“I missed you,” I say, bare as a man can get, too tired to waste energy pretending otherwise.
Her gaze darts away, pink spilling over her cheeks. “Please don’t play me, Doctor.”
I catch her chin between my thumb and forefinger and tip it back toward me. “I’d never, Mia. You know me better thanthat.”
It’s easier to see myself when she’s looking at me. Mia is a kind mirror to look at.
She stands all of a sudden. “Oh. You left before we could reveal the big surprise. Lily gave me permission to show it to you once you got home. Come with me.”
She hooks her fingers through mine and holds on tight. I soak it in—how natural it feels, how easily we fit together. And the way she said it. ‘We.’ Not just her. Not just Lily. The two of them together. That ‘we’ doesn’t mean the nanny and my kid. No, for me, that ‘we’ means family. The family I want.
The word slams into me hard, and my chest answers with a pull I can’t ignore, because for a moment, I believe we can be just that: a family.
She leads me upstairs, not toward her room like I expect, but higher, another flight. “Where are you…”
Mia pushes open the door to my bedroom, unveiling the finished space before I can complete the sentence.
“It’s ready, Pres.”
I stop at the threshold, but she doesn’t let me stall, tugging me inside. “Come on.”
I take it all in. Not just the room, but the fact that she started this. She made it real. For me. For Lily. For us. She gave us a fresh start.
“It’s…” My eyes land on Mia. “Perfect.”
I step closer to the bed and Mia follows. She stands behind me, keeping about three feet of distance between us, giving me space to process. My hands roam over the soft duvet, then fluff the massive pillows. My poker face is on point when I turn around. “There’s something missing, though. Something crucial.”
I give her new stress lines in her forehead as she gets closer, examining the spot I was staring at a second ago.
“What? It looks exactly li?—”
I sweep her off her feet, fling her onto the bed, and land on top of her, my hand clamped over her mouth to muffle the squeal.
“You.” The word comes out raw, and I press it into her like an admission. The rest I whisper into her ear as the tension leaves her body. “That’s what makes this room mine. Complete. And fucking perfect.”
“Preston Jett, you can’t say things?—”
I shut her up with a kiss. I know this speech by heart:I can’t say things like that.I don’t have the patience to preach how wrong she is tonight.
Too bad for her. I plan to serenade and seduce this woman—now, for the length of her stay, and if I can do anything about it, for the rest of my life.
“Shhhh,” I whisper, easing her down beside me. “You don’t want to wake anybody up, do you?” I tuck a strand of hair behind her ear. “Sleep here tonight. We’ll set an alarm so you can tiptoe back to your room before Lily’s up.”
Her eyes flicker, want wrestling should.
“Why?” she jokes softly. “You’re in a hurry to christen the new bed?”
“No, baby.” I pull her closer. “I just want to hold you. Possibly trap you in my arms when you try to flee after I’ve talked your ears off.”
“I don’t see myself trying to get away from your arms, Pres.” She says it more quietly. “I want to hear everything you have to say. I want to stay.”
“Good. I need you to.” Relief hits so hard my arm mustweigh double on her waist. “I breathe better when you’re close. I sleep better if your body is touching mine.”
I shift until our foreheads touch, and I close my eyes. “Today was intense. I’ve never been away from a scalpel for that long.”
Mia’s hand slides up my chest, slow. My words snag.
“Kate is too close a friend. I shouldn’t have operated on her.” Her thumbs brush my jaw. “But I couldn’t say no.” I swallow. “I understood where she was coming from. I’d do the same.”
