Shane
Cat slips back into the car and tosses a box on my lap. “Happy?”
“Massive Cock Covers?” I pick up the black-and-gold box, turning it over in my hand. “Double extra-large. At least you got the sizing right. Of course, that doesn’t save my pride when visiting Deer Lake.” I reverse from the spot where I waited for her in the pharmacy parking lot.
“We could do a press release?” She opens the small bag in her lap, the crinkling competing with her voice. “We can stage a setup. You can get caught on camera by the paparazzi with your box of massive cock covers. That will put any rumors to rest.” She holds up the bag. “Got my pills.”
“That’s a relief.”
“Yes. We have nothing to worry about. No skipped days.”
“That’s good.” I’m not a baby person, but they take to me like Mack and Posey have. It doesn’t mean I want kids of my own. Do I?
Having kids isn’t something I’ve been in a situation to want.
I look over at Cat, who has propped her elbow up on the door and is staring out the window.
“Oh,” she says, looking back at me, “an anonymous tipster can call in a blind item about how they had to get a few stitches after having sex with you?” She’s so eagerly hopeful that I almost feel bad letting her down.
“You’re a little too good at this, babe.”
“I’m a quick study.”
I’ve tried to keep it serious since it usually is when my dick is the topic of conversation, but I chuckle, letting her win this round.
She’s too cute not to. I pull off to the side before I reach the line of cars exiting the shopping center.
Looking at Cat sitting so contentedly beside me, I run my hand over her thigh.
“I’m not holding you to the forty-eight hours.
We’re back in Los Angeles.” Glancing at the line of cars lengthening, I add, “We’re right around the corner from your apartment. I can drive you home.”
“Is that what you want?” she asks, all joy stolen from her eyes.
“No. I want to spend time with you, but I want to do it without the threat of legal proceedings. I want it because you want to be with me. I want it—”
“I want to be with you, Shane.” Her voice is steady, her hand resting on mine. Her eyes are set on mine, and there are no doubts hidden anywhere in her body language.
I nod, then pull into the line to exit. Ferraris aren’t uncommon in this city, so I don’t worry about outsiders catching me, but I do wonder if we should be going to my house versus her apartment.
Giving her leg a little squeeze, I lean over and kiss her.
And then a car’s horn blares, driving my eyes back to the green light ahead.
I start driving, heading to her place. At the gate, I look over at her once more.
“What do you think about coming to mine? You don’t work until Tuesday.
You’re already packed. You can grab whatever else you need, and we can go over there for a few days. ”
In her smile, I see what I thought was only a dream—a future with her and the possibilities that come along with it. “I like that idea.” After pulling into the complex, I drive us to her building. When I park, she adds, “I only need a few things. I’ll run in and be quick.”
I watch her hop out and rush to her door. She doesn’t need to. I’ve waited ten months for her. I can wait five minutes. Sitting in the car builds the anticipation for what’s to come, a lot like a first date—slightly nervous, more excited.
I don’t know that my house offers more than her place does, but it gives us privacy, and that’s worth its weight in gold to me. My phone rings. Laird’s name appears on the screen on the dashboard. “Hey, what’s up?”
“You’ve gone radio silent,” he says. “Thought I should check on you.”
“I’m touched,” I reply sarcastically. “It’s been like two days tops.”
A chuckle frequents the other end of the line. “Seems longer. Hey, I have a new riff I’ve been working on. I think you’ll dig it. You have some free time this week? I can come over, and we can mess around your studio.”
“Tuesday onward.” I’m not going to lie about Cat, but I don’t need to blurt out every detail of what’s changed in my life practically overnight.
“What do you have going on this weekend?”
This is where I need to decide how I’m going to handle it. Straightforward is always best. “I just got back into the city from an overnight at Deer Lake.”
“Oh yeah, Poppy mentioned you were doing that. With a girl or just getting away?”
Wife comes to mind as the correct adjective, but he doesn’t know Cat and I are even dating.
Hell, I didn’t know we were until yesterday.
Things move fast. Life even quicker. The pieces came together because it was right, but I should probably ease the family in on the marriage detail. “Yeah, a woman I’m seeing.”
“Is it serious? It sounds like it, considering you called her a woman, not a girl or chick.”
He knows me well. “It’s I-took-her-to-Deer-Lake serious.”
“Damn, dude. This came out of nowhere.”
“Not so out of nowhere, Laird. You’ve just been busy with the twins and new music.”
“Yeah.” I hear crying in the background. He says, “Mack’s throwing a fit because he missed his nap.”
Staring at the plethora of plants on Cat’s patio, I say, “I do the same. How are my favorite cousins?”
“Nikki and I are great.” He laughs a little too hard.
I’m laughing too, so it’s all good. “Fucker.”
“Mack and Posey miss you. So do Poppy and I.” Laird wasn’t always sentimental. We were one and the same that way. It made it easy to maneuver through the rise in fame with a closed-off heart. Poppy changed all that in him and the twins even more so.
I’m not so opposed to wanting the same these days.
“It’s good to be missed sometimes. Let’s catch up this week about the riff and so I can see the babies.” I see Cat locking her door. “I need to go.”
“We’ll talk soon.”
Cat pulls open the door and slips into the passenger seat next to me.
She doesn’t feel like a passenger. She doesn’t feel like a co-pilot.
She feels like a partner—in crime sometimes, but a partner all the same.
“Look what I found.” She waggles a thick and oversized blue book in front of her. “Our yearbook.”
Her excitement is contagious, but mine’s not regarding the yearbook. It’s because she’s in my life. “Oh wow. That’s great.”
“We can do our research tonight.”
“I had other ideas to pass the hours, but maybe we can fit it in.”
She laughs, buckling her seat belt. Pleased as punch, she sits back with a huge fucking smile on her face. “This is going to be fun.”
“It sure is.”
“Oh, and by the way, I took my pill.”
More fun indeed.
I set a glass of wine on the table next to the lounge chair where Cat has taken up residence. “Look how cute you were, Shane.” Tapping the page in the yearbook she has spread open in front of her, she looks up at me and grins.
My whole world is wrapped up in that gorgeous smile of hers.
Popularity came easily based on our looks in high school. Some people never change, putting weight on stuff that’s not as important as who a person is on the inside.
I peer over her shoulder and smile when I see the girl beside me at eighteen. Leaning down, I tap the photo. “Look at that beauty. Wonder what she’s up to these days?” I smirk when Cat giggles.
“No one would believe it.”
“Everyone would believe it. You don’t see yourself properly.”
Rubbing the back of my leg, she angles her head back and puckers, calling me for a kiss.
As my lips press against hers, I realize this is one in a million.
A million more kisses span our lifetime, and if she lets me, I’ll double it.
Returning to the page, she says, “It’s how I felt on the inside. Invisible to the world.”
I move around to the other chair and sit down on the side facing her.
I don’t know what to say to make this right for her.
I don’t think it’s something I can fix. Resting my hand on her ankle, I watch as she sits there with the sun shining in her eyes.
“You were never invisible to me. I wasn’t brave enough for you. I wasn’t ready to be what you needed.”
Sitting forward, she smiles with the sweetest expression embedded into her pretty face. “You don’t have to be a knight in shining armor for me. I can save myself. I always have. But at eighteen, you were the perfect crush for me.”
I move over to the end of her chair, pushing the yearbook closer to her. “What about at thirty-one?”
Her cheeks pinken, and she leans forward to whisper, “At thirty-one, I get to call you husband.”
Leaning forward, I push up on my knee, shoving the yearbook aside.
The book hits the deck as I kiss my wife like she deserves to be.
She fumbles with my shirt, dragging it up my body until I sit up and tug it off over my head.
When she starts on the button to my jeans, I still her hands. “We can’t. Not out here.”
She looks around but then turns back with confusion, stitching her eyebrows together. “The neighbors can’t see us. I don’t see any houses facing us.”
“It’s not about the neighbors. It’s about the long lenses.”
“Oh . . .” She steals a quick but shuddering breath, and then says, “Let’s go inside then.”
I’m on my feet and scooping her into my arms. Her long hair hangs over my arms, and her giggles are a shot of happiness to my heart.
I don’t bother closing the door. It’s dark enough in here compared to outside to fuck up some shutter speeds.
I lay her on the couch, reaching down to help her take off some of those clothes, but she sits up. “No.”
“No?” She was giving me every green flag. She’s the one who wanted to come inside. Fuck. I can’t say I’m not disappointed. On the outside of the jeans, I adjust my dick because they’re feeling too tight with an erection.
“No. I mean, yes. God yes.” Her eyes almost roll back in her head just saying the words. “I want to please you first.”
“You always please me, babe.”
“I know.” She stands, walking me backward until the backs of my legs hit the chair. She lowers, undoing my pants and then dragging them down.