Never Over You

by Ryleigh Andrews

  “Mommy’s here,” Mia said, kissing each forehead. The crying turned into an ugly coughing fit for both boys. She listened to her babies’ haggard breaths and decided to call the doctor. She needed to hear it from her. But the doctor wanted to see them, so the four of them headed off. Rory and Pierce were both determined to have bad colds, but Pierce had an added ear infection.

  After the appointment, Mia fed them some chicken noodle soup and put them to bed. They wouldn’t fall asleep without her so she snuggled up and kept a watchful eye on them. She wasn’t going to be home long and wanted to spend whatever time she had with them. The next afternoon she had to fly out to her show that night in Seattle.

  Her mommy instincts had her not wanting to leave them. She had wanted to talk to Ethan, but he wasn’t home yet. Pulling out her phone, Mia called Ethan, but it went directly to voicemail which meant his phone wasn’t even on. She tried to stay up but as she stared at her phone, her eyes kept shutting until eventually they stayed closed and she slept.

  She woke with a start, not knowing where she was. Her eyes shot around the space and recognized her sons’ room. Their little bodies curled up against her. Patting around, she found her phone and saw that it was six forty-five.

  Disentangling herself from little arms and legs, Mia made her escape without waking up her sons and headed to her bedroom to see her husband and hopefully snuggle up with him before he left for practice.

  When she entered the bedroom, the first thing she noticed was his scent throughout the space. She loved the way he smelled—the combination of his cologne, his deodorant, his soap, and just him. One of her favorite scents in the world.

  Passing through their sitting room, she turned to walk up the steps to the bedroom and found it empty except for an unmade bed that had only been slept in on one side. So, her husband had more than likely arrived home late, went straight to bed, and woke up early without even seeking her out, without even saying hello. That didn’t sit well with her. In fact, it pissed her the fuck off.

  Mia quickly got ready and packed and then set about getting a breakfast ready for her boys. They came down with Bridgett about twenty minutes later, not looking too much better, but they sure had an appetite, each devouring a big bowl of oatmeal and a banana plus some orange juice. That seemed encouraging.

  While they ate, Mia typed a text to Ethan, needing to talk to him. She knew he wouldn’t answer a call at work, but maybe he’d respond to a text.

  Ethan

  January 28, 2015 7:54 AM

  I’m leaving in 5 hours. I was wondering if I’d be seeing you before I left. I can’t believe I came home and haven’t seen you at all. :( Our poor boys are sick. I took them to the doctor and she said it’s just a nasty cold. I left instructions with Bridge. Anyway … I miss you. <3

  Mia spent the rest of the morning hanging with her sons, her phone on loud and attached to her person waiting for Ethan to respond, which he hadn’t. So she decided to do something she’d never done—she would go to Flash headquarters to seek him out. She’d also get to see Luke while she was there because it had been awhile since she’d last seen her best friend. Mia didn’t want to interrupt his alone time with Allie who hadn’t come out on tour with them this time, though Mia had contact with her often. But a lot of things she normally did were handled through her assistant, Langston.

  Hopefully Luke could help her find Ethan so she didn’t make a scene. Though, to be honest, Mia was kind of prepared to do that if it came down to it.

  Before heading over, she texted Luke who replied that he’d wait for her at the front entrance. When she stepped out of the limo, he smiled and then greeted her with a warm and extra-long embrace.

  “Hi, sweets.”

  “Hi, Luke. I missed seeing your face the past couple months.”

  “How long are you in town?” he said, directing her inside.

  “Um, about two more hours,” she replied, walking towards his office, but his hand on her arm stopped her.

  “Two hours?” he bellowed.

  “Yeah, sorry,” she apologized, her face crinkling in regret. “I meant to call you last night but the twins are sick and I spent the evening taking care of them.”

  “The little guys are sick?”

  “Yeah,” she frowned. “I hate leaving them like this. That’s why I need to see Ethan now. I haven’t seen him at all since I’ve been back.”

  “Really?” her best friend asked in disbelief.

  “He’s in a zone right now. I fell asleep with the boys around ten and he still wasn’t home and when I woke in the morning, he was already gone.”

  “Let me find out where he’s at. I’m pretty sure the defense is running drills right now so he’s probably working out or watching films or in meetings. Sit down and let me find out,” he said as he left her alone in his office.

  Nodding, she sat down at his desk and smiled when she noticed the pictures on it. An old one of the two of them when they were dating, one with her, Kaitlyn, and him that was taken by Luke’s mother one Christmas, a picture of him and Allie at a Christmas party, and Kaitlyn’s most recent school picture.

  She took out her phone and snapped a couple pictures of the photos with her in them. She didn’t have these pictures and wanted to be able to look at them whenever the feeling struck. Mia did that a lot on the road, looking through her pictures to stay connected. Bridgette sent her photos almost every day which helped a little, but she saw how much the boys were growing while she was gone and that hurt.

  Switching to her messaging app, her eyes did a quick scan to see if Ethan had responded to her earlier texts, even though she knew he didn’t generally text while at work.

  She clicked on her last message to him and re-read it. She felt her desperation in that text even though she’d written and rewritten it at least five times before finally sending it. As she stared at her phone, she rubbed her forehead hard. With a puff of frustration, she turned it off and stuffed it back in her bag.

  “Hey,” Luke said, causing her to look up from her now empty hands. She softly sighed when she saw that Ethan wasn’t with him.

  “You find him?”

  “Yeah, he’s alone in the tape room. Follow me.”

  As Luke led her through the building, she was surprised that she felt nervous to see her own husband. She was going to confront him on his work turf and it had great odds of going very wrong.

  “He’s in there,” Luke said, stopping in front of a cream-colored metal door. “Call me in the next couple of days, okay? We need to catch up.”

  “I will. Thank you.”

  “Any time, sweets.”

  He hugged her quickly and then left her alone to face her husband. Taking a deep, steadying breath, she turned the knob and pushed the door open, quickly entering before closing the door behind her.

  The room was dark except for the light coming from the large screen with one of his games on it and the small desk lamp on the table by him and next to the lamp was his phone. Had he been intentionally ignoring her?

  Her husband had on a ball cap, dark grey mesh shorts, and a white Flash hoodie. He looked up and glanced over at her. “Hey,” he said before turning back to his film. He showed no surprise that she was there. Nor did he seem happy. He seemed …

  Indifferent.

  And that scared her.

  “Ethan?” she said, unable to keep the tremor out of her voice.

  “Hmm?” he said without even turning around.

  “Did you know I was leaving in a couple hours?”

  His head fell slightly, his shoulders rising and falling with a deep breath, and then he paused the video. She swallowed the lump in her throat and placed shaky fingers to her lips. With that reaction, Mia was certain he’d known exactly when she was leaving.

  “I did,” he said woodenly.

  “Oh,” was all she was able to say.

  Her lip quivered and she swallowed repeatedly to keep the tears away. So, he didn’t want to see her. She didn�
�t know if she should grant him that or if she should stay and try to figure out why.

  Damn it! She wanted to run. She wanted that so badly.

  “I guess I’ll leave you to your films then,” she spoke, the words falling out of her mouth. Still no reaction from him. She took one more look at him, sitting there, looking at that damn screen, and turned for the door.

  “Mia …”

  “What?” she snapped, the tears she tried so hard to hold in, falling wildly.

  “Have a safe trip.”

  She stood still in shock.

  He seriously did not just say that to her. She went from sad to mad—no, livid—in under a second. She whipped around, spotted a notebook on a nearby table and threw it at him, hitting him square in the back. Her aim perfect.

  “You know what? Fuck you!” she yelled. “What the hell is your problem?”

  Finally, he stood up and slowly turned towards her. Her heart thumped in her chest, but she kept her gaze trained on him. His jaw twitched and his eyes were ablaze with fury.

  Good—now here was an emotion besides indifference.

  That gave her a small point of joy but that quickly changed when he started to move her way. Panic rioting within her, she took a fearful step back. She had never seen him angry like this before and didn’t know what to expect. The last time she had seen him even remotely this angry was the day he’d found out she had been taking drugs, the day they’d first gone their separate ways.

  That thought tore at her insides. Were they at a point like that again?

  He stopped a foot in front of her, his eyes locked on hers. He towered over her. That had never felt threatening before—until that moment.

  “You threw a notebook at me?”

  “Well, yeah. You told me to have a safe trip,” she tossed back at him, speaking with a bravado she just didn’t feel.

  The fiery anger faded from his eyes, replaced by a fire of another kind—desire.

  He grabbed her by the arms and pulled her up against him. She placed her shaky hands on his waist to steady herself, her eyes still caught on his. They stood like that for a long moment, their breathing increasing with each passing second, his heart pounding against her chest.

  “Eth—” she spoke but was interrupted by his hard lips against hers. He let go of her arms and cupped her face, tilting her head for a better angle for his attack. And did he ever attack her mouth—his lips, his tongue, his teeth all fighting to get her to respond.

  Finally, the shock wore away and she parted her lips and his tongue was instantly in her mouth, battling with hers. Before she knew it, he had backed her against the door. She heard the click of the lock and felt her core whimper in relief—sex with her husband. The hand that locked the door grabbed on to her long skirt, bunching and pulling it up to her waist. His other hand pushed down her underwear. As soon as she stepped out of them, his hand cupped her, causing her to moan into his mouth. She slid her hands under the waistbands of his shorts and boxer briefs, cupping his chiseled ass with both of her hands.

  Slowly, his middle finger slid between her lower lips and slipped inside of her slick heat.

  “Oh, God,” she whimpered, pushing his briefs and shorts down over his hips and legs. With his lips still on hers, he kicked off his shoes and then his clothes. He grabbed her ass with both hands and she jumped up and wrapped her legs around his waist. They’d done this so many times, she knew what he wanted her to do.

  “Fuck,” she moaned and her head fell against his chest as he entered her.

  No one could make love to her like he could. Not Luke, not Tom, not Josh. Not even close. Only this man. Her man.

  “Look at me, Mia,” he ordered as he placed a bent finger beneath her chin, lifting her head so her eyes locked on his now dark, honey eyes. In one quick moment, she saw his love for her along with all of his frustration. At what, she didn’t know exactly.

  “I love you, Ethan,” she blurted out, needing to remind him of that fact.

  He slowed his movements, a smile teasing his mouth. “Oh, you do?”

  Her head rolled back; the slow grind of his was torturous. With her eyes fluttering in pleasure, she moaned her answer. “Yes! I love you so much.”

  She wrapped her hands around his neck, pulled him closer and kissed him quickly, tugging on that fuller bottom lip of his.

  “Don’t stop!” she begged as he picked up the pace again. “Please! Don’t ever stop!”

  He chuckled softly against her mouth. “I’d love to do just that, suga. I could easily love you forever.”

  “I’m glad we agree on that.”

  Resting his forehead against hers, he stilled completely and gazed into her eyes. “I love you, suga,” he said finally.

  Her deep sigh was full of relief. Whatever was wrong between them could be fixed, she knew it. They loved each other. He loved her. She couldn’t believe she had needed that declaration, but she was glad that she now had it and that gave her hope for her future.

  “Show me, Ethan … please!”

  He spun them around and laid her gently on the table that had just held the notebook she’d thrown at him. Taking her hands from his neck, he drew her hands in a wide arch above her head, holding them in place with one large hand. With his free hand, he pushed her sweater over the swell of her breasts and then freed them from her bra and the torture from his mouth was the sweetest feeling in the world. She could stay like this with him inside of her, sucking her nipples, forever, but that wasn’t in his plans.

  He lifted his head from her breasts and locked his eyes on hers as he moved his hips, gradually increasing the pace, driving into her, until she was a moaning mess beneath him.

  “You close, suga?”

  “Yes! I need you to make me come. I need it. Oh, God, I need it …” she groaned as his slow strokes turned to pounding. Then his lips found hers as he filled her one last glorious time. She bucked upwards into him, her pussy spasming around his cock.

  Letting go of her hands, he collapsed on top of her, his face nuzzling her neck. She held him against her, missing the feel of him inside of her, on top of her, enveloping her. She so desperately wanted to fall asleep just like this—completely content from the after sex bliss. Those moments after they’d made love some of her most peaceful moments.

  “You should have gotten me from the boys’ room last night. We could have done this in a bed. Not to say that this wasn’t great. It was wonderful, but …”

  “Mia, be quiet.”

  “Sorry,” she sighed, feeling a little bit of the insecurity creeping back.

  “No. I’m sorry. I was being a big baby. I was a fool for wasting away the time I could have spent with you. Now with playoffs here, it’ll be even harder to see you.”

  “I happen to have the next four Sundays off …” she said, letting him put it all together.

  “You do?” he asked, not hiding his surprise. How could he think I would miss his playoff games?

  “Yeah, I wouldn’t miss the chance to cheer you on, and after that, I’ll be home with you for a whole month.”

  “A whole month?”

  “Yeah … an entire month of you and me doing this.”

  “Sounds like a perfect plan, suga.”

  Ethan

  Indianapolis, April 17, 2015

  Seven twenty-one.

  He glanced at his watch again to make sure he read it right. His wife was now twenty-one minutes late to her best friends’ wedding rehearsal. Everyone had already checked their phones to see if she may have messaged them.

  Nothing.

  That pretty much summed up how much of her time he’d had the last couple of weeks since she returned. Late last week, she had to fly back out to LA to work on some re-shoots for her last film. She was supposed to be home yesterday. Instead he got a text—yes, a damn text—telling him that she’d had to stay but she’d definitely be there for the rehearsal.

  Definitely not here.

  Mia was never around—always doing
something. And when they were together, his anger at feeling second to her life warred with his need to be with her. No, it wasn’t feeling second in her life. It was more like just wanting to be a part of it—any part. Pride had been winning lately. He could have gone on tour and been with her for a couple weeks after he won the championship, but he wanted her home—not on that damn tour bus. Not around Todd. He wanted his home—her.

  He wanted her in their bed, her scent all over him. He wanted to travel back in time to when his wife was happy—when he was happy. Something was bugging her … but anytime he tried bringing it up, she shut down or changed the subject. She’d been acting weird in his presence—guilty almost, but that didn’t seem right. What would she have to be guilty about?

  Things had been off since the night of the Christmas party she’d thrown for the Star Amp employees. The party he couldn’t bring himself to go to. When he’d realized that it’d been a year since they had lost the twins, he was in no mood to go to a celebration. He had just wanted to be alone.

  When he’d woken up that next morning and she wasn’t home, he’d been livid, and his anger had only grown when she hadn’t picked up her phone at all. He’d been worried as fuck and had gone out looking. As he’d pulled onto the street the studio was on, he’d seen her get out of a car and hurry into the building. Not two minutes later, she’d exited wearing her coat and carrying her purse. Staying where he was, he’d watched the window of the car roll down and his heart had dropped when he’d seen Todd.

  He hadn’t waited to see anything else. Ethan had driven home—numb. When he’d arrived back, he’d waited for her, but while he’d waited, his anger had built and when she’d finally walked through the door and told him she’d spent the night at Todd’s, he hadn’t known if he’d ever been so angry. But then she’d broken down and told him why—she’d been drinking and that her strength had disappeared on her. He’d felt so guilty because he’d forgotten how fragile she still was and he’d basically abandoned her on the anniversary of one of the worst nights of their lives.

  But that lingering memory of her stepping out of Todd’s car was hard to let go.