Chapter 25
chapter twenty-five
Luke
“Good morning, beautiful,” I whisper to Mia as soon as she opens her eyes.
She rolls over and looks at me, a light expression on her face. As she gazes at me, I lean forward and give her a quick kiss.
“Morning,” she says. “How did you sleep?”
She’s almost awkward, which I find adorable.
“Well. You good?”
She nods, smiling. “Last night was absolutely insane.”
Her eyes widen, and I feel like I’m on a roller-coaster ride, and I don’t know when it’s going to stop.
“I kind of feel the same way—and not just because you were riding me all night long.”
“I was not riding you all night long,” she says, but blushes.
I pull her toward me, her naked body pressing into mine. I run my fingers down her silky skin and press my lips against hers. She runs her fingers down my back, and I roll on top of her.
“What do you want to do today?”
“I don’t know. What do you want to do?”
She moans as I spread her legs and run my fingers along her slit. She’s wet, and I’m hard, and some morning sex is just how I want to get the day started.
“Luke,” she says, feverishly as I kiss the side of her face and position myself between her legs. “I just woke up.”
“Hey, and that’s the perfect way to wake up, right?”
“Maybe,” she murmurs against my lips.
I slide into her quick and fast, and she grunts as she wraps her legs around my hips. I move in and out of her slowly. I want to savor this.
“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh,” she moans, arching her back, her breasts pushing against my chest. I love the feel of her breasts against my skin.
I love the way she fits into me. I love the way she whimpers and shivers and holds onto me like I’m an anchor in the ocean and only I can save her.
“Luke.” She whines my name and it has never sounded sexier.
I hold the side of her face and kiss her softly. I continue thrusting inside of her, loving the feel of being in her—like a puzzle piece that fits just right. We are two lego pieces that just click into place.
“That Ed Sheeran song should play right now, don’t you think?” I whisper against her lips.
“What do you mean?” She tilts her head slightly. “Which one?”
“Lego House.” I run my fingers across her nipple and she arches her back, a loud wail escaping her perfectly pouted lips as I squeeze it.
“Why do you say that?” She can barely speak as her eyes roll back in ecstasy.
“Cos we’re like lego pieces. We fit together perfectly.”
“If you say so,” she says, giggling slightly.
I pause, and she groans and looks at me with wide-open eyes.
“Why did you stop?”
“If you don’t think we’re like a puzzle piece—”
“Haha, really, Luke?”
“What?” I say, teasing her. “I don’t want to give you something that you so obviously aren’t enjoying.”
She glares at me. “You really want to play these games? Because I will withhold sex from you forever if you don’t continue.”
“So, are you asking me to give you the best sex of your life?”
“I never said that,” she says.
I press the tip of my cock against her entrance again, and she moans.
“Luke—”
“What is it? Or is it not the best sex of your life?”
“Fine. It’s the best.”
I slide into her hard, and she screams, her fingernails digging into my back.
“You want to go on a boat ride today? Maybe we can ask Juniper and Rafe if they want to come.”
“I can’t think about that right now,” she mumbles as she bites down on my shoulder.
I feel her back arching as she holds on to me, squeezing me tighter and tighter as I move faster and faster. I love how she makes me feel. I love how being inside of her makes me feel.
I slip my tongue into her mouth, and she sucks on it as I thrust faster and harder, and then we’re coming together. I’m exploding inside of her, and she orgasms. Then we lie back, panting.
I lazily stroke the side of her face, and she moans.
“That was a pretty awesome way to wake up—I’m not going to lie.” She grins at me. “Feel free to do that every morning that you’re still here in town.”
She pauses slightly as we both realize what her words mean.
There’s going to come a point when I have to go back to New York City, and she’s going to be here, and I don’t want that point to be the end of whatever we have.
I don’t want that point to be something that leaves us both feeling anxious.
I want her to want to be with me. I want her to fully give herself to me in love.
I want her to know that we will make it.
We will defy the odds because there is no one that could have a better relationship than us.
But I’m not going to push it because I know patience is the answer. Patience is the only thing that can make this work.
I don’t really understand why she’s nervous.
I don’t really understand what is keeping her from fully embracing a life with me.
I’m not sure if it’s because I’m wealthy and I’ve told her that I’d like to support her.
I’m happy for her to keep her independence.
I just have to let her know that. I need her to know that I don’t want to take anything away from her.
I just want to give her more, show her more, be more.
But I will have to be patient because I don’t want to upset the delicate balance that exists between us.
“I love you, Mia,” I say as I stare into her eyes.
She smiles and stares back at me. My heart stills, frozen in time for a moment, as I fear she’s not going to say anything back to me.
“I love you too, Luke.”
“You love me?” My heart soars. “Or you think you love me?”
“I love you. Of course I love you.” She strokes the side of my face.
“I just don’t know. I feel like we belong together.
I feel like every moment with you is like the best day of my life.
I don’t know if this is just a fantasy though, Luke.
We’re in this gorgeous hotel room. We’re getting to spend every day together.
We’ve sort of just taken our friendship to a new level, and it’s exciting and new.
But I don’t know if we can exist in reality, being such different people. ”
“I’m imagining my life with you, Mia. I’m imagining you as the mother of my kids. I want it all with you, and I know you want to get married. I know you want to have kids because we’ve spoken about this for years.”
She strokes the side of my face. “Have you ever thought that you would be the father of my kids?”
“I don’t know if you want to know the honest answer to that. I don’t want you to think I’m crazy.”
“I don’t think you’re crazy, but what does that mean?”
“It means that I can see you in New York. I can see you living with me. I can see me going to work and coming home and you being there. I can—”
“Well, that’s where you’re wrong, Luke,” she says, pulling back from me. “I don’t want to be in New York.”
I can see the dismay in her eyes. I can see that she’s pulling away, that she really doesn’t think it can work. She’s not going to push for it like I want to push for it.
“What about England? What if I choose to go to England for that job?”
“I don’t want to go to England. I don’t want to go to New York. I love Coconut Beach. This is my life. This is my home. My friends are here.”
“But I’m your best friend.”
“You are my best friend, but I need more than just you, Luke.”
“My love is not good enough?”
“I could ask you the same thing. My love’s not good enough for you to just stop putting that job first? You can’t find another job somewhere else?”
And then, suddenly, it clicks.
This is about my job.
I stare at her. “This is about my job?”
“Of course it’s about your job. I’ve been telling you it’s about your job.”
I didn’t get it. I guess I heard the words, but I wasn’t processing them.
“You think that the job is more important than you? Really, Mia, how could you think that?”
“You haven’t been back home in five years.
You haven’t invited me to New York. You didn’t even come early when you were supposed to because of the job.
You’ve disappeared different times on this trip because of the job.
I feel like whenever we’re getting closer, you have to go because of your job, and I just don’t want to be second fiddle to your job. ”
I stare at her, finally understanding what she is feeling, what she has been experiencing, and I’m frustrated.
I’m frustrated because I’ve worked my entire life to get to this place, and I’m so close to getting to the next level.
I’m so close to achieving all my dreams and finally showing everyone in my family—especially Rex—that I am the better brother.
And then it hits me.
It hits me that I’ve been living and striving for something for such a stupid, obstinate reason, and I am about to lose the love of my life for it.
“Fuck, Mia—”
“No, I’m not going to fuck you again right now, Luke. That’s not what I’m saying.”
“I know.”
She gives me a small smile. “You don’t have to say anything, Luke. It’s okay. We just kind of want two different things from relationships.”
“We don’t—”
My phone starts ringing, and I want to ignore it.
“You should answer that.”
“I can get it later.”
“It could be your job. It could be something important.”
“Mia, we’re literally in the middle of a conversation where you said you want me to put you first. I’m not going to answer the phone.”
“Please answer it.”
I take a deep breath and grab the phone. I’m surprised when I see it’s my grandmother’s name on the screen.
“Hey, Grandma. Is everything okay?”
“No,” she says. “It’s not.”
“Wait, what’s wrong?”
“Everything is going to shit. I knew this was going to happen. I just knew it, and we need you. I need you to come right now.”
“What’s going on?”
“It’s Rex.”
“Oh shit. What has he done now?”
“He’s run the business into the ground. He’s overleveraged the company. We owe hundreds of thousands to different creditors. We’ve lost several contracts. We need your help.”
“What?” I frown. “What are you talking about, Grandma?”
I can see Mia looking at me with a curious expression in her eyes.
“Please, you need to come now, Luke.”
“Grandma, I can’t. I’m in the middle of something.”
“We just got notice that we have forty-eight hours to come up with six hundred seventy-five thousand dollars, or we’re going to lose one of the stores, and your great-grandfather started that store. You’re the only one who can help.”
“Why can’t Rex take care of it? He’s the CEO. Dad put him in charge.”
“Please, Luke. I need you to come now.”
“Okay,” I say. “I’ll be there in an hour.”
“Thank you. I love you, grandson.”
“I love you, Grandma.”
I hang up, guilt filling me as I stare at Mia.
“You’ve got to go,” she says softly. “Is everything okay?”
“I don’t know,” I say. “There seems like there’s some sort of family crisis, and maybe the family’s about to lose the business.”
Her eyes widen. “What? What’s going on?”
“I guess Rex has not been doing as good of a job as he’s been letting on.”
“Of course not.” She rolls her eyes. “He fucking sucks.”
“Well, Grandma said that they owe over half a million dollars, and they might be about to lose the business. I don’t really understand what’s going on. I haven’t been involved in such a long time, but she wants me to help.”
“Then you should go.”
“I don’t want to go, Mia. I don’t want you to think that I’m choosing business over you.”
“It’s your family. It’s okay.”
“You are my family, Mia. You’re the most important person to me in my life, and I don’t want to leave when you’ve just expressed to me that you think business comes first in my eyes—and it doesn’t.”
“You’re helping family, Luke, and I would never resent you for that.
I don’t even resent the fact that you care so much about business.
I just have always wanted to be number one in someone’s life.
I’ve always wanted to feel seen and noticed, and maybe that’s selfish of me.
Maybe it’s unrealistic, but that’s what I want, and that’s what I need.
And I love you, and I want you to be happy. ”
“I’m only going to be happy if I’m with you, Mia. I love you. This is not just a summer romance for me. This is forever.”
“I love you, too, but I’d rather not go any further with us than risk losing myself in you and losing myself in this relationship and then getting heartbroken and losing everything. I love you enough to let go,” she says softly.
“What do you mean, you love me enough to let go?”
“I’m scared, Luke. What if we don’t make it? What if we fuck things up? We’ve never been in a situation like this before, and I just don’t know.”
“Trust me, Mia. Trust me that I will always put you first, that I will always be there for you. I don’t have to go to my grandma’s right now. I will talk through anything you want to talk through. I will do anything you want to do. I will—”
“I’ll come with you,” she says.
“What do you mean?”
“I’ll come with you to your grandparents’ house, okay? I want to be a support for you, and I want you to know I’m okay with you helping them. This situation is not about that. It’s just about me being worried and nervous, and this is really new for me and for you. And what if we don’t make it?”
“But what if we do, Mia? What if it’s everything we could have ever dreamed of?”
“I don’t know,” she says. “I’m just scared that it could be everything I’ve ever dreamed of—and then I’ll lose it.”