by Parker, Ali
Should I have lunged toward Raina and covered her up and tried to pretend that she had just wandered in here by mistake and that I’d had nothing to do with it? Should I hustle Winnie out and hope that she didn’t ask too many questions about this?
Winnie and Raina locked eyes, both of them staring at each other. I had told Raina that Winnie wasn’t going to be around this morning, and here she was. What if she thought I had lied to her in order to trick her into staying over? I looked between them, back and forth, feeling useless. How was I meant to make this right?
I opened my mouth to say something, but before I could come out with a word, Winnie simply smiled and raised her eyebrows. She might have been just ten years old, but she knew enough about the way the world worked to guess what had happened here while she had been away.
“I’m just glad it finally happened,” she announced, and with that, she turned and walked out of the room.
My jaw dropped. I couldn’t believe she had dared to come out with that. But thank God, she had reacted about the best that I could have asked from her. It was hardly what I had expected, but damn, she had kept her cool, and I was pretty sure that I had gotten away with it. Whatever it was.
As soon as Winnie had walked out of the room, I handed Raina a cup of coffee without saying a word. She looked at me, her eyebrows raised, and she was clearly trying to hold back something—a burst of laughter or something worse, I had no idea.
I took a sip of my almost-cold coffee, and I stared at her, waiting for a reaction. Because, in truth, I had no fucking idea what the hell I was meant to do or say next.
Chapter 24
Harry
I didn’t know how long we were just standing there staring at one another. Raina’s jaw was hanging open, and I was clutching a mug of coffee and wondering if that could really have just happened.
The words that Winnie had spoken were still hanging in the air between us. Had we really made it that obvious? I almost wanted to laugh. But I didn’t know if that would have been too weird. After all, I had promised her that she wasn’t going to have to worry about my niece walking in on us, and that had just happened when I’d least expected it to.
“Well,” she finally announced, shaking her head. A flush of pink had worked its way up over her cheeks, I noticed, as though she was a schoolgirl caught in the act of something she shouldn’t have been doing.
“That just happened, I guess,” she remarked, and she burst out laughing. Before long, I found myself laughing too. It had been so ridiculous, hearing Winnie talk like that, knowing that we had been busted right in the act, that I couldn’t hold back any longer.
“That just happened,” I agreed.
She went to plant a hand on the counter to catch herself from falling over with amusement—but she missed, and I had to dive toward her and catch her before she hit the floor. That just made the two of us laugh more, and I wondered how in the name of holy hell she had managed to turn my Winnie busting us into something this hilarious.
“Well, good morning,” I greeted her, once her giggles had started to wear off.
She wound her arms around my neck and smiled at me. “Good morning,” she murmured back as she leaned forward and pressed a kiss to my lips.
I closed my eyes and savored the moment. God, there was something so fun about waking up next to her, then getting to spend the morning with her. I adored it. I couldn’t get enough.
I pulled back slowly, looking into her eyes, and ran my hands down her waist and over her hips.
“You want something to eat?” I asked her softly.
She nodded. “I’m starving. What have you got in here, anyway?”
“I’m not much of a cook,” I warned her. “But I can just about throw together some bacon and eggs and toast, if that works for you?”
“I think I can live with that,” she said then she took the coffee that I had made for her and curled up on one of the stools at the breakfast bar as I set about making us something to eat.
It was always so good to have her around. It felt right, having her sitting there opposite me, chatting away to me about the week I had ahead.
She was still a little giggly from being busted by Winnie, and I knew how she felt. It felt like we had been exposed, and it was hard keeping in the giddiness of knowing that we were doing something that wouldn’t exactly have been approved of by everyone. Or maybe it was just the sheer thrill of being around her that was doing this to me.
I couldn’t get enough. Every time I looked at her, it was like something had lit up inside of me, a pinball machine flashing with all the neon colors that let me know I was on to a winner.
We ate together, and she told me a little about the shelter that we had taken Tink from. They were always bringing in new pets, she explained, and they would make such good use of the money that I had donated. It wasn’t often that I got a chance to see first-hand where the money I donated would be going to, but I knew that the dog charity would make me proud.
“You know, I’d like to spend the rest of the day here,” she said. “But I think I should be getting to work.”
“I can drive you,” I offered.
She raised her eyebrows at me. “You really don’t have to,” she replied.
I shook my head and waved my hand. “Hey, if I’m the one who had you stay the night, I think it’s only fair that I’m the one who drops you off at work.”
Of course, the truth was that I didn’t want to leave her so soon. I just wasn’t ready to say goodbye to her, even though I knew that I should have.
She smiled at me. “That’s a really sweet offer,” she told me. “And I’m totally going to take you up on it. Just let me get changed into something a little less comfortable, okay?”
I watched as she made her way upstairs, still wearing that shirt of mine that she had picked out of the wardrobe, and let my eyes trace over her gorgeous body once again. Damn, but she was about as perfect as they came, curvy, strong, so full and luscious. I was having a hard time thinking about anything else that I was meant to get done today with her walking around looking as delicious as that.
I cleared the plates and went to throw on some clothes myself. She was right. It was way too tempting to just forget about everything that we had to do today and spend the rest of the day in bed together, but I knew that I didn’t want to push things too far too fast.
We had a good thing going, and there was such a thing as too much of that. I didn’t want us to run out of patience for one another so soon. In truth, though, I was sure I could have gorged myself on her for days and not gotten tired of what she offered me.
I drove her to work and had my hand on her leg the whole time, and I had to admit that there was something that made me a little prideful about having her right there beside me. I hoped that everyone in the commuting lane could see us together. I hoped that they were jealous that I had this gorgeous woman by my side, and I hoped that they knew that she was all mine, as far as I was concerned.
“Thanks for the ride,” she told me when I dropped her off. “And for… for everything.”
“Anytime,” I replied, and I meant it.
She leaned toward the car through the open window and gave me one more kiss. “Maybe next time we do a weekend?” she suggested. “So you don’t have to worry about getting rid of me so soon?”
“That sounds perfect,” I said, and she beamed at me before she turned to head into the clinic. I watched her go, letting my eyes stick to her for a little longer than they needed to, before I pulled away and headed back to my own job.
I would have worked from home, but Yara had practically insisted that I come in so she could get the lowdown on what had happened with my date with Raina. I was also picking up Tink from the office as well, and I had to admit I was looking forward to seeing him. I wondered if Winnie had said anything to Yara about what she had seen that morning. I hoped not. It would have been nice to keep that aspect of it to myself.
But as soon as I laid
eyes on Yara, I knew that I wasn’t going to get away with it that easily. She was cradling my dog in her arms like she was carrying an infant child, and I had to laugh when I saw the way she was treating him.
“Hey, I think he’s all right to walk,” I told her.
As soon as Tink heard my voice, he scrambled around to see me. I got down on my haunches and petted his head, scratching behind his ears in the way that I knew he liked.
“So,” Yara announced, and she clapped her hands together and made sure that the door to my office was firmly shut. “I hear that you might have had someone sleeping over last night.”
“Damn, I thought Winnie might have kept that to herself,” I said, but I knew it had been a futile hope.
“Yeah, well, she’s my little secret agent,” Yara replied, and Tink wandered away from me and hopped up onto the couch next to the door that I usually kept for clients. I knew I should have ordered him down, but he was still getting over his operation, and I didn’t have the heart to tell him to stop.
“So, tell me,” she said. “Did last night go well?”
I sighed. I didn’t want to give her all the details, but in truth, I was looking forward to sharing this with someone. And I knew that Yara had been trying to help out with my love life for a long time. The least I could do was actually give her the inside scoop now that it had finally picked up once more.
“It did,” I admitted. “We had a great time, really. Way better than I thought it was going to go. We had dinner. We talked about her job and the shelter and everything.”
“Has she figured out that you’re the one who made the donation?” Yara asked.
I nodded. “Yeah, I didn’t have to drop the bomb on her or anything. I thought she would be a little more freaked out, but it turns out that she’d already worked out who I was through her brother or something. She’s known for a while now, I think.”
“Well, shows you she’s not after the cash at least,” Yara remarked. “And you like her? You think things could go somewhere with her?”
I hesitated for a moment before I answered. I didn’t want to jinx anything by jumping in too soon, but the truth was, I really could. I liked this woman. I liked her a lot. I liked the way she made me feel. I liked the way being around her gave me that swaggering confidence that I knew I hadn’t had in a hell of a long time. I really liked her. And I was already excited about the thought of seeing her again.
“Provided you’re not going to start patting yourself on the back if I say yes,” I warned her.
Yara held her hands up. “Hey, you know I would never,” she replied.
“Well, in that case, then yes,” I said. “I really do like her.”
“Yes!” Yara exclaimed, and she clapped her hands together and started dancing all around the office. I’d known that she would take credit for this as soon as she got the chance, and I had to admit, she kind of deserved to. She had been the one to get this thing moving in the first place, after all. I would never have had the nerve to pick things up with Raina if she hadn’t managed to set me up on that blind date. As much as I didn’t want to concede the point to her, maybe she had earned this one.
Tink, who had been sleeping, woke up to the commotion, and he bounded from his seat and started barking enthusiastically. I burst out laughing. It was total chaos in that room as Yara scooped up Tink and danced around with him, but maybe that was actually all right. Maybe I could live with that for a change. Because it felt pretty damn good to know that, after all this time, things were actually going my way. And perhaps it was only right that I celebrated that as much as possible.
Chapter 25
Raina
I rolled into the clinic right on time and thanked God that he had been enough of a gentleman to take me into work. Because I wasn’t sure that I would have managed to slip under the radar so well if he had put me on the public transport system to make it here in time anyway.
Not to mention the fact that I could still feel the soft weight of his kiss on my lips as I changed quickly into my scrubs and prayed that Hannah hadn’t noticed me in last night’s date outfit.
God, if I could have spent the rest of the day with him, I would have. I wished I could have just skipped out of work, forgotten about all the responsibilities that I had for the day, and focused on getting back into bed with him and picking up right where we had—
“Raina?”
“Hmm?” I quickly retreated from the very much not-safe-for-work place that I had been in my head and reminded myself that I was in the office.
“We’ve got a cat who needs her shots,” she said. “And then someone was calling about an emergency appointment for their parakeet?”
Just like that, I was back in my regular day, my regular world, carrying with me the secret of what I had gotten up to the night before. I still couldn’t believe that I had actually let that happen. I had told myself that I would never go back to his place with him on the first date, and yet there I was, sliding into bed with him the first chance I got.
And fuck, it had been incredible. Being with him for the first time, I felt like I hadn’t missed out on a damn thing. I knew that I had waited a hell of a long time, but perhaps the universe had just been holding out to give me the man that it knew I wanted the most in the world.
The rest of the day was hectic. I got a pissy text from Reed, berating me for missing our morning coffee with no notice, but it was shortly followed by one that seemed to recall the date I had been on, and he backed off.
I was actually glad that I had a lot to do that day because it kept me from hanging over my phone and waiting for messages from Harry. I knew that I was already mooning like a maniac, but I was so excited to get the chance to see him once more.
Last night had just been so good. I hoped that he felt the same way. I sincerely hoped that he was as eager to see me again as I was to see him because if not, we were going to have some serious trouble.
It felt like I was walking on air for the rest of the day, like nothing could bring me down. Not even the histrionic owner of that parakeet who turned out to be totally fine and just acting up for attention. Not even having to fill out the round of intake forms at the end of the day.
I couldn’t believe that it had all happened like that. I couldn’t believe that I’d had the boldness to just go right ahead and go through with what I had wanted from him. I had been sure that I was going to chicken out before we got to the actual sex part, but when I was in the act with him, all of it just felt so natural, as though this was what my body had been built for and I was only just now working it out.
By the time that I was ready to go home, I was feeling pretty exhausted. In truth, I hadn’t slept super well the night before. I’d kept waking up and just gazing over at the man beside me, marveling at the fact that he was still there and that he had allowed me to stay the night.
I reached over and touched him when he was sleeping, grazing my finger over the stubble on his cheek, over his shoulder, over his chest, as though I was expecting him to blink out of existence as soon as I looked away. I just had no idea what to expect from any of this. But I was sure that I liked it, waking up next to him.
Even more, I liked coming downstairs to find that he had made coffee and was working on breakfast for me. I could have done without that little intrusion by Winnie, for sure, but honestly, that had just been funnier than it had been anything else.
She had seemed totally unbothered by what she had seen. I supposed that she had been hoping for us to get together already, too. Was there anyone in the universe who hadn’t already caught on to the fact that we had chemistry? It felt like I had been the last one to catch up with that revelation.
I couldn’t wait to tell Rita everything that had happened. She would be so happy that I had found someone at last. Not to mention the fact that when she was back at work, it meant that I could take a little more time off, which meant all the more time to spend with my man.
Could I call him my man yet? W
ell, I was doing it, whether I should have been or not, so I supposed people were just going to have to get used to that reality.
I headed home, checked my phone, and found it quiet, which was for the best. If Harry had even made a sound close to one that was encouraging me to come and stay the night again, I would have been over there so fast that I would have left a dust-version of myself hanging in the air where I stood. Besides, I needed time to just be with myself and figure out how I felt about everything that had happened.
In truth, I already knew how I felt about it. I felt good. Damn good, actually. I had been so nervous about the thought of letting a man anywhere near me like that, and I had been worried right up until the moment that he had stripped me down in front of him. But as soon as I had felt his strong hands on my bare skin, I had known that all of this was going to be just fine.
Because he touched me like he couldn’t get enough of me. He touched me like there wasn’t an inch of my body he didn’t want to worship. I had been fearful that I was going to be too much—too curvy, too new for this, too big for him to take in—but he had done everything right, and I had walked away from my very first time feeling like a badass bitch who could totally get down on that again. And maybe come at it with a little more confidence this time.
I ordered takeout, curled up in front of the TV, and let the mindless mutterings of the drama in front of me play out. I didn’t care what was being said, or what the story was, or anything other than the fact that it could act as a backdrop for me reliving every moment of what had happened the night before.
I only got up off the couch to grab my food, toss away the container when I was done, and then later slip into a shower to let the hot water rush over my body and wash away the stress of the day.
It was odd. I actually felt like I could see my body differently now, like I could see it through his eyes for a change. When I remembered how he had touched me, it was like I could filter my usual insecurities and nervousness through that notion, and I found myself all the more beautiful as a result.