The Private Serials Box Set(89)
The girls laughed and I was glad to just sit back and watch them interact. Piper had never disliked any of my girlfriends. In fact, she’d become friends with many of them and that was important to me. I wasn’t interested in dating anyone who didn’t get along with my twin sister. But I wasn’t dating Lena. I wasn’t trying to woo her, wasn’t even trying to see if she fit into my life. She was mine and my life was now wherever she was, and it was of paramount importance for Piper to like her, to love her even. So to see them laughing, and to know that for two months they’d built a friendship without me in the picture was something that brought me a lot of peace.
“Well,” Piper said, taking the last sip of her coffee, “I’ll go pick Sam up off the floor and tell her to get ready for an exciting evening.” She walked to the sink and deposited her mug, then walked to the door, stopping and turning to us once it was open. “I’ll make the arrangements and let you guys know what time it starts, all right?”
“Sounds good. Talk to you later,” Lena said with a smile.
Piper gave me a warm smile and a wink. I winked back, glad she was leaving with a smile on her face and the tears she had shed earlier seemed to be gone. When the door closed behind her, my eyes went to Lena. She sat quietly at the table and looked to be lost in thought. I let the silence settle, content to just look at her, fresh-faced and comfortable.
“I love that you get along with my sister,” I finally said, my eyes still captivated by her ease and beauty.
She looked at me, her gaze meeting mine. “Piper saved me when I first got here. I don’t know what I would have done without her. Even though I know you sent her, she was and still is truly a great friend.” She paused, considering her next words. “I need good people in my life. Besides Sam, who’s the best, I’ve been surrounded by people who didn’t care about me or my happiness for most of my life. I was lost in the shadow of my sister and then used as a tool by my father to climb the corporate ladder. It’s good to finally feel as if the people in my life don’t need me for anything, but want me for everything.”
“Come here,” I said, crooking a finger at her, needing her close to me. She smiled shyly, but stood and walked to me. I tried not to notice how tiny her shorts were, failing miserably as my eyes were drawn to the expanse of the creamy skin of her thighs. When she stopped in front of me I spread my legs wider and tapped my knee, signaling for her to sit. She obeyed, sitting sideways on my lap and wrapping her arms around my neck.
I placed my finger under her chin, lifting her face just slightly so I could look her in the eyes.
“I need you for everything,” I said, not looking away. “I want you for everything, too.”
“Everything?” she asked, an air of vulnerability in her voice; she was obviously asking more than a rhetorical question. Her tone worried me, but I didn’t flinch, didn’t let my concern show on my face at all.
“Everything, Lena. I want it all.”
Her face pulled down and I let my finger fall away. She took in a deep breath and I could feel her steel herself.
“There’s something I should tell you, then.”
I reached up to her face, my hand moving over her cheek, threading through the hair at the nape of her neck, gently gripping it there. “I’m here. What is it?”
“After that morning in front of my house back in Portland, after Derrek showed me the picture of us, after I thought everything in my life had fallen apart around me, I just kind of shut down.”
I felt my stomach drop and my grip on her tightened. I hated knowing she’d been hurting without me, because of me. Hated thinking of her all alone, thinking she’d lost everything, when in reality, I’d never let her go. “I’m sorry, sweetheart, for everything.”
“Shhh,” she said as she gently put her thumb over my lips, effectively shushing me. “You’ve got nothing to apologize for. I know why you did what you did, and I’m glad you did it.” She inhaled again, her eyes darting between both of mine. I got the feeling she was trying to tell me something and she was afraid of how I would react. I could tell she was nervous, feel that she was tense beneath my hands. “I left my house that morning and went straight to a hotel. I didn’t have anything with me, including,” she said softly, her eyes falling away to her lap, “my birth control pills.” She sighed heavily, obviously lighter once the words left her. “I haven’t taken them since that day.”
I took in her words, processed them, then looked at her, trying to gauge how she felt about her admission. I knew how Lena felt about children. I knew we’d been sleeping together nearly nonstop for a week and neither of us even mentioned condoms—we’d never used them in Portland. I also knew her husband had denied her a family but then started one with someone else, stringing her along for years with promises of babies down the road. Promises he never intended to keep. I imagined she felt guilty for not telling me earlier, but I also thought she might feel hopeful about the situation.
I pulled her face to mine, gently kissing her, feeling her relax against me. Her arms came back around my neck and I breathed her in. My free hand roamed up her back, feeling her soft skin under her tank top, loving the way she pressed further in to me.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered when the kiss broke. “I should have told you sooner.”