Brushing herself off, like she always does.
I open out the blanket I brought out and wrap her in it. “You know, if you count the days, months even, that you spent living inside my mind.” I reach under her top, smoothing my hand over the soft skin of her stomach. “Then I reckon you’ve both spent nearly the same amount of time here.”
Leaning against her, I whisper into her ear, “We all missed things we wish we didn’t, Nina. We can’t change thepast” —I flatten my palm on her hip as my finger traces one of the thin scars at the bottom of her stomach— “but we can make right now whatever we want it to be for him.”
“I want Ellis to have more—more than we both had.”
“I know,” I tell her, dropping my head to rest on her shoulder. “I want that too.”
“Mase, there’s a memorial ball for your parents on Saturday night, it’s at the estate and everyone has been too afraid to ask you,” she blurts out.
I tense, trying to process her words but she doesn’t give me more than a second before she is firing off again.
“I’ll be there, Ellis too. Vinny is going to be watching him in the house.” She turns in my arms. “It would mean the world to your sister if you came.” She rolls her lips. “It would mean the world tomeif you came.” She searches my face for any hint of a reaction, completely and utterly unaware that I would set the world on fire for her. “Ellis too,” she adds, trying to hook me.
I step away from her, waiting for her to take the blanket from my grip and then letting it go.
“Okay.” I nod.
“Okay?” She rears back.
“I’ll go to the memorial thing.”
She has that look on her face. Like the time I told her I was allergic to dogs.
“You will?”
TWENTY
Nina
“I said I would make the effort to come to the estate.”
My body vibrates as I force my feet to stay rooted to the floor and not wrap them around him. Scarlet will be so happy. I’m so happy.
“I was not expecting you to agree so easily.” In fact, I thought he would be pissed at me for asking and meddling in his family business.
“No? You think that low of me.” He gives me a boyish grin and I feel my dimples pop at this new easy territory we keep falling into.
I shrug, stepping past him and into the warmth of the bedroom. “Without a doubt, you would’ve been there. I wasn’t going to give you the choice not to be.” I smile at him over my shoulder. “But I didn’t expect you to just sayokay.” Dropping the blanket down on the bed, I go to the bathroomto pee. The door is pulled closed a second later and I sit and smile to myself.
“Luce has a tux for you, but if you need to, you can give her a ring and get it tried on! We were hoping it would fit!” I shout so he can hear me.
I’ve peed in front of him before, mainly after too many cocktails on our holiday.
Taking my time to wash my hands, I glance around at the familiar bathroom suite. The bathtub which I have missed sinking into after a long day, and the walk-in shower that is probably the same size as the one I have now, but it’s not this shower. It’s not his shower.
He got in my bath.
Maybe I’m weird (I am), and the girls will die with mortification for me, but I want to get in. I want to stand where he does every day. Wrap myself up in his soft towels, and to smell like his soap.
Reaching in, I turn on the spray then start to strip—double time—before I can change my mind.
My fingertips glide along the wall as I step into the steaming water, allowing me to feel a little bit at home again. I’ve missed everything about this penthouse and the man who lives inside of it. I’ve missed the intimacy that comes with sleeping alongside him. I’ve missed the meals we’d make long after the sun had gone down. I’ve missed his eyes, watching me as I would dance along the polished oak floors. I’ve missed the long showers—and the quick ones—and the ones we didn’t even need but had anyway, just because. And more than anything, I’ve missed the love we would make in all those places.
I’ve missed Mason. Mind, body, and soul.
Picking up his body wash, I pour a generous amount from the decanter into my palm, and then begin to lather it between my hands. Taking my time, I wash then rinse my body, inhaling the woodsy scent that now covers me like a blanket. It’s so satisfying, so real to me, that when my eyes fall closed, and I let my hand drop between my legs, it’s almost as if it is him touching me.
