by Sarah Hegger
She knew that look on his face.
Eric wouldn’t be moving from the stand he’d taken.
“You don’t mean that.” She dropped her hoodie on the closed toilet seat. What the hell, he’d seen it all before. So many times that one more could hardly hurt, and that bath was calling her name. “You’ve spent all these years telling me how you’re not into commitment.”
Eric’s gaze dropped to her breasts, and she pulled her workout top over her head. “I’ve changed my mind.”
“So what happens when you change it back again?” Blythe wriggled out of her yoga pants.
“Damn, sweet thing.” Eric’s gaze ate her up and he shook his head. “You still take my breath away.”
Her own breathing went a bit awry. Hot enough to incinerate her and laser focused, that look melted her every time. She locked eyes with him and shimmied out of her panties.
Eric leaned his shoulder against the tile beside the bath. “You’ve got about ten seconds to get in that bath or get over here.”
Blythe climbed into the bath and lowered herself into the water.
With a wry look, Eric handed her the wine. “Not the choice I would have gone with, but at least this way we can talk.”
“I’m so tired of talking.” Blythe rested her head on the bath.
Eric stretched out on the floor beside the bath and sipped his wine. “I’m staying here until you wake up to the fact that I’m not going away.”
“Eric.” The warm water did amazing things to the tension in her muscles. “That’s never going to happen.”
“Why not?” He didn’t sound pissed off, just curious.
“Because nothing you say will convince me that this is what you really want.” The wine eased some more of her stress. “Say what you like about Blake, but I knew I couldn’t trust him.”
“You’re comparing me to Blake?” Now Eric looked pissed off. “Nice, Blythe.”
Suddenly she didn’t want to fight anymore or argue. “Can we not do this tonight?”
Eric looked at her for a long moment. “All right. We can defer this little chat.” His jaw tightened. “But I’m staying the night.”
“I can’t exactly throw you out.” And the apartment felt lonely without Will. “You can sleep in Will’s room or take the sofa.”
Eric’s gaze touched her like flame. “Maybe.”
* * * *
In the end, she didn’t even argue about their sleeping arrangements. Eric stripped and crawled into bed next to Blythe.
She let him pull her into his embrace.
Damn but she smelled so good and so familiar. The glide of her soft, silken skin against his tormented him, but he let her sleep.
Even in sleep, the tense grooves on either side of her mouth didn’t completely relax. He texted Laura for an update on Will, and so far, the news on that front looked like it might have a positive outcome.
Will had come through the first phases of withdrawal. Not having been a habitual user, the come down wasn’t too bad. They had gotten him to eat something, and now he was sleeping. Much like his older sister.
Eric stared at the message from Laura and allowed himself a wry smile. He was texting a woman who he had never wanted anything to do with ever again. A woman who had come as close to breaking his heart as anyone could get.
Until Blythe. He pushed a tendril of hair off her face.
Oddly, he had been terrified when Laura told him she was pregnant. He hadn’t wanted to be a father at nineteen. Scratch that. He had never wanted to be a father at all. Then Laura had told him about the miscarriage, and he’d been gutted.
Enter the sweetest handful in a skintight denim mini and a crop top that showed all those luscious inches of silky skin. Things with Laura had ended about as sour as they could. And the universe had served him up a dose of pure honey, which being the dumb dickhead he was, he hadn’t appreciated until he’d lost it.
Well, screw that. He wasn’t going to let it go without the fight of his life.
Once Laura’s name on his phone would have brought the anger. Now…
He hit the icon to call her.
Laura answered almost immediately and sounded surprised. “Eric?”
“Hey, Laura.” They’d spent so many years dancing around each other. Once he’d finished being butt hurt, he’d gotten a huge charge out of tormenting Laura. “I thought we might talk.”
“Really.” He could almost see the way she would crinkle her forehead and chew on the outer corner of her lip. “Okay.”
“Want me to go first?”
She drew a deep breath and let it out in a crackle down the line. “No, I suppose that particular joy belongs to me. I was never pregnant.”
“No?” He appreciated that she didn’t play for time but got straight to the point. Laura really had changed. The girl he had dated had a hit-and-miss relationship with the truth. He guessed they’d all grown up. “I wondered about that.”
“But you never asked.” She gave a dry little laugh. “Not that I would have told you the truth anyway.”
“Why, Lo?”
She gasped. “Wow! It’s been a long time since someone called me that.”
“It’s been a long time since I felt like calling you that.”
“What changed?” Her voice softened.
“I got tired of reading from the same worn out script,” he said, and because the moment demanded it, he kept it real. “Seeing you the last few days has brought a lot of stuff up for me. Mostly, I’m not angry anymore, and I don’t want to be enemies.”
“Oh, Eric.” A soft sob broke over the line. “I really don’t deserve that.”
“You got it anyway.” He reckoned her divorce and lack of access to her children made for enough punishment.
“You asked me why,” Laura said. “I’ll try to explain it, but I’m not even sure I entirely understand what went on.” She paused, and Eric gave her the space to find the words. “I wish I could say that love drove me,” she said. “It sounds better than what I suspect was the real reason.”
“Being?”
“I wanted to hang on to you,” Laura said. “I could sense you slipping away, and I wanted to make sure you couldn’t leave. I never felt like I belonged anywhere, or that I had anyone of mine. I was jealous as hell of Pippa. She got to be exactly who she wanted, and everyone loved her.” She took a breath. “Whereas for me, there seemed to be a whole ton of conditions attached to that love. And then this hot boy swaggered into my life.”
Eric had to laugh at her description. “More like a cocky little shit.”
“Whatever.” Laura chuckled. “It worked for me, and I couldn’t let it go.”
Laura had been possessive. That possessiveness had strangled his young love. “So you tried to bind me to you.”
“Yup.” She sighed. “And then I realized how wrong that was and turned you loose. I was too ashamed of myself to come right out and confess that I’d lied, so I invented a miscarriage.”
“Huh.” Beside him, Blythe was sleeping deeply. “That’s what Blythe always said.”
“Blythe’s a very perceptive woman,” Laura said. “I used to hate her. Hate her for how free I thought she was. Blythe didn’t have to measure up to anyone’s standards of perfect. The way I saw it, Blythe got to flip the bird at the world and do exactly what she wanted.”
A murmur escaped Blythe, and she shifted in her sleep. “She would argue she was as trapped as you in everyone’s perception of her.”
“Right.” Laura chuckled. “And then I hated her for the way you looked at her.”
“You knew?”
“I knew.” Laura cleared her throat. “I knew as only the jealous ex-girlfriend with mild stalking issues could know.”
“I guess Blythe and I were never as secret as we thought we were.” He shook his head at
himself. It didn’t matter anymore because there would be no more sneaking around and pretending.
Laura laughed. “You were still pretty good at hiding it.”
At nineteen he had been too scared to tell everyone he was dating Blythe Barrows. Like her, he had feared the way Ghost Falls would judge that. Particularly he had feared how his mother would react. In short, he had been a sniveling coward. Too afraid to claim the love this woman had given him.
As the years slid by and they drifted in and out of each other’s lives, he’d convinced himself that she wanted the same thing as him. It had made a convenient excuse to hide the truth behind. The truth he now saw laid out before him like a prize to be won. He had always loved Blythe. On some level, his fucked-up commitment-phobe self had never been able to walk away from her totally. Only get far enough away to soothe the scared little boy inside him.
“We good now, Lo?”
She took a breath. “Yeah, we’re good, Eric. And thank you.”
* * * *
Blythe lay as still as she could and listened to the deep rumble of Eric’s voice as he spoke to Laura. She’d woken sometime in the middle of their conversation. Some of what Laura said she’d managed to hear. Funny how they’d both been so jealous of each other, and so far from understanding that they were both in pain.
Beside her, Eric’s warmth drew her. Despite what he’d said earlier, she knew how things would go. He would put his careful barriers between them again, and they’d drift back into their part-time, no-strings arrangement.
Tonight though, she didn’t care. He was here and he was warm, and she wanted him.
Turning, she slid her arm over the taut skin of his waist and pressed a kiss to his chest.
“Blythe.” His breath hitched.
His skin beneath her lips felt hot and smooth, and she pressed wet kisses down his chest.
Eric’s stomach tightened beneath her mouth. “Babe.” His voice grew raspy. “You’ve had a shitty night. This is not a great idea.”
No it really wasn’t, but Blythe didn’t give a shit. She licked and kissed her way down his stomach, pushing the sheet down as she went.
Eric always slept naked and his erection jutted hard and strong.
She took him in her mouth and Eric hissed. His muscles tightened and his back bowed as she sucked him deep. The slightly salt-soap combination of his flavor made her crave more.
“Baby.” His fingers speared into her hair. “I—” He groaned as she took him deeper still, cupping his balls in the way she knew he loved.
His hands tightened around her scalp as his hips bucked. He kept his thrusts gentle and shallow, but Blythe hummed around him, encouraging him to give her more.
In her hands, his balls tightened. His stomach muscles clenched as he held back his orgasm.
Blythe ran her tongue down the underside of his cock, pressing slightly in a way that would drive him over the edge.
On a grunt, Eric arched his back and came. He fisted her hair as she stayed with him through his orgasm.
He dropped back onto her bed with a soft sigh, and Blythe crawled up to snuggle beside him. Large, lazy hands stroked her back, down over her ass and up again. “That was…” He chuckled. “An unexpected surprise.”
Blythe still craved more from him, and she pressed her mouth to his neck.
Cupping her ass, Eric drew her on top of him. He lifted her head up and kissed her. Beneath her, he hardened again, and Blythe writhed against him. She needed him inside her, joined with her as she blanked out all that had happened in the last few days.
Tightening his grip on her ass, Eric ground her against him. His kiss grew deeper, wilder, all consuming.
She pushed herself up and lifted up enough to stroke his cock. Fitting him to where she needed him, Blythe took him inside her.
Eric dug his fingers into her hips and groaned. “Move on me, sweet thing. Let me get you there.”
His cock pulsed inside her, strong and hard, and she wanted all of him. Blythe took over their rhythm, driving herself to release.
The tendons in Eric’s neck stood out as he held on to control.
Sweat bloomed on their skin and turned their slow grind into a slick slide.
Blythe’s orgasm started deep in her core, radiating out along her nerve endings. She quickened the pace, her body screaming for release. Everything tightened in her and she gripped Eric’s cock as she came.
Beneath her, he cried out and joined her.
Spent and sated, Blythe slumped onto him.
His heartbeat pounded in her ear. His chest rose and fell with his breathing.
With her muscles perfectly relaxed, sleep crept through Blythe, and she closed her eyes.
Eric pressed a kiss to the top of her head. “I love you, sweet thing.”
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Blythe slept deeply, and the sun streamed through the window when she woke. The indentation in the pillow beside her was the only sign of Eric. That and the pleasant ache between her legs. He’d made love to her once more last night. She hadn’t been aware of him leaving, but it was better this way.
They didn’t want the same things and after all this time together, she didn’t believe they ever would.
She pulled on a robe and peeped in on Kim.
Tangled in her bedding, Kim was still sleeping, her sweet baby face flushed, her breath coming deep through pouty lips.
Blythe smoothed a stray of vanilla hair off Kim’s face. She loved this baby girl with all her heart. Last night she’d almost given up on both of them. Good friends had saved her. Friends who loved her enough to go grubbing into the belly of her beast and haul her ass out.
A knock sounded on the door as she was putting the coffee on.
Speaking of those friends. Pippa, Bella, Liz and Phi stood on her doorstep.
“Darling.” Phi got to her first and enveloped her in a patchouli-drenched embrace.
Blythe took a moment to wallow in the endless comfort Phi offered. “I’m okay now.”
“Indeed.” Phi set her back and examined her. “I will say this once because I do not believe in repeating myself. We are all worth being the best versions of ourselves.”
Resisting the urge to fidget under that keen scrutiny, Blythe managed a nod.
“I was a nobody from a nothing town in the middle of nowhere,” Phi said. She tapped her chest with a beringed hand. “But I had a light inside me, and I was determined it would shine where most of the world could see it. I still believe in that light of mine.” She pressed her hand to Blythe’s chest. “And I see the same unquenchable light in you.”
God it was too early to start crying but Blythe’s lids prickled with unshed tears.
“Now.” Phi floated past her. “Pippa has brought cake and I smell coffee.” She looked at them all hopefully. “Is it too early for mimosas?”
“Yes. And some of us are still nursing.” Pippa winked at Blythe and put a pink bakery box on the counter. “Matt has taken Jasmine for the morning. I’m free as a bird.”
Bella gave her a kiss and a hug as she followed Pippa into the apartment.
“I picked up a couple of crates of beer,” Liz whispered as she hugged her. “Let me know when you want to slum it again. Better yet, invite your big brother and his bigger friend.”
Pippa shook her head. “Do you think Noel will agree to that?”
“It keeps Noel on his toes.” Liz winked. “And I can still look, can’t I?
Laughing, Blythe followed her into the kitchen.
Bella pulled cups from the cupboard and gave her a supportive smile. “We came by to make sure you were all right.” She arranged cups on the counter. “Just know that we’re here to talk whenever you’re ready.”
“What the hell?” Liz gaped at her. “I want all the deets.” She rapped the counter. “And I w
ant them now.” She glared at Blythe. “Spill! Everything about our yummy Eric.”
“Indeed.” Phi gave a happy wriggle on her stool. “Leave no detail, however small, out.”
Having girlfriends was a new experience for Blythe. She would have to get used to their insatiable desire for all the details, and then their need to pick each nugget of information over.
About an hour after they had arrived, Kim wandered into the kitchen. She was kissed and cuddled and seated in front of an enormous muffin.
Kim watched Phi with huge eyes.
Yeah, it was a lot to take in.
“And what is your name, Precious Princess?” Phi got eye to eye with Kim.
“K-Kim.”
“Nonsense.” Phi looked affronted. “Only one syllable for a morsel of golden loveliness such as yourself?”
Giggling, Kim chewed her muffin.
“Surely there is a name by which you would adore to be known?” Phi leaned forward.
Swallowing her muffin, Kim gave it some thought. “My friend is called Maddison, and I like it when people call her Maddy.”
“Maddison?” Phi shuddered. “That is a county. Not a person. You shall be a Maddy, but I shall call you Madelaine.”
“Cool.” Kim gaped at her.
“Go with it.” Pippa winked at Kim. “It makes no difference if you do or not. That’s what she’ll keep calling you anyway.”
Phi moved closer to Blythe. “Darling.” She looked uneasy. “As crass as this is, allow me to talk money for a moment.”
“No.” Blythe took her hand and squeezed it. “I have an idea of what you’re going to say next, and I can’t tell you how much I appreciate your generosity.”
Phi frowned. “But?”
“But I don’t want to take any more charity, and I’m fairly sure I speak for Will when I say that.” Blythe needed to sit down and think things through, but she refused to let one setback beat her and Will. She hadn’t spent all that time fighting for her independence to let her family drag her back down into the morass again. “We’ll find our way out of this.”
“And with what the show will pay you, you’ll be out of this hole in no time.” Pippa winked at her. “I put a word in my agent’s ear this morning. You’re not going to be cheap.”