Chapter 22
Chapter Twenty-Two
Lukas
There’s a knock at the door. Waverly. My stomach tightens and heat spreads across my cheeks. She’s all smiles in her puffy jacket and leggings. Her eyes are bright and her cheeks pink, but I can’t tell if it's from the cold or me.
“Come in.” I step aside and help her with her jacket.
She pulls her list from her purse. “I printed out two copies.”
“How very thorough of you.” I smile and kiss her forehead.
She holds the papers to her chest but bouncing on her toes like she can’t contain any more energy. “I’m super excited we’re doing this, next steps and all that, but I’m also nervous.”
She shifts on her feet, glancing away. “Did the list seem a little too…” she pauses to find the right word, “boring to you?”
I pull her into my chest and hold her like my arms can somehow fight off her insecurity. I’m struck by how perfect she fits. “Our reds are exactly the same. You have more yellows than I do, but that’s cool.” We sit down on the couch, our legs pressing together.
She exhales and instantly relaxes. “Good. I wanted to be honest because that’s the whole point of this.” She pushes her hair out of her face. “And a lot of my yellows are things I’m interested in, but probably more down the road, not tomorrow.”
“Sounds right.” It was only a few days ago she was crying and frustrated, and now she’s open and honest. I lean over and kiss her forehead. “I’m really proud of you, these aren’t easy conversations.”
She looks at me like I gave her a pink pony, and my cock twitches.
“Thank you.” Waverly hesitates, playing with her fingers, like she has more to say but struggles with the words. Finally, she takes a deep breath. “I have questions.”
I smirk. “I’d be worried if you didn’t.”
“Is it okay if I’m not too interested in the pain stuff?” She shrugs. “I mean, I guess I could try it once, but I don’t know how much I would like it.”
“First of all, it’s always ok to set boundaries. You should never worry about that. And if someone doesn’t respect those boundaries, get the hell out.”
It kinda irritates me that I even need to say it. But her relief is instant, her shoulders relax and her eye stops twitching. I lay it all out there. She might get up and run away, but at least I’m being upfront about it and we can work it out later.
“I prefer the bondage elements and some Dom/sub aspects are interesting, but I don’t need it.”
Waverly bounces up. “That’s what I liked!” she says and lifts her hand. “High five, we’re a match!”
When I don’t give her the demanded high five, she grabs my hand and slaps it against hers. Her excitement is fucking adorable. The couch squeaks with her bouncing. “Does this happen a lot, people sync up like this?”
“I’m sure it does for other people, but this is the first time for me.” The confession hurts. She’s been most of my firsts, and anyone else was a waste of time. She should’ve been my only. It’s like my guilt and regret were thrown in a blender and now I’m forced to drink an emotional smoothie. Reaching out for her hands, I give them a squeeze. “This could get messy.”
“ Could get messy? We are a trash dump organized by kindergarteners who were playing with toxic waste. Messy in an understatement.” She counts on her fingers. “One, you’re my best friend’s brother. A best friend who is getting married in two weeks. You’re my ex’s brother. Who, may I add, will also be at the wedding.”
Shit, how did I forget about the wedding?
“Then there's my family… Well, that’s a whole thing in itself. And I’m homeless, until my cousin tells me it’s safe to go back. Who knows how long that will be? And I’m in a weird place mentally right now. Plus, there’s our past no one else knows about, so it’s not like I can go running to Angie to ask her advice.”
She did it. She said the forbidden words: Our past. “Yeah, we should talk about that.”
Waverly pinches her lips together. “Here’s the thing, I’m not ready to talk about our past. It hurts too much.”
“When you’re ready we can talk about it.” I confess way too fast. “But we will need to discuss it before this”—I wave my hand in a huge circle around us—“gets too serious.”
“Which probably means we should have a mature conversation,” she adds.
Wait, does this mean she’s going to fall for me again? Are we really ready for that sort of relationship? Maybe I should pump the brakes before we both crash. “Yeah, or we could watch The Knights of the Night .” I motion with my chin to the TV.
She’s back to the excited smiles again. “See, this is why we’re so good together. What was your last episode?”
“Um, I stopped watching after the wolf pack was brought in.”
Waverly poofs out her cheeks and blows out all the air. “Oh. You’re gonna be very confused.”
“I’ll watch it and see if it’s worth my time to go back.”
About ten minutes into the show and I am one hundred percent lost. She’s right, I need to go back and rewatch the whole thing. I guess it will give me something to do when I fly out to LA in a few days. It’s about to be my whole personality. And so many of the tats I’ve done in the last three years make more sense now.
When the credits roll, her warm, little body is pressed against mine. It feels so fucking perfect I don’t want it to end.
“So, no sexy time?” she asks with a sleepy tone in her voice.
I press my lips to her forehead. “Not tonight, love. I leave for LA on Wednesday for a week or so.”
My chest tightens. Why does it hurt to think about LA? I have clients I need to see, I have to approve some merch before it goes live, plus I’ve got to film twenty episodes of Dry Ink , a YouTube show about the best tattoo artists in the country. Most episodes are reacting to someone’s ink or figuring out how you would cover up someone’s shitty tats. Though it would be a perfect example, I vowed that Waverly’s monstrosity will never be spoken of, ever.
I used to look forward to these trips, but now it means I’m leaving her alone. Here. Unprotected. For a week. And there’s tons of wedding stuff happening, plus my brother is still out there. There are too many unknowns, and I hate it.
I pull her closer to me, and her soft breath on my neck heats me to my core. It would be easy. I could have her naked and screaming my name in minutes. Instead, I keep her close, listening to her inhaling and exhaling as she lazily draws little circles on my thigh.
It’s a perfect moment.