Black Ties and White Lies(74)

His nose wrinkles in disgust. “They taste artificial as fuck.”

I rip the bag open, sticking one end of the candy vines between my teeth and taking a bite. “I don’t care what you say. They’re my favorite and you being a Twizzler hater won’t change my mind.”

He shakes his head at me, opening the bag of beef jerky and taking a bite. We settle in comfortable conversation the rest of the night. When he turns off the lights and climbs into bed next to me, I wonder what to do next.

Should we cuddle?

Do I stuff a pillow between us and tell him to stay on his side?

Before I can worry too much about what the etiquette is for sharing a bed in this situation, he makes the decision for me. Reaching across the bed, he loops his arm around my middle and pulls me against his chest. Beck tucks his chin between my neck and shoulder, our bodies connected from that point all the way down to our feet.

It takes no time for me to fall asleep, feeling more peaceful in his arms than I ever have before.





“I never thought I’d say this, but I’ve never been more excited to see Ezra in my life,” Margo says with enthusiasm as she bounces up and down to stay warm. I look to my side at her, a growl rumbling low in my throat. “Careful sounding so excited when speaking of my driver. He’s worked for me for years but make me too jealous when it comes to him and he might just lose his job.”

The eye roll she gives me tells me she doesn’t believe me in the slightest. She practically skips across the parking lot toward Ezra, leaping into his arms and enveloping him in a large hug.

If he didn’t hover his arms over a safe spot on her back, he’d already be fired, our friendship be damned. I stop in front of them, raising my eyebrows as Ezra looks at me with an amused smile. Margo steps from his arms, looking at the waiting car behind him. “I thought we’d be stuck here forever.”

“Was it really such a terrible time?” I question, giving her a knowing look. While what happened last night was nowhere near planned, it wasn’t the worst turn of events I could imagine. In fact, in my personal opinion, it turned out more than perfect.

A blush creeps to her cheeks. She looks from me to Ezra and back again. A frigid breeze picks up around us, a bite to it as it hits us all in the face. Margo fixes the hair that blows with the wind, a gleam in her eyes as she looks between Ezra and I. “Awful. The worst.” She tries hard to fight a smile, but eventually she can’t any longer. She winks as a breathtaking smile overtakes her face.

“Why don’t you tell your new best friend Ezra how we passed the time?” I challenge.

Her eyebrows raise to her hairline as her stained cheeks get even darker. Margo always has such a smart mouth and no filter. I love it when I’m able to push her buttons enough to get her to blush. Especially in the presence of others.

Ezra whistles before he leaps forward and grabs the paper bags from my hand. “Now that you’ve mentioned it, I think I’d rather not know the details.”

“The dirty details,” I correct, still staring at Margo. I’d been pissed when our car got stuck in the snow. Livid when I thought I’d be tormented by sleeping next to her all night without being able to have her. Now I’m grateful for the snow storm, for how much things have changed between Margo and I from yesterday to today.

“Beck!” Margo shrieks, hitting me in the arm.

Ezra loads our small amount of belongings into the back of the car, shaking his head at both of us as he tries his best to ignore us.

“Thank you for sorting out the car situation,” I tell him. It seems that not only did he spend his morning getting the car towed for us, but he even took the time to get the rental washed. Scanning the trunk, it appears that all of our luggage stayed safe despite the car being left on the side of the road.

“Just doing my job,” he responds, closing the trunk.

Margo busies herself by typing something on her phone. If I had to guess, it’s something to do with those friends of hers she’s always adamant about speaking with. Walking up to her, I put an arm around her shoulder and pull her into my side. I kiss the top of her head. At first she looks shocked by the PDA. She aims a hesitant glance at Ezra, who's already gotten into the car and isn’t paying attention. Even if he was, it wouldn’t matter.

Something changed between Margo and I last night. I’m not taking a step backwards. Now that I’ve had her, I won’t let her go. I don’t care who's looking, if I want to touch her, kiss her, or anything else, I’ll do it.

“Ready to go back to New York?” I ask, letting her slide into the backseat.

“I’m so ready to go home.”

I nod, my throat feeling tight. Home. It was a simple sentence and yet to me it holds so much more meaning. She doesn’t realize the weight of her words, the effect they’ve had on me.

She called New York her home. She called the place we live together her home. Not a house, not some place she’s staying for a year while she fulfills her end of the agreement.

No, in her mind it’s her home, and I’ve never loved the penthouse I reside in so much.

Because if she views it as her home, maybe she’ll never want to leave it.

Maybe she’ll never want to leave me.





My knuckle softly brushes over her cheek. I wish I didn’t have to wake her up, but we’ve arrived at the private airport. It’s time for us to get on the jet and fly back to the city. Margo had fallen asleep five minutes into the car ride. It wasn’t too shocking considering how much of the night I’d kept her awake.