Read Story: SEASON 1 EPISODE 305

I couldn’t entirely blame her. I’d fallen for Jess, after all.

I decided to make the decision for her and hoped that she would accept it. “One minute, Liz,” I said. Someone behind me gasped.

Liz closed the distance between her and her charge, wrapped a thick arm around his midsection, hauled him over her shoulder, and walked out the door. She nodded to me, and I nodded back.

“No! Put me the fuck down!” Tyler screamed, his arms flailing as he beat on Liz’s back as she exited the room. “I’m going to fucking fire you! Natalie! Come with me!”

My brother and his bodyguard disappeared around the corner, and I watched Emily, Erin, and John looking on in disgust as they continued to watch from where they stood in the hall. It would have been funny had it not been such a serious moment. I could hear Tyler protesting, threatening, and calling out for Natalie until his voice abruptly died off. They were outside of the house.

Thankfully, Natalie hadn’t moved from her spot. She sat on the bed, staring at her hands as tears dropped onto the rug. I breathed a sigh of relief. I didn’t want to cut Natalie off. I had loved her. I was pretty sure I still did.

I sat on the bed beside her and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. Part of me wanted to tell her not to be upset… to share some of the nasty things Tyler had said to me. I wanted to tell her she could move past it. She didn’t deserve to feel this way over someone like him, but then, I remembered moments when I’d missed Jessica after we ended things. Even the shittiest of people could leave a warm spot on your heart that made you miss them. Even the end of a grossly dysfunctional relationship could be a sad thing. Loss is loss… even if it’s good for us.

So, instead of recounting the horrible things he said about her to score points, I just held her. She leaned into me, buried her head in my chest, and cried. I looked up to see that Erin, Emily, and all the rest had left the room, leaving me and Natalie alone with her broken heart. It was the first time I’d held her and didn’t feel overwhelming joy. I hated it.

She shuddered against me as a sob escaped her chest, and I pressed my lips into her hair, murmuring, “It’ll be okay, Nat.”

Forty minutes later, I emerged from the bedroom, softly shut the door behind me, and turned to see Erin standing up from where she’d been sitting on the floor beside the door. “Have you been out here the whole time?”

“Yeah,” she said, looking up at me with those dark brown eyes of hers. “It didn’t feel right just leaving you here alone, and Chloe had to coordinate her crew. Their chopper is equipped with some forensic equipment, so some of them are trying to see if they can pull any fingerprints or look for any other clues.”

The gentle thrum of music indicated that either the party was still going or no one had bothered to shut off whatever was playing. “Is everyone else gone?”

“Tyler is. I think everyone else is still here, though. Chloe recommended waiting for you to get everyone out. She said you might have a change of heart or need something from one of them, so we didn’t break it up. Natashya and Emily have made a couple of friends.”

“That scans,” I muttered, looking down the hall toward the music.

“Is she… okay?” Erin asked.

“Yeah,” I said. “She’s asleep. Probably best to leave her for now.”

Erin nodded. I sensed a nervous energy about her, and she looked like she was on the verge of asking me another question.

“Are you… are you guys a thing?”

“No,” I said. “I think she wanted to kiss me, but I didn’t take the bait. I just held her till she cried herself to sleep.”

“That must have been hard,” Erin said.

I recalled Natalie’s liquid brown eyes staring up at me. Her full lips compressed against each other as she sniffled… mere inches from mine. “Really fucking hard.”

“Why didn’t you?” she asked.

“Because I’ve let my dick do the thinking too much,” I sighed. “Whatever would have happened in there would’ve been a mistake. Either we would have ended up too hot and heavy and burned out, or she might have thought I was taking advantage of her vulnerable state. Or maybe we would have gotten into a relationship without setting the right expectations, and I would have just been another asshole who hurt her.”

“Expectations?” Erin asked as we headed down the hall.

“Yeah,” I said. “I’m not interested in being with just one woman, and I’m not sure how well Natalie would be able to handle that. I don’t want to make a mistake with her that I think I avoided with Danni. Even if she could… Nat needs some time to put all this behind her.”

Erin gave me one of her heart-melting grins. “That’s a hell of a grown-up decision to make.”

“I hated it,” I muttered as I stared at the floor. A huge part of me wanted to turn around, go back in that room, and wake Natalie up with a long bout of love-making.

“So, no monogamy for you, huh?” Erin said.

“Yeah. You know that, though. It’s why I called things off with Danni.”

“No. I know,” she said. Her hand slid over my groin as we neared the mouth of the hall, and she gave my half-erection a firm squeeze. “I’m just impressed you gave up a chance to get with the great Natalie Bander.”

I stopped in my tracks and seized Erin by her small wrist. She took a couple more steps before faltering, looking back at me with a startled expression, just as I yanked her back toward me so she crashed into my chest. I spun us both around so she was backed against the wall, and she started to say something as I shut her up with a fierce kiss.

She melted immediately in my arms, and a few moments later, I felt her tongue press against my mouth, seeking entrance, and I gladly let it in. We spent the next few moments making out wildly as I kept her trapped between me and the wall. My hands wandered over her slender frame, enjoying the feel of her firm tits under my touch. God… I couldn’t get enough of this young woman. I needed her to know that.

After breaking our kiss, I kept my face close to hers, enjoying how she stared up at me with those big brown eyes. She looked so helpless… vulnerable. Weaving my fingers through her silver hair, I massaged her scalp at the back of her head.

“Erin, you’re the reason.”

“What?” she asked. Some other emotion I couldn’t quite read slipped through her gaze.

“It doesn’t matter if Natalie, Danni, or some other amazing girl enters my life. You’re the most amazing woman I’ve ever met, and I want you. I’ll always want you,” and if whoever that person is can’t accept that, then they’re not the right person for me.

She stared back at me, her dark chocolate eyes burning with heat.

Our gazes were locked onto each other for a solid half minute, and a question was burning in my chest that I could barely keep from asking. I was afraid to ask because it might change this perfect dynamic if she said no. Talk of relationships had pushed Natalie into another man’s arms. It led me to shut things down with Danni. It had pushed Natashya into another woman’s arms. Like hell I was going to risk doing anything to jeopardize what I had with Erin… but I had to say something, right?

“Erin…”

“Don’t,” she said, biting her lip as she searched my eyes. “Just… let’s keep doing this, okay?”

I weighed her words carefully for a long moment and then said, “I don’t want to lose you.”

“I’m not going anywhere, sir,” Erin said. “I’m yours.”

The fingers in her hair tightened, and I slowly tugged on it. Erin’s eyes slid halfway shut as her head came up. Her pink tongue darted across her top lip as a faint whimper escaped her. I pressed my forehead to hers.

“Say it again,” I whispered, tightening my grip a fraction more.