Dirty Little Secrets (Dirty Little #1)(19)

It’s the dress I was wearing the night that we met, the one I know that he likes on me. Even if I had something else to wear here tonight, I probably would’ve chosen this dress anyway.

“Good to know,” I reply, smiling.

“You wore that dress on purpose.”

“Yes.” He doesn’t need to know that wearing it was also a necessity.

“I’m going to make you pay for that later,” he says. His voice is low and rough, and his eyes are full of promise. “I think you’ll like it.”

I grin. “I’m sure I will.”

“Will you stay with me tonight?” he asks. I desperately want to; it’s been a few days since I’ve had the luxury of falling asleep in his arms. Besides, he talked me into leaving my bag at his apartment, so I have to go back there anyway, and it’ll be nice to save the cost of the hotel room for one night.

“I can be persuaded to do that,” I tease.

Caleb playfully raises his hand. “Check!”

“Hey!” I say, laughing. “You’re not getting out of here that easily. You promised me food, and I expect to get it.”

He winks at me and says, “You’re going to need your energy for later.”

“Mmm,” I reply, suppressing a shiver. “I certainly hope so.”

Caleb opens his mouth to say something, but something or someone catches his eye. He looks the slightest bit apprehensive as he looks at me, then his gaze flits back somewhere over my shoulder. I’m tempted to turn around, but I don’t.

“Mia, my-”

“Caleb?”





* * * * *





“Ben. Hey,” Caleb says warmly.

I recognize the name immediately; Ben is the friend of Caleb’s who owns the software company - Caleb wanted to recommend my work to him. I look up, and see a familiar face from all the of the pictures on Caleb’s mantel. In the photographs I’ve seen of him, I didn’t notice much of a resemblance, but in real life Ben looks a lot like Caleb. He’s standing next to a beautiful young woman with curly, dark blonde hair.

“I see you stole my table,” Ben says, making Caleb laugh.

“You wish,” Caleb replies. His brows scrunch up before he says, “I recall you thinking that this was a bad investment.”

“Even a clock is wrong twice a day. Isn’t that how the saying goes?”

That is not even remotely close to how the saying goes, and I can’t help but laugh. Ben looks down at me, and smiles.

“Felicity,” Caleb says, leaning over to hug the woman standing next to Ben. “It’s good to see you.”

“It’s good to see you, too, Caleb.”

I’m going to take a wild guess and say that Ben and Felicity are brother and sister.

Caleb finally looks over at me, and his expression immediately softens. “Mia, this is my friend Ben, and his sister Felicity.”

“Ben, Felicity, this is my…Mia.”

Felicity’s gaze swings over to Caleb, her eyes bright, looking like she’s dying to tease him.

Ben doesn’t resist the opportunity. “Caleb’s Mia, huh?” he says, grinning. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

“You, too,” I say, reaching out to shake his hand. I do the same with Felicity.

Caleb looks over at me, like he wants me to give him the okay to invite them to sit down and eat with us. I give him a discreet nod. Much as I was looking forward to having a quiet dinner, just the two of us, I can’t help but wonder what I’ll find out about Caleb with his friends around.

“Would you like to join us?” Caleb asks.





* * * * *





“Wait,” I say, laughing so hard that tears are threatening to spill down my cheeks. “You jumped off the ski lift? Because of a bird?”

Felicity and Caleb are cracking up, while Ben’s all red-faced and looking annoyed, like he’s completely done with being teased by his sister and best friend.

“To be fair,” he says seriously, “I had been drinking, and I didn’t know it was a bird. It moved really quickly, and we were almost at the top of the slope, so it’s not like I plummeted into a ravine or anything. It’s not nearly as funny as Caleb is making it out to be.”

Caleb leans over and whispers in my ear, “It was funnier.”

I smile at him, loving the demeanor that he has around his friends. There isn’t an air of pretense around them; in fact, I feel like I’ve known Ben and Felicity much longer than I actually have.

“Do you have any crazy spring break stories, Mia?” Felicity asks, as she cuts a piece of her chicken.

Reality slams into me, and I remember that I’m sitting at a table full of people who have probably never wanted for anything in their lives. They’re all looking at me expectantly, but there’s an anxiousness in Caleb’s eyes, like he knows what I’m going to say. I’m desperate to come up with some kind of anecdote, but being put on the spot makes my brain slow down to the point of being useless. It’s like being in a hurry to get out of the door and looking for your car keys in a frantic rush, when you were too busy to be able to see that they were right next to your purse the whole time.