“No, Leigh, you can’t just show up. How did you know I was here?”
“Summer posted about it. You wouldn’t answer my calls, Oliver. You promised you’d take care of me, but you tossed me into a motel.” A tear ran down her cheek. “I was scared and alone, and you promised you’d look out for me.”
I had done that. Leigh had been drunk, and I’d taken her to a safe place and left her plenty of money to get a taxi so I could get home to Mia. I’d always find a way to get back to Mia. I ran my hand anxiously through my hair. “We’ll talk about it later. You have to leave.”
“Sure, Oliver,” Leigh crossed her arms over her chest, “I’ll just find a ride with one of the hundred blokes here, I’m sure any one of them would gladly take me home.”
“Don’t be ridiculous.”
“You forget I’m sacrificing a lot for you. I’m the one who has nothing to gain and everything to lose in all this. I’m helping you out, and this is how you treat me?”
I gripped her shoulders, my jaw grinding, and my chest heaving. “Have I not always dropped everything to save you from situations you got yourself into?” I shouted in her face as tears flooded her eyes. “What the fuck do you want from me?”
“Whoa,” Travis yanked me back, staring at me with his brows bunched together. He looked into my eyes as if he didn’t recognize me. He looked at me as if I was the bad guy. I shrugged his hand off me. “I’ll take Mia home. You need to deal with this,” he added.
I shouldered past Leigh to Mia, who stood fifteen feet away. Her hands were small in mine, and she looked up at me under the rim of the fedora through worried eyes. “Is that her?” Mia asked, knowing well of Leigh and the things I’d done.
“Yeah, love,” I tilted her hat back and grabbed her chin. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay.” She squeezed my hand. “I’ll see you later?”
Nodding, I held her face in my hands and curled my fingers in her hair as I kissed her, making sure to leave an imprint of security and something to look forward to until I’d return home tonight.
During the hour car ride, I’d managed to calm Leigh down. “Up here on the left,” Leigh directed as I drove through her posh neighborhood with large Victorian houses, knowing I’d been here once before. We pulled into a circular driveway, and it was the same house I’d met Jinx at months ago the night of release day searching for answers to find Mia.
“The party, it was yours?”
“Step brother’s,” she answered, twirling the end of her braid with her finger. “I live here with him and my evil step-mum. I suppose I’m your modern-day Cinderella, daddy issues, and all.”
I pushed the gear into park. “Listen, you can’t just show up wherever I am and expect me to drop everything like I just did. Life doesn’t work like that. You don’t just get what you want.”
“I’m fully aware.”
“I don’t think you are.” I leaned back into the seat just as a man in his twenties came through the front door. He walked down the steps, twirling a set of keys around his finger, wearing a pair of athletic shorts and a tank top. “Who’s that?”
“Samuel, my perverted stepbrother,” she said through a sigh. “Thanks for the ride.”
When I arrived back home, I walked through the front door to the sound of dishes clanking in the kitchen and the aroma of a home-cooked meal flooding my senses. The record player in the living room was going, soft tones of an acoustic guitar. I emptied my pockets on my way, dropping my keys, phone, and wallet over the coffee table before I’d reached the kitchen. Mia was still in her little black romper, barefoot, pulling a casserole dish from the oven. My shoulder rested against the archway into the kitchen, and my eyes rested on her. Mia’s hips swayed as she waved a rag over the steam coming from the dish to the beat of the song.
She cooked. Mia Rose cooked, and I was bloody impressed. Since we moved in, we’d managed to survive on takeout. She gathered her hair into one hand and pulled it off her shoulders, admiring her work. Her head tilted, and I watched from behind with a smug smile as her palm rested on her hip, leaning into it.
“Marry me,” I whispered from behind.
Mia jumped and spun around. Her hand slammed against her chest as she let out a breath when our eyes locked. A smile emerged from the fear, and she shook her head. “I’m already marrying you, you idiot.”
I grabbed her hips, lifted her in the air, and set her over the counter. “I’m asking for the life after this one,” I leaned between her legs, and her arms hung off my shoulders, “because I’ll always choose you. Above all else, I’ll choose you in every lifetime.”
Mia narrowed her eyes. “Do you feel guilty about something?”
“Yes, I shouldn’t have left you.”
“I’m a big girl, Ollie. I can handle another girl having a crush on you.” My palms dragged up her smooth thighs until they dipped under the thin fabric of her romper. “I cooked,” she added in a scattered breath.
“I see that.” My fingers curled into her flesh beneath the thin bottoms, and I discovered she wasn’t wearing any knickers. “What’s the occasion?”
“We have company coming over in a little bit.”
“It smells good, love.” I fisted the center of the cotton shorts between her legs and pulled it up into a tight rope against her slit. Her eyelids grew heavy, and I looked down and moved the flimsy material to the side to see her bare, smooth center. The way her enticing sex moved when my eyes were on them made my knees go weak. I wanted nothing more than to spend the rest of my life with my mouth on her. “How much time do I have?” We’d christened every room in the house aside from the kitchen.
