Ignoring her, I turned to Mona. First things first.
I stepped back, pulled out my phone, unlocked it, and offered it to her. “Mona, will you please do me the honor of entering your cell number into my phone? And your email address.”
“Absolutely.” My beauty wore a small, genuine smile, but I also noticed she seemed tired, pale.
Before I could study her in greater detail, she took my cell, lowering her face and navigating to messages. She sent herself a text that contained her email address, handed the phone back to me, then her cell chimed from somewhere in the apartment. I took a moment to read her email address and number, repeating it to myself.
“It’s so great to see you.” Mona seemed to hesitate before hooking her fingers into the beltloops of my jeans.
I looked up from my screen. Her grin had grown, her gaze warm and hazy and happy, but now I could see her eyes were puffy, like she’d been crying recently. This discovery settled like a punch to my stomach, added a restless frustration to my sense of urgency, and I felt my eyebrows pull together.
This. Right here. This was the reason I’d been frantic to get here, to see her. We had time now, we had all the time in the world now, but I knew—I fucking knew!—the clock had been ticking on her faith in me. I’d told her it wasn’t goodbye, I’d asked her to trust me. But without contact for days, she must’ve been thinking the worst.
Fucking Leo.
“Hey.” I returned the phone to my back pocket, repeating her number to myself one more time, and cupped her cheek. “Are you okay? I honestly came as soon as I could. I promise, if I’d had your phone number, you’d be sick of hearing from me by now.”
Mona pressed her cheek against my palm, her eyes drifting shut as her smile grew soft, dreamy. “Yes. I’m better than okay.” She sighed. “Now that you’re here, I’m awesome.”
This was exactly the reassurance I’d needed. Relief didn’t crash over me. It gradually settled, like a soft, warm blanket thawing the freezing panic in my bones. The terrible truth was, I hadn’t trusted Mona to trust me. Technically, we’d known each other for over two years, but in reality, it had only been twelve days.
If I’d been her? I would’ve been irate.
Tilting her chin up, I kissed her again, softly this time, just a quick taste even though a sharp, throbbing pulse beneath my skin demanded I do more, take more, touch more.
We have the rest of our lives. Take your time.
“I missed you.” Unwilling to cede any distance, I spoke against her lips. “I’m not here for very long, so we need to make plans to—”
“Hey!” Mona stiffened at Lisa’s shrill interruption, her eyes flying open. My mouth landed on her jaw instead of her mouth as she gave the third person in the room her attention.
“Abram,” Mona’s twin demanded, “what did you promise Tyler?”
Unwilling to give Lisa my eyes—not while this woman I’d been craving was finally right here—I brushed my lips against Mona’s temple and nuzzled the soft texture of her hair, answering Lisa distractedly, “He said he knew where you lived and would take me here, so I said I’d play Pirate Orgy’s new single as part of our set during a few tour stops.”
I didn’t know why I was explaining myself. This was a waste of time. I was here, Mona was here, I’d been thinking about nothing else but hoping she’d still want to see me. And if she did, I’d been obsessing about what I would do to and with her body and brain.
Discussing stuff that didn’t matter with Lisa—because it was already settled and done—was pointless.