Michael thrust a hand into his left pocket and fumbled around for a few moments, staring out the windshield at the entire city glimmering against the dark night sky.
Between our seats, my phone buzzed, and Mason’s name flashed on the screen.
Mason: Let’s meet up.
I froze on the spot. Michael tensed next to me, his hand on my thigh tightening.
“Meet up?” he asked me, trying to keep his voice steady, but I could hear the hurt in it.
I parted my lips.God, what is with us and crazy exes?
“Why does Mason want to meet up with you?” Michael asked, pulling away from me.
When his hand left my skin, I felt like I had betrayed him. I should’ve told him about Mason sooner, but with the drama with Melissa’s mother, I had forgotten. Or maybe I hadn’t had it in me to add another problem to our relationship.
“Have you been texting him?” he asked.
“No,” I said strongly. “He has been texting me, and I have been ignoring him.”
“Why haven’t you deleted his number?” Hurt crossed his face. “Or blocked him?”
“For Melissa.”
As soon as the words left my mouth, it sounded like such a shitty excuse. But it was the truth. I glanced at the stars, then back at him.
“I want you and Melissa to speak again. I want you to have a good relationship because my dad and I have a shitty one. She needs someone who will support her emotionally.” I held his hand and trailed my finger across his knuckles. “I don’t care if she never talks to me again. We have our own problems. But I still want her to be safe, and if this”—I held up my phone and scrolled to the hundreds of unanswered messages from Mason—“will prove it to her, then I’m going to use it.”
I didn’t want him to worry or to think I was cheating, but I had to be honest with Michael. This wasn’t about me. I didn’t give a fuck about Mason texting me, didn’t need to keep his messages or pictures to reminisce on old times. I needed them to try to protect Melissa whenever she wanted to talk to me again.
Michael took his hand out of his pocket and rested it on the steering wheel. “Okay,” he said cautiously.
I frowned at him and cupped his face in my hand, trying to figure out how to prove to him that Mason meant nothing to me.
“If you want me to block him, I will,” I said.
But I knew deep down that blocking his number wouldn’t stop Mason from bothering me. He’d take it out on someone else like Melissa, or he’d show up at Michael’s front door to try to get me to talk to him again.
Michael stayed quiet for a while and clutched my hand tightly in his. “Promise me you love me more than him,” he whispered.
“I love you, Michael, more than I have ever loved any other man.” I pushed a strand of hair off his forehead.
It hurt me to see him hurt. It was usually men who hurt me. Being on the other side of the pain sucked almost as much for me because I knew what it felt like.
“I would do anything to keep us together.” I pressed my lips on his and crawled into his lap, resting my knees on either side of his legs. “Anything.”
CHAPTER5
MIA
“You are mine.” He seized my hips and held me down against him, letting me feel his bulge through his pants.
He drove his hips up, and I rested my hands on his shoulders and squeezed, my pussy tightening at how big he felt.
“All mine.”
“Yours,” I breathed, bucking my hips back and forth to ride him through his pants. My panties were soaked, my cunt warm.
At that moment, there wasn’t a doubt in my mind about us. I wanted to spend the rest of my life with him and not care about what anyone else thought.
