18. Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Eighteen
Tyler
M ia’s lips were so soft. She had an addiction to lip gloss, so the suppleness of her lips shouldn’t be a surprise, but every time we kissed like this, long and deep, there was an extra jolt of pleasure that I got to experience her lips. I could kiss her forever.
The regrets might come, but I didn’t intend to take any of these moments for granted. I sank my hands deeper into her hair, drawing her closer. She scooted her butt along the kitchen island, wrapping her legs around me.
Pasha went to bed while the two of us were doing shots. Well, Mia’s glass was filled with sparkling water, but she couldn’t close out her twenty-first without some sort of liquid in a shot glass. So, I drank vodka while she poured herself some of the fancy sparkling water I gave her as part of her twenty-one gifts. After each shot, she pretended to get progressively drunker while I actually got a bit drunk. Our laughter was probably keeping Pasha awake.
When she perched on the island for her last shot and arched one eyebrow before tipping it back, I knew I didn’t want any more vodka. Her twenty-first needed to go out with a bang, not a fizzle. I still owed her a song…or two .
With ease, I lifted her off the island and cupped her ass in both hands. At the stairs, I shifted my grip, so I could grab the railing to navigate down. She laughed against my lips.
“This doesn’t feel safe.” She wrapped her arms around my neck and nibbled on my earlobe.
“It felt safe until you started doing that.”
She laughed against my neck, and when we got to the bottom of the stairs, I slid her along my body.
“I owe you a song,” I murmured.
“You’re going to sing to me?” Her blue-green eyes sparkled when she stared up.
“I am. I’m going to sing,” I kissed her, “until you climax,” I kissed her again, “while crying out my name.” There was nothing better than hearing my name in her strangled cry when she tipped over the edge. I heard it every day, sometimes more than once a day since we started this friends-with-benefits arrangement, and I had every intention of hearing it more than once tonight. I scooped up her lips for a deeper, longer kiss, and I gathered her dress around her waist, bunched in my hands.
“Are you a good singer? Is this a promise or a threat?” Her voice brimmed with amusement.
I tugged her dress over her head, and then our lips met again, my thumb circling her exposed nipple. “I promise something will be explosive, but I doubt my singing is all that great.”
“Well,” Mia said, drawing me closer. “This should be interesting.” Her fingers undid my jeans and pushed them down my hips, so they pooled around my ankles.
I gazed at her for a moment, an ache spreading across my chest at how beautiful she was, how lucky I was. Then I started a low, uneven tune, “ Happy Birthday to you .” I nibbled her neck in between words, and I slid my hand along her ass, savoring her soft, smooth skin.
“So far, so good.” She gasped when I eased my hand between her legs.
“ Happy Birthday to you. ” I grazed her breast with my teeth, and then I picked her up again, her legs locked around my waist.
At the bed, I laid her down, and she clutched the sheets when I parted her legs. I loved that she knew what was coming, already bracing herself for the pleasure. Along her inner thigh, I trailed kisses, teasing her. “ Happy Birthday, dear Mini .” I flicked my tongue along her center before pressing a little more firmly, the way she liked. “Happy Birthday to you,” I mumbled against her, feeling her tense with the pleasure.
“Tyler, please,” she moaned.
“Sing it again?” I asked, my tongue circling her clit.
A stifled laugh escaped her. “No, I want you. Inside me. God, I want to feel all of you.”
“Who am I to deny you on your birthday?” I crawled up her body and shed the rest of my clothes as I went. When we were face-to-face, I stared into her eyes for a moment. Those perfect, perfect eyes. Who knew one night all those months ago would lead to this? “Happy Birthday, Mia.”
She stroked my face, and another piece of our connection solidified, unspoken, lacing us tighter than any words could. Then she pulled me down for a kiss, and I slipped inside of her, my favorite place in the world, and we started to move in sync.
She was sprawled across my chest when she let out a sigh of contentment. “I don’t think I’ve ever had a birthday this good. Actually, I know I haven’t.”
“I aim to please.” I linked our hands and kissed her fingertips. Celebrations and surprises came easily. Pay attention, and the rest fell into place.
“I’m going to take advantage of your post-sex bliss and ask for a favor.” She shifted onto her side, flipping her hair around to lie against her shoulder. “And just because it’s my birthday, you don’t have to say yes.”
“What do you need, Mini?” I stroked the side of her face. Denying her seemed unlikely.
“A dress.” She grinned.
“Another one?”
“Yeah, but this one is for the gala run by the editor of VISION. You know what I’m talking about?”
“The biggest fashion event of the year.” I rubbed a hand down my face. With a sideways look at her, I shook my head. “I can’t make your dress for that. It’s in what—” In my head, I went through the time between now and then. “Four weeks?”
“I sort of forgot about it until my mother reminded me today.”
“You heard from her?” I frowned and turned to my side, so we were face-to-face.
“Sure, yeah. I mean, she’s not heartless.”
I wasn’t going to get into that debate, and I didn’t want to admit I hadn’t invited her to the surprise party. Maybe Mia had figured out the omission. “They’re not going to let some nobody design your dress.” For a designer, dressing someone for the VISION Gala meant you’d made it .
“I can ask whoever I want. People think you’re assigned a designer, and some people are. But I’m not big enough for that, not trendy enough yet. I want you to make it.”
“What’s the theme?”
“Space exploration.” Mia covered her face and peeked through her fingers.
“Space exploration?” Shouldn’t be surprising. The themes were never something you could anticipate, which is what created such a buzz in the industry. The gala was a melding of fashion and art. “You’re almost definitely going to look pregnant a month from now. If you don’t, you’re some sort of freak of nature.”
“Gee, thanks.”
“I’m just saying,” I ran my hand through my hair, “it’s a massive risk for you if I don’t get the dress right to conceal your bump.”
“That’s what you’re worried about?” She raised her eyebrows. “Not the international attention or designing to some wacky theme, but that my pregnancy might show?”
I stared at her for a beat and was tempted to laugh. She really didn’t understand me at all. “You and the baby are my priorities. So, of course exposing the two of you is my biggest concern. To spend months hiding your pregnancy to have the truth crash down around us over a dress at a fashion expo is ridiculous.”
She collapsed onto her back and stared at the ceiling. I watched her in silence, my mind already drawing sketches, considering materials, the best way to conceal her bump within the parameters of the theme.
“I might be able to do it,” I admitted.
“I know you can. The dress will be incredible. My dress today, Tyler, was one of the prettiest, most me things I’ve ever owned. Do that again, but on a bigger scale.”
“So, your expectations are pretty low then. Perfect.” I chuckled and picked up a strand of her hair, twirling it around my finger.
Mia opened her mouth and then closed it again. “Okay, don’t take this the wrong way. I’m not trying to be a dick, for once. You’re really talented. Why are you wasting your vision in a thrift shop in a tiny town in New York?”
I blew out a breath and eased onto my back beside her, lacing my fingers across my middle. Another opening to be honest, to draw us closer emotionally. She was probably expecting me to blow her off as I’d done every other time she asked anything about the shop or Katie. She had no idea how closely linked the two were.
“I worked on a small theater tour when I finished college, which you know. I networked my ass off to get a spot on that crew. Months of shitty jobs in Little Falls while I tried to build a portfolio and make some connections in the industry. Katie and I were living together, and I caught a break. I was so sure that’s all I needed—a foot in the door.”
“But you didn’t stay.”
“No, I didn’t stay. Four or five months into the tour, Katie came to visit, which she’d done a few times when the tour was relatively close. We didn’t have a lot of money. She showed up and broke up with me. Just…out of the blue. Ten years together, gone. So, I quit the tour and followed her home, here. She was packed, and had already taken a job on the other side of the country. Somehow, the relationship slipped through my fingers, and I didn’t even feel it going. ”
“Why didn’t you just go back on that tour or any tour?” Mia’s voice was quiet in the dark room. I wanted to look at her, but I wasn’t sure I’d like what I saw.
“I dropped out, left them in the lurch, so getting a reference from them was tricky. My parents bought me the thrift shop as soon as I got back, before it was clear Katie wouldn’t change her mind and wouldn’t stay. For months, I thought she’d return, or admit she made a mistake. I was afraid to leave.”
“In case she came back?”
“Yeah.”
“She didn’t?” Puzzlement was clear in her tone.
“Never heard from her. Not once. Seeing her at the hospital a few months ago was the first time I’d seen her in eight years.”
“Wow,” Mia breathed out the word. “You don’t know why?”
I shook my head and realized she probably couldn’t see that in the dimly lit room. “No. At the time, she said we’d grown apart. But it was a bullshit reason. A total fabrication. I don’t know what happened, but the problem wasn’t that.”
She was quiet for a long time, and I wondered if I should admit Katie wanted to talk, maybe reconnect.
“That must have been really hard,” she whispered.
“It was, yeah.”
“And now, she’s back.”
“And now, she’s back.” I let a beat sit before wading in. “I ran into her today at the café when I was getting the iced tea.” I took a deep breath, sure she wasn’t going to like the next part. Mia might not want me beyond the next few months, but she was territorial right now. “She wants to get coffee and talk. ”
“I don’t want you to.” Her response was almost instant, a hint of panic in her voice. “You can do whatever you want when I’m gone. But when I’m here, I don’t want you to see her. Other than our appointments, I don’t want you to see her. Okay? Can you promise me?”
I turned onto my side and stared down, brushing her hair back. “Whatever was between Katie and me ended eight years ago.”
“It’s fine.” She shook her head and bit her lip. “You can do whatever you like when I’m gone.” She met my gaze, her blue-green eyes glittering. “But you don’t go near her while I’m still here, okay?”
“Mia—”
She wrapped her hand around the back of my neck and pulled me down for a kiss. “My birthday ends in ten minutes, and I don’t want this conversation to be what I remember about it.” She shifted so she was under me. “Sing to me.”
I searched her face for a minute, at the naked vulnerability shining back. God, I hated hurting her. I’d told her the truth, and I was already regretting it. “I’m sorry, Mia.”
“Don’t.” She shook her head and pressed a fingertip to my lips. “In five or six months, you can do whatever you want. I will be. But right now, you’re mine. You’re mine.”
Five or six months.
I wanted to protest, to somehow convince her she didn’t need to go anywhere in a few months, that I’d take whatever this was with her over anything I’d ever had with anyone else.
But she didn’t want forever; she wanted just for now.
I touched my forehead to hers, our gazes locked. “Okay, Mini. Whatever you want. ”
Then we were kissing, and I was singing a muffled “Happy Birthday,” but there was a desperate edge to everything that hadn’t been there earlier in the night.
Between us, a clock ticked.