He won three out of his next six games. They improved their record to seven and eight. They had to pretty much win all their remaining games to make the playoffs.
Most of his time was now spent preparing and practicing. She got to talk to him at night before bed, but now that she was over in Europe, the time difference made that nearly impossible. The last time she got to speak to him was over Thanksgiving—two weeks ago.
When she received his text earlier that he’d have some free time that afternoon—her evening—Mia told Allie she’d be skipping all post show commitments. She needed to see him, talk to him. But Allie nixed that and Mia had to do her meet and greets.
What a buzzkill her manager was!
So after the concert was over, Mia rushed through all the post-concert business that Allie forced on her. She hurried through the meet and greets and took a few pictures with the fans before rushing back to the hotel.
She checked her watch. It was well past midnight in Amsterdam which would make it, um. Damn, she hated math with a passion. Pulling out her phone, she did the conversion. It would be close to four in the afternoon in Seattle.
Mia turned on her laptop and smiled when she saw that Ethan was already online.
“Calling you in five minutes,” she typed and then hit send. He replied immediately with a video call. She answered and smiled at his gorgeously rugged face. “I said five minutes.”
“I know. I chose to ignore you,” he said, his sexy laid back grin exciting her. “I missed you and needed to see you.”
“As you can see, I just got back from my show. Give me five minutes … please?” she begged. “I have to get all this sweat and makeup off.”
“Show me a boob and it’s a deal,” he joked.
She laughed and began to undress in front of her laptop. “I can do better than that.”
“Holy crap, suga!” he exclaimed loudly. Her first time naked on Skype. Hope he was enjoying it.
“Five minutes!” she said, turning and running to the bathroom.
“Nooo! Take me in there with you,” he yelled after her.
“No. I have to pee,” she shouted back.
“Come on! This is so not fair. You’re naked. I haven’t seen you naked in seven weeks!”
“Getting in the shower. You can wait five more minutes!”
Mia heard him say something else as she stepped under the water, but couldn’t make it out. She quickly showered, rinsing off the sweat from the show. Hopping out of the shower, she towel-dried her hair as best she could, brushed it out and put it up in a clip. She put on a long T-shirt and a pair of pink panties.
“I don’t hear the shower running. Get your cute ass out here!” he ordered.
“One sec,” she called out. She put on some moisturizer and ran to the fridge for a bottle of water and grabbed an apple from the table. She had forgotten to get some food in her hurry to get back to her room.
Jumping in bed, she spun the laptop around to face her and took a moment to observe Ethan. He wore a crisp white dress shirt, the top button undone. She frowned. His hair looked like he had been running his hands through it.
“You’re in clothes?” he said in surprise.
“Oh, yeah. Sorry. Habit,” she replied, taking a bite of her apple.
“A banana would be better for you,” he stated.
“I don’t have any.”
“Tell Allie that after your shows, you must eat bananas.”
She laughed, finishing off her apple and putting it on the nightstand.
“How was the show?”
“I had fun tonight. The audience was great. I was all over that stage,” she said thoughtfully and took a drink of her water. “How’s Seattle?”
“Rainy and lonely,” he said miserably.
“Awww … ” she stopped to cough and had another sip of water. That’s what she got for not going through her cool down routine.
“You all right?” he asked. She smiled at the concern in his voice.
“Yeah, just a little bit of an itchy throat.”
“So, while you were in the shower, I was thinking what an amazing ass you have.”
“Oh yeah?”
“Oh yeah! I normally like to look at your face but could you turn around for a little bit?” he asked, twirling his finger around, a huge grin on his face.
Her laughter floated up from her throat. “No.”
“Will you take off your clothes again?” he asked, an irresistible grin ruffling his mouth. The kind of smile that made her want to strip, but it warred with the need to tease him.
“Maybe,” she replied, the corner of her mouth raised in a half-grin.
“Really?”
“Yeah.”
“Sweet!”
His joy at her potential nakedness made her laugh. “Sometimes you are like a sex-starved teenager, you know that?”
“Don’t remind me about sex!” he moaned irritably.
“Sex. Sex. Sex,” she teased.
He rested his forehead against his laptop and Mia saw close up how tired and frustrated he was. His eyes were painfully sad. “I miss you, suga. I miss holding you, touching you …” his voice broke miserably.
She heard his pain and anxiously bit her lower lip, surprised by how emotional he was. Her surprise quickly turned to concern. “Ethan? Is everything okay?”
“Just a bad couple of days, nothing to worry about. It just makes me want to be with you more.”
“What can I do?” she said, outlining his face with her finger, wishing she could wrap her arms around him and let him know it would be all right. She hated seeing him in pain.
“I’ll be right back,” he said abruptly and left his laptop, leaving her to view the nice manly four poster bed behind him. It looked so inviting, so much more than the bed in her room. His was covered in his comforting scent. She wished she could comfort him right now because his behavior scared her a little.
“Ethan? You there?” she called out.
“Yeah …” came his strained voice and the need to hold him went from mild to insane. “Just getting more comfortable.”
“Ethan, talk to me.”
“You don’t want me to talk about this right now,” he said, his voice filled with torment and Mia felt a huge, painful knot form inside her chest.
Why won’t he talk to me?
“What does that mean?” she asked, a heavy feeling growing in her stomach. He lifted his laptop from the desk and walked over to the massive bed.
“Mia,” he warned, not wanting to talk about it. Whenever he said just her name, she knew things were serious. As he returned to the screen, she noticed his eyes were red. Her hand went to her mouth when she realized he had been crying.
“I love you,” she blurted out, needing him to know that. Since she couldn’t physically comfort him; all she could do was remind him how she felt.
A smile ruffled his mouth. “I love you, too.”
“Sleep with me tonight?” she asked hopefully. She found a lot of comfort lying on her hotel bed, listening to him talk as they fell asleep. Not as good as being in his arms, but it was still nice. She actually slept.
“Mia …”
“Please? Just lie down,” she ordered, knowing he needed this as much as she did. They needed this connection, as close to face to face as they would get for now. “Stay with me as long as you can.”
After she saw his head resting on the pillow, Mia took out her hair clip and followed him. She needed to distract him but from what? She had no clue. So she just asked the first thing that came to her mind.
“How many kids do you want?”
Fuck! What the hell did I just ask?
“Kids?” Ethan asked, his eyes wide. She caught him off guard, too. They had yet to discuss their future and how children fit into it. Tonight was the first time they had ever broached the topic in the close to two years they had been together. She loved kids; Kaitlyn in particular. She loved that little girl from the moment she met her over six years
ago. Her feelings for Kaitlyn surprised her because Mia never thought she would be a mother. More because she was afraid she’d screw up. Her example was the mother who abandoned her. Despite that, those tiny little humans intrigued her.
“Yeah … those little humans.”
“Five.”
“Wait!” she stopped. Maybe not that many kids … “What? Five? Do you have some other uteruses lined up for this?”
“Haha,” he laughed. The glow of his smile warmed her heart. Her distraction was working. “You asked. I answered. But I’d be happy with just one, too.”
“Who do you think our kids are going to look like?” she asked, starting to picture their family of seven. She wanted mini-Ethans running all over the place. A houseful of boys. She could totally picture that.
“I hope like you.”
“Well, I’m pretty short.”
“Okay, they can look like you, but they must have my height.”
“Except the girls. I really don’t want to have a six foot six daughter,” she said, wrinkling her nose.
“Yeah, that would be kind of weird.”
“I’d like our sons to look like you,” she confessed, a smile coming to her face as she thought about cute little mini-Ethans running around the house.
“No way! You!”
“I definitely want all our kids to have your smile.”
“Really?” he said, showing off his perfect smile.
“Yeah,” she said dreamily, putting her fingers on the screen above his lips, staring at the man who would be her husband and father of her children.
“Our kids should all have your eyes,” he announced a few moments later.
“Uh, no. My eyes are boring brown.”
“Far from boring, suga. They have these amazing gold flecks sprinkled throughout which makes it look like your eyes are always twinkling. I can stare into them forever.”
She never had anyone describe her eyes like that before. Hell, she didn’t even know if she had these gold flecks like he said.
“This baby talk just did something to my body.”
He laughed. “What did it do?”
“A weird ticking.”
“We will work on that ticking on our honeymoon.”
“Why are we even going anywhere? All we’re going to do is have lots of sex!”
“We’ll have sex in a very pretty place.”
“Do you seriously want to start a family right away?”
“My clock is ticking, suga. I’m thirty-three.”
“You’re that old?”
“Hush your mouth!” he said with a grin.
“I’d really like to kiss your mouth right now,” Mia admitted, completely changing the topic. He raised his eyebrows in amazement. It felt weird to say. Normally she would just kiss him, but that was not happening. Instead, she had to use words and even though she was good with words, telling Ethan what she wanted felt very bold.
“I’d like that, too, as well as some other things.”
“Like?”
“I really want you in my arms. I want to be able to hold you.”
“I’d like that too. I enjoy your arms around me.”
“Oh you do?”
She smiled softly at his surprised face. “Yeah. I like how you make me feel safe and wanted.”
“I do that for you?” he asked.
Mia nodded. They were silent for a few moments, just staring at the other. She saw hunger in his eyes. She bit her lip to stifle the moan that rose from deep within her. She ached for this man.
“Are you imagining being in my arms right now?” he asked, breaking the silence.
Mia sighed, closing her eyes. “I am.”
“Can you feel me caress your soft cheek? My lips quickly follow, tracing your cheekbone as I slowly make my way to your lips. Those unbelievably full and delicious lips …”
Hell, she could feel it right down to her core.
“Ethan?”
“Hmm?”
“What else?” Mia asked, watching his face as he realized what she just asked. What she just gave permission to do. The smile on his face was huge.
“Really?”
“Yeah. When do you have to leave?”
“Not until five. Plenty of time. You sure?”
“No. I’m not,” she laughed uncomfortably. They had never used Skype for anything other than a visual way to talk. Tonight she let him see her naked and now they would take it even further and Mia was nervous. “Why does this freak me out so much? I mean, it’s just you on the other side …”
“You’re not ready, my little prude,” he said with a tender smile.
“Prude?”
“Have you watched porn yet?”
“Uh, no,” she admitted. Maybe she should change that.
“Two weeks! Be prepared!”
“For what? Porn?”
“You should watch it to prepare yourself for what I’m going to do to you in two weeks.”
“Whatever,” she laughed.
He raised his eyebrows and smiled. “You have no idea what I want to do to you, suga. I’ve had seven weeks to think about it.”
Now he got her curious. What exactly did he want to do to her? From the sound of it probably more than what she’d been thinking.
“I’m sorry I’m a prude about this. It’s not like me. I mean, if I was in your room with you, a whole different story. You wouldn’t be able to stop me.”
“I could stop you.”
“No, you couldn’t.”
“I could stop you, but I wouldn’t.”
She smiled happily. “You would let me have my way with you without any interference?”
“Yes.”
Mia chewed on her thumb, visions of what she would do flashed through her mind and straight between her legs.
“I love your face when you’re turned on.”
“You can tell?”
“Yes! I always know when you’re thinking about sex.”
Well, damn. She cleared her throat. “Seventeen days?” she asked, her body craving what her fiancé could do to her.
“I can help you now … I can make that ache between your legs go away.”
“You’re so sure of yourself.”
To which he replied with a smug smile.
Mia fought with herself. She was so self-conscious and felt vulnerable about doing this in front of him. But how was this any different from the hundreds of times he’d seen and made her come?
Thinking about it only made the ache grow. She squeezed her legs together but it just made it worse.
“You need a release, Mia. Let me help.”
“What I need is you inside me.”
“I need that, too. I need to feel you surround me, holding on tight as I move in you, over and over.”
Her eyelids closed as she listened to his unbelievably sexy voice. Had his voice always been that sexy?
“Your voice … keep talking,” Mia moaned, letting her hand go between her legs. She inhaled sharply at her own touch. “Please, Ethan!”
“My lips travel along your collarbone, flicking my tongue across your skin, teasing you, before heading up your long lean neck …” he paused. She heard the rustle of fabric and knew what he was doing. “Until I can’t wait any longer to kiss you. My lips find yours and you welcome me inside, your tongue teasing mine.”
She could almost feel the kiss as her fingers continued to move, the pleasure almost too much, too raw. Her hips rose uncontrollably with her own touch and she moaned again.
The pounding on his door broke the spell. Mia opened her eyes and saw the agony on his face.
“Don’t stop, Ethan. Forget the door. Focus on me, being inside of me as I move upon you, my face even with yours, your hands on my breasts.”
“Ethan, come on! Time to go!” yelled the man on the other side of his door. She saw him glance at the door.
“No! Me, Ethan! Look at me!” she commanded and tore off her shirt. She waited to speak until he looked at h
er. “That’s it, Ethan. Don’t stop. Look at me. Move inside of me. Feel me, baby. Come for me.”
“I love you,” he said before his face contorted as he orgasmed. She smiled, liking that she could do that from thousands of miles away.
“Ethan!” his angry teammate called out again.
“Give me two minutes!” Ethan yelled hoarsely at the door. Then he looked at her and her heart filled with the love she saw in his eyes.
“Thank you for that.”
“You’re welcome. You owe me, you know.”
Ethan laughed as he tucked his shirt into his pants. He bent down to look at the screen while buckling his belt. “I will definitely make this up to you—in two weeks.”
“I love you, Ethan. Talk to you on Saturday.”
“I love you, too. Sweet dreams, suga. I’ve given you a lot to dream about.”
Mia
New York City, December 2007
“Goddamn stupid snowstorm! My flight is not just delayed but canceled?” Mia screamed into her phone while she waited outside for an available taxi.
“It gets worse,” Allie said over the line.
“How so?” Mia dreaded finding out, walking towards an open taxi.
“You’re not going to make it to Indianapolis. The storm will be in New York tomorrow and they forecast that it will only get worse. Think blizzard along with a couple feet of snow.”
Mia opened the door to a taxi and got herself in. She directed the driver to take her to her hotel. She let her head fall back against the backseat and sighed sadly, feeling her heart break. “No Christmas with them?”
“Sorry, Mia,” Allie spoke quietly. “I’ll make the changes for your flight to Rio.”
“Thanks, Allie. Merry Christmas,” she said bleakly.
“Same to you, Mia. It’ll be okay.”
“No, it won’t. I’ll so be crying after I get off the phone,” she admitted, feeling the tears burn behind her eyes, impatiently waiting to fall.
“Want me to tell Ethan about all this?”
“Yeah, then have him call me later. I’ll be at the hotel if I can extend my stay there.”
“Don’t worry about that. I’ll take care of it right now and then I’ll call Ethan. I’ll text you if there’s any issue with the hotel.”
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