She nods in a cute-as-hell way, as though part of her is still worried this is a trick, but the rest of her can’t stand to entertain that idea.
“What about you?” I ask.
“I’ve always believed in fate and stuff,” she says. “I know it’s silly, but I’ve always believed in soulmates. I just never expected to find mine. Or maybe I thought that mine didn’t even exist. But when I saw you, I felt the same, Miller. Everything you’re saying – about us being together, about having a family together – I felt it as strongly as you do.”
“Good,” I growl passionately, smoothing my other hand up her bare thigh, pushing aside the hem of her skirt as I indulge in the juiciness of her thick gorgeous legs.
“Wait,” she whimpers, the quivering note in her voice telling me how difficult it is for her to stop me. “I want it—I want that.”
“Sex, Macie,” I say, grinning like the wolf I am. “It’s okay. You can say it.”
A tempting blush moves over her cheeks and down her neck, making me wonder if her perfect breasts are turning the same rosy shade, making me want to yank her dress down to get a proper look.
“Do you have any idea how cute you are when you’re embarrassed?” I banter.
She slaps my chest again, but this time she keeps her hand there, her fingernails clawing through my shirt.
“I want it. But it’s so soon and you’re… you’re you, Miller.”
“Yes, I am me.” I chuckle. “And you’re you. And the sky is blue. And people need water to stay alive. Are we done stating the obvious, my perfect virgin?”
She mock-glares at me, with a light glimmering in her eyes. “You know what I mean. You’re ripped and handsome and experienced…”
“Old, you mean,” I tease.
“No.” She gasps, leaning back in my embrace so she can stare at me. “That’s not what I meant at all. I love our age gap.”
Love.
The word hammers into me, some deep force willing me to throw the word back at her.
“And you’re not ancient. Forty-five is a great age. And, heck, look at you. You’re fitter than most immature boys my age. I don’t think twenty-four years is too much of an age gap. Do you?”
“No,” I growl, squeezing her body greedily. “It’s perfect. It means I get to be with you every step of the way as you flower into your career, as you fill our home with laughter and happiness.”
“But what if I disappoint you?” she murmurs.
I shake my head fiercely. “You could never disappoint me.”
“Even so, do you think maybe… we can wait, just for a little while?”
The beast inside of me roars no, but then I look closer at my woman and I see how much this means to her.
“Okay, Macie. But you need to know something. There is no scenario where you disappoint me. With your curvy-as-fuck body, with your perfect moans, with the shy way you bite your lip and the way you melted for me last night, unbelievably sexy as you twitched and creamed for me, you could never disappoint me. I promise.”
She smiles shakily, leaning in for a kiss. “Do you double-promise?”
I smirk, feeling her breath move over my cheeks, and then I claim her lips. I kiss her hard, savoring her muffled moans through the kiss.
Her body blazes against mine, telling me how badly she wants to give in to her desires even if her nervousness is stopping her.
Then my cell phone blares from my pocket, interrupting the moment.
“Sorry,” I say, sighing. “I have to take this. It could be a patient.”
She nods and slides from my lap. “It’s okay. Should I fix us something to eat?”
I nod. “Sure. That sounds nice.”
I stand and answer my cell phone as my woman walks back into the penthouse.
“Yes?” I say, pacing over to the railing.
“It’s me,” the man says.
I nod, gripping the railing hard.
It’s Kenneth Brown, the man I hired to look into the bug at Macie’s apartment. He works for a detective agency, but he’s willing to bend a few rules here and there to get this job done, like picking the lock at Macie’s place to comb it for bugs.
“And?”
“It was bugged,” he says. “Three devices in total.”
I clench my fist with even more fury on the railing. “Motherfucker.”
Chapter Fifteen
Macie
“What is it?” I ask when Miller returns from the balcony.
He’s got a grim look on his face, his silver-sparkling cheeks tight with his tension. I lay the breadknife down and place my hands on the kitchen island, a tremor moving through me.
“Is it about him?”
He nods somberly. “I hired someone to look into your apartment.”
“What? How did they do that?”
“He picked the lock,” Miller says. “I know I should’ve gotten the keys, but last night…”
“No, no,” I rush to say. “I don’t care about that. As long as this man can be trusted?”
“He can, he’s very professional. And anyway, if anybody invaded your privacy – especially somebody I hired – I’d break their goddamn legs.”
Liquid heat flows through me, lighting up every part of me, the way it does every time Miller says something like this. The meeting with Kayla has really changed how I see this whole thing, allowing me to put my anxiety aside…
Or at least try to put it aside, instead of willingly throwing myself into paranoia.
“Derrick had your place bugged.” Miller leans against the kitchen island, his muscles throbbing through the fabric of his suit, like any second he could snap. “That bastard has been listening to you. We don’t know how long for.”
“Can we go to the police?”
Miller shrugs. “We can try. But how can we prove he put the devices there?”
“We can’t.” My shoulders drop. “I’m so sick and tired of this freak following me around. All I did was be nice to him a couple of times, talk about books with him. How does that mean I deserve this?”
I try to force the tears away, but they rise unbidden in my eyes, hot and sharp as they flow down my cheeks.
Miller rushes around the kitchen island and pulls me into a hug, his fingers moving with comforting tingles through my hair as he guides my face to his muscled chest.
I grip onto him, feeling how solid his abs are through his shirt.
“This isn’t your fault,” he snarls as his fingers make tingling patterns in my hair, soothing me as the pain tries to make jagged paths through my body. “There’s something wrong with this bastard, Macie. You can’t blame yourself.”
“But why did he have to pick me?” I croak, knowing I sound unhinged but unable to stop myself. “I don’t get it. I’m not… nobody picked me in high school. I wasn’t picked in sports and I was always too nervous to put myself forward in group projects, even in English lit. It doesn’t make sense.”
“I wish I had an answer,” he murmurs, his voice gruff even though it’s quiet. “But that would mean getting inside the head of this sick fuck and that’s something I’m unwilling to do. But you need to know that this isn’t even partly your fault. All the sick things this bastard has done, they’re on him.”
I get myself together, pushing away the tears, and then turn back to the kitchen island where I’ve placed the bread and the sandwich fixings.
“Macie.” He drifts close to me, his hand curling around the back of my neck. “Forget that. Let me take you out to dinner tonight.”
I glance at him, his solid features made blurry by the sudden tears. I wipe at my face and he returns to his normal savage self, his eyes glimmering as he gazes into me, pinning me in place with his possessive eyes.
“Like a date?”
“Not like a date,” he says, smirking away some of my pain. “A date. Me and you. You deserve to be treated like the queen you are. And who knows… maybe it’ll take your mind off this bastard.”
“Ar
e you sure we should be going out with Derrick out there?”
Miller scoffs. “Let him show his face if he’s got the balls. But I don’t think he’d be allowed into the restaurant I plan to take you to, anyway.”
“What restaurant?” I murmur, curious despite myself.
The idea of going out and forgetting about Derrick for a little while appeals massively to me, and doubly so when it means we get to make this official over a meal. If he’s willing to be seen in public with me, surely that means there’s something real happening here, some undeniable heat between us.
Cruel thoughts try to shatter this moment.
My anxiety tells me he’s going to take me out with a gang of his doctor friends so they can all laugh at me.
“What is it?” he says, narrowing his eyes.
“Nothing.”
“Macie.” He grabs my shoulders and looks at me, in a way that compels complete honesty. “You don’t have to hide your feelings from me. Ever.”
“I don’t want to be a blubbery mess all the time, either.”
He grins, flashing his teeth like an animal, and then leans in and places a soft kiss on my cheek. “Maybe I like it when you’re a blubbery mess. Did you ever think of that?”
I giggle and reach up to cup his face, desperate to hold onto him for as long as I can, to prove by his physical closeness that this is real, this is happening.
And I need to stop questioning this.
“Your mom swore on her life, on your life, on your dad this is real. And even if we only spent a little time together, she doesn’t strike me as a dishonest woman.”
“She’s not,” he says firmly. “She was telling you the truth. My mom, Macie, goddamn… she’s the only person in this world who can read me. Well, before you came along.”
“You think I can read you?” I smile.
He nods, playfulness glinting in his eyes as he drinks me in with his gaze. “What am I thinking right now?” he asks.
Whispers of lust coil around my body as his eyes flit down to my breasts.
“Dirty thoughts,” I murmur, voice trembling. “You’re thinking about what we did last night… and what you want to do.”
“Exactly.” He chuckles gruffly. “This is real, Macie. You don’t have to question that anymore. Let me take you out. Forget Derrick. Forget the tears. Let’s just be together.”
I nod, shivers moving through me. “That sounds nice. So what restaurant?”
“Regality,” he says.
I gasp.
“You know it?” he smirks.
“Yeah. My aunt used to go there when huge directors were in town, but only the huge ones. It’s the most expensive, elite restaurant in the city, isn’t it? I thought their waiting list was like a year long.”
He shrugs. “It is. But I know the owner. I helped his daughter a while back. And for a woman like you, I’d be a fool not to pull a few strings.”
Butterflies flutter through my belly at the thought of going to Regality with Miller, the man who was only a fantasy for me until last night, as his date.
“I don’t know what to say.”
“Say yes,” he growls passionately. “Say oh, Miller, I have to find a way to make it up to you.”
I giggle at his bantering tone. “Yes, yes, yes,” I say. “And I will… soon, I’ll—I’ll try to be what you need me to be.”
“Oh, Macie,” he whispers, kissing my forehead with surprising softness. “You already are.”
Chapter Sixteen
Miller
“Do you think I’m underdressed?” Macie murmurs from beside me, tugging at the hem of her skirt as the limousine guides us through the city.
I look down at her, her perfect body clothed in a lilac dress with little sequins inlaid into it, glittering temptingly. The cut of the dress is high, hiding her cleavage from the greedy eyes of the other patrons… which is a damn good thing because if any other bastard tried to steal a glance at my woman, I don’t know if I’d be able to restrain myself.
The hem is cut just above the knee, offering enough of her mouth-watering juicy thighs to get my body stirring while still remaining elegant. She’s let her hair flow down to her shoulders, and she’s wearing delicate studs on her ears the same color as her dress.
“You look amazing,” I say, realizing I’ve just been gaping at her like an idiot. “You’ll be the most beautiful woman in the whole restaurant. But that’s not saying much. You’re the most beautiful woman in any room.”
“Oh, stop…”
A blush touches her cheeks. She’s only wearing a light dusting of makeup, enough to enhance her natural features rather than cloud them, letting her cute shyness gleam through.
“I mean it,” I growl, placing my hand on her thigh and squeezing with feral possessiveness. “Everything about you is perfect. But it’s not just your sweet-as-fuck body…”
I glance at the driver’s partition, glad I paid extra for a sound-proofed car. This is the type celebrities use when they don’t want their drivers leaking details about what goes on back here.
Not that I’m going to maul her, even if everything in me is roaring out to claim her right here, to push those gorgeous thighs apart and drive deep inside of her.
I’m going to treat her like the lady she is before I truly make her mine.
“But inside, too,” I go on, pushing past my whirring lust. “You came to me willing to raise a child, to devote yourself to a life, without the help of anyone else.”
“I’ve always wanted to be a mother,” she murmurs.
“And you will be,” I say passionately. “But now we’ll be in it together.”
She squeezes my hand, pressing it against her thigh, biting her lip in that tempting just-Macie way.
“What about you?” she asks. “Did you always want to be a dad?”
I laugh gruffly, shaking my head. “Mom told you about how my dad died when I was a kid, right?”
She nods.
“After that, I think something changed in me. You could even say something broke in me. I didn’t think I’d ever want a family, because I was so damn scared of my kids going through what I did. I was close with my old man. We did everything together. And then maybe…”
“What?” she urges when I trail off.
“Maybe I chose my profession so I could help other people reach the happiness I’d convinced myself wasn’t for me. Does that make sense?”
“Yes,” she says, with heavy emotion in her voice.
“But now all of that has been shattered into a million pieces. And I’m not interested in putting them back together. The second I saw you, I felt like a fool for waiting so long… but then I had to wait so long or I wouldn’t have found you. It had to be you, Macie. You’re the only woman I’ve ever…”
Loved, I almost say, but I manage to bite it back at the last second.
I can’t afford to push too much too fast, just in case I freak her out again.
“Felt this way about,” I finish.
“I’ve never felt this before either,” she whispers. “I guess I’d accepted I was going to be a single mother. I was even looking forward to it. But the moment I saw you, everything changed. I started daydreaming about having a family together right away. It wasn’t the same as…”
The tell-tell shyness touches her features, and a tremor moves through her thigh.
“What?” I growl. “Go on, Macie. You never have to be ashamed with me.”
She turns her gaze even further away from me, as though she can’t stand to make this admission with me staring at her. I can’t help but smirk at the sight of her shyness, reveling in the way her cheeks bloom an even deeper shade of red with each moment, as though her womb is sending me sex-red signals through her skin.
“It really doesn’t matter.”
I take my hand from her thigh and touch her face, guiding her face so we’re staring at each other, smirking into her shyness.
“It really, really does,” I say.
&nb
sp; “Why?”
I chuckle. “Because it’s making you look so damn cute. I think you’ve got a secret, Macie. And since we’re going to be together for the rest of our lives, I’d like to know it.”
“I… before we met… I…”
She throws her hands up.
“I can’t, Miller. It’s too embarrassing.”
“Oh, I see.” I lean in close to her and kiss the edge of my mouth. “Are you trying to tell me what I think you are?”
“That depends. Does what you’re thinking rhyme with sasturbation?”
I laugh and nod. “Yep. That’s it exactly.”
She’s blushing like her face is going to set on fire now, like any second she’s going to erupt into embarrassed flames and take the whole limo with her, and I delight in the shyness flittering across her full gorgeous cheeks.
“So let me get this straight,” I go on, a bantering note in my voice. “You—what? You went online and found some photos of me, and then just went to town?”
She folds her arms, aiming that beautiful mock-pout at me, or maybe it’s a real pout this time. But her eyes are filled with the same playfulness that moves through me, the sort of playfulness I never expected to feel with a woman, with anyone, ever.
“Yes, Miller,” she says, rolling her eyes. “But please don’t make me feel any more awkward about it. Not that I think that’s even possible.”
I smooth a wayward strand of hair from her face, leaning down and kissing her cheek, and then moving closer to her mouth with each kiss. I claim her lips and our tongues go to war, clashing with sizzling intensity, my body stirring as a reverberation of need moves through me.
“Do you have any idea how fucking horny that makes me?” I growl, keeping my face close to hers. “The idea of you on your back, your hand between your legs, rubbing your perfect pussy as you think of me? Is that what you were doing when I caught you last night?”
Dr. Good: A Steamy Standalone Instalove Romance Page 8