by Tia Siren
The hostess sat us at a private table in a corner. Brad pulled a chair out for me and then sat next to me. I purposely looked at the two other chairs around the table, but he just smiled.
“I’m sitting next to you. My arms aren’t long enough for me to sit over there,” he said, gesturing with his head.
I gave him a peculiar look but didn’t get a chance to ask him what he meant. My mother appeared at the table. Brad jumped up and hugged her.
“It’s so good to see you, Maria.”
“Brad, aren’t you a handsome devil,” my mother cooed, making me want to groan out loud.
“You’re looking gorgeous as ever,” he complimented.
“Oh, and you’re smooth as well. No wonder Mia let you waltz back into her life,” she said with a knowing look.
I wanted to crawl under the table and die.
“Mom,” I choked out. “Please, sit down.” I left the shut-up part out, but I knew she understood what I was asking.
She smiled and sat down in the chair Brad had pulled out for her. I couldn’t believe how impeccable his manners were. The man had changed.
“What have you two been up to? I figured you must be keeping her busy. I haven’t seen her around the shop lately,” my mother said innocently enough, but I knew what she was insinuating.
I could feel my face turning red. Brad thankfully stepped in to minimize the embarrassment.
“We’ve been playing tourist. It’s been a long time since I got to live and breathe all New York had to offer, so Mia gave me the grand tour. I think we must have walked ten miles the other day,” he said with an easy smile.
“Oh, that’s nice. I’m glad the two of you are getting to know each other again. I’ve missed you, Brad.”
I rolled my eyes. My mother was falling into his trap as well. The guy was a smooth operator.
“How’ve you been, hon?” my mother asked him.
“Good. Very good. I love LA and the sunshine. The water is the best part. I love the ocean and hit the beach whenever I have the chance. How about you? Do you still have the pet clothing store?” he asked with genuine interest.
I sat in my chair feeling like a third wheel as I listened to the two of them chat away like old friends who hadn’t seen each other in a while. The waitress took our order after delivering a round of mimosas. I wasn’t typically a day drinker but figured I might as well. I was off for the day, and as far as I knew, my only plans were sex and more sex. Of course, that could change. Brad could end up deciding to spend the day with my mother. I listened as they talked about the old neighborhood and the various people we had all known.
I was about to sigh heavily to remind them I was still at the table when I felt Brad’s hand on my bare knee. He gave it a gentle squeeze before trailing up my skirt to my thigh. I looked around the restaurant, making sure no one was watching. The tablecloth hid what was happening, but I still felt exposed.
My mom was carrying on about her new line of products, and Brad was enthusiastically nodding his head and offering words of encouragement here and there. His hand moved up my leg. I froze, knowing he was about to discover something that would change everything.
His hand jerked on my thigh. I looked at him as his head whipped around. He stared directly into my eyes. I smirked in response. After the little tryst in the kitchen right before we left, I had stripped off my soaked panties and tossed them into my room. I was bare. I had planned to tease him with the information but had lost my courage. Now I didn’t have to say a word. He had just found out, and by the flaring of his nostrils and his large pupils, it had the desired effect.
“Everything okay?” my mother asked.
Brad schooled his features and turned to look at her again. “Yes. Fine. I was just thinking how hungry I am. I got up early. Usually I have a protein shake or some fruit, but as you probably know, your daughter keeps no food in her house. I’m famished,” he said, stressing the last word.
I knew exactly what he was hinting at and felt myself grow wet. An image of me splayed on the kitchen table sprang into my mind. I bit back a groan as I imagined his head between my legs.
“Oh. Let’s see if we can get you some orange juice while we wait for our meals,” my mother said, putting her hand in the air.
Brad held up his mimosa. “This’ll do. I’ll be fine.”
He took a sip of the juice blend and turned to give me a dirty look. I smiled sweetly at him, not feeling the least bit guilty for my little game.
It wasn’t long before our food was delivered. Brad took advantage of the fact that my mother was preoccupied with her meal. His hand went under my skirt, gently massaging my inner thigh. He was teasing me.
“So, Mom, do you want to go for a walk after we’re done here?” I asked cheerfully.
Brad squeezed my thigh hard enough to make me wince before using his fingertips to gently go over the area, wiping away the pain and replacing it with pleasure.
“Oh, that would be great. Does that sound good to you, Brad?” she asked.
I looked at him and smiled, waiting for him to answer. He knew I was delaying the return to my apartment. Two could play at his naughty game.
“I would love to. There is still plenty of the city I haven’t seen. After eating all this, I’m going to need the exercise,” he said with a smile.
My mother laughed and returned to her omelet. Brad’s fingertips were still tracing little circles on the inside of my thigh. His hand moved back to my knee and gently pulled it toward him. I fought against him, not wanting to spread my legs under the table.
He gave me a look, demanding my cooperation, and just like that, I let him do it. I fought back a gasp as his hand trailed up my thigh once again. He ran one finger over my slit, nearly making me come. I choked on the bite of pancake I had just put in my mouth.
“Are you okay, dear?” my mom asked.
I nodded, taking a drink and patting my chest.
“Take it easy,” Brad said in a hushed voice.
I shot him a glare. I had nearly choked because he had his finger running circles around my very aroused hole. It took every bit of self-control I had not to squirm in my chair. His finger was running up and down my center, only the tip probing inside.
I dropped my fork as he pushed his finger in a little higher. I was going to orgasm in front of my mother if he didn’t stop. I grabbed my mimosa and quickly swallowed it down, hoping the cold drink would cool the fire burning inside my body.
His finger, slick with my own juices, slid over my clit, and it was only by sheer will and determination that I stopped the climax from taking over my body. I stomped the skinny heel of my shoe on his toe. He jerked his hand away from me and chuckled.
My mom looked at him, questioning his laughter.
We managed to get through the rest of our meal without any further incidents. As we were walking out of the restaurant, Brad leaned in close and whispered in my ear. “You’re going to pay for that.”
I laughed. “We’ll see.”
We took our walk with my mom before she decided it was time for her to go. She thanked us for breakfast and left us alone.
“Back to your place,” he said, grabbing my hand and pulling me along the sidewalk.
“Do you want to get a cab?” I called out.
“No. This is faster, and trust me, you want me to walk off some of the sexual frustration you have given me,” he growled. The clouds that had rolled in earlier had turned into a full-on rainstorm.
I was laughing as he pulled me along, not caring a bit that we were getting soaked. I liked knowing I had that kind of power over him. When we got back to my place, I was only a little bummed he didn’t follow through with his earlier promise. Instead, he ordered me to get changed into dry clothes while he did the same.
When I returned to the living room, he was on the couch with the remote in his hand. He had found the Syfy channel and seemed to be settling into some ridiculously cheesy show about people living on another planet.
I sat down beside him, content with watching television. It didn’t take long before he began to run his hand over my arm and then my breast. The man was handsy, though he didn’t appear to be interested in sex. He was intent on the movie, but his hands roved over my body, stroking here and there, even tweaking my nipples on occasion.
I was worked up into a frenzy, and the man wasn’t giving me what I wanted. I was too embarrassed to ask. I settled for his touches, all the while hoping he would get tired of the movie and have his way with me.
Chapter Nineteen
Brad
Waking up in her bed, I didn’t move or open my eyes. I had to get my head straight. I’d come to New York with a plan, but I had yet to make it happen. I needed to bring up the topic of the marriage pact. She had purposely been avoiding it. She could pretend all she wanted, but it needed to be discussed.
I was enjoying spending time with her, but I had to do something. I was leaving tomorrow and needed to know what to do when I got back. Did I look for a new job in New York or stay put in LA? Would she have me? I felt as if I were running out of time. I didn’t want to live my life without her in it. I had to convince her she wanted me in hers as well.
I rolled over to touch her, a little bummed that her naked little body wasn’t tucked against mine. My eyes popped open when I realized the bed was empty.
“Mia?” I called out.
No answer. I pulled on my briefs and headed down the hall to the kitchen.
“Hey,” I said with a smile, but I stopped walking toward her when I saw her arms crossed and her foot steadily tapping up and down.
She was pissed. I knew that look well.
“What’s wrong?” I asked, searching my memory bank, trying to remember what I said or did to piss her off in the last twelve hours or so. I had thought she’d been pleased when we had finally gone to sleep. Maybe I had said another woman’s name in my sleep.
I cautiously took a step forward. “Mia?”
She held up the ring I had brought with me. “What the hell is this?” She was fuming.
“It’s a ring,” I answered honestly.
She glared at me. “No shit it’s a ring. Why do you have an engagement ring, Brad?”
I took a deep breath. I wanted to have the conversation, so I may as well get it out in the open now.
“You know why.”
“Uh-uh. No way. You did not come out here and think you could fuck me into marriage.”
I was a little stunned by her crassness. The woman blushed when I talked about sex. Now she was throwing around a loaded word.
“Mia, I was serious. I am serious. I want to marry you.”
“No! Brad! Seriously!”
Her one-word sentences told me a lot about how angry she was. The woman was a writer. When we used to argue, I had needed a dictionary to keep up. She was so mad she couldn’t find the words. That was not a good sign for me.
“I want to marry you. We’re great together. You have to admit that.”
“No. I cannot believe you actually expect me to marry you after one weekend together.”
I shook my head. “No. We’ve known each other a lot longer than that.”
“No. We knew each other. Then you walked out of my life without ever looking back. You can’t show up on my door one day and expect me to forget everything that happened. You can’t expect me to marry someone I’ve only known for a couple days.”
I groaned in frustration. “We’ve known each other longer than that. Yes, we had a gap in there, but we’re still compatible. We had fun this weekend.”
Her eyes widened, and I knew I had used the wrong word. It looked as if she was going to spit fire. “You are so immature. What a childish thing to say. You don’t marry someone because you had fun. That’s not what a marriage is about. Marrying because we had a little fun over a weekend is only going to end in disaster. We’d end up hating each other!”
“No way. I would never hate you. I can’t. You are a part of me. I haven’t felt this happy in a long time, Mia.”
“That’s bullshit. We had sex, Brad. I know you’ve been having plenty of sex with other women. Do you propose to all of them? How many times have you tried to give away this ring?”
I bit back my own anger. “Never. I have never felt like this, and that ring has never been offered to anyone else. I picked it out with you in mind.”
“You need to go,” she said in a hiss.
“Excuse me?”
“I need to be alone. Go. I don’t care if you go to LA or around the block. I need some time alone. I need to think, and I can’t do that with you staring at me.”
I nodded my head in understanding. “Fine. Let me change and I’ll go pick up some breakfast for us.”
“I don’t want breakfast!” she shrieked.
“Okay. I’ll go get breakfast for myself,” I said, and I walked out of the kitchen.
That did not go as I had planned. I never expected her to get angry. I expected her to say no, and I had been fully prepared to convince her otherwise. Hell, I’d been ready to beg. Her fury had caught me by surprise. I didn’t understand it.
I pulled on my shorts and threw on a clean shirt and one of the new hoodies I had picked up the other day. I walked out of her condo without saying another word. I would give her time to cool down. Then we could have a rational conversation.
I walked to a juice bar and grabbed a smoothie. What I really needed to do was run. I looked down at my feet in my worn tennis shoes and took in my khaki shorts. I looked up and down the street, not seeing what I needed, so I headed up one block and then another until I found what I was looking for. I bought myself some running gear, rented a locker to stash my old clothes in, and headed into Central Park.
It felt good to run. I was used to running on the packed jogging paths around LA, so I didn’t mind the crowds and other joggers as I moved along the path. Running helped me think. Mia had to be blind not to see how good we were for each other. I knew I could make her happy if she would give me a chance.
I had put in a good three-mile run and was feeling the burn. I grabbed my stuff from the locker and used the walk back to Mia’s condo to cool down my muscles. I knocked on her door, hoping she was home and willing to let me in. When she yanked it open, I could tell she was still mad.
“Mia,” I said with exhaustion. “Please, can we at least talk about this?”
“There’s nothing to talk about. I’m not marrying you because of some stupid pact.”
“Then marry me because you want to.”
“It doesn’t work like that. You live in LA; I live here. There is no way I am going to turn my life upside down to honor some stupid pact you made up when we were kids.”
I walked to her kitchen and got myself a glass of water before answering her. “We weren’t kids. We’re definitely not kids now, and I know what I want.”
“I’m happy for you, but I don’t feel the same way.”
“I think you could if you gave it a chance. You know we get along well. We are definitely compatible in the sex department. No one is saying you have to move anywhere.”
She scoffed. “Oh, so it’s to be a marriage of convenience. You pop in when you want to get laid and then head back to your little beach cottage where you surf all day and fuck a different woman every night while your little wifey sits in New York. I suppose you’ll expect me to pop out those kids you talked about before, right? So I’ll be here, raising your children all alone, and you’ll be the absent father who comes and goes as he pleases,” she said, her voice shrill.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa. You are really getting ahead of yourself, Mia. No one said anything about kids or you being alone. I want a marriage, a real one.”
“You’re so childish!” she shouted. “That’s not how it works! I had thought you’d grown up a bit, but I was wrong. You’re still that same immature guy from eleven years ago. This is never going to work.”
I took a deep breath, forcing myself to rema
in calm. Letting my anger rule would be bad news. I didn’t want to say something I would regret. The woman was being completely irrational. Clearly the four hours I had stayed away had not been enough.
“Look, I’m going to jump in the shower. When I get out, can we please just pretend none of this happened? I only have one night left in New York. We’ve had a great time, and I don’t want it to end badly.”
She glared at me. “No, we can’t pretend it never happened, and hell no I’m not just going to forget everything and jump right back in bed with you.”
“I’m taking a shower,” I said, refusing to engage. I thought about inviting her in but knew that would probably get something large and hard thrown at my head.
I took a long, hot shower, letting the water wash away my frustration and anger. If I was being honest with myself, I was also hurt. How could she not want me? We were perfect for each other. I wasn’t exactly an ogre, and I would do anything to make her happy.
I got out of the shower, dreading what I would find on the other side of the door. I hoped she was calm and ready to talk. I pulled on my shorts and carried my T-shirt with me as I walked down the hall.
She looked up from where she was sitting at her kitchen table, her laptop open as she furiously typed.
“Put your shirt on. Your bare chest isn’t going to make me change my mind,” she snapped.
I nodded and put the shirt on.
“I’m sorry you’re angry,” I said softly.
She shrugged a shoulder. “This isn’t going to work. You need to leave.”
“I’m leaving tomorrow,” I reminded her.
“No. Leave now. Go find a hotel.”
I stalked toward her and shut her laptop with one move of my hand and forced her to look up at me.
“Enough. You had your say. I get it, but I’m not going anywhere tonight, Mia. You’re the one who’s being childish.”
She stood up, put her hands on her hips, and glared at me. “Fine! But you’re not sleeping in my bed.”
I shrugged a shoulder. “Whatever.”
I was done fighting. Everything I said made the situation worse. I opted to keep my mouth shut. Maybe she’d feel differently once she slept on it. If not, then there truly was little I could do about it. I couldn’t exactly club her over the head and drag her back to my cave, even if that was what I wanted to do.
