Just Listen by Clare James Page B

stable enough to wait until she made a few calls. She wanted some back-up before bringing in an ambulance and causing a scene,” Nate continued. “She was pretty damn incredible, man.”
    If he only knew the half of it.
    “How’d she know to call you ?” I asked, cringing. Thinking about Casey in my house dealing with me in that condition on her own made me physically ill.
    “She found my number in your phone and apparently she remembered you telling her how incredible I was. She said you were always blathering on about me, like I was your idol or something.”
    “Fuck you,” I snapped. Leave it to my only friend to razz me at a time like this.
    “And he’s back.” Nate laughed, his posture transitioning from rigid to relaxed. Guilt washed over me, knowing that he’d been worried too. I hated putting him through this shit.
    “She was good, Finn. Really good.”
    Leave it to Casey not to panic.
    “Does she know?” I asked.
    “Not yet,” he said, looking down. The clear sign he didn’t want to tell me something. “I told her you had a condition.”
    “A condition?”
    “I didn’t know what to say, but I knew it wasn’t my place to tell her.”
    “Okay. Then why do you look like that – what’s the problem?”
    “Promise you won’t go ape shit?” he asked.
    “Just tell me, Nate.”
    “Ava showed up?”
    “What? Why?” Just the sound of her name brought instant dread.
    “She’s still listed as your emergency contact on one of the forms.”
    “I changed all that months ago.”
    “Well, apparently you missed one.”
    “So?” I asked, encouraging him on.
    “So.” Nate blew out a long, labored breath. “Casey was here when Ms. Hell-on-Long-Legs came striding in, and let’s just say it didn’t go well.”
    “So Casey was here?” This is what I wanted to be talking about – my present, not my past.
    “She was,” Nate said.
    “Has she been back to see me?” I asked with that deep sinking feeling settling in my gut again.
    I waited for him to speak, but I knew Casey, and I knew the answer.
    “Nope,” Nate confirmed. “She hasn’t.”
    “Okay,” I said, going into recovery mode. We made it through the rescue, now it was time to salvage what was left. And Casey was my only priority.

Chapter 3

    Casey

    Anchor/Kiki Stuart: What do you mean you didn’t break the story? If you didn’t, who did?

    Casey: I stumbled on it. I mean, yes, I planned to uncover the Finn Daley mystery, but then things became complicated. What followed was both a misunderstanding and an accident.

    Finn: Oh, that’s what you’re calling it now?
    Casey: Would you pipe down.

    Anchor/Kiki Stuart: Let me tell you, it’s getting a little hot in the studio this morning. We’re going to take a break and be right back with these love birds.

    He wasn’t going to take it easy on me – that was becoming increasingly apparent.
    Thankfully, Kiki took us to a commercial before I had to explain myself.
    Once they called an all clear in the studio, Finn’s agent came out for a quick powwow with his client. My agent tried to do the same, but I waved her off.
    Before the Finn story, I couldn’t get the attention of a broadcast agent if I showed up at their place of business in my birthday suit. After the story, I had to fight them off.
    So much had happened since that night with Finn. I tuned out the lights and cameras and noise and went back to that time in my mind. The way things were before my world was shot to hell.
    Finn had me bound, waiting for him, and I was wet and ready. I knew it wasn’t a modern notion, or even remotely appropriate for someone with my feminist beliefs, but I got off on Finn taking control of me.
    It was disgusting, but I loved every second of it. Seriously.
    He used his hands to guide my legs further apart. Then he took too long stroking them (hip to toe), neglecting my other parts far more in need of his touch. It was the most exquisite form of torture and probably one of the most