Ready for You (Ready #3)(46)

Nope, I was avoiding it all and doing a pretty good job—or at least pretending to.

We ordered a late-night pizza and spent some time going through my piles of drawings. It was something I’d never shared with anyone, but I shared it with her.

“These are really good,” she said.

“They’re all right.”

“Garrett, you should be doing this every day,” she urged.

“And what about you, Miss Accountant?” I countered.

“I’m not an accountant anymore.”

After we cleaned up, she made a call to Liv and asked if she could check on Sam. I didn’t hear the rest of the conversation because she ducked into the bathroom, but I did her say, “Shut up, Liv!” a few times, so I was sure Miss Prescott had an opinion about where Mia was spending her evening.

As she was finishing up her phone call, I padded into my bedroom and slipped into a pair of loose-fitting sweats. Mia had seen me naked many times over, but I figured dropping my pants in front of her wouldn’t give her a good impression of my intentions for the evening—not that I would mind if she offered.

Jesus, Garrett…get your f**king head on straight.

I was just slipping a T-shirt over my head when she came in. She took in my change of clothes and looked down at her black dress.

“I don’t have anything to wear,” she said.

“I have a T-shirt you can change into.” I pulled open a drawer and handed her an old college T-shirt. Then, I sat down on the bed and waited to see what she would do.

Her eyes drifted down to the shirt and back to me. She took in my casual position on the bed, realizing I wasn’t making any attempts to vacate the room for her privacy. She hesitated a moment longer and then swiveled around in the direction of the bathroom.

I wasn’t sure if I was more relieved or bummed. I wasn’t positive I’d be able to handle watching her strip down bare in front of me right now, but seeing her flee at the thought of getting undressed in front of me still hurt.

Mia returned no less than two minutes later with her black dress tucked in her hands. She nervously stopped at the doorway and looked around as if she were unsure of how to proceed.

“Come here,” I murmured.

Her dress fell to the floor at the door, and she came to my side as I sat at the foot of the bed. Against my better judgment, my fingers reached out for her, curling around her bare leg and up her thigh.

Her breath caught, but she didn’t stop me.

“Garrett…” she started to say.

“Shh…just allow me this. Just for tonight. We’ll go back to being friends tomorrow, but tonight…just help me remember.”

I could see the split decision swirling in her steady gaze. I knew this decision would end me. I knew I’d most likely never recover from a second blow to the heart by Mia Emerson, but I’d just lost my father. I wasn’t sure there was much of a heart left.

Finally, she nodded, and I had my answer. My hand slipped higher under the ratty T-shirt covering her body until I found the edge of her panties. I curled my hand around her ass and pulled her down, letting her legs spread open so she was straddling me. Our eyes met, and I knew this was no favor she was doing for me. Her eyes were heated and filled with desire. She wanted this as much as I did.

Lifting the T-shirt she no longer needed, I threw it to the floor and found those perky round br**sts I’d become reacquainted with in New York. I fisted one in each hand, and I took my time sucking and savoring each nipple until she was writhing so hard in my lap that I thought I might explode from the friction.

It wasn’t enough. I needed more. I needed all of her. Eight years of starving for the one thing I needed most in the world had left me a shell of a man, and now, I was finally feasting again.

I wanted it all.

My mouth made a scorching trail up through the valley of her br**sts, and I trailed kisses along her neck until I found her lips. She moaned into my mouth as my tongue found hers. My hands snaked around her body, leaving a fiery path over her soft skin. I gripped her ass and pulled her closer positioning her exactly where I needed her to be. She moved and wiggled her sexy little body right on top of my hard cock, and I groaned in pleasure. Her hands found the hem of my T-shirt, and I helped pull it up and over my head. She tossed it on the floor, and her hands went to my chest, tracing every hard line and defined edge.

I closed my eyes and tried to memorize the feel of her touch on my body, knowing it would have to last me a lifetime. Tomorrow, reality would come back, and I would remember why this would never work.

But tonight, she was Mia, and I was Garrett, and that was all that mattered.

With one arm under her back, my other grabbed her behind the knee, and I flipped us onto the bed. Her hair fanned out on my sheets, reminding me of the way it had looked under the hot August sun on lazy summer days at the river. Her hands never left my body, and she traced every inch of my stomach, chest, and arms. Her fingers curled into the waistband of my sweats and tugged. Never breaking eye contact with her, I slid them off my body.

No words were said as I slid my fingers into her panties. I nudged a single finger inside her slick core, wet from her own desire. She moaned and bucked. I added another digit, f**king her with my fingers, as my thumb found her clit.

“Garrett…” she moaned.

Hearing her say my name made me want to hear it again and again, but I wanted to be inside her. I wanted to feel her pulsate and spasm around me as she screamed out my name.