“Colby, the daddy. I definitely thought it was statistically likely to happen, but I never imagined you’d be so… into it?” Eric said.
“Hey, you haven’t even tasted my chicken piccata. I’ve got the domestic thing down.” He looked across the room and chuckled. “There’s going to be some fun stuff for the teacher to deal with on Monday.”
“I didn’t mean anything by it, Colby. It just surprised me. She’s beautiful, and I’m sure she’s lucky to have you.” Megan glanced at the phone one more time and he walked over to her to take it back.
“I know you didn’t.” He smiled his trademark, all-American smile, and leaned down to kiss her. It was light, a goodbye kiss. Then he winked at Eric over her shoulder. “Remember what I said man, and both of you keep in touch. I’m on Facebook and everything. None of this ten years between chats shit again. Cool?”
“Definitely.” Megan smiled up at him.
“I promise, man. We’ll talk later.” Eric spoke from behind her, and then Colby waved as he turned and left the room.
As the door closed Eric lay back down and pulled her down with him. “Ah, a little peace and quiet.”
“We cannot just sit here. If it’s almost ten that means the reunion will be ending in a bit. They’ll probably sweep the building or something.”
“Give me five minutes? Come on, whatever happened to cuddling?” Eric said it with a pout that had Megan laughing and laying her head back on his shoulder.
“You’re ridiculous.”
“Well, I never thought I’d have you in my arms again, so sue me if I want to enjoy it for a minute.” He said it seriously, but when she looked up his eyes were closed and it was hard to tell if he really meant it. The words he’d spoken in the middle of everything came back, and she swallowed as an entirely new set of nerves surfaced inside her.
“Eric?”
“Hmm?” He made a noise and cracked an eye open to look at her as she propped herself up on her elbow to look down at him.
“Earlier you said—” The words stuck in her mouth.
“I said I missed you.” Eric finished for her.
“Yeah.”
“I meant it, Meg.” His dark eyes were open and locked onto hers, and there wasn’t a hint of a joke in his expression at all. Her heart skipped a beat, then tripped and stumbled, and she felt tears sting the edges of her eyes as an impossibly stupid set of emotions welled up. “Hey, baby — I mean, Megan, I’m not trying to freak you out. I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have…” He cursed and dropped his head back against the blanket again.
“Eric…” she started to talk, but he cut her off.
“I’m sorry. I fucked this up and made it all serious. I know this was just fun, and—”
“No!” She sat up completely. “I mean, yes, it was fun, but you didn’t ruin anything. I just… hell, this is not going to come out right at all, but I’ve never stopped thinking about you. I’ve missed you, and when I was dealing with David and all his bullshit, I kept thinking about you. About us, and what we had, and what I left behind because I didn’t go to college with you. So many fucking what-ifs. And tonight was — tonight was amazing, you are amazing, and unreal, and I can’t even believe this happened.” Megan laughed and covered her face with her hands. “And now I’m probably freaking you out.”
“You’re not, I promise. Keep going.”
“I still can’t believe you even talked to me tonight. I had sort of hoped I’d see you, but I thought you’d have a wife and kids and we’d politely smile at each other and then tactfully avoid each other all night while I made best friends with the bartender.” She smiled a bit, all of that paranoia and anxiety creeping back in now that the fog of lust was clearing out.
“You’re going to kill me when I tell you this, but… I actually messaged your sister, Cameron, on Facebook to see if you were coming. I made her swear she wouldn’t say a thing to you, but I wasn’t going to come otherwise.” He winced a little. “How mad are you? Is that just a little too close to stalker for you?”
“I’m going to murder Cameron!” Megan growled to herself. All of the prodding for weeks about going to the damn reunion. The insistence on the dress, the heels, the make-up. That traitor. She looked back at Eric and fumed, “God dammit! You were how she even knew about the reunion! I hadn’t been able to figure out how she’d found out!”
“Well, don’t blame her completely. I’m not sure if you’ve noticed, but I can be a little aggressive.” Eric grinned and she managed a real laugh, and then she bit her lip as her eyes trailed over his strong body, still gloriously naked.
“I did notice that, actually. So, since we’re putting everything out there, and you pestered me about my past… I’m guessing you’ve continued playing since high school as well? Graduated from high school alpha male to full on Dom?”
He burst into laughter and leaned up on his elbows, his dark eyes sparkling. “I was an alpha male in high school?”
“Don’t be modest now, Eric. You know exactly what you were like in high school.”
“Well, I know you liked it.”
“I loved it.” Megan shrugged, smiling as she was overwhelmed with memories of all the time they’d spent together. All of the exploring, all of the things they had done for the first time together. “It’s why I couldn’t give it up, even when I moved off to college.”
“It was the same for me. Just a lot of figuring out what it all meant, and finding people with similar interests.”
“Anyone serious?” Megan asked, and she tried to keep her voice light but she knew the answer was important.
“One girl kind of was. We were together two years, but she was just so shallow and she could only hide that for so long. Like most people in LA.” Eric had a tone of frustration when he talked about it, but it was a well-timed reminder of why nothing they were saying to each other really mattered. She was just starting to rebuild her life and get it back on track, and she wasn’t going to throw it all away to chase a guy across the country again. Not even if that guy was Eric Lewis.
“Right, but I’m sure you’ll find someone in LA. There’s got to be some good people out there, I mean, you’re out there. You just have to look.” Megan plastered a smile on her face and turned to get up, but Eric grabbed her arm.
“I don’t want to find someone in LA, Megan.” His words felt like a knife twisting in her chest, and she hated him for torturing her with something neither of them could have. Long distance never worked, and it definitely never worked when a lot of the magic was in the way he made her feel when he towered over her. Or when he kissed her, with his hand behind her neck or in her hair. Or the way he could control her with a— No. This wouldn’t work.
“Eric… I can’t. I’m just now starting to get my life together, and it’s such a mess. I didn’t even tell you half of it. I’m a mess, and you are successful and doing great stuff out on the west coast, and this was fun, but I can’t do this.”
“Can’t do what?” Eric looked and sounded as hurt as she felt on the inside, but she steeled herself.
“I can’t drop everything and go out to California, not even to try and see if these feelings are real, not even for you no matter how much I’d like— Shit. You know what? If I’m reading into this, I’m sorry, I’m not trying to jump to conclusions I just—”
Eric stopped her rambling with a kiss. His hands were on either side of her face, and his lips were hot against hers, and she hated how good it felt to have him touching her. Then he pulled back and spoke seriously, “I’m not asking you to move to California, Megan.”
“Oh.” The blush burned her cheeks as embarrassment crashed over her, and she tried to turn out of his hands but he grabbed her face harder and made her look at him.
“I wasn’t kidding when I said I was sick of the shit in LA. I can’t stand the people anymore, the fake friends, the fake everything. I’ve been wanting to move back to Georgia for a while, and earlier this week I was looking at houses.” Eric laughed and b
rushed his thumb across her cheek. “Megan, I’m not asking you to go anywhere, I’m just asking you to date me. Here. At home. Again.”
“What?”
“I could make our first date much nicer than Olive Garden this time, if that helps at all.” He smiled at her, his dimples appearing in his cheeks, and she was pretty sure the world had just flipped on its axis.
“You’re moving here?”
“As early as next month if the offer I put in gets accepted.” His grin got wider, and it had to be contagious because she felt the corners of her mouth tilting up.
“But — wait. What are you going to do here? Can you do your job from here? Are you being serious?” She rambled off the questions, but none of them really mattered that much because she was already agreeing in her head with the same giddy glee she’d accepted his offer of a date when she was sixteen.
“Atlanta is only an hour away, and the company I work for has some partnerships out here. When I told them I wanted to leave, they sort of decided to strengthen their relationships with the venues in Atlanta. I’ll be heading it up. So, yeah, I’m serious.” He actually seemed a little bashful, and it was her turn to kiss him. She practically tackled him back onto the blanket, and his arms wrapped around her tightly.
“I really am a mess, Eric. I’ve got a long way to go before I’m Dr. Megster, as you so eloquently put it.” She smiled down at him, and he tucked one of her curls behind her ear as he stared up at her.
“I have a dog who would love to meet the girl I’ve been telling her about all these months, and I am more than happy to help you study anatomy as often as you’d like while you’re working on becoming Dr. Megster.” He grinned and she rolled her eyes.
“You don’t have the anatomy I’d need to study.”
“It can be extra credit.” Eric kissed her again and she smiled against his lips. “I’m guessing you’re saying yes to the first date then?”
“Does tonight not count?” Megan tilted her head, and he spanked her ass, waking up the welts and making her squirm against him.
“Tonight was an appetizer, Meg. Dating me is the entrée.”
“Ah,” she laughed, “there’s the modest Eric I remember.”
“I’ve always been modest, it’s just my honesty about how awesome I am that frustrates people.” He smiled at her and she kissed him again, and again, and again — and she didn’t want to stop even though there were suddenly an untold number of days in the future when she would be able to kiss him. To kiss the one that got away. The one that she’d had to go and live her life for, before she could come back and know he was worth every bad decision she had made — because all of it had brought them back together.
She laughed when they finally sat up, looking over the mess they’d created. “We should get dressed and at least try and put this room back together.”
“And we should probably just do this teacher a favor and burn this blanket.” Eric smiled. “But first we need to get the rest of that wax off of you so you can put your dress on.”
“How do you plan on doing that?” she taunted him and his eyes grew darker.
“I’ve got a few ideas.”
Epilogue
A Night Off
Three Years Later
The Georgia night was warm, but not stifling yet in late May, and Megan enjoyed stretching out in the chair in her parent’s backyard. The barbecue had gone on all afternoon, and as the sun was setting the lights in the trees had turned on and it made it all look magical. Kids were running around, the dogs were chasing them, adults were talking and enjoying the spiked punch her mom put out — it was perfect.
Megan glanced down to twirl the ring on her left hand, the diamond catching the lights as she spun it. Her life was perfect, so perfect it felt impossible. She was in vet school, and she was Megan Lewis now. Eric had asked her to marry him just six months after the reunion.
I never want to be apart from you again, he’d said as he had knelt on one knee at one of their favorite places in a local park.
That had been just the beginning of their life though, and now two and a half years later he was her husband, her Dom, a wonderful father to their little boy, and such a part of her family that it was as if he had always been there. Just as charming as he’d always been, and she was even more in love with him.
A giggling scream to her right pulled her out of her memories and she watched as two-year-old Sebastian ran away from his mom, his quick legs carrying him between the legs of other adults as Megan’s youngest sister, Stephanie, tried to catch him. Her nephew was a handful and watching her pregnant sister try and chase him had her laughing. In another four months there would be yet another baby boy in their midst and Meg knew that had her parents ecstatic.
“Stephanie is never going to get the little monster into the car.” Cameron laughed, and Megan grinned at her middle sister.
“Oh, he’ll fight her but he’ll be out in minutes once they’re driving.”
“Maybe. You sure you’re ready for the terrible twos stage?” Cameron sipped her drink, trying to stifle her glee, but Megan just rolled her eyes.
“Dante will probably be even more of a handful, if he’s anything like his daddy.” Megan pulled her eyes away from the scene of Stephanie scooping up a squealing Sebastian into her arms and turned towards her mom and dad, Susan and Phillip Harper. The fuzzy dark haired little boy in her mom’s lap was reaching for the pacifier in her dad’s hand and they were both leaning down to smile at him. That kid was surrounded by so much love, and it made her heart swell. “But you have to admit, he’s really cute, and that’s what will save him when he hits the terrible twos.”
“You weren’t saying that a few months ago when you weren’t sleeping,” Cameron muttered, and Meg smacked her arm.
“I’ve always said he’s cute! I was just exhausted.”
“Yeah, you and Eric were super fun to be around. Walking zombies. Where is he anyway?” Cameron’s head swiveled to survey the last of the barbecue. Half the neighborhood had turned out, and while the crowd was thinning it still took a moment until she found her tall, dark, and very handsome husband talking to Stephanie’s.
“Over there.” Meg pointed and Cameron sighed dreamily.
“I’m still thinking I should have gone to the reunion in your place.” She grinned and Megan laughed.
“You wish! He’s mine.”
“Yeah, yeah, just don’t forget I brought you two together.” Cameron mentioned it for probably the hundredth time in the last three years, as if being her maid of honor, and the ridiculous speech she’d then given at their wedding, had not cemented the truth already. Everyone knew that she and Eric were together thanks to Cameron’s meddling.
“You need to find a guy. Seriously.” Megan leveled her gaze at her, raising an eyebrow at her permanently single sister.
She huffed. “You say it like it’s easy to find some hottie just roaming around in the wild. Not everyone is as lucky as you.”
Megan smiled and stood up as she finished her drink. “You’re right, I am lucky, and for the millionth time I’m grateful you made me go to the reunion.” She leaned down to press a kiss to her sister’s hair, and Cameron playfully shoved her as she wandered over towards her parents and her little boy.
“Why, hello, mister, are you having fun with Mimi?” Megan leaned down to scoop Dante into her arms and she loved the weight of him as he settled against her hip.
“He’s been having lots of fun with Mimi and Papa. Haven’t you baby boy?” Her mom’s voice took on that high-pitched baby talk that always made Megan laugh.
“Oh, I know he has.” Pressing a kiss to his cheek, she felt his fingers wrap around the necklace at her neck, pulling it towards his mouth to chew on.
“Let me hold the munchkin!” Eric’s mom, Carol, came up and reached for him, her eyes sparkling as she snuggled him into her arms. “He’s just perfect. I’m so glad I’m getting to keep him for the night.”
“What?” Megan ask
ed and then she felt Eric’s arms slip around her waist, pulling her back against his hard chest. He leaned down to kiss her neck, and she felt a thrill rush down her spine before she pulled back a bit. “Eric? Do you have something you forgot to tell me?”
He grinned at her. “It was a surprise! We’re getting a night off, baby.”
“You can have a night off any time you two need, I’m happy to have him.” Carol smiled, playing peek-a-boo with Dante until he was giggling.
“That’s true, you know you can always ask us too, Megan.” Her mom stood up, a serious look on her face. “You two already work so hard, we’re right here and happy to keep him any time.”
“I know, mom, it’s just—”
“Megan and I both work a lot, and we just don’t think about it. But, I promise we’ll keep it in mind now that he’s older, Susan.” Eric smiled, and his dimples melted her mom just as well as any other woman he came into contact with. “Plus, you guys agreed to watch our other baby tonight.” As if on cue Lola, their German Shepherd, raced by chasing her parent’s yellow lab, Buster.
Her mom reached up and patted his cheek. “I know. You are such a good boy. Make sure my Megan takes a break every once in a while. Being a parent is hard work.”
“Yes, and you two need time to yourselves. We made the same offer to Stephanie and Nick and they’ve just started taking us up on it now that Steph is pregnant again.” Her dad added his comments into the mix and Megan rolled her eyes.
Talk about being ganged up on.
“That is what today and tomorrow is for. Some time to ourselves,” Eric said. Megan was pretty sure she was the only one that caught the slight growl in Eric’s voice that sent a rush of heat into her lower belly. “Come on baby, let’s go. I installed the car seat in mom’s car earlier.”
“Are you sure?”
Carol waved a hand at her, bouncing Dante on her hip. “Of course! I’ve been pestering Eric for months. You two enjoy your evening.”
Deviant Attraction: A Dark and Dirty Boxset Page 17
