Secret Words(15)

"Hey, if you don't want to leave yet, you're welcome to share my table," she offered.

"Oh, is that okay with you?"

"Of course. You seem to love books and shopping. There'll be plenty of things for us to talk about." Jasmine hoped she would stay. She missed her friends back home and this lady reminded her of them.

"Great, thanks," the woman responded as she gathered her bags and moved to her table.

"I'm Jasmine Allen, by the way," she said.

"Arielle Mitchell. But you can call me Ari."

Jasmine thoroughly enjoyed the next hour spent in a pleasant conversation with her new friend Ari. She learned that Ari just broke up with her cheating boyfriend and turned to shopping for comfort. They had the same taste in clothes. They also liked the same books, including J.A. Nell's.

"We should meet up again, Jaz," Ari said as they walked out of the café.

"I'd love that. When are you available?" she asked.

"If you don't mind catching up here in the city, I could meet you during lunchtimes on the weekdays," Ari said.

"That would be great! How about next Monday?"

"Sure. I'll meet you out here at twelve?"

"Perfect."

Jasmine went home feeling buoyant about having made a new friend. She could already imagine herself telling Ari who J.A. Nell really was.





*******





Four days had passed and there wasn't a single peep out of Tim. Jasmine had started to relax. Maybe Tim had gotten bored or scared or had lost hope. Whatever. As long as he'd finally left her alone.

It must have been Kane's constant coming and going—and sleeping over at nights—that convinced Tim there was no way he could get what he wanted. Fingers crossed, she'd seen the last of him.

She must concede though that, in a way, Tim had done her a favour. If it hadn't been for his weird and worrying behaviour, she wouldn't have been spending so much time with Kane.

Kane had been so sweet. He'd been coming for at least an hour during the day and when he wasn't there, he'd called to make sure she was fine. They'd been having dinners together, too.

She loved it when he came 'home'. They'd been spending the evenings cuddled in front of the TV while they talked and kissed. The TV programmes served as distractions—and reminders—not to take things any further for the time being.

She sighed with longing. She knew it was selfish of her but she couldn't help but get excited about being free to fully express her desire for Kane. It was so difficult to hold back.

She was just as keen as Kane to set the record straight with Hannah. She did feel sorry that Hannah would have to go through another loss but it would be more cruel if Kane pretended there was hope for the two of them when there was absolutely none. Better that Kane didn't lift her hopes up any further. Hannah would be expecting his news, anyway. She just hoped she wouldn't take it too hard.

But something else nagged her. Every day her feelings for Kane grew deeper and deeper. And she wasn't happy that she was keeping a secret from him. Would it be a relationship breaker if he found out?

She had firsthand experience of how people's idea of who she was could turn into something nasty simply because of the sexy nature of her books. George and Tim were prime examples of that. That was why protecting her pseudonym was important to her.

Kane wasn't anything like George or Tim, but she hadn't known him long enough to know how he'd react to the fact that his girlfriend wrote erotic romances. An online author friend of hers had said her husband strictly forbade her to tell anyone about her sexy books because he worried about how it might affect his professional profile. Her friend's husband was a big-shot lawyer.

And Kane wasn't just an architect. He was the co-director and part-owner of a firm that had large international corporations as their clients. Would he consider a girlfriend who wrote saucy novels using descriptive language an embarrassment to him? Would he think it could damage his reputation?

But she had to tell him. They couldn't build a strong relationship if she kept this from him. He would eventually find out. Question was, how would she go about it?





~~~~~~~





"Honey, I'm ho-ome!" came a voice from outside the door a few seconds after the bell rang.

Jasmine hurried to open the door for Kane, chuckling at the hilarious way he called out. "Hello, honey," she said as she threw her arms around his neck and kissed him thoroughly.

The sound of tyres screeching as a car sped away startled her into breaking the kiss.

Kane made a complaining grunt and recaptured her lips.

She giggled. "Inside," she said against his mouth.

He snaked his arm around her waist and nudged her back, closing the door behind him as he continued his delicious attention on her lips.