Filed To Story: The Lingering Kiss of Farewell Novel
“I know that, Marilyn, it’s one of the reasons I fell in love with you, that you loved me and didn’t care about my money,” Calvin told her.
“So why would you think I needed a grand gesture, and not just one kiss? That would have told me how you felt, because it was the one rule you maintained religiously inside our marriage. I nearly broke it once, and you got up and left the bloody bedroom angry that I dared to try and kiss you. Didn’t come near me for weeks. I knew how you felt about that one rule. So, if you broke it yourself, I would have known it was more than just a kiss to you.”
“I’m sorry,” he sighed. “I just got it in my head that I wanted to show you how much I loved you. That was all, and I couldn’t be swayed out of it. Wil did try, and did tell me it wasn’t the right way but…”
“Oh, but Calvin Reeves is never wrong,” she stated, full of sarcasm, “Well, now you know you can be.” She muttered and walked away from him down the stairs.
“You’re on the top floor.” He called out after her.
“Yes, just like the last time we were here.” she shot right back and continued on down the stairs. She would walk the floors, all 20 of them, just like last time.
She needed more than a minute to herself, and although she’d been happy, she’d pulle his hair and gotten payback on him for pulling her hair. Now she was just upset with those words. She recalled “it was for mother’s benefit. There will be no baby inside this marriage, I mean it.” Despite she now knew why he’d said it; they’d hurt that day and then the very day after that, he’d come to get that divorce. She’d blamed herself for him doing that. She had thought her words had brought about the end of their marriage, that she had ruined things between them, when she now knew for a fact it was him who had.
Calvin
He’d made the mistake of drinking, and then had fallen into that trap of her Being Marin, because she was dressed just like Marrin was, had her hair done just like Marrin, and so he’d trapped her against the nearest wall and tried to kiss the woman. Everyone was out there kissing their partner or watching the fireworks, and he wanted to kiss her. Hell, he knew he wanted more than that.
Only to have her grab a fist full of his hair at the last moment, right before his mouth was about to claim hers, and yank his head back with all she had, and it had hurt to blaze. She’d been uncaring of hurting him Had not wanted him to kiss her at all. Those words that had come out of her how dare you try and kiss me when you wouldn’t even kiss your own wife. Yet you dare to try and kiss me said it all. She was offended, and she had a right to be.
The kick to his shin had hurt like blazes, and he wondered who was kicking him. Was it Marilyn offended on Marrin’s behalf? Or was that Marrin herself? Marilyn, he knew, held memories of who she had once been. So it was entirely possible that she held all of Marrin’s feelings, so it could well be Marrin who was upset and pissed off with him.
He turned and watched her walk away from him. She was just going to leave him here, likely going to leave him for good. Just like the last time they were here at Wil’s, she was walking away from him with the intent of staying away from him and he knew it.
Wil had a hold of him to stop him from going after her, was rounding on him about what the hell did he expect. “Get off me,” he’d muttered. “She’s going to leave, I have to stop her.” He’d slashed at Wil’s hand and gone right after her, he had to fix this, he’d had one too many drinks and gotten carried away
If she left in that angry state, she’d likely never speak to him again. She was out there at the elevator just like the last time, and when he tried to grab hold of her she’d turned and walked off, banged right into the stairwell.
He saw it the way she got dizzy and put a hand to her head. She’d looked confused and then just kind of glazed over and zoned out for several minutes, and it had dawned on him. She was remembering this very place, the last time they’d been alone together. Everything that had happened between them here in this very stairwell.
She was tracking that memory as she turned about, and then her eyes were on him, and the words that came from her. ‘This is where the twins were conceived. She kind of sounded a bit on the horrified side. He knew it was. She’d been on birth control right up until the day he’d given her the divorce papers. He’d checked that himself.
The hit he took had caught him completely off guard, and he stepped back from her as his own hand had touched his face, kind of stunned him into silence. She’d never once raised a hand to him in all the time they’d known each other. She wasn’t a violent person, but right that minute, he could see the pain within her expression, and he knew she was recalling more than the one moment they’d had here.
She was recalling everything, right here before him. This their final passionate moment together had triggered everything, and she was getting to feel everything she as Marrin had felt, not only that day, but likely everything after that as well.
He couldn’t blame her for striking him, he deserved it, and he would let her pummel the hell out of him, if it helped ease her pain. He’d take everything she had to dish out, for the way her life had turned out, because he was responsible for it all and he knew it.
Then she was just walking away from him. He wanted to follow her, but she stopped him, and he knew that look on her face there was a hard edge to it, even though he could still see the pain. Then he could hear it, in her very words all the pain of what he’d done as she laid it all for him. How all it would have taken, for her to know he loved her, just one kiss, was all she had needed from him. The one thing he’d denied her and steadfastly not allowed himself to do, that was all it would have taken for her to know.
He screwed things up so badly, and ruined both their lives because he’d wanted to show her how much he loved her, but had gone about it the wrong way. He’d wanted to shower her with love and affection, give her gifts and take her on a month-long vacation where he could spoil her rotten and buy her anything her heart would desire.
Only she’d not needed anything like that from him. She just wanted his heart, not his money, not the things he could give to her, again she was going to walk down the stairs away from him, admitted it to him and just walked away from him. He kind of just stood there not knowing what to do.
A part of him wanted to go after her, race down the stairs, grab a hold of her and just kiss the hell out of her, give her what she said she needed to show her he loved her. But another part of him knew if he did, she could well hate him for it. She’d not wanted him to kiss her in Wil’s apartment just minutes ago.
How was he to salvage this, fix it all and bring them back together? That was Marrin that had been talking to him. She’d used the words how I felt. She was Marrin, and she was hurt, and he didn’t know what to do. Marrin was finally back, and she was very angry and hurt with him, and he had no one to blame but himself. He turned and headed back up the stairs, punched the elevator button and rode it to the ground floor, stood down there and just waited for her. He’d done that the last time as well, though from his car outside where she’d not known he was waiting for her.
He took a call from Wil, “Leave it Wil, Marilyn just got all her memories back and Marrin just confronted me. This is for me to fix. They are now one and the same.”
“Right,” Wil had sighed. “Don’t do anything stupid, or she could well up and leave once more. If she recalls everything Calvin, she now has the knowledge and skills to disappear, just like she did back then, only this time she’ll take the twins when she leaves you.”
“I understand that. She’s currently walking down the stairs. I’m waiting for her in the lobby,” he muttered.
He heard Wil sigh, “Well, that is definitely a Marrin thing. Keep your bloody hands to yourself, and whatever you do, don’t try and kiss the woman.”
“I got that already.” Calvin sighed and clicked the line closed.
He prowled around in the foyer of Wil’s apartment building and the doorman looked at him m walked over and pushed the fire door open and looked up there to see what floor she was on.. but he could hear her shoes on the stairs that first time and then nothing the second time. times. He’d couldn’t tell,
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On her wedding anniversary, Alicia is drugged and stumbles into the wrong room—straight into the arms of the powerful Caden Ward, a man rumored never to touch women. Their night of passion shocks even him, especially when he discovers she’s still a virgin after two years of marriage to Joshua Yates.