54. Zane
54
ZANE
I never thought these words would come out of my mouth, but… thank God for Davis Ray’s sex pad.
The morning after Hollis dropped the press release about Aiden, reporters and photographers gathered outside my building like a zombie horde and never left. I guess they’re hoping I’ll dangle Aiden over the balcony by his ankles and give them a real spectacle.
We needed a change of scenery. In steps Davis and his fuck dungeon.
“Take my house in Paradise Valley,” he insisted. “You and your crotch goblin and your hot nanny can stay there as long as you want. I have my sex pad in the city.”
There was a lot to unpack there, like the fact that I’d kill Davis for looking at Mira and that she’s become a lot more than my nanny. But mainly the “sex pad” thing.
Turns out, it was as simple as it sounded. Davis has an apartment in the city that he uses exclusively for random hookups. Mira was disgusted when I told her, but then we drove out to the suburbs and she saw his sprawling backyard and the infinity tub in the master bathroom that Davis insisted he’d never had sex in, and she was a lot more accepting of his lifestyle.
Now, we’ve been here for days, and I’m not sure why I didn’t make this move years ago.
Mira rolls over in the guest bed, her naked body finding me under the sheets. It’s become a routine. Falling asleep with her in my arms, slow sex before the sun rises, another round in the shower.
When Aiden wakes up, we play in the backyard. Yesterday, I built an entire swing set for him. Mira had to drag Aiden away from the slide at dinnertime, but then she gave in and we ended up eating outside in the grass so he could play between bites.
It’s been an unbelievable stretch of perfect days.
“What do you have to do today?” Mira mumbles sleepily, her eyes still closed.
“I need to log a workout this morning. Someday soon, I should get to the arena for some on-ice practice. Coach has been cool about me using Davis’s equipment and sticking around the house, but I should show my face and talk with the guys.”
“Yeah, you don’t want to give Carson a foothold.” She lifts onto her elbows and her cleavage is more than a little distracting.
Maybe I should stick around the house, after all .
I drag my eyes away. “Are you worried Carson is going to pull away from me in the captain race?”
“Please.” She slides a leg over me so she’s straddling my hips. “He doesn’t stand a chance.”
“You sound sure.”
“I am.” She smiles as she reaches back, positioning me at her opening. She doesn’t need to ask—she can feel how ready I am for her. She doesn’t look away as she lowers herself down. “You’re bigger than he is.”
I should put my smartwatch on. Coach would take one look at my heart rate and believe I already got my workout in for today.
“You’re stronger and faster,” she pants, planting her hands on my chest and rocking her hips. “You’re always in control.”
This moment is a testament to that. The fact that I’m letting Mira take her sweet, torturous time riding me instead of flipping us over and fucking her into the mattress is a miracle. She arches her back and runs her hands through her hair. She’s fucking perfect and I don’t even want to blink in case I miss a second.
“But most of all, you give everything you have to what you’re passionate about.”
“Everything,” I agree through gritted teeth, thrusting up into her.
Mira cries out, so I do it again. And again.
“You give and give and give and—” Her mouth falls open and I feel her pulsing around me.
I spill into her, giving her absolutely everything I have.
Until I carry her to the shower and find a little more in my reserves.
“This is nice,” Mira says for the fourth time in the last hour. “I don’t want to leave.”
We’re walking along the canal. Aiden is riding his scooter ahead of us. There’s no one around, so for the first time in days, he’s more than twenty feet away from us. When I can’t make out the Spiderman decal on his helmet, that’s when it’s time to yell at him to circle back towards us.
“Are you thinking of leaving your apartment and folding chair furniture behind for Paradise Hills?” I tease.
Mira slaps my arm. “I wish, but no. Some of us have skills that don’t come with multimillion dollar contracts. Pouring lattes doesn’t pay for the lifestyle I deserve.”
She tries to pull ahead, but I spin her to face me. “What about now? I’m giving you what you deserve, aren’t I?”
She shrugs and her eyes settle somewhere over my shoulder. “Maybe I already had what I deserved. Maybe this is all extra.”
Before I can figure out what she’s talking about, a loud bang echoes over the hill to our left.
The trail is curving towards a large intersection. We’re the closest we’ve been to civilization in a week. It’s probably a car backfiring.
But Mira panics .
She yanks her hands away from me and whirls around like she’s expecting to see someone standing behind her with a chainsaw. She’s pale and her green eyes are wide.
She looks like she did the day I met her: terrified .
“Hey.” I reach for her arm and she flinches away. “It was nothing, Mira. Everything is okay.”
She stretches onto her tiptoes, her breathing erratic. “Can you see Aiden?”
“He stopped at the bench like we told him.” I can see his light-up sneakers dangling from the seat, swinging back and forth while he waits for us. I pull Mira into me. “Everything is fine. What happened?”
“Nothing.” She’s shaking her head like she’s trying to convince herself. “Nothing happened. It was—Everything is fine.”
“Bullshit.”
She whirls around, and there it is again. She’s scared.
Of me .
“Mira, what happened to you?”
I see her expression shift. Close up. “Nothing. I’m just jumpy after being at Camp Davis for the last few days. I’m fine.”
I don’t buy it for a second. There’s no “right” way to act after you’ve been attacked in a public bathroom, but Mira wasn’t in shock. When I saw her face, she looked fucking haunted .
Like she’d been in that position one too many times before.
Then she found Aiden in my hall closet and wanted to know if I put him there. As if there’s a precedent in her life of people locking little kids in closets.
The photographer surprising them at the trampoline park sucked and I hate that it happened, but Mira wasn’t just dealing with guilt afterward. She was horrified by that man.
All of that on top of the tight lid she keeps on her past… I know trauma when I see it. Someone hurt her, and I don’t know why she won’t tell me.
I reach for her slowly, squeezing her fingers. “You don’t have to be scared when you’re with me. I’ll take care of you.”
“I’m not scared.” She peels her hand out of mine and walks towards Aiden. “I can take care of myself.”
Yeah, I think to myself. That’s what I’m worried about.