Page 123 of Love Undiscovered
Chapter 34
Chance
Remi pulls her jeans from the saddlebag and puts them on surfer style under her skirt. Then pulls the skirt off over them and folds it into the bag. I hand Remi her leather jacket and she puts that on along with her helmet. I’m proud of her for how well she’s adapted to the bike. Especially for someone who’d never ridden before.
I help her on behind me and we take off. Her hands snake up under the waistband of my coat to rest on my stomach. My abs contract automatically, they like it when she touches them.
“It’s a good thing you aren’t ticklish in the front, huh?” she says into my ear. I chuckle then nod in response.
We make it back to her house in a short amount of time. I park in the garage, but instead of following her in the house, head down the driveway to take a look up and down the street. It’s habit, looking for anything out of place.
“How long has that blue car been parked out there?” I ask, almost positive it doesn’t belong to a neighbor. I feel like I’ve seen it before, but not because it belongs here. Because itdoesn’tbelong here. It’s parked in too awkward a spot, and none of the residents on this block even park their car on the street. I shut the door and lock it behind me.
She shrugs in response to my question.
I move to the front window and look out, the car is pulling away, the driver obscured by a ball cap and sunglasses. I decide to leave it be for now and continue checking periodically over the next few days. Maybe send a cruiser or two by Remi’s house. Something about the car bugs me, I just can’t pinpoint it.
What I really want to do is fuck Remi so hard she can’t walk. But, instead I grab us both a bottle of water, sit on the couch beside her, and pull her feet up onto my lap so I can rub them. My ulterior motive being I want to see how she feels about meeting my family.
Plus, I can’t fuck her again until I tell her about the bet. She leaves in a couple days for a multi-day conference, and I need to know we are all good before then.
She groans as I push my thumb into her instep. I love the sounds she makes. I never thought of myself as a foot guy until I met Remi. She has the most beautiful feet and toes. They are always soft and clean, showcased in some kind of beautiful shoe.
“So, what did you think?” I ask, not able to wait any longer. I don’t know when it became important to me that Remi like my family and vice versa, but it did. And now it’s all I can think about: how best to incorporate her into my life and make sure all parties involved are good with it.
“Your family is amazing,” she says. “I’m going to be honest with you, I didn’t think families like yours existed outside of tv shows and movies.”
“How do you mean?” I switch to applying pressure to the balls of her feet, she squirms in response.
“My God, I could come just from this,” she says sinking farther into the couch and closing her eyes. I stop and pull on her pinkie toe. She opens one eye and looks at me quizzically.
“You didn’t answer my question,” I say.
“What was the question?”
“How do you mean, you didn’t think families like mine exist?”
“Oh, well, just that you all genuinely like each other. You hug and touch, you enjoy one another’s company. There’s love and respect there and it’s obvious from how you interact.”
I raise her foot and kiss the top of it lightly, trying to show her how her words make me feel without having to interrupt her. I sense she’s going to say more on the subject.
She continues, “My family and I are not close. At all. My parents had me late in life. An accident. I wasn’t planned or really wanted.”
I run my hand up her calf and squeeze lightly.
“They weren’t neglectful, I mean not in a literal way, I always had everything I could ever need,” she sighs, then keeps talking. “Money, shelter, schooling. Just no communication or interaction. No holiday get-togethers, no birthday parties, no family dinners. They sent me to boarding school in first grade and left to travel. My next youngest sibling had just entered college and that’s what they’d been waiting for.”
I want to pull her in my arms and tell her that she has me now. But the closed off look on her face and the tension that’s suddenly filled her body tells me that’s a bad idea.
“My brother and sister take their cue from my parents and have never really tried to contact me. It used to bother me, a lot. But now I’ve accepted it for what it is. And I don’t really think about it until I see families like yours, who are so different it’s jarring, you know?” She looks up at me. I reach over and caress her cheek. She closes her eyes at my touch and leans into my hand. We stay that way until she pulls away.
“I’m lucky to have a family like mine,” I say, leaning back and switching to her other foot.
“You are,” she says. “Oh God, please never stop touching me.” She gives me a look that I swear is adoring. She adores me.
Because you’re the man.
Oh shit.
