Chapter 31: Chapter 31

Chapter 31: Don't Hold Back

Kendra’s P.O.V:

When I woke up, it was already dark outside and someone had closed all the windows to keep the chilly night air out of the room. At first I was a bit alarmed as to who could have done that, but then I remembered how I’d asked Victor to take me inside and how I’d fallen asleep right after he’d placed me on the bed and my heart eased a bit.

One of my bedside table lamps were on so I turned on the second one as well so I could see everything around the room. What I instantly noticed however, was that the entire house smelled of cheese and bacon and that I was no longer in the clothes that I’d worn when I’d returned home. Victor must have changed me while I was sleeping, which was fine by me since I was wearing proper underwear and it would’ve been incredibly uncomfortable to sleep with skinny jeans on. But that doesn’t mean I’m letting him off the hook.

“Kendra? Are you awake?” Victor’s voice came from the other side of the door, low enough so that it wouldn’t have woken me up had I been still asleep.

“I’m up! You can come in.” I called out to him as I sat up against the pillows.

The door opened and Victor stepped in wearing fresh clothes and minus the stubble I’d seen on his cheek earlier today. He was wearing a grey full sleeve t-shirt with its sleeves pulled up to the elbows and loose fitting black pants. “Do you want something to eat? I’ve made sandwiches.”

As if on cue, my stomach rumbled like a caged monster, reminding me that I’d skipped lunch and it might be close to dinner time. “Yes, please. I’d love something to eat. By the way, how long was I out?”

“About three hours,” Victor said after looking at his watch. “It’s three minutes past eight o’ clock.”

“Oh!” Guess I had been more tired than I’d anticipated. I desperately wanted a shower right now since I could still feel some of the residue of the jelly on my tummy that they used while performing the ultrasonography on my liver, but I was too hungry to care. So I asked Victor if he could bring me my dinner in the room and he agreed.

A couple minutes later, Victor came back to my room with a large tray and set it o my lap. There were two grilled sandwiches neatly cut in half and placed on top of each other and another plate with crispy fried bacon and two eggs served sunny side up. He’d also gotten me a glass of water on the side as well as some cutlery.

“Are you sure you’re not a chef?” I asked him skeptically, to which he just smirked and motioned for me to eat my food.

I took a bite of the sandwich first and felt a moan escape my lips. Maybe it was because I was so damn hungry, but it felt like the best sandwich I’ve ever had. He’d used simple ingredients in it. Bread, butter, tomato, lettuce, onions and cheese, but together they tasked heavenly. So did the bacon and eggs.

After I’d devoured the entire plate within minutes, Victor brought me a tall glass of orange juice and refilled my plate with another slice of sandwich that took me a few more seconds to inhale. Dinner completed and orange juice emptied, I returned the tray to Victor who then went off to the kitchen to keep everything inside the dishwasher and came back with a glass of water and handed it to me...along with two of my pills.

I sat up straight on my bed and looked at him in alarm. “Were you snooping around in my bag?”

“No, Daniel called. You were sleeping so I picked up the phone.” Victor said calmly and handed me the pills. “Take your medication first, then we’ll talk.”

I put them in my mouth, one at a time and gulped them down with the water. That done, I placed the glass on the bedside table and turned to him. “Why did you pick up my phone, Victor?”

“Because it was Daniel on the line. It could’ve been something related to Grace, so I picked it up.” He said simply.

“Or it could’ve been something personal.” I ground out, anger and fear gripping me in its vicious claws. “Why did you have to pick up my phone?” I made sure to put emphasis on the word ‘my’.

“I already told you, Ke-“

“Are you having doubts that Daniel and I might be hooking up behind Grace’s back?” I cut him off to address the real elephant in the room. “Or did you think that I would want to break them up to fulfill some kind of hidden agenda?”

“Kendra, I never said that.” He told me very calmly. “All I said was that I was worried something might have happened to Grace. You can’t blame me for wanting to look out for my sister.”

He was right. I was overreacting and knowing Victor, he’d be able to read right through me if I didn’t change the topic.

“So...what did he say?” I asked. I knew Daniel wouldn’t give me away. He was loyal and knew how to keep promises, but I couldn’t assume that he’d keep secrets from Grace. He loved her; anyone can tell just by looking at them and I didn’t want to be the reason Grace becomes upset with Daniel.

“Nothing much,” he shrugged. “Just that you got dead drunk last night and fainted and that he had to call a doctor to check up on you.” He added casually and I fell back on my pillows with the covers over my head, groaning.

“Why!” I groaned.

“Why did you have to drink so much?” He asked instead. “You were supposed to come over last night. I thought we’d made some progress; that you weren’t running away anymore. What happened?”

I hesitated. Do I tell him the truth and sound like a complete bitch doing it or do I just lie and make up an excuse? Right now, all the plans that I was trying to form about pushing him away didn’t seem to make sense.

“I just thought that...we were moving too fast.” I shook my head at him, deciding to give him part of the truth. “I don’t...can’t understand why you’d walk down the same path after what happened last time.”

Victor stayed quiet for a long time before he finally turned to look me in the eye. “Are we finally going to address the elephant in the room?”

“You’re four years younger than me, Victor,” I reminded him instead. “Do you really think this would work out long term?”

“Don’t give me that age bullshit again, Kendra,” Victor said agitatedly. “I can give you a thousand examples of such relationships working out. Wh-“

“Victor, drop it.” I told him in dead seriousness. “Neither of us is ready to face this yet, not now.”

“Oh, I’ve been ready for a long time,” Victor said through gritted teeth, his hands clenched by his sides. “But since you’re asking so nicely, I guess I should just let it go.”

Victor went to get up from the bed but I caught his hand and pulled him towards me before he could get away. “If this is how you’re going to react every time we have a disagreement, then you’ve lost the game already.”

Victor made a sound very similar to a growl, his chest vibrating under my palm, before he put his hand around my nape and hauled me in for a deep kiss that held all the anger, the frustration and the wanting. But when I went to deepen the kiss, he pulled back.

“Not tonight,” he said breathlessly. “I’m too wound up to stay in control.”

I took a hold of the collar of his shirt and pulled him in for another kiss, this one shorter. When we both came up for air, I whispered in his ears, my voice sounding husky and out of breath.

“Don’t hold back.”