WMIS 08 Forever With Me (15 page)

“Yeah, well, I thought you should know.”

“Why?”
 

“Why what?”

“Why are you telling me this?” I turn my back on my brothers again and pace away.
 

“Because I think you’ll be good for her, and because when I got off the phone with her a little while ago, she sounded regretful that she left, and I know she won’t fix it on her own.”

I push my hand through my hair and shake my head in exasperation. “I’m on my way to her place.”

“I think she was going to go help out with a wedding tonight, but you might catch her if you leave now.”

“Thanks, man.”

I hang up and return, just as Matt scowls at Caleb and shouts, “Are you just going to stand around all fucking afternoon?”

“No,” Caleb replies sarcastically, “I’m gonna fuckin’ riverdance, asshole.”

The guys laugh at Caleb’s witty response as I slip my phone in my pocket.

“I have to go, guys.”

“Everything okay?” Will asks.

“No, but it will be. If you need anything, Celeste is just inside.”

“We’re fine,” Isaac says. “We’ll have this done in an hour, tops.”

“Is she okay?” Caleb asks.

“I don’t know.” I shove my hands through my hair again. “I’m going to go figure it out.”

“Let us know if you need anything,” Matt says.

“Good luck,” Luke says with a grin, as the others wave. I run through the house, grab my keys and wallet, and set off to Alecia’s apartment.

She fucking
ran.

***

I take the stairs up to Alecia’s floor, rather than wait for the elevator. Just as I burst through the stairwell doors, Alecia is stepping out of her apartment and her eyes go wide when she sees me stalking toward her.

“What are you doing here?”

“That’s my question,” I reply, and stop a few feet away from her.
 

“I live here,” she replies and props her hands on her hips, pulling her pink blouse tight over her full breasts, and making my cock take notice. “But I’m about to go to work—”

“No, you’re not.”

Her jaw drops at the hard tone in my voice.

“Yes, I believe I am.”

“You’re going to invite me in your place so we can work out all the reasons why you ran from the villa today.”

Her eyes narrow on my face. “I didn’t
run
anywhere.”

“Like hell.” I step forward and cage her in against her door, my hands on either side of her face, and lean in, but don’t touch her. Not yet. She takes a deep breath and lays a hand on my chest to push me away, but instead swallows hard and stares at my mouth.

“I couldn’t stay there,” she whispers before catching herself. She grips my shirt in her fist and scowls up at me with bright, angry brown eyes. “And it’s none of your business if I decided to come home for the day.”

“It’s my business,
tesoro
, to make sure you’re okay, and you clearly weren’t if you felt that you couldn’t stay in my home after I’d just spent the better part of last night and this morning inside you.” Unable to resist touching her for one more moment, I drag my knuckles down her cheek, and feel the flare of satisfaction when her eyes close and she leans into my touch. “Invite me in, please.”

“I told Emily I’d help her tonight.”
 

“You can un-tell her.”

“You’re not going to leave, are you?”
 

“No,
cara
, I’m not leaving.”

She opens the door at her back and motions for me to follow her into her apartment, closes and locks the door and pulls her phone out of her bra.

“Emily, I’m sorry, something’s come up, and I won’t be able to help you after all.” She smiles as she watches me lean my hips back against her kitchen counter. “I know you didn’t really need me in the first place. But you know where to find me if you do need anything. Good luck.” She clicks off and sets the phone and her handbag on the table by the front door. “Happy?”

“No.” I sigh and cross my arms over my chest. “No, I don’t think
happy
is the right word to describe how I feel.”

“How do you feel?”

“Frustrated. Concerned. Baffled. To start.”

She nods slowly and walks past me to the kitchen, pours us each a glass of Merlot, then passes one to me.

“This isn’t one of mine,” I comment wryly and take a sip.
 

“No, but it’s nice.” She walks out of the kitchen toward the living room and I can smell her citrusy shampoo as she passes by.
 

“Hmm.” The wine is nice, and I have a feeling she needs it to bolster her courage.

“Have a seat,” she says, motioning to the couch, and I have to take a breath to rein in my temper. This morning, she was writhing beneath me and now she’s speaking to me like I’m a business associate.

So, I sit right next to her and brace my arm on the back of the couch behind her head and pull the pins out of her hair, letting it spill into my fingers.

“That took me a while to put up,” she says.

“I like it down.”

“I’ve noticed.”

“Talk to me,
cara
.”

“What do you want me to say?”
 

“Fuck this.” I take her glass and set them both on the coffee table, then cradle her face in my hands and kiss the hell out of her. She gasps and grips my shirt in her fists at my sides and holds on tight as I take the kiss from hot and hard to soft and lazy and back again, before pulling away and staring into her eyes. They’ve gone soft and glassy, making me feel satisfied. “That’s better.”

“You’re good at that,” she whispers with a sigh.

“As are you. I don’t want you to pull away from me,
tesoro
. Not now. Not after last night.”

She tries to look down, but I catch her chin with my thumb and finger and keep her gaze locked on mine. “If you get scared, or nervous, or have doubts, you run
to
me, not
from
me, do you understand?”

“This is so far outside my comfort zone, I don’t know what to do.”

“I think that’s the most honest thing you’ve ever said to me,” I murmur and kiss her forehead. “I’m not letting you slip through my fingers, Alecia. I’m not going anywhere, today or any other day. But I can’t understand if you don’t talk to me.”

She shakes her head and closes her eyes, but not before I see the pain there, and my own heart cracks for her.
 

“Being naked with you is easy compared to talking to you about my past.”

“I love it when you’re naked with me,” I murmur with a smile. She opens her eyes and grins back at me. “But I need you to talk to me. Let’s start with what we were talking about the other night. I believe you said something about not believing in happily ever after.” She squirms and finally pushes me away, and then stands.
 

And just when I think she’s going to throw me out of her apartment, she surprises me with, “Let’s take a bath.”

Chapter Ten

She doesn’t stop to see if I’m following her as she walks purposefully into the bathroom, wine in hand, and turns on the taps of the garden tub.

“Nice bathroom,” I comment calmly as I lean a shoulder against the doorjamb, watching her as she bustles about, keeping her hands busy pinning her hair back on her head and setting out towels.

“It sold me on the place,” she replies with a grin. “I haven’t used the tub yet. No time.”

She kicks out of her sexy black heels and begins stripping off her clothes as the tub fills and the room heats up, and I can only stand here and watch her. She’s not trying to tease me, she’s not trying to be enticing.
 

And yet I want to rush to her, strip her bare and fuck her against the bathroom vanity more than I’ve ever wanted anything.

Except to hear what she has to say. She won’t make eye contact, and I let her take her time to get comfortable. She pours something into the water that makes the room smell like jasmine. Turning her back from me, and this will be the last fucking time she ever does that, she strips bare and sinks down into the water.

“Are you just going to stand there and look at me?” she asks testily.
 

“Was that an invitation?”

She exhales deeply and closes her eyes, then offers me a shy smile. “I’m sorry. Yes, please join me.”

I push away from the doorway and unbutton my shirt, slip it off my shoulders and hang it on the hook behind the door. I don’t take my eyes off of her as I undress, and can’t help the smile that comes as her eyes follow my hands, gliding down my body. She licks her bottom lip as her eyes widen and her breathing picks up. I walk toward her, but rather than sit behind her, I sink into the water opposite her, pick her foot up and begin to dig my thumb into the sole, earning a low moan from her sweet lips.

“Oh, God, that’s good.”

I’m not sure what to do for her, and this is a first for me. So I simply sit and wait, letting the hot water work its magic, relaxing us both, and finally, after long minutes of me rubbing her feet and calves, she leans her head back on the edge of the tub, closes her eyes, and begins to talk.

“I’m not a particularly lovable person, Dominic.”

And pisses me off from the first words out of her gorgeous mouth.

“My mother never made it a secret that she didn’t want children.”

“Are you an only child?” I ask quietly, casually.

“Yes. My parents didn’t plan to have kids, and I was a mistake.”

You’re not a motherfucking mistake.

“From the time I was small, it was clear that I was an interruption. They loved each other, very much, and intended to always be a couple.” She pauses and bites her lip, a small frown between her eyebrows, as though she’s choosing her words carefully. “It wasn’t that they didn’t love me, in their way, they just weren’t interested in me.”

I rub my hands up her calves, massaging the muscles in her slender legs and concentrate on keeping my breathing even and face calm.

“From the time I was old enough to eat by myself, my mom would fix me a plate and set me up in front of the television to eat, so she and dad could eat together in the kitchen. That was
their time
. It still is.” She shrugs her shoulders, making her nipples surface above the water line and pucker from the cold air. Her cheeks are flushed pink from the warmth of the water. She’s pink everywhere.

Gorgeous.

“They kept me busy in school,” she continues. Her voice is perfectly calm. There’s no anger, no sadness. Just composure. “I also play the piano. I had lessons twice a week from the time I was four until I graduated from high school. Then, when I wasn’t involved with piano, they had me in soccer, basketball, and softball.”

She cringes and then laughs. “I fucking hate to run.”

“You hate to run?” I ask with a smile.

“I do. I hate it. And they always signed me up for things that involved running. I asked if I could do cheerleading or
anything
else, but those sports were on a regular rotation, so I was always doing something after school.” She sighs. “That’s probably why I don’t like to exercise much now and my ass is too big.”

“Your ass is not too big,” I reply calmly, but inside I want to beat the shit out of her parents. Who the fuck treats their child like they’re an imposition? “Besides, you run around plenty for your job. In heels, no less.” I drag my thumb along her arch, earning a groan from her.
 

“I’m used to the heels,” she replies and smiles at me, then leans her head back again and continues her story. “So, I was in school all day, practicing
something
each afternoon, then doing school work until bedtime each day.”

“Surely your parents attended your games. Your recitals?”

“No, those were their date nights,” she replies quietly. “I don’t recall them ever going to an event.”

My hands still on her foot, and tighten just a bit as pure rage seers through me. Alecia’s head comes up and she frowns at me. “What’s wrong?”

I shake my head and resume rubbing her foot. “Nothing. Go on.”

Her eyes narrow on mine for a moment, then she shrugs and leans her head back again. “You’ve got good hands.”

“You’ve got good feet,” I reply, waiting her out.

“So, when I was a senior in high school, I met Jonathan. He was…attentive.”

“Attentive?” I ask.

“He paid attention to me. I was always kind of shy. I didn’t make a lot of friends, mostly because I was always too busy to spend time with them after school. But Jonathan paid attention. He was also a senior. He used to say he liked the looks of me.” She giggles.

“Why wouldn’t he like the looks of you?”

“It was the turn of phrase that made me laugh. He could be charming. And he was interested in me.”

And you soaked that up like a sponge in the ocean,
fiorellino.

“My parents happily sent me off to college. They didn’t care which one, as long as I went away.”