Now Open Your Eyes (Stay With Me series Book 3)

by Nicole Fiorina

  Jake crossed his arms, smiling.

  “Why are you smiling? What’s so funny?”

  Both of his palms landed on my shoulders. “You just called me Zeke.”

  I shook my head. “No, I didn’t.”

  “Yeah, you did.”

  My fingers grabbed my temples, massaging circles as I paced the room. “I’m officially losing it.”

  “Mia, listen to me. You calling me Zeke means you feel him. He’s here, ready to watch you marry Oliver fucking Masters. Do you really want to disappoint Zeke?”

  “You think so? He’s here?”

  “Of course, he’s here. He’s the one walking you down the aisle.”

  Mia was late, but it could be because of Jake. Liam kept reminding me of that every five minutes in hopes of lifting the nerves off my shoulders, but it didn’t help. Memories from six months ago, waiting outside the gates of Dolor for her to meet me, wouldn’t leave. The memories only tormented me.

  The three of us stood beside the Rock of Gibraltar over the white sand, the ocean as our witness. There were no chairs, no music, no family—only Liam, Christy, and me, waiting for Mia and Jake to arrive. Christy was the lady marrying us, with short blonde hair, wearing a conservative pink dress. She wasn’t a local, and I only knew this because I couldn’t stop asking her questions about herself to take my mind off the time. Christy got married in this exact spot four years ago and never left Gibraltar. “This is the same spot John Lennon got married,” she informed me, standing under an arch beneath the evening sun.

  “Oh, yeah?” I knew this, God, I already knew, but my head was in another place … Wherever Mia was at the moment.

  Where are you, love?

  I adjusted my collar and smoothed down my khaki slacks, thinking maybe the letter I’d wrote freaked her out. But as soon as that thought came to mind, a slight wind blew through us, easing all my doubt. The last two years played out inside my head, and how I fell in love before her lips ever collided with mine. My head dropped back to face the sun, speaking against the cool October breeze. “Thank you, brother.” I closed my eyes when Liam tapped my shoulder.

  My head snapped forward and … Mia …

  There.

  She.

  Is.

  There is my girl, my evermore.

  And there went my hands, shaking.

  I pinched the bridge of my nose to fight what my emotions were doing as Mia stood across from me, ten feet away. I wanted to run to her, but I couldn’t bloody move. I wanted to tell her how beautiful she looked, but couldn’t move my lips from the shape of my smile. The only thing I could do was swipe my shaking palm down my face to remove the tears to see her better. She was fucking real, and she was here.

  Mia walked toward me with her heart-stopping smile, and the entire world silenced. Christy had already started talking, but I couldn’t hear anything aside from my heart pounding in my ears. Jake stood behind her, and I hadn’t noticed him walking over at all. The only thing in front of me was Mia, consuming all my senses.

  I clutched both of her hands into mine. “Hi, love,” I whispered, lost in her coffee-brown eyes.

  “Hi,” she whispered back, gaze darting between Christy and me.

  Christy asked if we had anything to say, but ‘Hi’ was the only word I could manage, and I knew this would happen. Mia had always stolen words right out from this bleeding poet’s mouth, shaping them into stars and lighting up the sky.

  “I have something to say,” Mia said, surprising me. Christy nodded, giving her the floor, and then I felt stupid for being so weak in that moment. “You wrote me a letter today,” Mia smiled with glossy eyes, “and I wasn’t planning on saying anything, because you’ve always been better with words and explaining how you feel. So, this may not come out right …” I squeezed her hand, letting her know it was just her and me, and she fought back the tears before continuing, “but your letter, it reminded me of those sunsets I watch every morning, and that sacred moment when light and dark can co-exist, making something beautiful across the sky. I’ve always been the dark, but you’ve always been the light, Ollie, and together, our love burns in color. You are my every beautiful sacred moment, and I promise to stay for the rest of my life.”

  Mia’s hand came up to wipe my eyes, and I kissed her palm.

  Christy continued, and we exchanged vows.

  Mia said, yes. And an explosion went off inside my heart as I took her tear-stained face in my hands, desperately catching her lips with mine. She tasted like the ocean and freedom, and I sank into that kiss. Lips moved like water with that kiss. Tongues slowly grazed, hearts wildly pounded, and planets collided with that kiss. I wanted her to take me away and live inside our feelings forever. The cheering went off around us, and our foreheads connected when I opened my eyes. “I love you, baby.”

  Mia smiled with a natural glow in her golden-brown eyes. “I love you.”

  I insisted on carrying Mia over my shoulder through the door. We’d spent the last few hours celebrating, dancing, and drinking with Liam and Jake.

  Mia was officially drunk. Or perhaps I was the one wasted. I couldn’t tell anymore.

  Everything after the ceremony was a blur.

  “Oh-my-God,” Mia whispered from behind me.

  I paused halfway through the hotel room with my arm holding the back of her thighs. Mia had danced in the ocean at midnight, soaking the bottom of her dress where sand clung to the lace. “What is it?”

  “We don’t have any fucking pictures,” she called out, smacking my arse.

  “Oh, there are pictures, love,” I laughed, then continued my trek to the bathroom, “of you dancing, doing shot after shot, and not to mention, the tabletop incident.” I’d noticed the balcony doors wide open, wine glasses set out, and a bottle of champagne prepared in a bucket of ice outside on the terrace. Music played inside the room with rose petals scattered across the bed. The Rock Hotel was posh, and Jake must have planned this out for us.

  Mia cringed in my hold. “I didn’t.”

  “You did.”

  Surprisingly, I made it to the bathroom without dropping her and halted in front of the mirror. My stance swayed, but my eyes fixed on the way her bum looked in the reflection over my shoulder. Mia wiggled in my arms, her laugh bouncing off my back.

  I pulled up her dress to get a better look, and the white lace knickers clung to her sex like a second skin. “For the love of God, Mia,” I growled, moving my free hand up her bare thigh and over her perfect round arse. My knob stretched inside my pants as the buzz rushed to the one place craving to be inside her. The way she looked from behind arrested my gaze, flaring animalistic desires within me.

  “Ollie,” she whimpered, but my fingers continued to wander, grazing up and down her slit over her white lace.

  “Stay still, love. I just want to look at you.” I stretched her knickers to the side with one hand to reveal her. My lips broke apart, my balls tightened, and I couldn’t remove my eyes from the view as oxygen held inside my lungs.

  Of course, she didn’t listen, pressing her bottom against fingers as I stroked her, wanting more. The liquor flowing through me forced my two fingers in my mouth, then over her tight entrance, making circles as she glistened. I watched, kneading her tight hole and inching them inside, my thumb scraping over her little clit. Mia’s legs shook, and my fingers curled. A fire blazed across my skin down to my groin. “You have no idea what this is doing to me right now. You are so … fucking Christ, Mia.” I quickly walked to the bed before tossing her over, changing my mind on the shower. I needed her now, and she laid over the cloud-white sheets in her wedding dress as I stood over her, taking her in.

  The dress hugged her tiny frame, a deep dip down the middle of her chest, and my eyes touched over every inch of my wife. Mia lifted her arms over her head, where the flower crown fell, and she turned her head outside the balcony before her brows pinched together. “Ollie …”

  A lump lodged inside my throat at the way she looked
, and I tried to swallow it back down before saying, “Yeah?”

  Her eyes slid back to me. “A fucking monkey is watching us.”

  “What?” I laughed, unsure if I heard her correctly or if the number of shots I’d taken distorted her words.

  She pointed toward the balcony. “A monkey is staring at me right now.”

  I looked back, and sure enough, a brown monkey was sitting over the railing of the terrace, staring right back. “Your bloody right.” I snapped my head back toward her. “What do we do?”

  “I don’t know,” her eyes darted back and forth from the monkey to me, “I can’t get naked with it staring at me, Ollie. It’s weird.”

  And I was certain the little ape wasn’t going to ruin the night or my chances of Mia not undressing for me. I marched toward the terrace and waved my hands out in front of me, with Mia giggling from behind. “Bugger off!” I whisper-shouted, and the monkey’s eyes moved behind me to Mia once more before taking off to the next balcony over.

  I turned back, and my gaze collided with Mia’s, who was standing at the foot of the bed with a delicate smile. The strap of her dress fell off one shoulder, and her eyes captured me, begging for me to take her out of it. A few steps forward, and I towered over Mia and fell under her spell, utterly lost in her. A dizzy spell of a moment, making me weak and empowered, unsure whether or not to fall to my knees or tear off the dress and cross lines, limits, and horizons.

  My fingers danced over the straps to behind her, and I unzipped the dress down to the base of her back. Mia allowed the dress to slide from her body to the floor, pooling at her feet, and my heart slammed inside my chest. She stood bare, and the tips of my fingers skimmed over her lines, from her collarbone down the length of her arms. My fingers itched to touch all over her, drowning in wanderlust for this woman.

  Mia looked up at me with tender eyes, goosebumps glittering over her ivory skin. A blush graced her cheeks. Golden suns glowed in her eyes. Ecstasy tugged on her lips. I dipped down and kissed her, already a goner.

  Mia gripped my biceps as I walked her backward toward the bed. The backs of her knees hit the edge before she sat, and my lips moved like a scream, my slow hands like a whisper. My chest burned from my thrashing heart, ready to break free from its cage and soar with hers. Emotions caused my hands to shake, and Mia pulled away. “Stop thinking,” she whispered against my lips, her fingers hooking onto my belt, “let go and make love to me, Ollie.”

  My belt came undone. My button and zipper came undone. My bloody mind came undone as she pulled my pulsing cock out and trailed her tongue along the bottom of my shaft, and the soft beat of the music followed my fingers through her hair. A breath stuck in my chest as she took me deep, and I leaned forward from the pressure climbing. Her neck twisted, conquering a different angle and threatening my control. And when her eyes lifted to mine, I struggled to pull away.

  But I did … because I needed our connection more.

  Laying her back across the bed, I crawled between her legs and up her torso. Mia’s nails dragged down my back as my breath hit her neck before my lips did. Chests grazing, my palm slid down to her thigh, and I wrapped it around my waist.

  Then I entered her slowly until all of me was in all of her. I wet my lips as she held my face, moving my mouth to hers. Together we chased highs, star-gazed, and transcended time, a wild eclipse between the sheets, flying within our supernova. The moonlight came from outside the terrace, tracing shadows across her skin, but the shadows couldn’t erase the colorful feeling burning between us, just like she’d said.

  Bodies slick. My name upon her lips. Her taste on mine. We reached our heaven. Earth quaking, body shaking. Sinning and worshipping, there was an innocence battling a fury, and all night was spent up in flames, over and over, as if it were our own religion.

  By the time her head laid upon my chest, my heart pounding against her cheek, I wanted to wrap us up in the stars and live there forever. It was moments like these I would tattoo over my flesh so I could always be beautiful, and she could always admire the way she made me feel.

  It was true, there should be a lifetime of these moments, but there was also a small fleeting pinch inside my chest, reminding me the worst has yet to come. Mia fell asleep in my arms, but I stayed awake, fighting off the demons after my sunrise closed her eyes. There was still a man to kill, and a problem to take care of. Ghost and Dex. I’d promised her forever, but I was still outrunning the desperate decisions of my past.

  We’d broken away from Liam and Jake to explore Gibraltar. The weather was perfect, low seventies, and I slipped into cut-off jean shorts and a cream-colored blouse with a floppy woven hat Ollie had bought for me in Madrid over my head. I grabbed my camera before we were out the door in search of coffee. We’d never been heavy breakfast people, a few pastries, and we were always good to go. But there had been many nights we’d eaten breakfast for dinner, and Ollie’s chocolate chip pancakes had quickly become my favorite.

  It was a hard hike up the steep Mediterranean staircase to the Highest Point of Gibraltar, sitting 435-meters above the white sandy beach where we married just the day before. Another tourist took a photo of the two of us standing over the moor, the wind threatening to blow us away. From up here, you could see Africa’s coastline across the Strait of Gibraltar. “You see those mountains off in the distance?” Ollie asked me against the wind, his eyes glistening with the view. I nodded, and he continued, “That’s Morocco.”

  After we’d walked back down, we explored St. Michaels Cave and the Great Siege Tunnels before heading into town for lunch. Over two plates of fideos al horno, which was nothing more than a fancy macaroni, I showed him all the pictures we’d taken. “Look at this one,” I gushed.

  “These are brilliant,” Ollie shook his head with a mouth full of food, “I want them in my next poetry book.”

  I set my camera down as heat rushed to my cheeks with the same smile I always wore whenever he was around. “Ollie, you don’t have to say that just because I married you.”

  “I’m saying it because they’re seriously good. My next book, my poetry, and your photography. I don’t know why I haven’t thought of it before.” As Ollie took his next bite, a shriek belted from my throat when a monkey snatched my camera from the table beside me and took off through the town. Ollie dropped his fork and bolted from the chair, taking off after the uncanny thief. But not shortly after, I snatched our backpack off the ground to run after Ollie.

  “Ollie, don’t, he will bite you!” I shouted, more than fifteen feet from behind.

  By the time I caught up, Ollie had the monkey cornered with a crowd surrounding him, and he crouched down as the small ape examined the camera in his little hands. “Give me the camera, mate,” he firmly stated, and I crossed my arms over my chest, holding in laughter.

  “He’ll bite,” a bystander said, shaking a finger at the monkey, and I wanted to say, “I told you so” until the man standing beside her intervened, “No, he’s British. He’s good.”

  The two went back and forth, bickering about Gibraltar being under British control when Ollie turned to hush the crowd. The people silenced, and Ollie held out his hand to the little guy. “Hand the bloody thing over.”

  “He’s not going to just hand it over because you asked,” the lady mumbled to herself.

  Ollie and the monkey entered a staring match, his outstretched hand between the two of them, and the crowd stood frozen with a curbed breath, waiting. And after a few beats of suspense, the monkey dropped the camera beside Ollie’s hand over the rock pathway. Ollie scooped the camera into his hand and stood, and the monkey took off into another direction. Probably the same one from the night before. I remembered that look in the monkey’s eyes. He had it out for us.

  The crowd cheered, and Ollie slipped the strap over my head and planted a kiss on my lips.

  “Told you.” The man rolled his eyes and held up his palm. “It’s because he’s British,” he explained to his wife standing beside
him.

  Later, we met up with Liam and Jake at the hotel after a much-needed nap. It was our last night in Gibraltar, and we spent it sitting over the beach with our toes curled in the sand. The enormous cliff laid to our right as the sunset painted pinks and purples over the sparkling water. Jake danced over the sand by himself with the beat of a band playing from a nearby hotel as I retold the story of Ollie and the monkey.

  “Oh, yeah. Our tourist guide talked about it today,” Liam said with utter fascination brewing in his eyes. “Legend says, the monkeys alerted the British during a surprise attack, which prevented the French and Spanish from ever gaining control of Gibraltar. So, as long as the monkeys remain, so do the British. An unspoken bond between them,” he lifted his brows, “Pretty cool, yeah?”

  “Ah,” I looked back at Ollie, who was sitting beside me, “Now it makes sense.”

  “So, the monkey just handed over your camera?” Jake asked through heavy breathing.

  I lifted a shoulder. “More like dropping it beside his hand.”

  “Dodgy little bastard,” Ollie muttered.

  We’d returned to the UK the same way we came, but this time, Liam had driven straight through from Gibraltar to Bilbao as the married couple cozied up in the backseat. The four of us had to spend one last night in Spain before taking the next available ferry across the Bay of Biscay to the United Kingdom. We could have simply flown back, but had left Ollie’s car at the port anyway and didn’t mind the ride. Ollie and I were made for adventure, our only home within each other.

  Exhausted, Ollie pulled the car in front of our cottage but laid his hand over my thigh as I went to get out. “Mia, wait,” he stated, and I turned back to face him. “I know what you’re probably thinking right now, that once we get out of this car, it’s back to the real world. One with the Links and Dex and Leigh—”