LITMIR.BIZ

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was spinning, she scurried back out, wanting to get back to Cristiano, to wake him and usher him from Bryn’s apartment (and claws) as soon as possible.

      But once back in the bedroom, she discovered that Cristiano was still in a very deep sleep. She kissed him again to try and wake him.

      “Sleeping beauty” she said, more brightly this time, her a voice a little louder, more obnoxiously demanded. “We have to get up and get going!”

      Cristiano groaned. “Can’t we have a lazy day in bed?” he moaned. “We’ve been on the go for weeks. We deserve to relax for one morning, don’t we?”

      Keira shook her head, thinking of Bryn in the other room. They had to make their escape before she woke up.

      “Nope,” she replied. “The whole of New York is waiting for us!”

      Cristiano yawned, turning away from her loud voice. “And it will still be there in the afternoon after breakfast.”

      “But it’s best enjoyed in the morning,” Keira contested, heaving the covers off of him. “Take it from a local.”

      Cristiano gave up arguing, and, shivering, got out of bed.

      “Why are you in such a hurry?” he moaned.

      “Because there’s so much to do!” she replied, quickly pulling on a pair of Bryn’s winter boots. All her winter footwear was stored in a box somewhere, her stuff from Zach’s apartment strewn in various locations from her room in her mom’s house, to Shelby and David’s attic, to Bryn’s closet. There was even a sneaky box under her desk at Viatorum.

      “Can I have a shower at least?” Cristiano asked.

      Keira chewed her lip. Every minute wasted was another minute closer to Bryn waking up and attempting to get her talons into Cristiano. But Keira couldn’t deny him his basic human needs.

      “Of course,” she said, brightly, feigning calmness. She went over to Bryn’s closet and pulled out a fluffy towel. “Here,” she said, handing it to him along with some shampoo and shower gel from her luggage. “The shower is just down the hall.”

      He kissed her in thanks and disappeared from the room. Keira slumped to sitting on the bed, already exhausted. This was not going to be easy. She would need to find a new apartment as soon as possible. Like yesterday.

      But that relied on getting her deposit back from Zach for their old apartment. She didn’t really want to initiate contact but it was clearly the lesser of two evils in this particular situation. She grabbed her cellphone and fired off a text.

      Any news on the deposit? K

      Against her better judgment, she added a x on the end. Buttering Zachary up wasn’t something she enjoyed doing, but if it meant she got her deposit back then it was worth it.

      She peeked out the bedroom door into the living area. The blinds were still down and the room was black. The only sounds were the shower from the other end of the corridor and Bryn’s loud snoring. Luckily Cristiano hadn’t woken her on his way past either.

      But she began to grow impatient. Cristiano was sure taking his time! She checked her watch and saw that her clothes in the laundrette would soon be reaching the end of their cycle. She decided to fetch them, rather than run the risk of some local stealing them the moment the lock clicked open on the machine’s door. Even at seven thirty on a Sunday morning you could never be too careful!

      She left the apartment again and hurried to the laundrette. There were a couple of people in there now, both organized-looking middle aged women clearly attempting to beat the queues. Keira collected her warm, damp clothes. She didn’t have enough change for the drier so would have to hang them up around Bryn’s apartment.

      She left, heading back along the street towards Bryn’s. It felt really good to do normal chores again, to be a normal person again rather than a travel writer in an exciting foreign land. There really was such a thing as too much of a good thing, it turned out.

      Her phone vibrated in her pocket just as she began climbing the stairs up to Bryn’s apartment. It was a text from Zach. She bit her lip with anticipation then read what he’d written.

      Bon jour Keira! I’m in France for work. A week long conference event starting tomorrow! Can we chat about $ when I’m back?

      She sighed with frustration. It would be another week before they could speak about it, not that she could even understand what there was to speak about! It should be a simple case of transferring her share of the money into her bank but of course he wasn’t going to make this easy on her.

      Her eyes still on her cell phone, Keira went into Bryn’s apartment. She was immediately surprised by the sound of laughter, and looked up.

      Everything had changed. The blinds were open, the lights on, the coffee machine bubbling away, and there was Bryn in the kitchen, looking far more awake than someone who had spent the last day drinking ought to. Perched with his back against the counter was Cristiano, his bare torso glistening with water droplets, nothing but a towel tied around his waist to protect his modesty.

      “What’s going on?” Keira cried, startled.

      Bryn looked over at her, and frowned, amused by Keira’s paranoid tone. “I’m making coffee,” she said, stating the obvious. “Where have you been?”

      “I went to the laundrette,” Keira said, holding up her heavy bag of damp clothes. “I was only gone two minutes.”

      Two minutes, clearly, was all it took for Bryn to take the opportunity to feast her eyes upon Cristiano’s well honed body.

      “Babe,” Keira said forcefully, looking at him. “We’d better get dressed. We have to go.”

      “We have time for a coffee don’t we?” he asked. “While you’re hanging your clothes up to dry?”

      Keira dropped the bag on the floor, nonchalantly, and tried to sound light-hearted as she went over and steered him by his shoulders towards the bedroom.

      “But I want to take you to the best coffee place in the whole of New York,” she said. “Small batch. Freshly ground. Much nicer than Bryn’s machine made coffee.”

      “Oh… oh, okay…” Cristiano said, putting up no resistance. “But… your clothes?”

      As she ushered him into the safety of the bedroom, Keira glanced over her shoulder at Bryn. She was watching, smirking, clearly amused by her sister’s flustered haste. Keira gave her a stern expression, a warning look to leave Cristiano alone.

      “I can hang your clothes,” Bryn said with a sweet, knowing smile.

      “Thank you,” Keira replied, tersely.

      She went to shut the door but Bryn wasn’t done.

      “Hun, if you think I’m bad,” she chuckled, “Wait until you get him out there.” She pointed to the window. “You’re going to find a whole lot worse than me. Trust me.”

      Her body tense all over, Keira shut the door.

      Chapter Four

      Their first stop was the Upper West Side where they grabbed bagels and coffee to eat on the move. It was a far cry from the long, lazy meals they had shared in Italy, but Keira wanted Cristiano to really get a feel for what life was like in New York City.

      “So this is the best coffee in New York, is it?” Cristiano asked, sipping from the paper cup with careful consideration. He didn’t look convinced.

      “Oh, yeah, the best,” Keira told him, remembering the lie she’d blurted out this morning. It was good but it wasn’t the small batch, freshly ground coffee she had promised. “In my opinion, anyway.”

      Cristiano just shrugged.

      They strolled along the sidewalk hand in hand towards the Hudson River. Keira was acutely aware of the amounts of stares Cristiano garnered. She knew there was a discrepancy between their respective attractiveness, but she felt even more like the plain Jane

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