Fletcher spots me coming just as he finds the front-row center table I reserved. I had no idea he’d be in town, but I have a feeling Claudio had something to do with that. He was the one who insisted I keep the reserved VIP table for myself.
“Hey,” Fletcher says, reaching for me as I walk up. He takes my hand, pulls me close, and then leans in and kisses me on the cheek. “You look pretty.”
I blush. I’m wearing a flirty peach-colored sundress that hits me just above the knee and my favorite new four-inch heels. I dressed for him, so that’s a huge relief. “Thank you. I’m sorry—”
“Don’t.” He places a fingertip over my lips. “You don’t need to be sorry for anything.”
“I know, but I just need you to know that it wasn’t fair for me to throw this show in your face. Not when I’m basically doing the same thing. I was wrong to judge you.”
He gives me a crooked smile that reaches all the way up to his eyes. “The apologies are over, and you were right about everything, Tiffy. I’m here because I want you. Not the new you, not the old you. Just you. Any way you want to be, I’m in, princess.”
I take a deep breath and look him in the eyes. “I’m in too, Fletch. I have never felt this way about anyone in my life. You are always there. Always on my mind. And even though I know I can do it without any help from anyone now, I don’t want to.” I swallow hard. “I really don’t. I want you there with me. Next to me, every night, for as long as you’ll stay.”
“I love ya, Tiff,” he says, pulling me to his chest and kissing my head. “I love ya. I want to be in your life and I’m not going anywhere unless you kick me out.”
I check my watch, and then have an idea. “We have twenty minutes before the show starts. Can I show you something?”
“Show away, princess. I’m your captive audience tonight.”
I pull him along by the hand, since he’s still holding mine, and go out the door into the lobby. “It’s upstairs.”
He waggles his eyebrows at me. “Sure it is.”
We get into the elevator and I lean back against the mirrored wall, fanning myself with my free hand. “I’m nervous.”
He just smiles. We get off on my old penthouse floor and he chuckles as I lead him down the hallway. “I like where this is going.” I bite my lip as I look over my shoulder at him. “Hey,” he says. “No using my tips and tricks against me tonight.”
But then he does that little tongue thing where he touches it to the tip of his front teeth, and I laugh. “I like your tips, so feel free to use them on me all you want.”
He shakes his head as he smiles. I walk past my old penthouse door and keep going, straight to the one at the end of the hallway.
“The roof?” he asks, his eyebrows up.
“Just wait, Fletcher.” We go through the door and walk up the flight of stairs that leads outside.
I stop and look at him for a second, my hand on the knob, ready to show him what I’ve done. Somehow the fight is over. It’s like we needed to say all that stuff back on the beach in order to move forward and now that it’s out in the open, everything feels… right.
I open the door and step aside, letting him get a good look at what’s beyond.
“Holy shit, princess. You turned my rooftop into the royal gardens.”
“Do you like it?” I ask, looking at my recently completed project with his eyes for a moment. The raised beds are filled with flowers and shrubs. The ground has been paved with stones, and little bits of grass and moss peek through the edges, like it’s been growing this way for a hundred years. White lights are strung around the perimeter, and the glow is just enough to give it a special ambiance that mixes with the fading sunset.
“I love it,” he says, taking it in as his gaze wanders from garden bed to garden bed.
“I just had the trees planted last week. In fact, I just moved up here from my old room a few days ago. And look what I did to the garden shed, Fletch.”
I realize when I say his name that we are true friends now. These last few minutes are new and old in all the right ways. He feels like a part of me. He feels like he’s been with me this whole time. He feels… real.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
The wonder and happiness in her face settles my nerves and calms me down. I have never been so filled with apprehension going to meet a girl as I was tonight. Everything raced through my mind as I pulled up to the valet. All the possibilities left hanging between us. All the ways I could fuck it up. Just how easy it would be to lose this girl and how I’d feel if that happened.
It wasn’t going to happen, I decided. I wouldn’t let it.
So when she came up to me downstairs and let me take her hand, it felt right. Like every decision that led to this moment was right.
She pulls me along towards what used to be the shed. But now it’s bigger. The dingy old cinderblock bricks have been painted white. The windows have shutters and flower boxes spilling over with color.
She opens the door to the new and improved garden shed and steps back to let me walk in first. It’s not big. Just a room, really. With a small kitchen where the old potting bench used to be and a king-size bed where I laid her down on the floor and ate her pussy until she came.
I shoot her a sidelong look. “How many men have you fucked in this bed?”
She laughs, getting my joke. “None, you sicko. I make them stand.”
I walk forward, hungry for her, and take her face in my hands so I can kiss her on the lips and whisper in her mouth. “You get me?”
“I get you, Fletcher,” she whispers back. “I do. Everything about you is sexy. But not the way you think. You’re sexy on the inside. Your heart is big, and your brain is smart.”
“I’m sorry, Tiffy,” I say, pulling back a little. “I was guilty of everything I accused you of.”
“We always wanted the same things, Fletcher. We were just trying to get them the wrong way.”
It makes sense, I realize. She thought she needed Cole to provide for her because her mother taught her to want that. And I wanted to take care of Sam and Shelly to prove I was a better man than my brother. “It’s strange how that happens.”
“We’re gonna miss the show,” Tiffy says, still kissing me.
“This is the show, sexy. The only one that matters.” I pull back and start unbuttoning my shirt.
Her eyes are trained on these small movements immediately. Her fingertips flutter down to the hem of her dress and begin to lift it up. She shows me a bit of leg as I continue to ease the buttons of my shirt free. When I get to the last one and shrug it off, she turns around and swipes her long dark hair off the nape of her neck.
I reach for the zipper and slide it down as she peeks at me over her shoulder. “Keep going,” I whisper. “Please don’t stop now.”
Tiffy grins as she looks down at my pants, and then my fingertips are on my belt buckle. It jingles as I free the leather strap, and I unbutton my jeans.
She sucks in a little air through her teeth and turns back to face me, allowing one strap of her pretty dress to fall over her shoulder. She chews on her lip a little and I’m about to lose my mind as her tease overtakes me.
I drag my own zipper down and fist my cock for a moment. Her breasts rise and fall underneath the thin fabric as her breathing hitches. She slips one arm out of her dress, then the other, so that it falls to the curve of her hip. Just the way it did last summer when she was driving me mad with desire.
My dick is already hard. Almost throbbing from the anticipation of seeing her body again.
But she’s slow and deliberate as she wiggles just enough to make the dress fall to the floor with a whoosh of air that wafts up, bringing the scent of her desire with it.
I drag my cock from the confines of my boxer briefs just as she lowers herself to the floor on her knees.