Chapter 15
chapter fifteen
Luke
“Are you tired?” I ask her as we make our way into the hotel room in companionable silence.
She stretches her arms out and shakes her head as she gazes at me. I close the door behind us and start to unbutton my shirt. “You hungry? Do you need me to get you some room service or anything?”
“No, I’m fine,” she says, giggling slightly and then hiccuping. “I might need to drink some water though. I’m just a teensy-weensy bit drunk from all those strawberry daiquiris.”
“Not too drunk, I hope. I don’t want you to be hungover in the morning.”
“I’m fine, Lukey.” She yawns loudly. “By the way, I just want you to know that as much as I’m frustrated by the fact that you have to work, I’m still glad you’re here,” she says sleepily.
“Well, I’m glad to hear that, Mi-Mi,” I say as I pull off my shirt, fold it up, and then place it on the couch. “I wish I could have been here and not had to work, but—”
“I know you need to make your billions.”
“You’ll be happy about it one day when I can buy a private island and fly you in my private jet.”
“I think you have enough money that you could do that now.”
“You may be right about that,” I say, laughing. “You need help with the zip?”
“No, I can just pull the dress off. It’s not that tight.”
“If you say so. I’m just going to head into the bathroom and brush my teeth and get ready for bed.”
“Sounds like a plan. Do you want me to get the pillow fort ready?”
“You do whatever you need to,” I say, though disappointment courses through me.
I don’t really want to have to sleep with another pillow fort between us tonight, especially as it didn’t last very long the night before, but then maybe it would be good. I don’t want to fall into temptation again.
“You want to watch a movie tonight?” she asks as she yawns slightly. “We meant to watch a movie last night, and we didn’t.”
“I think you’re too tired for that.”
“I know, but we only have a finite amount of days together while you’re in town, and I just want to do all the things that we used to do when we were young.”
“You mean younger?”
“You know what I mean.”
“I know,” I say.
My breath catches as she pulls her dress up and throws it onto the couch. She stands there in front of me in a black push-up bra and a very slinky pair of pink panties. My stomach tightens as she runs her fingers down the side of her body.
“What PJs should I wear tonight?” she asks as she heads toward her suitcase and starts unpacking it. “It’s kind of warm. Should we turn the AC down?”
“If you want to,” I say, unable to keep my eyes off of her.
She spins around and gazes at me. “I guess I’ll just wear a T-shirt and shorts. That seems like the most sensible thing to wear. That’s what I wear at home.”
“Sounds like a plan. I’ll just wear my boxers.”
“Good. For a minute, I thought you were going to say you were going to sleep naked or something.” Her voice is silky.
“Why would I do that, Mia?”
“I don’t know. Maybe you would if you thought Rex might barge into our room in the morning, and you might want to be naked so that he’d believe us that this is real. So then you might think you had to sleep naked.”
“If I was worried about Rex sneaking into the room in the morning, I’d make sure we didn’t have a pillow fort,” I say dryly.
“That’s true.” She giggles and then runs up to me. “I’m so glad you’re here.”
She wraps her arms around me and holds me tight.
I wrap my arms around her and give her a hug in response.
The feel of her warm body next to mine is driving me crazy, but I can’t let her know that.
Mia loves touch. She’s always been a woman who loves to give hugs, and I’ve always enjoyed receiving them from her, but this is different.
We’ve never hugged with her in her underwear and me just in pants.
“Well, I’m just going to brush my teeth, and then I’ll come back and we can choose what we want to watch.”
“Are you yawning, Luke?”
“Nah, I’ve got plenty of life left in me for the rest of the night.” I grin at her. “You’re the one who should be worried. You’re the one who always falls asleep when we watch movies.”
“Only when we watch your boring movies, as you very well know.”
“Okay then. So, tonight, you’re saying you’re going to stay up all night?”
“I’m going to try my best.” She giggles. “Okay, let me find my PJs, and you can brush your teeth, and then I’ll brush mine.”
“Sounds like a plan.” I head into the bathroom and unzip myself so that I can pee before I brush my teeth. I stand there, relieving myself, and all I can think is what sweet torture I have gotten myself into.
“Did you know Andi and Rex weren’t even—oops,” she says as she walks into the bathroom and looks down.
“What are you doing?” I say as I quickly zip myself up.
“Sorry. I didn’t realize you were peeing. It’s not like I saw anything.”
“I don’t care if you saw anything,” I say, shaking my head and turning toward her. “I just want to make sure that I didn’t burn your eyes out or anything.”
“Oh, I’m okay.”
“Anyway, what were you going to say?” I say, trying to extinguish the fire that I’m feeling as she just stands there in her bra and panties.
“Did you know Andi and Rex weren’t dating for very long before they got engaged? Wendy was telling me that she heard that Rex was actually not even that interested in Andi.”
“No, I did not hear that. Who would I have heard that from?”
“I don’t know. That’s just the gossip in town right now.”
“They’re getting married now, so I suppose it’s for a good reason.”
“Yeah, I suppose so.”
“Wait, are you asking me this because you still have—”
“Do not ask me if I still have feelings for Rex. Really, Luke? You know I don’t.”
“I’m just saying this whole farce is because you didn’t want people to think that you were jealous that he was getting married.”
“No, this is because he left a rude note on my invitation, basically saying I was incapable of getting a date. And, yes, the fact of the matter was, I didn’t have a real date, and it was unlikely I was going to find one in that short amount of time, but I don’t want to be known in Coconut Beach as the loser whose unrequited love married someone else, and she was going to all the wedding festivities as some sort of sad sack. ”
“No one would have thought that. Plus, what would they be thinking about me? I got a note as well.”
“I know. Let’s not talk about it anyway. You know what I was thinking?”
“I don’t know, but you seem to be doing a lot of thinking.”
“Really, Luke?”
“Really, Mia?”
“I was thinking that we should go on a night walk tomorrow.”
“A night walk?”
“Yeah, like we used to back when we were younger.”
“You mean to watch the stars?”
“Yeah, I miss those days. You always knew every constellation, and it was just cool, lying back in the sand and staring up at the sky and thinking about the universe in its entirety.”
“There’s something about thinking about other galaxies that makes you feel quite small, doesn’t it?”
“I can’t believe you would ever feel small, Luke, what with all your money.”
“You know, I don’t do it for the money, Mia.”
“I know why you do it.” She grabs my hand and squeezes. “You do it to prove to your family that you are capable, that you’re brilliant, that you’re the best Haverbrook that ever lived.”
“How did you get to know me so well?”
“Maybe because I’ve known you for so long and we’re just always in tune with each other, aren’t we, Luke?”
“Yeah, we are.” I wrap my arm around her shoulders and bring her in close to me. “I’m not going to lie. It hurts, what my dad did. He still doesn’t really look at me. If I didn’t know better, I’d think my mom had an affair, and I wasn’t really a Haverbrook, but—”
“You are. Of course you are.”
“I know I am,” I say. “I look just like my dad. How could I not be?”
“Exactly,” she says softly. “And, hey, who cares that you weren’t on the football team and that you didn’t go to UF? UF is not the only good school in the country.”
“Try telling my dad that. If I’m not a Gator, I’m nothing.”
“You’re not nothing, Luke. You’re not nothing to me.”
“Thanks. I’ve missed you, you know, Mia.”
“What do you mean you’ve missed me? I thought you loved our phone calls.”
“You’re right. Phone calls aren’t everything.”
“Wow, you’re actually admitting that I’m right?” she says softly.
“I am, but let me brush my teeth and you should put on some clothes because—”
“Because of what?” she says, leaning back slightly, giving me a sexy little smirk.
“Because if you don’t put on some clothes, I may just have to remove the ones that you currently have on.”
“Oh, yeah? And how would you do that?”
“What do you mean, how would I do that?”
“What don’t you understand, how would you do that?” She puts her hands on her lips and juts her chin out. “You would undress me?”
“I’ve undressed you before. I’d do it again.”
“Is that a challenge?”
“I don’t know. Do you want it to be?”
“I don’t want it to be anything,” she says, giggling. I don’t quite know what’s going on between us, but I’m not hating it. In fact, I’m very intrigued by it.
I grab my toothbrush and pick it up and then grab the tube of toothpaste and squirt it on.
I start brushing my teeth, and she just shakes her head and sashays back out of the bathroom into the main hotel room.
I stare at her pert little ass as she walks away, and for a few moments, I’m disappointed.
I wish she had pulled off her clothes. I wish she’d stood there naked in front of me. I don’t know why. I shouldn’t be having these thoughts about her. I shouldn’t be lusting over my best friend. I didn’t want to make this more complicated for myself or for her.
I finish brushing my teeth, put my toothbrush up, and head back into the bedroom. Mia’s standing there in a long T-shirt and boy shorts. She grins as she looks up at me, one sleeve half off her shoulder.
“I’m going to brush my teeth now,” she says as she walks up to me. “And then I’ll meet you in bed, and we can choose the movie.”
“Sounds good,” I say.