Chapter 22
anything 4 u - LANY
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inner with her parents felt like a cruel form of torture after a day filled with teasing touches, longing glances, and emotional revelations. It didn’t help that when Abby left the shower, already defaulting to Erik’s room as her exit, she found him squeezing her remaining clean clothes into his tiny wardrobe. Her bag of books was neatly stacked in front of the desk, and her suitcase now stood in the corner of the room, right next to his.
Across her years of reading and studying romance books, she’d considered a long list of kinks she might have. But until Erik turned and smiled at her, one dress still in his hand, she hadn’t realised quite how high good old-fashioned domesticity might feature in the rankings.
‘I moved you in. Is that okay?’
The wardrobe door groaned when she pressed him against it in response.
Erik’s plan to provoke their parents into outright asking if there was anything between them seemingly consisted of touching her more than he ever had before. Nora’s eyes tracked their way across the dining room as they walked with their hands clasped firmly together. He didn’t let go as he helped Abby into her seat, but brushed his lips over her fingers with a sly smile as he sat down.
All throughout dinner, he was relentless.
He rested his hand low on her back as they waited in the buffet queue, his thumb kneading firm circles into her spine that made her arch delicately into him.
‘Are you trying to make them suspicious, or me desperate?’ Abby finally asked.
Feigned hurt flashed across Erik’s face, and he pulled her closer to him as they approached the pasta station, where he would indulge in his nightly portion of lasagna. ‘As if I would ever tease you.’ The lingering kiss he ducked to press to her jaw didn’t do much to prove his point.
Dinner conversation continued politely and mostly without them, although two pairs of beady eyes focused in their direction each time Erik tucked her hair behind her ear, or ran his fingers over her bare shoulder, or leaned in to kiss her cheek, normally accompanied by a whisper she hoped only she could hear. They ranged from sweet—’You look so beautiful tonight’—to filthy—’I’m going to need you to make that sound again later’. The latter came after she took a sip of a cinnamon chocolate martini so good that a small moan escaped her. He responded to her flushed face with a wink as he slid out of his seat to fetch dessert.
On his return, he bent over her to slide a bowl of ice cream onto her place setting. Later he would say he’d been aiming for her cheek, but the sharp lift of her head as she looked up to thank him had their lips colliding instead. There was a split second where they might have been able to pull apart and brush it off as an accident. An opportunity that was shattered when Erik softened his lips, tilted his head, and placed a hand on Abby’s shoulder to lean into the kiss, as if it was already second nature to him.
It only lasted a moment.
It was enough.
Abby pulled back to find identical grins on Nora and her mother’s faces. Both Peter and her father looked up to assess the silence that had fallen over the table, shrugged, then went back to their conversation about golf.
‘Is there anything you’d like to tell us?’ Nora asked, glee colouring her voice.
‘No,’ Erik said simply. ‘Susan, could you pass the sugar bowl, please?’
She did, her face still split by an enormous smile. Her eyes slid to Abby. ‘Darling?’
Abby glanced at Erik, his eyes softening as they locked with hers. He offered her an apologetic little smile as his hand drifted towards her thigh. She laced her fingers through his. ‘It just sort of happened, mother. There’s not much to tell.’
Susan exchanged an exasperated look with Nora.
‘That’s all we get? Twenty-five years we’ve been waiting for this and “It just sort of happened”?’ Nora sighed. ‘Has it been going on all week? Did it start before? You two could have saved us so much money if you’d just shared a room, dears.’
Abby felt her cheeks explode with colour at the implications of that, as her mother narrowed her eyes at them, cogs turning behind the seas of green that were a near perfect match to her own.
‘Did you two even have food poisoning? Or was that just a ruse to spend some time alone?’
Now her mother decided to take an interest in her health.
‘We only got together last night,’ Erik said slowly.
It wasn’t strictly a lie, and his voice remained mostly steady. Still, Abby jumped in before he could veer too far into obvious fallacy.
‘I went straight to bed when we got upstairs. I woke up a few hours later and went to Erik’s room to see if he was feeling okay. We put on a movie, started talking, and it all came out.’
‘I finally got to admit how I’ve felt about her…forever, really. And I’m lucky enough that she feels the same.’ With his last words, Erik lifted his hand to stroke her cheek gently, and she felt weak under the staggering weight of love in his expression.
How had she possibly thought he didn’t have feelings for her? She’d seen this face so many times, and told herself repeatedly it meant nothing. Abby’s emotions had always been better guarded than Erik’s; she couldn’t blame him for not seeing how she’d felt all these years. But she had been a blind fool if she’d ever really thought he’d gotten over her.
Nora and her mother mainly resumed their conversation amongst themselves, reminiscing on moments they’d sworn their children might finally admit they were meant to be.
‘Remember how she used to wear his clothes all the time?’
‘ Used to ? I found her in his jacket this afternoon! And the way they would cuddle up on the couch to watch a movie?’
‘I always said Abby’s obsession with The Princess Bride was because Erik looked like that blonde boy.’
And then, with the same expression of careless glee, Susan turned to Andrew. ‘At least with Erik around there’ll be someone to make sure the grandchildren go into the sciences.’
Abby’s dessert spoon slid from her hand, clinking heavily against her bowl. Had she really thought they would let her get through a whole week without this coming up?
Beside her, Erik had gone very, very still. She didn’t blame him. Funny enough, the question of kids hadn’t yet come up in the single day they’d been a couple. But when he spoke, his voice deathly quiet, she realised that was far from the source of his discomfort.
‘If you want to be allowed anywhere near those grandchildren, I suggest you start showing the woman I love a little more respect.’
Erik had always tried to defend her, finding subtle ways to diffuse tension while showing implicit support for her. But in the light of their new dynamic, it felt different. Abby squeezed the hand in her lap tighter, offering him a weak smile. He didn’t return it, eyes still narrowed at her parents.
‘She’s an adult. When are you going to start accepting her decisions? So she didn’t follow the plan you had for her. That doesn’t mean she isn’t brilliant and talented and making a success of the path she chose. And much happier for it, not that it matters to you, clearly .’
Her parents wore matching expressions of surprise. Her mother had barely begun sputtering a response—the first time Abby had ever seen her lost for words—when Erik finally turned to her.
‘Are you done?’ He cocked his head sharply at her dessert bowl.
Abby nodded mutely, following as he tugged her from her seat and across the dining room. He remained stonily silent until they entered the lift, where he slumped against the wall as he gathered her face gently in his hands and kissed her forehead. ‘I’m sorry,’ he muttered. ‘I shouldn’t have done that.’
‘No, love.’ She felt his lips curl against her skin at the endearment. ‘That was amazing. I don’t think anyone has ever spoken to them like that, much less in my defence. Are you okay?’
‘Yeah. That wasn’t exactly the dream first dinner I had planned to show your parents what a catch I am. But yeah. They needed to hear it. And I’m prepared to keep telling them until they listen.’ Somewhere above her head, Erik blew out a hard breath. When he looked down at her again, his eyes were blazing. ‘I know there’ll be hell to pay in the morning, but tonight…tonight I don’t want to think about anything that isn’t you.’
The intensity of his gaze had her whole body igniting.
‘I think that can be arranged.’