I return it. I find it a messy ball in the corner of the room and hold it up in front of me, doing a fast inspection. A little wrinkled, but that’s all. Good. I go to the closet, grab a hanger, then go into the bathroom. A touch of steam is all it needs to be perfect again. I hang it on the hook outside the shower and then crank up the water to the hottest I can make it.
    Back in the bedroom, I busy myself straightening out the bed. Just do things, Linda. The same kind of things you’d do at home if you were spending a night in, alone. Anything to keep yourself from your thoughts and worries.
    Bed done, I stretch out across it and stare up at the ceiling. Jeez, it’s been one long day. One emotional firestorm after another. I lift up Jack’s pillow, holding it to my face and breathing in deeply. I smile. I love the way this man smells. No, Linda, you love everything about Jack. The problems is you’ve have fallen for someone who is totally out of your league.
    Why is he so wonderful? It would be so much easier to make the smart play, to let go and focus on my own life, if he wasn’t so damn wonderful.
    I curl onto my side, hugging his pillow. What have you done to yourself, Linda? You are now one of those girl who spends her nights alone thinking of a man. I wonder if Jack is thinking of me.
    ~~~
    My eyes open. My flesh is a damp, icky warm and the room is unbearable. Damn, I must have fallen asleep and I left the shower on. I run into the bathroom and shut off the water. Crap, I’ve made the bathroom and bedroom a hot, steamy mess.
    My eyes touch on the clock when I step back into the bedroom. Whoa, it’s 3 a.m. and Jack is still not back. That surprises me, even though getting caught up in the scene after a performance isn’t something I don’t understand—and this is LA so the backstage party will be more frenzied and wild, packed with beautiful people, famous and not—and he did say he had an after thing, translation probably a VIP private party at a club. But Jack doesn’t do the scene and he did say he’d cut out early. So what has changed? Or did I change it by being such a bitch tonight?
    Oh yeah, you were awful to him tonight, Linda. It’s time to hit the rewind button and start this encounter again.
    The sleep was a good thing. I feel more rested. Less anxious. More able to manage clear thought and emotion. So how do I start this over? And where the hell is he?
    My eyes round. I notice the red light blinking on the hotel phone. Messages? Well that’s a first, and I’m a little surprised even as tired as I was that I slept through the phone ringing, and more surprised that there would be messages.
    I debate phoning the desk to retrieve them, the messages might not even be for me, but I do it anyway. I lift the receiver and hit the button to ring the clerk.
    “Front desk.”
    “Yes, I’d like my messages please.”
    “Of course, Mrs. Parker. Hold on.”
    Simultaneously, the cells in my body tense and cringe. Mrs. Parker? The was just a touch of smirk in the jerk’s voice when he called me that, and of course there would be because you’d have to live in a cave in Hollywood not to know Jack’s personal story. Maybe in Idaho they don’t know he doesn’t have a wife, but they sure as hell know that here.
    “Mr. Parker called twice. Do you want me to read the messages or do you want to pick them up at the