CHAPTER 19
PRESENT
LILY
“ So you didn’t abandon me this morning, fine, okay, I get it. But you still abandoned me. All those years ago, you did. You left me alone. What do you get to say to that, uh? Are you going to avoid it like you did last night? Distract me? Play off on my feelings for you? Go on, tell me how big of a mistake last night was and how much you regret it. Tell me how it shouldn’t have happened and that it will never happen again but Michael after you do, I want you to get the fuck out of my life, I’m done with your mixed signals. I’m just done, I am done with you abandoning me.” I breathed hard; all the years of pent-up frustration just burst out of me. I was done trying to get answers out of him.
“I didn’t abandon you this morning,” he repeated, and my eyes held him in a glare.
His gaze softened. “And last night wasn’t a mistake, and I don’t regret even a single moment of it.”
My breath hitched. “What?” I mumbled; I was so sure that he was going to say it was a mistake, like always .
“And I’m not going to abandon you anymore, I thought I could but I couldn’t, not anymore .”
“What do you mean?”
He lowered himself next to me on the couch, wringing his hands through his hair as he stared at the ground.
My brows creased, all my earlier anger dissipating into confusion. I placed a soft hand on his shoulder and squeezed. “Michael, what is it? Are you okay?”
His vacant stare was scaring me.
“I… I didn’t mean to just leave you like that.” His greens snapped to mine, an empty smile tugging his lips. “I know what I did. I know I ruined our friendship all those years ago, but itisn’t because I wanted to hang out with the cool kids instead of you. When in reality the only person I wanted to be with, was you. ” His voice cracked.
What? “Then what was it?”
He shook his head. “I can’t say.”
“Michael, how would I know if you don’t tell me?”
“It’s just that… I’m not ready yet.” A shine of something I couldn’t explain covered his eyes. “But I promise I will one day. It’s complicated.”
I offered him a warm smile; my hands acted on their own accord and wove around his neck from the side. “Okay,” I mumbled. I always knew there was something more to him, acting the way he was; it was something that had been haunting him for years. Some reason as to why he changed, so abruptly, at fifteen, cloaking on the skin of a guy he wasn’t.
He smiled a real one that reached his eyes as he shifted, leaning his head onto my chest and holding me tight .
My heart hurt seeing him like this. I didn’t know why, but he looked like a sad, lost boy.
I threaded my fingers through his hair, weaving through his scalp.
“That feels nice,” he whispered, a playful smile dancing on his lips.
I laughed. “I’m sure it does.” I paused. “To every man.”
He poked one eye open. “Of course, only if you were naked, then I could’ve ticked off one of my fantasies off the list.”
Heat bloomed on my cheeks. “You didn’t just say that,” I muttered.
“Oh, but I did.”
My eyes widened when he brushed his lips to mine, taking my mouth, soft and slow but harsh and needy at the same time. It was delirious.
I gasped, searching for air as we parted.
I traced a finger through my swollen lips. “You just kissed me.”
“I sure did.” He grinned.
“Why?”
“Because you are mine.”
“Y…yours?”
“Yes, mine to touch, mine to kiss, and mine to fuck.”
If my cheeks were painted blush earlier, now, I was sure they were crimson. “What?” I gaped at him. For someone who has spent half their existence trying to avoid my attention, he was now doing just the opposite.
He kissed the tip of my nose. “Mine.”
“Yours?” I was still gaping at him .
“Lily, we can do this all night if you prefer.” His eyes locked on mine. “Yes, yours, and you are mine.”
“Wha…What does that mean?”
He shrugged. “Not sure. All I know is that I’m not letting you go, not any more, and I’m not sharing you with other men, especially that fucker Jack.”
“What? Jack and I aren’t even together, Mikey. We are just friends.”
“I don’t fucking care; he will never have you.”
“So you want me now? Suddenly, after all these years? Like in a romantic way?”
“Not suddenly.” His gaze swept over my lips and back to my eyes. “I’ve always wanted you, I thought I could stay away, and I have for all these years, but I can’t anymore. I’ll find a way to be the man you deserve.”
“I don’t understand anything you’re saying, but I think I like the idea of being yours. Only on one condition, though.”
“Say it.”
I cradled his face in my palms. “Only if you agree that you’re mine.”
He grinned. “Baby, I’ve been yours since the moment I laid eyes on you.”
I rolled my eyes, cuddling closer. In a way, it felt nice. “You sure didn’t act that way.”
I felt him still. “I’m sorry,” he said, his voice hoarse.
He didn’t have to tell me what he was apologizing for. I just knew. It was for the days of pretending he didn’t care. “It’s okay,” I muttered .
We stayed like this for minutes. Time flew by, and my mind was reeling with the thoughts of the unknown and the conversation I had with Jack.
And this thing with Michael, I didn’t understand it, but I didn’t want to question it either.
A ping from my phone interrupted me. I slid away from his warmth as I retrieved my phone from my discarded jacket.
Michael had a smiling grin on his face as he watched my every move. It only made my body tingle with awareness.
A pinch formed between my brows as I thumbed through the phone, clicking on the link that Riana sent me with a text saying ‘read this’ in all caps.
As soon as my eyes skimmed over the headline, my heart sank.
Popular Animator Makima Akimoto of Grisha Studios is now deemed as the character designer for the most anticipated light novel by Kenji Hashimoto, Demon’s Curse, which is now being produced for animation .
Fuck, that hurt. The image of Renji’s design that I created was staring back at me, exactly how I’d drawn it. She didn’t change a thing.
“What is it?” Mikey asked, tucking a strand of hair behind my ear.
“Here,” I mumbled, handing the phone to him.
“That fucking bitch,” he cursed. “You worked so hard for it. Don’t worry about this anymore, you understand? I’ll take care of this,” he said, smiling softly as he dragged the pad of his thumb along my cheek .
“It doesn’t matter,” I mumbled. Yes, I did have the means to go against her, thanks to my brother’s status and money, but I didn’t have the time for that. I certainly didn’t want to spend my last days plotting for a way to get back at her.
“It does.” He kissed my cheek.
In a weird cascade of motion, here I was, in the arms of the boy I’d always wanted, comforted and safe.
But the pain of the betrayal was still fresh, and I needed something more to take my mind off it.
Something I hadn’t done in a long time and something that I wasn’t supposed to do.
“Mikey, do you want to dip your toes in the pool?”
The grin that spread across his lips went straight to my heart. “Yes.”
About ten minutes later, I walked out of my bedroom, ready for the pool.
“Fuck me, babe. Is this how you torture me? Why don’t we skip the pool and head to my bedroom instead?” His eyes roamed over the simple black one-piece that I was wearing.
And my entire body flushed under his gaze.
Never would I’ve imagined being like this with him, carefree like we used to be.
A cheeky grin tugged my lips as I went with it, swaying my hips as I sauntered up to him. And the playfulness left his eyes.
“No can do,” I whispered, dragging a finger along the line of his jaw before I pulled back and headed out to the front door.
“Fuck me.” I heard him mumble behind me. “Wait, you can’t leave looking like that. ”
“No one’s going to see me,” I said, taking the stairs to the gym on the floor below us. It was private for just us.
“I don’t care,” he mumbled, wrapping a fluffy towel around me from behind.
I rolled my eyes as we headed to the huge indoor pool.
As soon as we entered, I dropped the towel on the lounge chair and slipped off my flip-flops.
“Come on, let’s…” My words caught in my throat.
Mikey’s hand gripped the edge of his T-shirt, and he peeled it over his head, revealing his glorious inked skin.
I licked my lips, not being able to take my eyes off him. And the massive tent behind his black swim trunks only made me swallow a breath.
He caught my stare and grinned. “See what being a tease gets you, Liliana?”
A stark redness blushed my cheeks. “It’s not like anything I haven’t seen before.” I poked out my tongue.
“Oh really?” He raised a brow and was in my face in two quick strides.
“Wha…What are you doing?”
“This.” His strong arms grabbed me by the waist and jumped us into the water, and I shrieked so loud as we sank in.
The smell of chlorine hit me first, eyes burning as I held my inhale and exhaled for him to let me go.
But that ass wouldn’t.
I gave him a playful kick underwater and swam away from him. Although I had good form, he was faster, and he caught up to me in mere seconds .
My lungs were on fire as I came up for air, my back hitting the side wall as I caught my breath.
“You okay?” He swept away the hair from my face.
“Yes.” I pinched his ribs while I heaved.
“Ouch, what was that for?” He grimaced, an appalled look coating his face. I knew he was anything but.
“For dunking me in the pool, you ass.”
“It was fun, though.” He shrugged, his hands sliding over to the small of my back.
A shiver wracked my body as I peered into his beautiful green eyes.
“Are you okay?” he repeated this time with a frown marring his forehead. “You seem to be breathing heavier than normal.”
“I’m fine, it’s been a while since I’ve been out of breath like that. Also being anemic has made me a bit weak.” I smiled through my lie.
“Okay,” he mumbled, pressing a soft kiss on my cheek but he didn’t stop there. “Maybe I could ease you in.”
“Ease me in what?” A moan escaped my mouth when he licked the droplets of water on the side of my neck.
And my breathing hiked up again.
“Ease you into a good cardio routine.”
“What?” I muttered. My brain was fried.
“Do you trust me?”
My body stilled as I thought about it, my hooded eyes scanning the sharp lines and hopeful look on his face. I used to trust him once with all that I was, but he lost it, though he’s crept his way back into my life, I wasn’t sure if I could trust him, wholly .
“You don’t,” he stated.
“It’s… It’s not like that. I do kinda trust you.”
He nodded. “But not entirely.”
“Yes.” I trusted Mikey to keep me safe but I wasn’t sure if I trusted him with my heart, mind, and soul.
“It’s okay.” His lips curved into a warm smile. “I’ll find a way to win it back again.”
“Oh really, how do you plan on doing that?”
He grinned, pressing my hips to his, his hard-on pressed right at my core. Only a thin layer of fabric separated us.
“I’ll start when you turn around, grip that deck wall.”
I nodded, fire burning between my legs as I turned around and clasped my hands around the edges. Tightly.
My blood spiked with anticipation for what was about to happen.
Ever so slowly, I felt him lowering his hands from my waist to my hips until they reached the globes of my ass, squeezing and pulling them apart. Over and over again.
“Mikey,” I groaned, and my eyes glued shut. He wasn’t even touching my bare skin, but I felt the heat of his touch.
“Yes, little mouse, moan for me. This ass belongs to me now, doesn’t it? I’ve been dreaming to see them bounce when I fuck you hard when you’re on your knees.” He hitched up the layer of fabric covering my ass and gave me one hard squeeze.
I moaned, my forehead touched the pool edge.
“I’m only just starting, baby.” His exploring hand dropped down to where I was aching the most. “Fuck, I could feel your heat before I could even touch you. Does your pretty pussy want me? ”
“Yes,” I breathed.
“Is it dripping wet for me? Are my fingers going to be soaked dirty when I thrust them up your tight pussy, little mouse?”
My toes curled at his words, and my clit throbbed. “Please, Michael.”
“Since you asked so nicely.” He nipped my earlobe, and without wasting another second, he glided the fabric aside and he plunged two long fingers deep into my pussy.
“Oh God,” I spurted through my ragged breath, my feet no longer threading through the water to keep me afloat. It felt heavy as I let my body drench in the pleasure that he was giving me.
His left hand tightened on my hips to keep me from drowning while the pointer and middle finger of his other hand twisted and curled through my wet walls.
“Just as I thought. Drenched and primed for me, aren’t you, Lily?”
“Hmm,” I mumbled, my cheeks were almost lying flat on the deck now.
“Do my words make you wet, Lily? Is that what is making your pussy clench around my fingers?”
“Michael, please, I want to come.” He was teasing me, exploring the depths of my walls without giving me what I actually needed, for him to fuck me with his fingers.
“All in good time, Lily darling, I’m enjoying myself here.” His thumb ever so slightly grazed over my clit, and I almost screamed from the shock waves that sent sparks throughout my body .
“I can’t anymore,” I muttered as my head twisted to meet his eyes, taking his mouth in a breathless kiss.
“Okay, baby, hold on tight,” he said and pounded his finger hard, and I screamed as my head fell back on the pool edge.
In an instant, he maneuvered me. His strength held my entire body afloat, as he dived underwater and hung my thighs over his shoulder as he pressed his mouth to my pussy, lapping on my clit while his finger thrust into me in quick, fast motions that drove me insane, and within seconds, I started to feel the wave building inside me hit its highest spot.
He flicked my clit with his tongue, sucking hard and my orgasm flooded out of me, white dots climbing the corners of my vision as I screamed his name so loud that it dried my throat raw.
I had no fucking idea how he was doing it, to the outside eye I would look like a possessed woman thrashing on the water but only I knew what his filthy mouth was doing to me underwater.
He wasn’t even breathing hard when he came up and gathered me tight.
“Shh, I got you,” he whispered in my ear as he held me through the quakes that shattered my body.
It took me five minutes to calm my breathing to a semblance of normalcy. Even then, it was strained. Michael cradled me patiently the whole time, allowing me to come down from the high.
“You alright?” he asked, helping me out of the water. At this point, my palms were pruned .
“Yes.” I gave him a small smile, my eyes darting to the end of the V on his narrow waist. He was hard. “What about you?”
He smirked, bringing a towel up to dry me. “Don’t worry about me.”
I nodded, yawning. My eyelids were already feeling heavy as we walked back to the apartment.
I was entirely exhausted by the time I made it to bed, dry and clean. Michael joined me, and I didn’t question it as he cuddled me to him.
“Sleepy?” he asked.
“Very.”
“Glad I worked you out.” His fingers drew circles on my back.
A soft chuckle left my lips before silence enveloped the room again. Long ticks of silence passed, and even though I was so tired, sleep wouldn’t come. “You’re not going to wake up one day and decide to abandon me like you did all those years ago, are you? Saying this was all just a mistake… I don’t know if I can handle something like that again.”
“Lily.” He ran a calloused finger over my lips. “I told you I’m not going to. I know you don’t trust me, but I’m not going to leave you like I did last time. Trust me, I’ve tried, but I’m weak, and I know I’m not the man who should be near you, but I just can’t help it.”
“Near me?” My brows pinched. “What does that mean?”
He averted his gaze before locking his eyes with mine. “It means that, Lily Jones Jameson, I’m not going to leave you.”
“Promise?”
“Yes, I promise. ”
“Forever?”
“Forever.” He sealed it with a kiss on my lips.
What he didn’t know was that forever would end within the next few months.
But I was happy spending my last days in the arms of the only man who understood the real me.
That night, I fell asleep with a smile on my face.