The guy follows her to the curb. Big mistake. I straighten, standing tall and step in front of Meg to protect her, my hand reaching back to hold her close behind me.
“You must be Chase,” I say, sizing him up. He’s a couple of inches shorter than I am and definitely doesn’t follow a workout regimen. “You need to step back because you are done talking to Meg.”
“This doesn’t involve you, asshole.”
Could he possibly be that stupid? “That’s where you’re wrong. Anything you say to Megan involves me. She obviously doesn’t want you here. You need to leave.” I step closer to him, nudging him with my arm. And as he steps back, he glares at me as if his expression is supposed to scare me.
I take another two steps closer to intimidate him, leaving Meg back by my bike. I can see his body stiffening. I know he’s sizing me up, getting ready to fight. Bring it on.
“In your mind, you’re trying to figure out whether you could get a good punch in before I flatten you, aren’t you? You are going to have to start it. You’ve figured that out already. I’m not stupid enough to punch first. But don’t get me wrong, once you start I will finish it and you won’t be standing.”
His jaw ticks and I can tell he’s come to a decision. I hold my hands down and out to the sides, trying to encourage him to take a shot. I really want a chance to pound this guy. I take another step forward. His eyes flip between me and Meg several times. Maybe he hadn’t made his decision yet.
“Meg…”
My fist slams into his soft gut and he topples over, dropping to the ground. God, that felt good. I guess I was wrong, I am that stupid when Meg is involved. “I told you, you were done talking to her. Were you not listening?”
He looks up at me, not a trace of cockiness left on his face, as he tries to suck in the breath that’s been forced from his lungs.
“Do you want more? Get up. There’s plenty more where that came from.”
He shakes his head as he stares at the ground.
“Meg and I are leaving, now. If you ever contact her again I’m going to mess up that pretty little face of yours.”
I can feel his eyes track me as I walk back to my bike. I wish he would come at me for another round. My swagger invites him. Then I hear it—the rustle of his jeans scraping, the sound of his shoes on the pavement—all tell me he’s changed his mind. I turn with my fists poised to fight. This is going to be fun.
Meg runs in front of me and for a second, I don’t realize what is happening. Is she defending him? Then I watch amazed and amused as Meg spins around in some fancy combination of dance and kick boxing, nailing Chase right in the groin with her foot.
“Pay attention! We’re done talking!” she screams at him as he crumples to the ground again. She reaches for my hand and practically pulls me to my bike. “I didn’t know who else to call,” Meg says as if she didn’t just take out her ex’s junk.
“I have to be honest. I am more than a little afraid of you,” I say as I unbuckle the spare helmet.
“You should be,” she says, and I fit it to her head, ignoring the douche on the ground behind me.
She closes her eyes stopping me from reading them. I can’t help that my thumb lingers on the soft skin of her neck as I fasten the strap under her chin. Everything she does surprises me.
It feels like forever since I was inside her. I want to taste her neck, her lips. Instead, I pull on my helmet and climb onto my bike. The sooner we leave, the better. I rock it off its perch and motion for her to climb on. She sits on the seat behind me and, one by one, I position her feet on the back rests, pulling her knees up against my hips. Then, I reach back with both hands, grasping her hips, and pull her flush against me. She wraps her arms around me and the heat of her body burns in all the right places.
“Have you ever ridden before?” I ask.
“No,” she says all breathy, and I hope it is because she is touching me, and not that she’s scared to ride a motorcycle.
“Hang on tight, and when my body leans, just give in to it. Follow, don’t fight the movement. I won’t let us wipeout.”
She nods against my back and we speed off down the street. I won’t hold back next time we run into Chase and I hope he realizes it. The ride to Malibu takes longer than usual. I drive slower because every time I kick it up, she tenses, and even though I savor her clinching me between her legs, I figure she’s been through enough having to see her ex.
She still hasn’t said anything by the time we get into the house. I understand her not talking during the ride, but it’s been five minutes since I shut the bike off. I look at her questioningly. I wonder if she’s changed her mind about Chase.
“It still smells like her,” she says as she hands me the helmet she was wearing.
Not what I expected her to say. I take it from her and sniff it. “It smells like you, Meg. It may smell a little bit like my work girlfriend because I dropped her off after work today, but mostly I smell your vanilla saltwater taffy.” I smile, licking my lips. She knows the reference.
“Your work girlfriend. What does that mean?”
“The actor who plays my girlfriend on the show, nothing more. She’s just my costar.” I set the helmets on the bench next to the door and she doesn’t ask any more questions.
“Are you going to tell me what happened with Chase?” I say as I take two wine glasses off the rack and pull a bottle of Riesling out of the refrigerator. I remember she likes sweet wine. I open the wine, pour it, and hand her a glass before she speaks. He must have really messed her up for her to be so quiet.
“Can I finish this before I tell you?” She holds up her wine glass.
“Sure.” I grab the bottle and lead her to the deck. We may as well enjoy the breeze off the water. By the time we are seated in the lounge pit on the lower deck, I’m refilling her glass. She downs the second glass and scoots closer to me. I fill her glass again and wrap my arm around her. Her body molds into mine.
“Chase admitted to leaking Seth’s intervention. I’m really sorry. I should have killed him when I had the chance.” I feel her breath hitch. She can’t possibly feel responsible.
“Meg, Seth was headed down the path he took long before the intervention leak. We just didn’t know it. He would have ended up at the drug den at some point.” In my heart I know it’s true. I don’t know why I wasted so much time blaming her. “I even told my dad that on the island before he left. No one blames you. And what Chase did doesn’t matter anymore.”
“It matters to me.”
I lean my head against hers. “I didn’t mean it that way. I just mean, the leak didn’t doom Seth, and we’ve found each other again. We should just forget about Chase. I’ll get my dad’s firm to write up a restraining order against him. I don’t even want revenge anymore. He’s too toxic to mess with. Sometimes, it’s just better to cut your losses.”
“He was sleeping with Alli. He convinced her to sell Jon and Sarah’s secrets to the press. My friends always said he was toxic. I wish I had listened. He said something else too.” She closes her eyes and a shudder rakes her body.
I squeeze her tighter and say, “Just tell me.” I hate that she is holding back with me again. “I thought we were past keeping secrets from each other.”
She looks at me with knit eyebrows.
“I’m serious.”
She knows I’m right and blows out a breath as if exasperated. “He was there the night my mom died. He gave her a handful of drugs and watched her take them all. Then he just left her. He didn’t call anyone. He didn’t drive her home. He just left her. He could have saved her.” Her eyes fill with tears, and my heart sinks.
“Aw, Meg.” I wipe my thumb under her eyes as her tears start to fall. “Now I’m going to have to kill him.” I close my eyes, trying to calm my rage. She didn’t need to know this. Why would he tell her? “What else did he say?”
“I don’t remember. He thought telling me would make me fall into his arms. I can’t believe he just left her.
He could have saved her. He has no remorse whatsoever. How could I have dated him for so long?”
“I won’t let him hurt you again.” I pull her onto my lap and hold her. She tucks her body into mine. I don’t say anymore. We sit melded together with just the sound of the seagulls for almost fifteen minutes. Her breathing has calmed and she’s no longer crying.
“What do you want me to do, Meg? Do you know where he’s staying? I can go mess him up.”
She shakes her head. “He’s a sociopath. I don’t want anything to happen to you.”
“I’m still open to sending him a sex tape.” I say it to make her laugh, but instead she sits up and turns to me with a scowl.
“What do you want from me, Nordstrom?”
What is that supposed to mean? I unwrap my arms from around her as she climbs off my lap. She sits next to me on the lounge pit. “What kind of question is that?” I thought she knew where I stood.
“I want you to spell it out because I’m confused. You’re sleeping with your work girlfriend. Don’t you think it would upset her if we made a sex tape?”
“I’m not sleeping with Kat.” I laugh because she must have googled me. “That’s just the tabloids. I thought you didn’t read the tabloids.”
“I saw her text. It came in on your phone when I was reading the texts you sent me. You must have seen it. The one where you set world records in the number of times you did it and your hand made permanent imprints on her breast.”
“That was just for work. We had to do take after take of the same sex scene because the director is obsessive about camera angles. We didn’t really have sex.”
“What about the picture of the two of you walking into her apartment hand in hand?”
Her words wipe the smile off my face. I lick my lips trying to find some moisture in the air. She’s not going to like what I have to say.
“When that picture was snapped I fully intended to have sex with Kat. You’d completely ignored me. I was looking for a way to erase you from my memory. I’m going to be completely honest with you just so you know my state of mind. We made out for a while, but when it came down to taking our clothes off, I couldn’t do it. She’s a gorgeous woman, Meg, but she’s not you. I realized I was playing a role. It was Ashton Post in her apartment, not me, and I stopped it. Liam stopped.” I stare Meg down. “I told Kat how much I love you, how much I missed you and then we just talked. We never slept together. We’re just friends. And not the kind of friends you and I were.”
“Back up,” she says, glaring at me.
“What? I missed you so much. I couldn’t figure out what happened with us. I didn’t know why you were being such a bitch.”
“You know what I’m talking about.” She narrows her eyes at me.
I knew what she was talking about. I grasp her chin in my hands, tilting her head up, and locking in on her beautiful blue eyes. “I love you, Megan Billings. I’ve known since we were on the island. You were right. Love does exist. Real movie love. You and I are proof.”
She shakes her head slowly as if she doesn’t believe me.
“Stop fighting us. You know you love me. You wouldn’t have called me if you didn’t. I’m not going anywhere. You may as well admit it.”
“You’re my best friend, Liam. I needed to tell you.”
“Because you love me.” I smile, raising my eyebrows. She knows I’m right. “Let me show you how good life can be. You already know how good we are together.”
“Okay,” she says, barely audible.
“What was that?” I ask, cocking my head as if I didn’t hear her.
“I love you. Okay?” she says louder.
“What? I didn’t hear you.”
“I love you. Don’t push it.”
I bend to press my lips to hers and her hand threads into my hair. As I pull her back onto my lap, she turns to straddle me, not breaking the kiss, and I pull her closer, my hand firmly planted on her ass. She pulls back and it almost physically hurts me. “What’s wrong?” I watch her for unspoken messages.
“What now? I don’t want to be just friends with benefits.” She picks up her wine glass again, taking a sip as her eyes watch me.
“I’m going to tell you what I want.” I turn the dangle of her earring between my thumb and finger. “For starters, exclusivity. We see only each other.” Her lips twist as if she has a question. I want to know all her concerns.
“What about Kat?”
“Ashton Post will still have to kiss her on set, but I won’t be there and Post can’t come off set anymore.” Her nose crinkles, but she seems to reconcile herself with my answer. It’s my job. She’s mature enough to understand that.
“I also want to be present for all the little moments of your life, like breakfast and basketball games.” I kiss her nose, and she smiles. “And all the big moments like when you walk across the stage to get your diploma. I want to go to your dad’s for Thanksgiving to meet your brothers. And, you’re meeting my parents this weekend after we visit Seth in rehab.”
Her hand slips and the wine in her glass spills down the front of her shirt. “I’m not meeting your parents this weekend,” she says.
“Yes, you are.” That means she agrees with everything else. I help her off my lap and lace my fingers with hers as I pull her back toward the house. “And, we have to post selfies of us together. Come on we’re taking a bath.” I lead her upstairs to my bathroom as she argues about meeting my parents.
When I start filling the tub she asks, “Why are we taking a bath?”
“It’s the perfect backdrop for our selfie and unless you want me to suck the wine out of your clothes, you need to take them off to wash them.”
“I’m not doing a selfie with you in the tub,” she says, her eyes wide as if to say, you’ve got to be kidding. She didn’t even react to me sucking the wine out of her clothes.
I grab the bottle of vanilla-scented bubble bath from the linen closet. The one I bought because it reminded me of her. As I dump some under the running water, I say, “You’re right. We need lots of bubbles.”
“We’re not doing a selfie in the tub,” she says again.
“It will be very discreet. I promise. Lots of bubbles. The only people who will know it is you are Sarah, Jon, Kat, Nak, Leslie, Jessica, Jeff...my parents, and of course, Chase.” I tick them off on my fingers. “Ten people tops.”
Her eyes bulge. “Your parents?”
“They’ll know after you meet them on Sunday. Don’t worry, I’ve already told them about you.” I pause as I reach around her and pull two towels off the shelf.
“What did you tell them?” Her voice cracks.
“That I’m in love with you.”
She gasps. “I’m the last to know?”
“There was that whole problem with our phones. I first suspected I had an issue with you after the night I met you.” I step in front of Meg and skim my hands up her sides under her top. I slide her shirt over her head and toss it on the chair in the corner of the bathroom. I hear her breath catch as my hands move to cup her breasts. “I told myself I just needed to sleep with you. That if I slept with you, I could get you out of my system.” I pull my shirt over my head and throw it on the chair as well. “I couldn’t sleep with you because you’re Jon’s sister, but then Jon gave me the okay. And that was what I tried to do.” I watch as Meg unbuttons her jeans. “I wanted to do that,” I say pointing to the button on her jeans.
She cocks her head. “Fine,” she says and re-buttons them before reaching for my button.
“Once I slept with you, I knew—there was no escaping Meg Billings. I probably should have told you on the island. I guess I was in denial.”
Until Meg, sex was always like eating Chinese food. It was good. It satisfied me for a short time, but in an hour or so, I was always hungry again, always still wanting. With Meg, I’m not wanton—I want her. It’s different. She satisfies me in a way I’ve never been fulfilled before. It’s like other girls are vegan Chinese ta
keout and Meg is Thanksgiving dinner with apple pie à la mode. Maybe that’s not a good enough analogy, but being with her is unlike anything I’ve ever experienced—so much more filling, so much better.
I kick off my jeans as I pull open Meg’s fly. I slide my hands in, peeling her out of her tight jeans. As she steps out of them, I’m overwhelmed with the need to take her against the tile wall. Or in front of the mirror? I could make her decide. No. I shake that thought from my head. We need the picture.
Chapter 35
Megan
I STAND NAKED in front of Liam. Bubbles foam from the running water, clumping in snowbanks along the edges of the large, soaker tub and even though he stares at me as if he wants to take me where we stand, he doesn’t touch me. He made me remove my own panties and bra implying we wouldn’t make it into the tub if he helped. Now I’m not sure what I’m supposed to do.
I feel as if the second I step into the tub my life will be changed. There will be no going back. I’ve known for a while he was different than all the other guys. He and I connect on so many levels and that scares me to death. Not because I think he will do something to hurt me—he won’t—but because I want everything with him and I don’t know if that is in our future.
“How does this work? Do we get in at the same time? Face each other? I’ve never really done this taking a bath together thing before.”
“You’ve never?”
“No.” I scowl at his doubtful expression. “In high school, you don’t really have leisurely sex—not when you live at home with your parents—and who has access to a bathtub in college?”
“You’re a bath virgin?” His smile reaches his eyes and I swear his already blessedly large appendage grows another inch. Not that I’m staring at it or anything. “Don’t worry, I’ll teach you,” he says. “Step in over here and put your back against this edge.”
I step into the steaming water and lean against the tub’s wall as he instructed. The heat of the water embraces me, calming me. I can do this. No matter what happens in the future, I’m in.
Between Friends (Between the Raindrops #3) Page 28
