Free Missing (The Cass Lehman Series Book 3) by Melanie Casey Page A

cushions, trying to find a more comfortable spot. I’d told him often enough that it was a godawful excuse for a couch. The taupe upholstery barely covered the cheap timber frame beneath it, and it had one of those low backs that look trendy but don’t give you anywhere to rest your head. No point worrying about it now, though. Home decorating would be off the agenda if he was moving back to Fairfield.
    I felt his eyes boring into the side of my face but refused to look at him. After another minute he plonked his meal on the coffee table.
    ‘So where do you want to start?’ Ed said.
    I shrugged, and shovelled a huge mouthful.
    ‘Come on.’ He nudged me. ‘You can’t keep up the silent treatment for long. Spit it out and let’s talk about it.’
    ‘I don’t want to spit it out. The pad thai is quite good.’
    He sighed. ‘All right. I’ll go first, shall I? Seeing Phil yesterday and today made me realise how much I miss working with her. I’m not sure if I want to keep working for MCIB.’
    ‘Yes, I got that part. You met her new partner and you were jealous.’ I forked more noodles into my mouth.
    ‘I was not jealous!’
    ‘If you say so.’ I shrugged again.
    He ground his teeth. I could see out of the corner of my eye that his colour had changed. A red flush had crept up his neck.
    ‘I don’t understand why you’re so pissed at me,’ he said.
    I turned to look at him for the first time. ‘Really? You really don’t get it? Think about it, Ed! You came barging in here andtold me you wanted to move back to Fairfield. Did you even consider for one moment that maybe it wasn’t just up to you? We’re sharing a life now, or so I thought. If there are big decisions to be made then I was under the impression that we’d make them together. You, on the other hand, seem to think that it’s OK to make declarations about what’s happening without even asking me how I feel about it. It sounded to me like you were moving whether I wanted to come or not. There was no “we”, it was all about you.’
    When I finally finished, Ed blinked a couple of times and ran his hand over his head, messing up his hair.
    ‘I was just venting. I didn’t mean that I’d move without you. I just assumed you’d be glad to move back to Fairfield,’ he said.
    ‘That’s the problem. You assumed.’
    He shook his head, confused. ‘You don’t want to move back to Fairfield?’
    ‘Yes, no … I don’t know. What I do want is for you to talk to me before you make decisions for both of us.’
    The veneer of control I’d been hiding behind completely shattered. To my disgust, I felt tears welling in my eyes. The last thing I wanted to do was cry, but frustration and self-pity got the better of me.
    Ed groaned and pulled me into his arms.
    ‘I’m sorry, all right. I didn’t think about it. I’m out of practice with this relationship stuff.’
    ‘Relationship stuff, is that what you call it?’ I tried to push him away but he had me locked in an iron grip and refused to let go. Istruggled. He responded by wrestling me down on the couch and kissing me hard on the lips. I was annoyed and turned on at the same time.
    ‘Not fair!’ I gasped as he ran a trail of kisses down my neck.
    ‘Who said anything about fair?’ he murmured as he undid the top button of my shirt. The pad thai suddenly didn’t seem so good. I shoved my plate roughly in the direction of the coffee table, not really caring if it made it or not, and wrapped my arms around Ed’s neck. ‘You drive me crazy.’
    ‘That’s crazy in a good way, right?’ he growled.
    ‘Our dinner will get cold.’ Not that I cared, but part of me didn’t want to give in without some kind of argument.
    ‘That’s what microwaves are for.’ His mouth descended on mine, while his fingers made short work of the rest of my buttons.

    ‘I think I’ve lost all feeling in my back,’ I groaned. It was amazing how the brain could block out pain when it had more important things