The Body #3: Rogue and Euphemia

Chapter 10 (Euphemia): You're Wrong

"Could you move, please?" I asked Rogue coldly just as he opened his mouth. Rogue being a lawyer meant you always wanted to get the jump on him when it came to talking, even if to throw him off for just a second. The man could talk his way out of just about anything.

Not this time.

"God, Euphemia!" he said. 

His eyes were definitely angry, but his voice was pure relief. Lunging forward, he engulfed me in a tight hug, the kind you'd give to someone you'd assumed was dead but suddenly popped up in front of you, alive and well. 

"Euphemia. Euphemia. God, lady, I was afraid I'd never see you again."

Yes, I'm sure you were absolutely terrified of that possibility as you ran out of the club house with Angelica and didn't give me a thought.

"Let go of me," I bit out.

In the interest of honesty, total disclosure, transparency...whatever you want to call it, it would have been the easiest thing in the world to melt into Rogue, to put my arms around him, to just let it all go because I loved this man so much. Even after a year, even after what he'd done, the time apart had done nothing to dim that strong pull I had toward him. The feel of him against me was comforting, his deep voice in my ear soothing, the familiar scent of him flooding my senses as I breathed him in. Being in his arms made me feel as if I'd come home after a long absence, which I had, come to think about it. My body remembered this man on a molecular level, and he made my entire body hum with awareness.

It was why I'd had to leave. Eventually, I was afraid I would have given in to him, fallen prey to his sweet coaxing, to the apologetic words and excuses that might have come out of his mouth after he found out that I knew he'd protected Gel over me, that he shared a daughter with her he'd never told me about. Who knew what other secrets he had?

But no matter how perfect his arms felt around me, my mind was declared victor in the battle with my traitorous body and heart. I could tell the minute it finally dawned on Rogue that I was stiff and unresponsive in his arms, and I was demanding he let go.

With one last squeeze, he stepped back, and his angry eyes now had some confusion swirling in them.

"Euphemia, where have you been? I was so fucking worried about you, and nobody knew what happened to you."

Rogue, as a lawyer, was trained to watch for tells and my eyes shifted just slightly. He immediately jumped on that.

"Who knew?" he demanded.

That I wasn't answering because I'd never rat out Dayton. "I need you to move out of my way. Thanks so much for stopping by."

"Euphemia, not sure what the fuck you think is happening, but we're talking. I've been going out of my mind for the last year trying to find you and hoping to hell you were OK."

"And to think you could have saved yourself all that time and worry. All you had to do was take just one minute of your time on that day when all of this pseudo concern would have actually mattered, when you could have shown me that I meant something to you, anything at all, that I was at least a tiny blip on your radar. But you didn't, so this last year of your so-called worry? That's on you."

"You never gave me a chance to explain."

Seriously? Was he for real? I just barely refrained from stamping my foot in frustration.

"Explain what, exactly? How I never meant anything to you? How you lied to me about Winnie being your daughter? How I didn't even merit a single thought from you on the day I died twice because you were with Angelica getting her boo-boo equivalent of a skinned knee bandaged?"