I placed a gentle kiss on the top of her head and laughed, "Stop worrying so much."
"I just don't want to let him down."
There was a streak of loyalty that had developed over the few short months that I appreciated.
"You won't," I assured her. "Dominic asked you because he trusts you and sees you as family. Stop overthinking it."
Mia grumbled and I kissed the top of her head again. She nuzzled her face into my neck as the pilot announced we would be landing. My hand immediately gripped Mia's a little tighter.
"Now who's worrying," Mia teased me. Her chin rested on my shoulder so that when I turned my head we were nose to nose.
"You know what might take my mind off the landing?" I asked her. I rested my forehead against hers and gently cupped her face with my hand. I searched for any sign of resistance but instead, her eyes fluttered shut. This was the moment I’d been waiting for. A signal that told me she was on the same page as I was. Boundaries be damned, we both knew there was no way we could keep this strictly professional. Or even worse, as just friendship.
"Shit!" Dante said, startling us both. "I really did sleep for... Oh! Sorry! Am I interrupting something?"
Mia pulled away from me quickly, hand and all, as Dante sat upright and looked at us both with a grin. I was almost certain that one day I would kill this dumbass for his impeccably shit timing.
After we landed and sat for dinner, Mia went straight up to her room rather than staying to join the conversation with everyone. She claimed the flight had made her tired, but Mia had been twitchy all evening. I’d sat beside her during the meal and was acutely aware of every movement she made. My hand brushed hers under the table and Mia threw glances with that delightful blush coloring her face.
I couldn’t focus on the conversation. My thoughts ran rampant over what could have happened if Dante had just been able to read the room when he woke up. I’d trodden so carefully, but the desire to have more than a friendship with her continued to grow each day, until I was completely powerless before it. I had everything I could want in life, but suddenly there was one more thing that I needed.
It was those thoughts that drove me to knock on her hotel room door after a shower. When she answered, Mia had a book in her hand and was clad in pajamas.
“Luc?” She seemed confused by the fact I was standing before her late at night.
“Shouldn’t you be asleep?” I asked her.
Mia looked amused as she pointed out, “You’re the one knocking on my door. Did you need something?”
Did I need something? That was the question I had been asking myself for weeks. Did I need something from Mia, or simply want something from her? When I had first set my eyes on her all I had wanted was to get her into my bed and out of my system, but now, there was no cleansing myself of this woman. She had set what remnants of my soul that still existed alight with her warmth, and I needed her to be mine.
“Actually, yes,” I answered her. “I need something.”
I crossed the threshold of her room, wrapping an arm around her waist and pulling her against me. With my free hand, I pushed the door closed so both of us stood in the dim light of her room.
“What do you need?” Mia’s voice came out as a squeak as one of my hands came to her face.
“I need you, Mia.”
I didn’t allow her the time to process the words before I kissed her. The book Mia held fell to the floor with a dull thud. I’d waited long enough to taste her lips again. The last time we had kissed, she had broken away too soon. As if giving an addict a drop of his drug and expecting him to be satisfied, when he knew there was so much more awaiting him. Cautiously, tentatively, my tongue asked for permission to her mouth, always wanting more from her but never wanting to scare her away. We stood there taking each other in before she broke the kiss and looked up at me.
“Let me stay with you,” I told her. I didn’t believe I was capable of leaving her now.
“Luc…” Mia hesitated at the suggestion.
“You said you would stay with me while we’re here,” I reminded her, as her hands slipped from around my neck and rested on my bare chest.
“No one’s going to come after me in the middle of the night,” Mia said, with a roll of her eyes.
“I did,” I told her, a slight growl in the words.
“So, I should tell you to leave then,” Mia concluded. That smart mouth of hers had been trouble since day one. She pushed her hands against my chest in an effort to part us, but I pulled her closer.
“I never said that,” I argued. “Let me stay.”
“We need to sleep.”
“I need to make sure you won’t open the door for any more strange men.”
