After the Christmas Party by Janice Lynn Page B

aren’t starved,” she informed the cat.
    Casper’s blue eyes cut to her for a brief second as if to say, So what?
    Trinity laughed then jumped when her phone rang. She glanced at the number. It wasn’t one she was familiar with, but she knew who the caller was as sure as she lived and breathed. Should she answer?
    Could she not?
    “Did you forget something?” she said by way of greeting, because “Hello” seemed all wrong when he had just left.
    “Apparently.” He sounded confused, frustrated. “I’m standing outside your front door.”
    Trinity’s stomach flip-flopped. Had he ever left? Or had he just come back? Did it matter?
    “The usual protocol when standing outside someone’s door is to knock, not phone.” Her heart poundingin anticipation of whatever was to come, she headed towards the front door.
    “I didn’t knock because I don’t want to come in.”
    Her hand paused in the process of reaching for the doorknob. “You don’t?”
    Her stomach knotted. Was he playing some sick game with her? Teasing her? Toying with her emotions?
    “I do, but…Trinity, tell me to go home.”
    If this was his idea of a game, it was cruel and twisted. She wasn’t amused.
    “Go home,” she ordered, and meant it. She’d been hurt enough in the past. She wouldn’t let someone sour her future. Not even someone who seemed as wonderful as Riley.
    Then again, most of the time when something seemed too good to be true, it really was. So why was she still on the line, waiting for him to say something? Hoping he’d say something. Something brilliant and wonderful that would make her smile instead of feeling as if her eyes were about to spring a leak.
    A low laugh sounded in her ears. “That was way too easy for you, princess.”
    “You have no idea,” she muttered, wondering at the silence that followed. She wanted to tear the door off its hinges and drag him inside her apartment and demand he explain himself.
    Instead, she leaned her forehead against the cold metal doorframe, wishing she could see through it to the other side, wishing she knew what he was thinking, why he was standing outside her door when she was inside, why he’d called her instead of knocking.
    Why was he there at all?
    Why wasn’t she hanging up?
    Urgh. Her head hurt with all the questions plaguing her mind.
    “If I knocked, would you let me in, princess?” His voice was barely above a whisper but she heard just fine.
    Her hands shook. “I guess you’ll have to knock to know the answer to that question, won’t you, snowflake?”
    Taking a deep breath, he laughed again. “If you had any idea how much I want to rip through this door because I know you’re standing just the other side…” He paused, and she’d swear she felt his forehead bump against the door. Was he trying to knock some sense into his head? How was it he kept putting her thoughts into words that came from his mouth?
    “As much as I want you,” he admitted, “what I want more than anything is to not mess this up.”
    “Knocking on my door would mess this up?” What was “this”, she wanted to ask, but held her tongue. She doubted he knew any more than she did. That he admitted there was a “this” was monumental, had her brain undoing every wall she’d just attempted to erect between them. Didn’t he know he should leave those walls alone? She needed them.
    “It might. What if you didn’t open the door?”
    He had a point.
    “True, but what if I did?”
    Or would that be messing things up even worse?
    Riley ground his forehead against the cold, hard metal of Trinity’s apartment door and prayed for the knowledge to know the right thing to do.
    He wanted to knock.
    Whether she would admit to it or not, she wanted him to knock. He could hear it in her voice.
    Every instinct warned he shouldn’t, that, despite their mutual desire for one another, she wasn’t ready to consummate that desire. Not really.
    As much as he hated listening to that voice of