Blame It on the Bikini - By Natalie Anderson Page 0,61

never have them.’

‘You don’t want to commit. I know that.’ She’d never try to fence him in. She’d have him for as long as he was hers to have. No way she could walk away from him now.

He laughed. ‘I don’t have the choice, darling,’ he teased. ‘I’m not interested in anyone else. I don’t want to be. I want this to work with you. You inspire me to be more.’

‘I’m not some perfect creature.’ She shook her head.

‘No one is. But you kill yourself trying to be perfect and you don’t have to. You don’t have to get the top grade. You don’t have to be the best bartender in town. You don’t have to excel at everything. You can fail at everything and I’ll love you anyway. Do you understand that? I’ll love you no matter what.’

Her eyes filled as she felt the intensity of his words, the full emotion behind them. And finally she did understand that.

‘You’re wonderful and human, and you make mistakes like I do, but you pick yourself up and you fight on,’ he said. ‘You face your failures and you get it together.’

‘I don’t fight on,’ she cried. ‘I gave up on you, on us, before we’d hardly started. I was so scared. I didn’t want to change my priorities only to find out what we had wasn’t anything more than a bit of fun.’

‘It’s a whole lot of fun.’ He smiled. ‘And you don’t have to change your priorities. We can have so much more fun together if you’ll take a chance on me.’

He stood before her, his expression open, no protective façade in place, just pure honesty and an offer she could never, ever refuse.

Now she saw behind his mask to the genuine, loving man he was. While he could act all cocky, come up with the most outrageous statements as if he fully believed he was God’s gift to the female of the species, beneath that bravado was a guy as insecure as any other normal person. Despite that silver spoon, that money, all that success … there was still someone who doubted that another person could love him for just being him. But that was the part of him she loved the most.

‘I need nothing but you,’ she answered simply.

And he needed someone who didn’t give a damn about anything he had, or his image. A person who cared only about him. The essence of him. The good-humoured, gorgeous, arrogant guy.

Happily that someone was her.

She wrapped her arms around him and lifted her face for another kiss. Offering her heart. It was a long time before he drew back and sighed. She felt the elation in every inch of him, but also the tension.

‘You need to go back and finish your shift,’ he groaned. ‘New Year’s Eve is the biggest night of the year.’

‘It is.’ She nodded. ‘Will you wait for me?’

‘Always.’

‘We’ll go on a two-hour rotation,’ he said firmly the next morning after they’d had breakfast. ‘Two hours’ solid study, two hours’ solid sex.’

‘That’s finding balance?’ she asked incredulously.

‘I think so.’ He nodded in all seriousness. ‘Round the clock.’

She giggled. ‘Yeah, that’s really achieving balance.’

‘No point in trying to fight our natures, now, is there? Might as well roll with it.’ He winked. ‘Right now I’m on case names and caffeine duty. And then massage services.’

‘Massage services?’

‘Inside and out.’ He lifted his brows lasciviously.

Deep inside her, muscles shifted, ready.

He laughed, reading her thoughts. ‘Later, babe. You’ve got facts to memorise.’

How was she supposed to concentrate when she knew what was coming? She was insanely excited already. ‘I think you should feel me up first.’

‘No. Work now, reward later.’ He put himself on the far side of the desk and refused to look at her.

She sighed and sat up in her seat, pulling her pages of notes closer. ‘Better be a good reward,’ she grumbled beneath her breath.

‘Mya, darling,’ he drawled from his desk. ‘You know it’s going to be out of this world.’

And it was.

TWO YEARS LATER

YOU know you want this.

Mya smothered a giggle at the photo she’d just been sent on her phone. Brad, buck naked and bold with a party hat magically positioned in a very strategic place. She quickly closed the message and acted as if she were paying complete attention to the orientation speech for new recruits at the multinational law firm she’d signed with. But her phone vibrated again.

Tonight. Our place. Come as soon as you can.

As soon as the spiels and slideshows