When he turned in his sleep, I made my escape and slid out of bed. I couldn’t stop thinking about what Seth’s fiancée said. They started dating after we broke up, but I didn’t think that was true. Especially since Seth kept on calling me. Maybe he had tried to do the right thing, to be the parent to his child, but that didn’t make it hurt any less. I never wanted a man to break me like that again.
The only place I let my feelings come out was on the canvas. I let my emotions pour out of me as I painted them in broad, angry strokes.
I gasped at hands sliding around my waist and a pair of lips pressing against my neck. Blaise chuckled behind me, the loud sound vibrating against my back. “Sorry,” he laughed. “What are you doing awake?”
“Couldn’t sleep,” I sighed and moaned when he peppered my neck with kisses.
“Come back to bed.”
“I—” I cut myself off and put my paintbrush down. “Painting helps when I can’t sleep.”
Blaise came around beside me and studied the canvas. Maybe I went too Georgia O’Keeffe with this painting, but I loved floral patterns. I loved doing flower tattoos and doing that tattoo for him today.
“You’re so talented, Veronica.”
“Thank you.”
“Why don’t you tell me what’s wrong?”
I shook my head. “It’s nothing.”
I stood up and cleaned my paintbrushes and palette off in the sink. Blaise stood in my kitchen studying my painting. He was so kind and fun to be around. If I wasn’t so afraid of getting hurt again, maybe I would have given him a real shot.
“I don’t think she knows,” I admitted.
“Oh.”
“What do I even do?” I asked and turned back around to face him.
He shrugged. “Honestly, V? I don’t know. Are you sure she doesn’t know?”
“It sounded like it, but what if he’s doing it to her, too? I get that he chose her and their child. That doesn’t mean it hurts any less, but I get it.”
Blaise walked over to me and folded me in his arms. “You didn’t deserve that. But I don’t know what to tell you. I’ll still go with you to the wedding if you want.”
I nodded into his chest. “That was the deal. We pretend until the wedding, then we can tell everyone we broke up.”
He was quiet for a minute.
“We should talk about our breakup story,” I told him. I looked up at him, and he was staring at the wall, his face neutral.
“Right. Can we talk about it later? I’m really tired.”
I nodded and pulled away from him. “Sure. Why don’t you go back to bed? I need a minute to clean up.”
“I got worried when you weren’t there,” he admitted with a sheepish look.
“I’m a big girl, Blaise. Not like I would have left you in my apartment alone.”
“Come back to bed?” he asked again.
I dried my hands on the dish towel and let him take me by the hand back into my bedroom. I still couldn’t sleep, but it was nice to have this big man holding me. Nice to feel wanted, even if it was pretend.
Chapter Nineteen
BLAISE
I stared up at the ceiling of Veronica’s bedroom while my alarm blared next to my head. I had to get up so I could drive back into the city to catch the charter with the team, but I also didn’t want to move from this spot. Veronica was curled in my arms with her head on my chest, and my arm was numb from the weight of her. I didn’t care because this was a nice way to wake up.
And dammit…I had feelings for her. Maybe she’d want me if she hadn’t been so dicked around by her ex. I don’t know when it happened. Maybe it was when she showed up at my game wearing my jersey, but my heart was getting big ideas.
“Mmm…” she moaned into my chest all sleepily. I loved that sound coming out of her mouth. I shifted a bit to turn off my alarm and ran a hand through her hair. She snuggled down into me further.
“I gotta go, baby,” I whispered and kissed the top of her head.
I had to knock it off with the ‘baby’ shit, or she was going to figure out I had caught feelings. But she hadn’t minded when I called her that last night. Or when I called her ‘sweets’ which at first had been teasingly, but now I was skating on thin ice every time I used it.
“No,” she whispered into my chest.
“No?” I asked.
“Don’t go,” she begged.
I looked down and saw her eyes were still closed. I wondered if she even knew she was talking to me since she was still half-asleep.
“I gotta go, baby,” I told her again and shifted her onto her back.
“Everyone abandons me,” she muttered.
How could I leave her when she said something like that?
I sat up and hovered over her, my hand going to her face. “Veronica?”
“Hmm?”
“I gotta go travel with the team, okay? I’ll see you in a few days. I promise.”
Her eyes shot open, and her brow furrowed when she looked up at me. “Blaise?” she asked, confused. “Oh, right. Sure. I’ll see you later.”
“You okay?”
She nodded. “Yeah. I’ll see you when you get back, or whenever. Text me when you need another appearance from your fake girlfriend.”
I wanted to scream. I didn’t want her to be my fake girlfriend anymore. How did I let this happen?
I kissed her forehead. “Go back to sleep. I’ll text you later.”
She closed her eyes, and I reluctantly got out of bed. I went into the bathroom and did my normal morning routine. I peeled off the saniderm bandage on my chest and applied ointment to my new tattoo. I opened up the drawer in her bathroom and found a roll of more of it in there and applied the new bandage. Was it smart to get a tattoo during the season? Probably not, but slapping on a saniderm bandage usually did the trick to let it heal.
I was glad I finally let Veronica do the cover-up because I loved the work she did. The dark red of the petals buried Astrid’s name, painting over a past I’d rather forget. Veronica had blended the vines into my sleeve, marking my skin as if Astrid had never been there. Like her handiwork healed my broken heart.
I walked back into her bedroom and started getting dressed. We had stopped at my place last night for my travel bag. Thank god she was smart enough to mention that. Especially since I needed to be suited up for travel. I cringed as her closet door creaked, and I pulled out the white dress shirt. I shrugged it on, buttoning it quickly, and pulled on my pants, tucking in the shirt neatly.
“Damn…” I heard Veronica whistle from the bed as I stretched the matching suit jacket across my wide-set shoulders and wrestled with my tie.
“Go back to sleep, sweets.”
“Sorry, there’s a hot hockey player in my bedroom wearing a sexy suit.”
She slid out of bed and came over to me. She fixed the tie for me and smoothed down my jacket.
“Thanks, sweets.”
She nodded. “Damn, get out of here before I rip your clothes off.”
I groaned and adjusted myself in my pants. “Don’t tempt me. I don’t have time.”