ONE hour later, we’re sitting in the waiting room at a local dentist’s office. Mia is filling out my paperwork for me since I’m still sulking about her breaking my front tooth to begin with. At least there’s no pain, but it feels weird as hell. It’s sharp, and Mia is funny. I find myself wanting to laugh at all the stupid little things she says or does, but I can’t. I’ll start to, then remember how stupid I look, and I have to cover my mouth like a shy third grader.
“Trent?” the dentist says, walking out into the empty waiting room.
I stand. “That’s me.”
“Follow me, please.”
Mia stands to come with me, but the dentist stops her. “I’m sorry, Miss, but the after-hours rules are nobody other than the patient and staff are allowed in the back due to insurance purposes.”
“Oh, okay.” She nods and sits back down.
Before I walk through the doorway, I hold up my middle finger, and I hear her giggle as the door closes between us. Millions of things fill my head in this instance. The lights in the hallway are only half on, and the staff is nowhere to be found. It reminds me of hospital scenes in horror movies. What if this guy isn’t even a dentist? What if he steals people’s teeth to sell or collect? What if he puts me to sleep to fix my tooth, and I wake up in a bathtub full of ice with my kidney missing? Or, what if I wake up and find myself locked away in some dungeon to be sold into sex slavery?
“Here we are. Please have a seat,” he tells me as he leads me into a room.
I sit in the dentist’s chair and wipe my hands down my jeans, my palms suddenly sweaty.
“How’d this happen?” he asks, tying a bib around my neck.
“Vodka bottle,” I reply, leaning my head back as he pulls on some rubber gloves.
He lets out a deep chuckle. “If only I had a dime for every time I heard that on an after-hours visit.”
I laugh. “At the rate you charge, you have a lot more than a dime,” I tell him.
“You have a point there,” he says, picking up a tool and motioning for me to open my mouth.
I do as I’m told.
“This should be fairly easy,” he says, covering my mouth and nose with a mask.
My eyes widen with surprise. I knew it. I knew I was going to be put out and sold. I mean, I’m a catch! Who wouldn’t buy me? I bet I’ll bring in a lot of money.
“I’m going to give you a little Nitrous oxide to help you relax before we get started. Just sit back and breathe,” he tells me.
The room starts to spin and look blurry. My mouth tastes like I’ve stuffed it full of pennies, and every part of my body feels heavy. I once went to a party where the son of a dentist stole a bottle of Nitrous. He was filling balloons with it and selling them for five bucks apiece. I remember walking into a bedroom where everyone was sitting on the floor, huffing these big red balloons. They were smiling and laughing and talking really slow. It was funny from the outside, but not so funny from the inside—that’s something I’m just now learning.
It feels like I get higher than I should. Oh, shit. He is going to drug me and sell me. No, fuck that. He’s going to overdose me and kill me. Probably pull out every single one of my teeth so the police can’t identify my body. My hand comes up, grabbing for the mask, but he catches my hand and lowers it again. I don’t have the strength to fight him. At least Mia won’t have to worry about a divorce now.
“You’re all done,” a man says, hovering over my face.
“Huh?” I ask, reaching up to rub my eyes, but his hand catches mine.
“Don’t touch your face for a while, huh? You may be a little sore from being numbed. I’ll show you out to the waiting room.” He takes off my bib, grabs ahold of my arm, and helps me out of the chair.
“Where we going?” I ask, looking around at the white walls, the bright lights overhead, and the way the hallway is tilting.
“We’re going back to your friend,” he replies.
“Did you sell me?” I ask, just as he’s opening the door.
Mia is still in the chair, her eyes bright when she looks up and sees me.
“Mia? You? You bought me?”
Her face scrunches together.
“Nitrous,” the dentist tells her, and she nods in understanding.
“You ready to go home?” she asks, taking my arm, the one the doctor was holding.
I look over at her and smile. “Yeah, I’ll go home with you.” I look her up and down. “How much did you pay?” I ask.
“Pay for what, honey?” she asks sweetly.
“For me. How much was he asking?”
She giggles. “Don’t you worry about it.” She pats my arm as she leads me toward the car.
The night is cool and dark when we walk out of the office and across the parking lot.
“I thought for sure I’d end up at some farm somewhere, sleeping in the hay with the pigs while some big guy named Bubba poked me with his pitchfork.”
“That’s offensive on so many levels,” she laughs out as she opens the passenger side door.
“I’m so glad you bought me. You’re prettier than Bubba.”
She giggles. “Just get in the car.”
I fall into the seat, unsure of how to slide in gracefully. I end up with my head laid over in the driver’s seat.
She laughs, closes the door, and walks around the car. Before she can take her seat, she has to help push my head upward until I’m sitting safely in one seat.
“How long does it take this stuff to wear off?”
I shrug. “What stuff? You know what we should do to celebrate?”
“Celebrate what? That I broke your tooth and had to bring you to an emergency dentist?”
“Celebrate that you bought me. Duh.”
She laughs and shakes her head. “Why do you think I bought you?”
My mouth opens, but nothing comes out. “Do I still have my kidney?” I ask, lifting my shirt and showing her my lower back.
She smiles and nods. “Yeah, no cuts or stitches.”
“So, he didn’t sell me, and he didn’t steal my kidney?” I ask.
“That is correct,” she agrees.
“So, what did he do?”
“He fixed your tooth, dumbass.”
I run my tongue across my teeth. “Jokes on him, my tooth is just fine,” I mumble, feeling the sleep pulling at me.
I hear her snort, but my eyes flutter closed as sleep takes me.
Meow.
Something tickles my nose, and I swat it away.
Meow. Puuuurrrrrr.
I open my eyes to see a big, furry cat directly in front of my face. I jump up and let out a scream.
“Della,” Mia yells, clapping her hands together to scare the cat away. It jumps down from the couch and runs down the hallway.
Mia sits beside me and hands me a cup of coffee. “How you feeling?” she asks.
I shrug as I take the cup and taste it. “What the fuck happened? I feel like I’m still in Vegas.”
“Well, between the vodka and the Nitrous, you’re probably hungover.”
“Nitrous?” I ask, jerking my head in her direction. Then it hits me: the vodka bottle clanking off my tooth, finding an emergency dentist, being put to sleep, and that’s it. “Oh, yeah.”
She snorts. “You thought you’d been sold into sex trafficking.”
I shake my head. “How’s my tooth look?” I turn my head toward her and smile.
“As good as new,” she says, patting my knee as she stands and moves toward the computer.
“I think I need a shower to wake up.” I set the coffee cup on the table and stand, moving down the hall for the bathroom.
Once I’m in the bathroom alone, I look into the mirror and inspect my tooth. It looks just as it always had. If I didn’t have this weird memory, I’d never guess that it actually happened. I shake my head at myself. Leave it to me to break my tooth and need an emergency dentist. At least I made it through Vegas without fucking up. But nope, I got married. What is my life?
And I only have one week off, which means, unless I want to leave her to clean up this marriage mess alone, we need to get started on it. I hang my head and let out a sigh as I turn off the water and step out to get dressed. When I walk back into the living room, the smell of breakfast hits me, and I follow the scent to the kitchen to find a set table.
“Have a seat,” Mia says, motioning toward the table.
“You made breakfast?” I ask, stunned.
“I figured it was the least I could do since I did break your tooth last night.”
We both sit at the table that’s covered with scrambled eggs, toast, bacon, sausage, and biscuits and gravy. There’s also coffee and orange juice in front of me.
“This is great. Thanks, Mia.” I pick up the cup of coffee and take a sip.
“Of course. I didn’t know what you liked, you don’t usually stick around long enough to have breakfast, so I winged it.” She shrugs with her smile in place.
I know she didn’t mean it as a dig, but it rubbed me the wrong way. Usually, I come over, we have a great night of rolling around in bed together, and then in the morning, I’m rushing off to catch my next flight.
“Do you have to go soon?” she asks, stealing me from my thoughts.
I shrug. “Not really. I’m off for the next week. Vacation time is racked up.”
She nods and diverts her eyes to her plate, but I see the corners of her mouth lift slightly. This pleases her. She’s happy I’m not running off. Maybe there is hope for us. That is, until next week when she asks me that question, and I do have to leave.
Fuck. Why does my life have to be this way? I knew what I was getting into when I decided to be an engineer, but I never planned on being in one place long enough to fall in love. I never thought I’d fall for the first girl I spent any time with. And I never thought that one college friend would turn into this thing I could never have and would never be good enough for. All I do is hurt her time and time again. How many times is she going to let me hurt her before enough is enough? Maybe that’s why she tried keeping her distance in Vegas, yet, I kept pushing and pushing until she couldn’t tell me no. Why do I keep doing this? Why am I so selfish?
“What’s the plan for today?” she asks, looking up at me from beneath her long, dark lashes. She nervously slips a strand of hair behind her ear.
I shrug. “We probably need to get on this whole divorce thing before I leave next week.”
She bites down on her lower lip and nods. Something about her seems sad, and it kills me to think that I caused this.
“Or we could blow everything off and take you on that fishing trip we were talking about.” I offer up a smile, hoping and praying that this is all she needs to let the sadness fade away.
Her mouth begins to turn up at the corners, and my heart can beat again.
A couple of hours later, we’re in the middle of the lake, fishing off a boat I rented for the day.
“How do you even work this thing?’ she asks, turning the fishing rod in all different directions.
I laugh. “Seriously?”
“Hey, I’m a city girl. We shop, get our nails done, and can drink like the best of them, but we don’t fish.”
I laugh as I step up behind her, placing her hands where they need to be on the road. “This hand here and this hand here,” I say, moving her hands up and down the pole to the correct spots.
“Now, you pull the rod back over your shoulder, and when you sling it forward, push the button, so the line is released…but make sure you hold onto the pole, so you don’t throw the whole thing.” I pull the pole back and then send the line soaring through the air. It plops into the water a good fifty feet away. “Now, you can leave it there, or you can reel it in a bit. To reel, you crack this right here.” I begin reeling the line in slowly. “Got it?”
She nods. “I think so.”
I release her as I get my own pole ready.
“So, I’ve seen some stuff where the person holding the pole gets a really strong fish that pulls them into the water. Can that really happen?” she asks as she nervously looks at me.
I laugh. “Why do you think you’re wearing a life jacket?” I ask, flashing her a quick grin.
Her eyes double in size as she takes a deep breath. “You’re going to kill me.”
“You tried to sell me,” I throw back with a laugh.
She shakes her head and rolls her eyes.
I fish at the bow of the boat while she’s on the port side. I wanted to stay close enough that I could help her in need be, but also wanted to give her a little room—she’s dangerous with a fishing rod. Maybe I should have put a cork on her hook, so she could practice a while without hurting anyone.
The day is warm and sunny, and the wind is light but cool. It really is the perfect day to be outside, even though the air is a little chilly on the water. I’m dressed in jeans and a long-sleeve Henley shirt, while she thought she’d be cute in a pair of white shorts, blue polo, and Sperry Boat Shoes. I’m dressed for a crisp fall day, and she’s over here, dressing for a runway boating show.
Nonetheless, I can’t keep my eyes off those long, lean legs. While she’s short, she’s mostly leg, and I’ve never felt something as good as having those legs wrapped around me. I can’t keep my eyes to myself. No wonder I haven’t had any luck in the fishing department. I can’t focus on anything long enough. All I can do is watch her, the way her body moves, the way her eyes squint against the sun, remember the soft sounds she made when we were together in Vegas, and how she makes that same grunting sound when she casts her line. My back is straight, muscles tensed, as I try to hold off the need of pulling her against my chest and taking what I need.
It’s a shame that what I need is what she needs to avoid. Why can’t we ever be on the same fucking page? Why is everything one-sided? I know she feels something for me, but I’m too afraid to ask what it is because I know it won’t change anything between us. All it would do is hurt her more to bear her heart to me and then watch me walk away again. Over the years, I’ve been offered several engineering jobs in Chicago, but I’ve always turned them down. The money wasn’t good enough, the benefits were lacking, and then, once, I turned down a job just because I knew if I was in Chicago, I’d need Mia, and at the time, Mia was in a committed relationship. I couldn’t trust myself to stay close and not fuck that up for her. Point being, if we were meant to be together, it would’ve happened by now, right? There should be a map for this sort of thing. Turn right here for a life with Mia, turn left to find a different path. Nah, that’d be too easy.
I’m pulled from my thoughts when Mia lets out a loud shriek. I jerk my head in her direction to see her fighting with her pole.
“I caught one!” she yells, reeling as fast as she can while tugging on the pole.
I quickly se
t mine down and run to her side. “Here, hand it to me, and I’ll reel it in for you.”
She frowns. “No way! This is my catch. You’re not taking credit.”
I sigh. “Mia, I won’t take your fish. I just want to help before you end up overboard or losing the pole.”
She shakes her head but continues to reel it in, tugging back just to be pulled forward again. “No. This is between that fish and me. Fuck, how much can it weigh?”
I reach for the pole, but she jerks it out of my grasp. “Back off, Trent,” she nearly growls.
I hold my hands up, showing her my palms. “Fine, but don’t come crying to me if you end up taking a swim.”
I stand back and watch her fight for what feels like five minutes. For the life of me, I don’t know how the fish hasn’t gotten off the hook yet. When she’s tired and breathless from fighting, she gives in.
“Fine, here take it. You can have the stupid fish.”
I laugh and reach for it, but she lets it go early, and the pole flies into the water. I jump for it, but it’s gone before I can even touch it. I lean against the side of the boat and look out over the water. I run my hand through my hair, anger burning its way up my throat when I think about how much I’m going to have to pay for the pole we lost. Since I’m never in the city much, I don’t keep any kind of fishing equipment, which means everything we have has been rented.
I hear her start to laugh behind me, and I spin around to face her. “Really? You just couldn’t let me help, could you?”
She doesn’t answer. She just laughs harder, and that only angers me more. At this moment, I can’t do anything but watch her. Her wide smile, sparkling golden eyes, and her tiny little body, it’s all so intoxicating. But knowing that I can’t have her, that I should keep my distance, it only causes that anger to burn brighter, stronger.
Instead of saying something I’ll regret, I push myself back to my pole and reel it in. I set it down and move to take a seat, so we can get back to the harbor. I need off this boat. And now. I need distance and space. I need to be alone to think about how I can handle these emotions that are running around inside of me as fast as the speed of light. I want her. But I can’t have her. She wants me but refuses to tell me. I want to spend the rest of my life with her, but all that means is that she’ll end up being alone for most of hers because I’m always gone. I won’t ask her to uproot her life to follow me around the globe. Her life is here, and I was never meant to be a part of it. But because I’m so fucking stupid and stubborn, I took her heart anyway. I didn’t mean to, but piece by piece, she’s become mine over the years.
His Every Desire (Contemporary Romance Box Set) Page 63
