Page 64 of Because I Need You
Fuck, did I know they were under there. My dick twitched just thinking about it. She moved toward the refrigerator, and I saw the rest of her. Hell no. Absolutely fucking no. Now I understood why the dress was so modest up top. It was way too short. Way too short. One gust of Chicago wind and we’d have a second Marilyn Monroe type of picture, except it would be on a cell phone and posted on social media and I’d have to track down the asshole who took it and threaten him until he deleted all signs that he’d ever taken one. Her legs were so beautiful that a part of me didn’t want her to cover up at all. Either way, I’d have to pretend it didn’t bother me. That was the thing about women like her, if you told them what you wanted them to do, they’d go and do the opposite. I’d had two of those pains in the asses growing up, though Catalina was definitely a little more of a people pleaser and rule follower. Emmaline was the opposite. I cleared my throat, as if I needed to alert her of my presence — IN MY OWN HOUSE — and stepped forward. She turned quickly, those big brown eyes widening a touch when she saw me. I watched as her eyes made their way down my body all the way to my shoes and back up. I saw the way she visibly swallowed. Knowing she wanted me just as much as I wanted her, made me breathe a little easier. What that asshole had done to her justified what I did to him, but knowing she wanted me, knowing she’d be mine again when she was ready, made it that much sweeter.
“I gotta go,” she said, hanging up the phone once she finally composed herself and stopped gawking at me.
I stepped into the kitchen. “Are we going to hug or kiss or what?”
“What?” Her eyes widened. She took a step back. “No. Why would we hug or kiss?”
“How do you greet people in the morning?” I turned my back to her to hide my amusement as I set a pod in the coffee maker. I was crowding her space. Maybe I was a bastard for it, but it was the closest I could get to her without touching her and she set these stupid rules, not me. I turned and faced her, pressing myself onto the counter and setting my hands on either side of myself as I waited for the coffee.
“The only people I greet are classrooms full of tweens and teens.” She scrunched her nose as if thinking of something gross, then added, “And a lot of them come in right after physical ed.”
“Sounds lovely.” I felt my own face scrunch, because that was fucking gross. I stood straight when my coffee started to pour into the mug I’d set there.
“I was thinking,” she said, and I already didn’t like where this was going, “After we go to the lawyer’s and figure out that mess, I want to go back to my dad’s house to finish packing.”
“That’s fine. I have to go to the office anyway to sign some contracts. Petra and Joey can take you while I’m there.” I grabbed the mug and took a sip. Her nose scrunched again. I sighed. “What now, Isabel?”
“I should’ve known you take it black.”
“How do you take it?” I asked, biting my tongue to not add what I really wanted to add. She knew it too, the way she blushed a little and looked away quickly. I couldn’t help my smile.
“Two creams, one drop of sweetener.”
“Drop of sweetener?”
“Yeah, the ones that have no real sugar.” She mimicked squeezing a dropper. “You just boop it into the mug.”
Boop it into the mug. This girl. I shook my head and laughed. “You belong in a fucking Disney show.”
“Oh, my God. That was my dream growing up.” Her eyes grew wide. “Are you kidding? I watched all those shows at night and wished so badly that I could jump into the screen and just magically be a part of those families or friends with those kids.”
“What was wrong with your family?” I asked, taking a sip of my coffee.
“Well.” She leaned against the island counter behind her and crossed her arms over her chest. I’d never been more grateful to be holding a hot cup of coffee in my life because this would have been the first time I’d broken a promise. I was dying to lift her up and have her legs around my waist as I felt her up underneath that short ass dress. She snapped her fingers. My attention snapped back to her face. She continued, “Apparently my father had a whole other family I didn’t know about in Chicago, so if that’s anything to go by, you already know some of what was wrong with my family.”
