door, and met her gaze. “Yes?”
She didn’t answer right away, then quickly said, “My brothers. You won’t tell them about this, will you?”
Alex saw the worried look on her face and wanted to cross the room, take her into his arms, and kiss her. “No, I won’t tell them anything about this.”
He saw relief flood her eyes. “Thanks.”
Without saying anything else, he turned and left the room.
When Christy finished her shower, she toweled off and then went to her closet to decide what to put on. After a few moments she slipped into a printed lounger her sister-in-law Lorren had given her a few months ago as a birthday gift.
There were still questions for which she needed answers. Alex had said she had begged him to make love to her and he had refused her. Yet she knew for a fact they had shared a bed. His masculine scent was all over her bedcovers and pillows. Why had he gotten into bed with her if he hadn’t intended for anything to happen? The very thought of being in bed with him was enough to add heat to her already steamy shower.
Christy sighed deeply. She needed to stop thinking such things. If Alex stopped Kevin from doing anything to her and he didn’t do anything to her himself, then that meant her virginity was still intact, and she was glad about that. A lot of women her age would be bothered by such lack of sexual experience, but she was not. It always bothered her how some of the girls in her dorm in college would deliberately seek out guys to rid them of what they considered “that little problem.”
She’d had no problems saving herself for the man she would marry—whoever he was. She just had to completely get over Alex, which she fully intended to do. In the meantime, she would patiently wait for her soulmate to come into her life. Too bad she had already wasted all those years thinking that Alex had been the one.
She walked over to the window and looked out. An overcast sky was making it difficult for the sun to shine through and she needed to see the sun. Gramma Laverne always said there had to be a little rain in your life to appreciate the sun, and today of all days Christy needed to see the sun.
She smiled when she thought of her grandmother. In her late eighties, Laverne Madaris still got around pretty good and was one feisty lady who, along with Christy’s mother, had instilled within her old-fashioned rules of decorum. Christy appreciated the role her grandmother had always played in her life. Also like her mother, Christy’s grandmother was her confidante and had always been so. But Christy would make sure when they had their weekly telephone chat tomorrow that she didn’t mention anything about what had happened at the club.
But she would mention to her grandmother about Alex’s arriving in Cincinnati and coming to see her. Her mother and grandmother were the only two people she’d confided in about what had happened between her and Alex three years ago.
Christy turned away from the window when she heard her phone ring. She figured Alex wouldn’t pick it up just in case it was one of her family members calling. He wouldn’t want to explain what he was doing at her house so early in the morning.
She quickly crossed the room to answer it. “Hello?”
“Christy? Are you all right?”
Christy smiled upon hearing Shemell’s voice. “Yes, I’m fine. Why wouldn’t I be?”
When moments passed and it was obvious that Shemell was hesitating, Christy repeated herself. “Why wouldn’t I be OK?”
“I was at the club last night. I talked to you. Don’t you remember?”
Christy frowned. No, she didn’t remember. “And?”
“And you weren’t yourself. It was as if you’d had a lot to drink. You were sort of . . .”
Christy inhaled deeply, not sure she wanted to really know, but asked anyway. “Sort of what?”
“Sort of wild, loose and brazen. You were flirting with several men and when that guy Alexander Maxwell wanted to take you home you almost made
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