Chapter 42
Miles
E mma has ten seconds before I peel her off the barstool and toss her over my shoulder. We wouldn’t make it far with the way my restraint is about to snap after seeing her for the first time in weeks. I fucking missed her. She hasn’t faced me yet, but Madison’s shock is enough for the both of them based on her jaw on the floor. I’ll ask Emma why they’re together later. After I get her home.
She finally spins around on her barstool. I step back at her snarl, not because she frightens me, but to keep my nuts a safe distance from her knees. They’re oiled and ready to go.
“Save it.” Emma dismisses me with a hand and stands, pulling the see-through dress squeezing her hips for dear life back into place. “Are you good?” The question is to Madison, who’s still trying to piece together why I’m here.
She blinks twice before answering. “Yes.” Then she clears her throat, her gaze bouncing between me and Emma. “I have a room here. Did you two—”
“Not your business,” Emma says matter-of-factly. “You and I aren’t there yet, but this was nice.” Her half smile hints at the possibility of mending…I don’t know what.
“It was. See you around. Miles.” Madison’s light eyes sweep over me until she groans at her phone, which is ringing on the bar counter. She sighs and picks it up. “What excuse is there today, Preston? You’ll always make it up to me.”
The billionaire dude from the retreat?
Madison scurries off in a huff, leaving me to rush after Emma, who’s already walking out the door.
Emma speed walks through the tiled hotel foyer, determined to get to the valet and dip like I don’t know where she lives. It’s a home we’ve shared for weeks, one I want to make permanent. If she’ll let me.
I slow my pace to take in the ass she’ll tell me to kiss once her silent treatment eases. If only she knew I dreamt of holding her in my arms for the last twenty-five days.
A pimple-faced valet attendant rushes out of the booth and trips over himself to get to her. I rub my fingers over my lower lip and chuckle at how quickly he folds in her orbit. Emma’s lure is without a doubt addictive. You’d think she was royalty with all the bowing this guy does. He’s yet to get her car, doing everything he can to hold her attention.
I post up inside the glass doors, never once taking my eyes off the woman pacing up and down the sidewalk, ignoring me.
Her Mercedes pulls up, and Em hops in and speeds off. I give my ticket to the kid still watching her taillights and am in my rental car minutes later.
Sizing up the wide door I’ll have to scale to get to Emma’s townhouse is a matter of physics once I arrive at her spot. I usually go through the garage but decide the front gate is better. To my surprise, the private entry is unlocked. The floodlights I installed months ago announce my presence. I test my luck with the front door. I still know the code but won’t enter if it’s locked. Sure enough, the long handle opens, and I take a cautious step into the foyer.
It never crossed my mind that Emma might shoot my ass, but the unlocked doors and dimmed recessed lights are some don type shit. Would she snipe me and tell the police I broke in, or bury me alive on the beach? The latter requires manual labor, but I wouldn’t put it past her.
I inhale deep, toe off my sneakers, and head past the illuminated path from the kitchen to the living area. Emma stands before floor-to-ceiling glass doors that reflect the dark ocean under the moon.
A month and a twelve-hour flight to Los Angeles gave me time to think about the mess I got myself in. I’m good with numbers and codes but come up short with Emma. I never stayed in one place or spent so much time with one person, but I couldn’t reach her fast enough and never thought twice about going to her. I fucked up, but I want to fix it.
I left on autopilot. I packed up all my shit and bounced, the same way I’ve done countless times. I never had someone at home and had to get my head in a zone. I just hope it didn’t cost me everything.
Emma refuses to look at me through the glass. She deserves more than a bullshit excuse about why I left so abruptly. I had to wait until it was safe.
One step turns into several until I’m inches from her. She stiffens at my touch but remains stoic. “I’m sorry I broke your trust.” I murmur the apology into the air, which is scented with the perfume I’ve missed for too long.
Emma’s lack of reaction is a double-edged sword. She’s not one for affection or displaying it. But her indifference toward me now hints at detachment beyond repair.
“I’m sorry, baby.” I look for signs I didn’t lose her for good. I may not know what this is, but now that she’s in my life, I can’t imagine another day without her.
Emma’s resolve doesn’t falter when I hold her. The front of my jeans grazes the back of her dress. Goosebumps form as my hands glide down her bare arms, and I pull her into my center. My apology is still a chant that’s yet to crack her armor.
A mix of fire and ice whirls in Emma’s glare when she faces me. She’s silent but shoves at my chest over and over, building force with every push.
I let her move us, never taking my eyes off her or repeating the same apology. Emma can push me into next morning if she wants. Shit, my ass deserves worse. Her fire means there’s still a chance.
“I didn’t want to leave, kitten. Please let me explain.”
My brows knit when her hand finds my belt. I step back. “Em, wh—”
“Shh.” Her fingers press to my lips as her other hand makes work of the leather. She yanks the buckle free and palms my dick, pounding at the zipper. Fuck . She’s on her tiptoes to reach my ear. “We’ll fuck until it’s time for you to leave. Once Monday comes, we’ll go back to not speaking to each other.”
Ice hardens around the words she hurls at me. They’re the same ones I told her at the singles’ retreat a lifetime ago. I shake my head at her determination to reduce what we have to a weekend-long fuck.
The shit hurts.
“No.” I shake my head again and push away her hand. If she keeps staring at me like that, I’ll bust in my jeans, but I want her to hear me out.
“ No ?” Emma hikes a brow. “If you’re not here to share your dick, leave the way you came.”
“I’m trying to apologize, Emma. I’m sorry. What we have—”
“Is over,” she snaps. “Your time in California is up. You made that clear when you packed up and left without telling me.” She huffs out a laugh. “You had the decency to tell Lorezno but not me. Everything you said to me was a lie, because if you truly cared, you wouldn’t have done that.“ Her chin lifts. “Sex without strings is what we do best, and that’s all I’m willing to offer.”
“Em.”
“Take it or leave it, Miles.” Hurt dances in eyes once full of light, now embers.
I walk Emma across the room until her back hits the glass. Her breath hitches at my palms slamming onto either side of her. I don’t want to scare her, but I will be damned if she doesn’t think there’s more between us. “Zo got a one-line text in the middle of the night before I left,” I whisper to her profile. She refuses to look at me. “I wanted to call you to explain, but everything went to shit, and I had to focus so I could get back to you.”
“One month, Miles.” Emma’s reply is low, tormented. “No phone call or email. Only silence. I let you in, into my home and my he—” She swallows hard to bite back tears I’ll kiss away. “I have enough people in my life who walk in and out of it whenever they need something from me. I wanted you to be different. I wanted you not to let go.”
Shards twist and tug through my heart at having caused Emma pain. “You’re my home, Em.” I kiss her eyelids as they flutter shut. “What we have is real. I care, baby. I fucked up, but I can explain if you let me. Don’t shut me out.”
“Why? You did.”
My lungs give way to the anguish tightening my chest. I’m a problem solver, but I don’t know how to fix this. I am the problem, a risk Emma took that proved to be a threat. My throat works to pull in air at the thought of losing her. I can’t lose her.
“Please.” Her voice retreats to a hushed whisper, trembling her lips apart when I press into her and claim her mouth.
I pull her closer, devouring her with my tongue and every word I’ve yet to tell her. Emma moans into my mouth as my fingers slip under her dress, coaxing her to dig her nails into waves that are now a tiny fro after my weeks away. Her hands drift to my beard and tug. I lift her to wrap her legs around me and revel in the touch of her thighs.
I’m lightheaded from all the blood in my body rushing from one head to the other. I want to fuck her until she can’t walk straight, but I want her trust and heart more. “I’m not them, baby,” I say against her mouth about every person who disappointed her. I’m not a perfect man by any stretch of the imagination, but I want to fix this.
We make it upstairs to her bedroom and stumble onto her mattress in a tangle of clothes and moans. I kiss every part of her as she straddles me.
“You have no fucking idea how much I missed you, kitten.” I grab the back of her neck and pull until our heartbeats touch.
“Condom,” she says and breaks us apart. I frown at her reaching into her nightstand for a foil wrapper but say nothing. She shreds the last sign of her trust with her teeth, sheaths me, and rises to her knees. I widen my legs and shiver as her pussy sucks me into her heat. “Fuck, baby.”
My grip on Emma’s ass tightens, and I spread to encourage the hips she rolls in a circular motion. I’m seconds from busting a nut but squeeze her tight and pump into her anyway.
“Miles!” Emma’s eyes roll to the back of her head, exposing the soft column of her neck, which I suck.
It’s a fight to steady our pace. The thought of being away so long and ruining what we had has me on my feet. I angle Emma’s body, scoop my hands over her shoulders, and drive home.
She is my home .
Sounds of our skin slapping and her cries fill the room. My quads will be on fire tomorrow but fuck if I care. Emma unravels, her hard, pink caramel tips bounding inches from my face. Her stomach tenses as she squirms in my arms.
“Look at me.” I kiss her chin and quicken my pace, grinding my hips to hit her spot.
Pleasure floods Emma’s moss-green eyes. Her lips part on a pant, her legs quivering and her chest heaving.
It’s on the tip of my tongue.
Three words.
Eight letters.
I’ve never told a woman I loved her. It took a minute to figure out that’s what this is, but I love Emma, and I don’t want to go back to a time when that wasn’t my reality.
My balls rise as I slow to lazy strokes, dragging them out to rub her clit over my pelvis. Emma shudders, a sign that her next orgasm will put her to bed as I release inside the condom. I come so long my toes strangle the area rug. She slides a hand down my cheek dotted with sweat but says nothing.
“A distress message came in from an old colleague. He had to rescue someone he loves. I packed fast and was out before dawn to catch a chartered flight. Zo got a three-word text that said I wasn’t coming back to the office. But I was coming back for you, kitten.”
I brush a strand of mahogany hair from Emma’s face, careful not to wake her. She passed out before she could give me the silent treatment or another excuse as to why we can’t make this work. I didn’t get a chance to explain where I was, but I need to get it off my chest.
“Shit went down when I got there. I had to switch gears and focus, which was hard because I kept thinking about you. Every time I tried to call, something popped off that needed my attention. Time escaped me, Em, but you never did. I should’ve tried harder, and for that I’m sorry.
“I caught a tail and spent the last week and a half moving between countries to shake it. There’s protection in place for my mama if shit goes south, but not for you. Not yet. But I’ll never let anything touch you and will keep you safe. That’s why I had to stay away.”
Light from the window scatters over the ceiling and onto Emma’s back. “I never meant to hurt you or leave the way I did. I moved out of habit, and it won’t happen again.” My fingers trace the curves of her shoulders. “You were never just a fuck, kitten. I care too much for you.”
In the weeks we’ve spent together, I fought every reason I had to walk away. But the more we filled our days with each other, the more those reasons faded into the background. Distance has kept us miles apart, but Emma is an enigma I want to explore.
“I told you I want more, Em,” I whisper next to her. “That wasn’t a lie. I want your time. I want to earn your heart. Will you let me love you? I can’t promise I won’t fuck up, but I want to try. I am trying.”
I kiss Emma and pull the covers up to her neck. She’ll tell me to leave tomorrow, but I won’t have her thinking I left her again by sneaking out.
She mumbles something and reaches for me.
“I’m here, kitten.”