Keep Breathing by alexia purdy

alone.”
    “Did you love her?”
    The silence felt heavy and all I could hear was my heart jumping in my chest.
    “I loved her, but not in the way she should’ve been loved. It all was so fast. She had the baby and we still hardly knew each other. She wanted things I couldn’t give her and vice versa. We broke up when my son was eight months old. Mutually. I got to see my son every other week and she got a new boyfriend.”
    “I see.” I shifted in the chair, reaching out to adjust the AC just to have something to do with my twitching fingers. “What happened to her? You said she was sick?”
    “Yeah,” h e let out a deep sigh, and scratched his head. I could tell he hadn’t really told this story much and it was hard. Probably more so than I thought. “Dana died about ten months later, after she was diagnosed, terminal Breast cancer. There was nothing to be done, and she chose to do homeopathic medicine instead of chemo. She knew it wouldn’t work, but she didn’t want to suffer, throwing up and having no energy the last months of her life. I was mad at her, for our son, for what she was doing, but I had to respect her wishes.”
    “After she died, I got my son full time, and it was definitely a wakeup call. I’d taken him part time, just on weekends and stuff, but having him there with me all the time? It was definitely an adjustment.”
    “What’s his name?”
    “Cameron.”
    “I like that.”
    “Me too.”
    I turned toward him and leaned on the crook of my arm. “So he’s what…five?”
    “Yes. He’s really a sharp little guy.”
    “Does he look like you or her?”
    “She always said he l ooks like he was cloned from me, but she did all the work.”
    I laughed, letting my free hand fall between us. He promptly slipped his fingers through mine , and brought it up to his lips, sending a thrill of butterflies shooting up my arm and hitting my chest.
    “I bet he’s a cute one.”
    “Yeah, he’ll be a heart breaker.” Seth tugged on my arm to bring me closer as he inched over. His proximity heightened my senses, and his musky scent sent me into overdrive. Damn…if it hadn’t been so long since I’d been with a man, I might’ve been able to control myself more. He made it so hard to pull away, so impossible to not want him in so many ways. His lips continued their dance along my knuckles, across my wrist, and into the inner side of my arm. Gooseflesh flared along the trail, and I held my breath as his face neared mine.
    “Just like his father?”
    His eyes met mine, and I saw a flicker of sadness in them. “I hope not. He’s smarter than that.”
    “Seth? I…I…” I didn’t get to finish my sentence because he closed the gap between us and pressed his warm, sen sual lips against mine. They felt like burning coals, but not in a bad way. I closed my eyes and let his heat warm my face until it was unbearably hot. I didn’t pull back or demand he leave me alone. No…I let his tongue tease my lips and opened them to welcome him in.
    We engulfed each other, desperation marking our tongues as they dance d together. As he pulled me deeper into his embrace, I ran my fingers through his hair. His scent was all over the place now, on my skin, on my clothes, but it’s not enough. I needed more of him, like a desire denied for far too long screaming in my head.
    “Can we go?”
    His lips brushed mine as he responded, “Anywhere you want to go.”
    I nodded , and pushed away into my seat, slipping the belt back into place.
    “How about your place?”
    “Okay. It’s just down the street.”
    “Perfect.”
     

Chapter Thirteen
     
     
    Penny
    “CLOSE YOUR EYES.”
    I heard him tinker with something before it clicked together. A moment later, a trickle of classical music filled the air. I recognized it, and wanted to say so, but the title slipped my mind. My nervousness distracted me from thinking clearly and the anticipation was killing me. Where had I heard the song before?
    “ Tell me