First Thing I See by Vi Keeland Page A

threw his head back laughing.  He
looked at me smiling and then his face turned serious.
                    “You really don’t have any fucking idea, do
you?” 
                    “Idea of what, that you just insulted me by
questioning my toughness?”
                    He looked at me with arched brows and a
slight curve of his lip.  “Sorry beautiful, you’re tough as nails.”
    ***
                    We had room service for breakfast and then Charles
dropped me at my apartment on the way to take Kennedy to the airport.   We
didn’t make plans for the future.  I don’t know why I was afraid to try to talk
about what we had out loud, but for some reason I knew we had something. 
Kennedy walked me up the stairs to my front door and turned to face me.   He
cupped my face in his hands and pressed his lips firmly to mine.  Then he
looked down into my eyes for a minute and I wasn’t sure if he was waiting for
me to say something.  But he reached down and gently kissed my nose and
smiled.  I went inside and ran to look at the window.  He was already pulling
away. 
    ***
                    Although my muscles were already sore from
my workout with Kennedy this weekend, I forced myself to go to meet Shauna at
the gym.   Luckily the gym was busy so Shauna couldn’t give me the full
interrogation.  I popped in my headphones and spent almost an hour on the
treadmill reliving the fantasy of the weekend.  Shauna had apparently lost
patience with waiting to hear about the weekend, because she pushed the stop
button on my equipment the minute she was done.  When I looked at her annoyed,
she just smiled and said loudly “Are you going to tell me about your fuckathon
weekend or what?”  The guy next to me took his eyes off Shauna’s ass long
enough to look me over and give me a smile.  Shauna definitely knew how to get
what she wanted.
                    Back in my apartment, I told her about our
easy conversation and him buying me all the dresses that I had tried on.  She
wanted details on our “sexcapades,” but I only told her that he was a good
lover.  For once she didn’t push until she got more out of me.  We ordered
Chinese food and she told me about her Saturday night date.  Shauna had a top
ten list of things that men had to be dumped for, no matter how much she liked
them.  The poor guy didn’t stand a chance when he hit two of the top ten before
they even ate dinner – asking her to put on her cheerleading uniform for him
later and looking in a mirror during their first date. 
                    We cleared the table after consuming more
calories than we had burned off in two hours at the gym, and Shauna told me that
she had dug a little deeper into Kennedy.   
                    “I don’t know if I want to learn about him
from reading stories that people who don’t really know him write for money with
a goal to sell their story Shauna.” 
                    “I just want you to be careful, Hope.  It’s
not just all the pictures with models. He might have some other issues.  There
is tragedy in is his past.   It’s different from your past Hope, but you should
know more than anyone that you don’t walk through fire without coming out with
a few burns.” 
                    Her words hit me as if I was physically
struck.  My stomach clenched and my heart raced.  I could feel the blood rush
out of my face and pool at my feet.  Shauna looked at me and took two quick
steps toward me and hugged me tight.  She didn’t let go until my breathing
returned to normal.   Some things just will never change.  And Shauna and I
taking care of each other is one of them. 
                    When I walked back to the kitchen table
after saying goodbye to Shauna later, I saw the folder on the table.  I wanted
so badly to look, but it