Can't Resist You (Second Chance Diaries Book 3)

by Emma Vikes

  “I’m sorry,” Maia whispered.

  I looked over at her, unaware that I had suddenly gone quiet after telling her about Pops. I flashed her a small smile. “It was a long time ago and he’s in a better place now.”

  Maia stared at me intensely and she scooted closer to me. She set her food down, placed her hands on my shoulders and pulled me to her in a hug. “I’m sorry that no one was there to comfort you and that I wasn’t there for you.”

  I could feel my eyes brimming with tears and the lump in my throat. I didn’t have to say it because Maia already knew. Even if it had been eight years, Maia still knew the words I couldn’t say and we stayed like that for a while until I pulled away. I ran a hand through my hair, gathering myself together. “What about you?”

  Maia’s eyebrows rose in confusion. “What about me?”

  By now, I’d already finished my burger and she was nearly done with hers. I was opening a Tupperware that had a custard dessert and took a spoonful from it. “I’m just awfully curious. How’d you meet your ex-husband?”

  Maia rolled her eyes. “I met him only a couple of months after we broke up. He was a judge at the cooking competition I was training myself for. We hit it off right away but only tied the knot two years ago.”

  So she met him eight years ago and she must’ve gotten pregnant with Sage right after meeting him. I wanted to ask why they didn’t get married right after she got pregnant. But then again, the question seemed intrusive. Besides, there was one thing I wanted to know more about. Why she agreed to a divorce when that was the very thing she never wanted to happen in her life. “Were you really that in love with him to have agreed on marriage at such a young age?"

  “I had this thought in my head that after such a tremendous heartbreak, I would find the love of my life right after.” Maia had a sad smile on her face. “JC was incredible when we were dating. He was kind and thoughtful and he was literally a breath of fresh air for me after our relationship.”

  “But it didn’t work out with him either.” I really just wanted to point that out.

  Maia rolled her eyes at me again when I did. “After we got married, it was still a blissful relationship. Most of the time we were always teased of still being stuck in the honeymoon phase. But everything went downhill when I was promoted to the sous chef at this restaurant. JC was a head chef and he was an excellent cook but he didn’t like it when someone was better than him. He started viewing me as a competition when people regarded me the same way they regarded him at parties. He started pressuring me that it would be best if I quit and to simply be a housewife. JC kept telling me we would survive with his income alone and that mine didn’t even matter. He kept stomping on my pride, treating me like I was a woman who could only be a housewife and it turned our relationship sour.”

  “Were you the one who filed for divorce then?” I couldn’t help but ask. If things were bad for her, it would be most likely for her to be the one to end things.

  “You know how much I hated it when my parents split up,” Maia told me with a wry smile and she sighed, “One day, JC just came home with divorce papers. He said he couldn’t take it anymore. I was stepping on his pride and shit. About two weeks later, I found out he was seeing someone else, so he also cheated on me, I guess.”

  My heart sank for her and I reached for her hand and squeezed it. “I’m sorry.”

  She had that wry smile on her face again. “Because I got cheated on yet again?”

  I shook my head. “Because you deserved better and I’m sorry I didn’t realize that sooner. I’m sorry I didn’t realize I already had the best but I chose to let it go. I’m sorry for breaking your heart, Maia. If I never did, you wouldn’t have suffered even more.”

  Maia reached a hand out to touch my hair as she looked at me with a soft gaze. “Maybe we had to go through it, Ansel. Maybe our paths were meant to split apart at that point for us to become better versions of ourselves.”

  “If that’s the case, I hope the version I’ve become is worthy enough to be with you again, and if it’s not, I hope in the next lifetime I get to be with you and I don’t screw things up.”

  She chuckled.

  We were inches apart from each other.

  My eyes flickered to her lips and I remembered how they felt pressed against mine. I searched her eyes, silently asking for permission or to see if she was silently rejecting my request. I couldn’t see in her eyes that she would push me away so I decided to take the plunge.

  I pressed my lips against hers and waited for her to push me away but she didn’t. Instead, Maia’s arms wrapped around my neck, pulling me closer to her until I fell on top of her. Our lips didn’t break apart, so I began moving my mouth, opening hers, and delving my tongue in. I shivered in delight as I tasted her again… she still tasted like cinnamon and vanilla.

  My hands moved automatically, no matter how much I was trying to restrain myself. My hand slipped underneath her dress, resting on her thigh. Maia didn’t push my hand away and didn’t stop me when I inched it further to her core. She moaned when I cupped her core and shivered in anticipation. The whole thing aroused me even more.

  I moved my mouth to her neck and she lean her head back to give me more access while my other hand cupped her breast, gently massaging. My hand on her core pressed on her pussy, my middle finger rubbing hard on her clit through the fabric of her underwear. Maia moaned underneath me and I let out a groan as I shivered in delight at the sound.

  Simultaneously moving her panties to the side and inserting a finger inside her core, I unzipped her dress and moved her bra down, latching my mouth on her breast. Maia was breathing hard, moaning my name over and over but never telling me to stop. Her hands were all over me, one hand snaking underneath my shirt and her nails ran through my abs.

  Another hand wrapped tightly around my back and her nails clawed at my skin when I pressed a thumb on her clit, applying pressure. “Oh god, Ansel!”

  I quickened my pace and then groaned when I felt her hand fall on my crotch, cupping my already hardening dick. But her hand fell from the spot as I quickened my pace and she writhed in pleasure underneath me until she finally came, screaming my name, “Ansel!”

  I pulled my hand out of her core and leaned back, breathing hard as her. A moment of silence passed between us and then our eyes met. It was as if what just happened sank in for both of us.

  I closed my eyes, realizing my mistake. “Maia—I-I shouldn’t have— shouldn’t have…” I couldn’t even finish my sentence.

  Maia silenced me with a quick kiss on the lips.

  I stared at her, stunned.

  She flashed me a small smile and shrugged as she fixed her dress. “I didn’t stop you so you don’t have to say anything or apologize.”

  All I could do was stare at her as my brain processed everything that just happened. “Does this mean—are we…?” Yet again, I couldn’t finish my sentence.

  Maia still had her smile on her face. “I don’t know what it means, Ansel, but aside from what happened, this was a pretty good date. I’d like to finish it properly. It’s not that I don’t want to talk about what happened. It’s just that I don’t want what happened to ruin the date you prepared.”

  I understood where she was coming from but… “You’re so nonchalant about it.”

  She moved closer to me again, dangerously close. “I didn’t stop you because maybe I wanted it to happen too. Let’s leave it at that and let’s not move it further from that. I like this the way it is right now, whatever this is.”

  I couldn’t help but laugh as I pulled her close to me. I wrapped my arms around her waist and gave her a quick peck and she didn’t stop me again. “I think I’m liking whatever this is too.”

  16

  Maia

  As much as I tried, I couldn’t stop smiling. The smile was a remnant of the wonderful date I had with Ansel last night. It left me feeling giddy and over the moon. A part of me felt ridiculous about it. I wasn’t a teenager
anymore nor was I in my early twenties. But I felt absolutely giddy as if my crush confessed he liked me back.

  I absentmindedly stirred my coffee, thinking about what transpired last night. I didn’t expect Ansel to recreate our first date. I went in his car thinking he would take me to a fancy restaurant and buy me an expensive dinner. The only reason I expected that kind of date from him was because he had flaunted his wealth at first.

  But somehow, the eight years that passed had made Ansel a romantic. It wasn’t as if he wasn’t romantic when I’d been dating him but he really gave the date a lot of thought. And most of all, he brought me there because he wanted to make sure I still got to see the sunset. He remembered how much I loved it and the fact that he did make my heart melt in a puddle.

  And what transpired after that…

  The memory made me blush and I could feel heat warming up my whole body. The memory of Ansel’s lips on mine, his hands on my body, was a familiar feeling I never realized I’d missed. I never thought I missed the way his lips felt on my skin or how his hands ignited my body. He reminded me of the effect he had on me at one time.

  The whole thing made me shiver in pleasure.

  But a voice from inside of me wouldn’t stop nagging. The fact I was letting Ansel back in my life left my heart vulnerable to him again. I was offering it willingly to him and he could rip it apart like he did eight years ago. I should’ve learned by now. I had learned by now and yet, I was drawn to Ansel no matter how much I tried to restrain myself.

  Ansel was making me fall in love with him again and silly me… was letting him. Silly me was falling for him. I wanted to believe that love was sweeter the second time around. I’d seen how much Ansel had changed and grown as a person. I refused to believe he would break my heart so callously again, like he did the first time.

  The sound of the doorbell echoing in my small apartment snapped me out of my thoughts. My eyebrows furrowed in confusion. I wasn’t expecting anyone and Sage was still at her friend’s house. I’d called her friend’s Mother when I woke up this morning. She told me Sage was fine and that I could pick her up if I wanted but she would also be driving them home.

  Since I didn’t have a car, I couldn’t pick Sage up and I knew she would most likely want to hang out with her friends. I didn’t want to be the uptight mom and burst her bubble. Most of all, I wanted Sage to feel like I trusted her. I knew I could be strict and hard on her at times but I made sure she knew I trusted her.

  Wiping my hands on the apron I wore, I walked to the front door. I didn’t have any peephole. Sage and I lived in a one-story duplex apartment. It had been the cheapest one I could find near her school. It only had two rooms and one bathroom while the living room and kitchen were considerably smaller than the ones in our old house.

  I had been worried about how Sage would react to it when we moved in but she took all of it in stride. She didn’t complain to me at all and I couldn’t help but marvel at how mature she was for her age. As if she knew things were already hard for me after the divorce and she didn’t want to add to it. She’d always tried to make sure she wasn’t a burden.

  As if she would ever be a burden to me. She was my daughter.

  I opened the door and my eyes widened when I gazed into a pair of honey-colored ones. I stared at Ansel in wonder as he stood on the doorstep holding a bouquet of dried lavenders. I glanced at the flowers he was holding and rose an eyebrow at it.

  He stared at it for a moment and grinned at me sheepishly. “I could buy you every flower available in the shop but I know how much you used to hate it every time I got you one.”

  It was true. I nagged him every time he bought me flowers on our dates or during our anniversaries. I was never the flower-type of girl and it seemed like a waste to me. They would still die eventually. “So you got me dried flowers instead?”

  Ansel shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly. “It was either that or get you plastic ones. To be honest, these are very trendy nowadays.”

  I chuckled, taking the bouquet from him and smelling the soothing scent of lavender. Then, I moved back into the house to look for a vase but I realized Ansel didn’t follow me. I stopped in the middle of the living room, in a spot where I could still see him.

  He stood there, awkwardly shifting his weight from one foot to another.

  “Are you a vampire that needs to be invited in?” I asked him, looking at him expectantly.

  Ansel ran a hand through his hair. “I think it’s rude to just casually walk in your house without being asked to come in.”

  I rolled my eyes, crossed the distance between us and grabbed him by the wrist. I dragged him back inside before closing the door. “You make it sound like this is the first time we’ve met in this lifetime. We’re not strangers, Ansel.”

  “Then you wouldn’t mind if I do this…” Suddenly, Ansel pulled me to him.

  It took me by surprise. We were too close to each other all of a sudden, our chests pressed against each other.

  The corner of his lips twitched into a smile as he stared at me with his honey eyes. He leaned close and his lips brushed against mine.

  My eyes voluntarily fluttered close and I almost dropped the bouquet I was holding when he pressed his lips firmly on mine. I responded to his kiss but there was no sense of urgency between us. It was simply a kiss between two lovers saying hello to each other. It was gentle and sweet but it still had the ability to make the butterflies in my stomach go crazy. When Ansel pulled away, I couldn’t hide the disappointment I felt.

  He grinned when he noticed it. To appease me, he gave me a brief kiss before pulling away from me. “If I don’t stop myself now, I don’t think I’ll be able to restrain myself.”

  I wouldn’t have stopped you. “I never thought there would come a day that Ansel Moore would learn how to contain himself.”

  “For you, I’d learn anything,” Ansel replied with a wink, “and you’re the one in the driver’s seat. Wherever this is going, it’s fully up to you. I’ll respect it but if you’re going to reject me, I’ll put up a damn good fight until you take me back.”

  I didn’t say anything in response but I found his words reassuring. Ansel was respecting my boundaries and wasn’t forcing himself on me. I could feel his longing for me but he was containing it to the best of his abilities. He was doing it as long as it meant he would fully have me as his again, that we could be together again.

  Ansel was also compromising. Something that I’d always wished he had done when we were dating but he never did. It was even clearer to me now how much he had really matured. I had initially thought he only became an asshole with money the first time we met again but I was wrong. Ansel wasn’t a jerk. He was a good boss to his employees.

  He was good to Sage.

  He was good to me.

  “Sage’s not here. She’ll be home in the afternoon.”

  Ansel laughed when I said this.

  I turned to look at him, confused.

  He was grinning at me but a teasing sparkle showed in his eyes. “I just told you that I’m doing my best to restrain myself and you’re telling me that Sage isn’t here…”

  I got his point and my eyes widened. “I didn’t—it’s not what I-I didn’t mean it like that!”

  Ansel chuckled and nodded his head. He tucked a strand of my hair behind my ear and said, “I know, Maia. We’ll take it as slowly as you want. I won’t do anything without your permission.”

  I smiled but moved away from him before I couldn’t control myself. I moved to the kitchen and began to take the things I needed to use. I had intended to try a recipe I had thought of this week. “I want to ask why you’re here but I feel like it’s pointless now.”

  “If you want my answer, I just wanted to see you.”

  Smiling at his answer, I continued the conversation, “Since you’re here, mind if you become my taste-tester? I wanted to wait until Sage arrived but since you’re around, why not you?”

  “Why not me, your exclusiv
e taste-tester eight years ago?” Ansel asked as he pulled out a chair to sit on.

  “For the record, Sage is my exclusive taste-tester. The kid has a pretty good palate for someone so young. It’s a good thing she inherited that from me.”

  Ansel gave me and odd look. “Why would she have a bad taste when both her parents are top-tier chefs?”

  What he said made me pause and stare at him.

  Ansel stared at me with wonder clear in his honey-eyes.

  I offered him a small smile. “Right. Umm, do you need anything before I start cooking?”

  Ansel shook his head. “Nah, I have everything I need right now. All I ever need is to watch you cook. Did I ever tell you that it turned me on each time you did?”

  I narrowed my eyes at him.

  Ansel returned my look with a sheepish smile and motioned for me to start cooking.

  As I cooked, Ansel stood from his seat and stood right next to me. He tried his best to help but he had absolutely zero ideas on cooking. So like always, he kept the conversation going, no matter how random the conversation became.

  When I was nearly done cooking, a car honked outside, and Ansel was the one who opened the door for Sage. I heard my daughter squeal in delight when she saw him and when I took a peek at them, she tugged him into a tight hug. “Ansel!”

  “You’re making me think you missed me,” Ansel told her when she let go.

  I caught the way he looked at her, with adoration in his eyes and it made my heart skip a beat.