One Night with Calvin (One Night Series Book 2) (19 page)

We stayed staring at the billboard for longer than what some would consider a humble amount of time. In fact, it was probably crossing over into self-absorbed and egotistical territory.

“Geez, that’s a bit of false advertising.”

Sara.

I spun on my heel and had to force myself to stay locked on the spot. “What is?” I croaked.

Sara smiled. “Your cock would be like two storeys high if that was to scale. Don’t get me wrong, it’s impressive, but not that impressive.”

“Didn’t need to know that,” Paige said, covering her ears.

“What are you doing here?” My heart was hammering in my chest so hard, I was sure she could hear it.

Sara waved a hand in Paige and Cole’s direction. “They told me where I could find you. Can we go home and talk?”

If she was going to end us, I didn’t want to go. But having her standing in front of me, looking as hot as ever—if a bit tired—I knew there was no way I could ever say no to her.

20

- SARA -

I’d had no sleep, I was dead tired, I’d just gotten off a six-hour flight off the back of a ten hour one, and there was nothing more I wanted than to get my jetlagged ass back home. But that wasn’t going to happen until I saw Ryan and gotten everything out in the open.

I’d spent the last twelve days with Lana after cowardly running away. I was meant to be back at uni last week, but I couldn’t bring myself to come home until I was sure I could handle dealing with Ryan.

Lana did a decent job of distracting me from the shit with him. Or so I thought. She’d shown me all around London, we did the touristy thing and visited Big Ben, the London Eye, Buckingham Palace, blah, blah, blah. We even took an overnight trip to Paris. But coming back home, I barely remembered any of it. I saw the sights, I ate the food, I plastered on a fake smile whenever Lana told me to stop being a moody sod in her fake English accent, but not even three hours after landing, all I could recall of the trip was how much I hated myself for not being able to trust Ryan. I wanted to, more than anything.

Mum picked me up from the airport and dropped me off to see Ryan, so we drove back to my place in his car.

“How was London?” he asked.

“Paige told you? That traitor.”

He smiled but it didn’t reach his eyes. “She didn’t break the friend code, but she did tell Cole. And bro code beats ho code … please don’t tell Paige I just called her a ho.”

“I won’t.” I smiled. “Unless you really piss me off.” I could tell he wanted to say something, but I kept talking before he had a chance to respond. “And London was good. A little depressing. Do you know how much it rains there?”

“I’ve heard,” he mumbled.

It was lucky the drive was a short one because we ran out of things to say after that. I spent the rest of the car ride picking imaginary lint off my leggings.

I walked into the apartment and my bed called to me, but the warm body that pressed into my back prevented me from taking even the smallest step forwards.

“I missed you,” he murmured into my hair.

A smile broke out on my face without my permission. “I missed you too.”

“Did you?” He pulled back.

I let out a sigh. “Go sit on the couch. I’ll make coffee.”

After I poured each of us a cup, I went and sat on the single armchair and slid his drink over to him on the coffee table.

“Not sitting together. That’s not a good sign.” He refused to look at me.

“I want to make sure I get everything I want to say out, and sitting on the couch with you will probably prevent that from happening.”

He somewhat relaxed and nodded. Raising his cup to his mouth, he took a sip of his coffee with an adorable half-smile. I inwardly groaned. He wasn’t going to make this easy on me.

“So,” I started, “I guess I should apologise for running off the way I did. There were a couple of reasons for doing it.”

“And they were?”

“When I’d found out you lied about Georgie—”

“I didn’t lie. I’ve never lied to you.”

“Okay, but from my perspective, you have to see where I jumped to that conclusion, right?”

“Yes, but you should’ve come to me and asked me what was going on.”

“Okay, what if Danny was here right now and he told you that we slept together while you were in Sydney?”

His eyes snapped to mine, searching for any truth. “Did you?”

“No. But your reaction just now? You look pissed.”

“I understand
why
you jumped to the wrong conclusion, and I understand you were reluctant to believe anything I said after that fact. But you didn’t even give me a chance to explain. You didn’t come to me. You ran away.”

“Like you did four years ago when you thought I stood you up? Only, you never came back for me unlike I’m doing right now.”

“What?”

“I want to be with you, Ryan. But in order to do that, I had to sort some shit out in my head. I was basically ready to hear you out when you turned up after the photoshoot, but Paige and Cole said I was too emotional to really handle it. I agreed because I was so exhausted from it all. And maybe a little bit drunk.”

He smiled.

“Once I had one doubt in my head, I couldn’t stop it.”

“Why couldn’t you have told me that? I’ve been sitting at home wondering if we even had a future. I would’ve given you the space you needed, but leaving without a word? I’ve been going out of my mind thinking I’d lost you.”

“I wasn’t entirely sure I could sort out the crap running through my head. When Cole told me the story of what truly happened, I realised we were never going to work out if I didn’t trust you. It wasn’t only the Georgie thing but the other models too. Overhearing those girls in the bathroom made all kinds of insecurities flood in. I wasn’t pretty enough to be with you, I wasn’t tall enough. They were all stupid insecurities that, ordinarily, I never would’ve let get to me, but then seeing them practically naked and all over you, and Georgie admitting she had sex with you—whether it happened or not—I freaked out. And when I found out the truth, I realised if I didn’t deal with my own shit, there was no way I was ever going trust you or believe you. Because my first reaction to hearing all that was to not have your back.”

“So, did you get it sorted?” He wrung his hands together, and I could tell he was nervous.

“I
want
to trust you and believe you. I want to be with you and give us a real shot. But … you have to be patient with me when it comes to that stuff. As it turns out, I’m pretty screwed up.”

“That probably has something to do with the fact the guy who took your virginity was an asshole.”

I laughed. “Maybe. I think we broke each other that night.”

“As long as you’re mine, I don’t care if I’m broken.”

“You will if I become one of those crazy women who tracks the GPS on your phone and hacks in to check your messages and email every day.”

“I have nothing to hide, so I wouldn’t care if you did that.”

“I don’t want to be that girl, though.”

“So, you believe me when I say nothing happened between me and Georgie?”

I nodded. “Especially after she contacted me on Facebook and apologised profusely for the mistake. She explained everything.”

“I wish you could’ve believed it because
I
said it was true, but I knew going into this relationship that we had trust issues because of the stupid things I did four years ago. You’re going to have to learn that my past is my past, and I can’t change it, no matter how much I wish I could. I’ve already left it behind me. You’ll have to trust me unconditionally one day for us to work, but until that day, I don’t mind having to prove myself to earn it.”

He took his wallet out of his back pocket and handed me a flash drive that was tucked inside.

“What is this?” I asked.

“Georgie felt really bad about what happened. It turns out she has a friend on the police force. She got him to say they were investigating a possible rape and pulled security footage from the hotel the night I dropped Georgie off at her room.”

“Isn’t that illegal?”

He held up his finger and thumb and pinched them together. “Little bit. The cop apparently told Georgie he couldn’t get the footage if they asked for a warrant, but the hotel handed it over without any questions.”

“Why didn’t Georgie send me this herself?”

He didn’t look me in the eye when he answered. “Because I’ll admit, some of it doesn’t look good. She said it was up to me whether or not I showed you. But I don’t want to hide anything from you. It’s the only way you’re ever going to trust me fully.”

I looked down at the flash drive in my hand and then over at my laptop on my dining table.

“Go. You know you want to,” he said. He remained seated.

“You’re not going to watch it?”

“I’ve seen it.”

When I put it in the USB drive in my laptop, it booted up immediately. The play button was right in front of me. All I had to do was push it.

With a deep breath, I pressed play and then held the air in my lungs for as long as possible.

On screen, a very drunk Georgie had her arms around Ryan as they stumbled down the hallway. She fumbled with her key card for the door, and when she finally got it open, she turned to Ryan and practically beckoned him in. He stood motionless for a second but then shook his head slightly and followed her in.

My stomach dropped. “I don’t know if I really want to watch this after all.”

“Just watch it to the end, babe. Please.”

It was only thirty seconds according to the timestamp, but it felt like ten minutes until Ryan came back out of that hotel room.

He never lied. I mean, I believed he never lied, but having definitive proof only cemented it. I could trust this man. I just had to learn how to let myself.

“Thirty seconds?” I asked.

“Thirty-three point oh-eight seconds. Even our sloppy first time on the beach lasted longer than that.”

He wasn’t looking at me and remained facing forwards on the couch.

“Were you going to sleep with her but then she passed out? Is that why you’re sitting guiltily over there?”

He turned to face me but remained on the couch. “No. And that’s why Georgie thought I might not want to show you the footage. Because it looked like I might’ve. But I promise you, the only reason I hesitated at the door was you. Even though we weren’t together yet, I didn’t want to ruin any chance I had. I knew you wouldn’t have liked me being in that situation in the first place, and I was scolding myself for not putting Georgie in a cab earlier or leaving the party before it got to that point. I had no intention of staying with her. I just wanted to make sure she got to bed safely. Which now, totally sounds like a shitty excuse guys use when they ‘accidentally’ cheat on someone, but it’s true.”

“I believe you.”

“You do?”

I nodded.

“Okay … so I only have one more question then. Why the fuck am I on this couch alone right now?”

I smiled and rushed to tackle him.

My kisses were all tongue and filled with unrestrained passion. I’d been gone for twelve days, yet my body felt as if it’d been without his touch for an eternity.

He started grinding beneath me.

I groaned. “I really want this reunion fuck, but—”

“Now who’s the charming one?” he asked sarcastically.

I ignored him and kept talking as if he didn’t interrupt me. “I’m going to need a shower. I still have plane on me.”

“Wait, when did you get back?”

“Like three … four hours ago.”

“And the first thing you did was find me?”

“I’ve had long enough without you.”

He peppered me with kisses in between his words. “Then maybe”—
kiss
—“you shouldn’t have ran away.”
Kiss
. “You know you can’t do that every time we fight, right?”
Kiss.
“Because I’m not sure your bank account could handle regular trips to England.”
Kiss.

“How often do you plan on fucking up?”

His smile was blinding. “I’m claiming this fuckup was on you. But at least now we’re even. Let’s go take that shower.”

“Together?”

“Save water, shower together, remember? Also, we haven’t had wet sex in ages and it’s tradition.” He climbed off the couch and started for the bathroom when he turned and cocked his head to the side. “When do you get your law degree again?”

“End of the year. Why?”

“I’ve been talking with my soon-to-be new partner at the modelling agency—”

“Partner?”

“See what happens when you run away? You miss all my big news. I’m hanging up my underwear for good.”

I laughed.

“I’m buying out my boss and becoming management material.”

I was happy for him, sure, but also a little paranoid.

“What’s wrong? I thought you’d be happy about this? No more reasons for models to be hanging off me.”

“I am. But … did you do this for me? Because I wasn’t lying when I said I don’t want to get in between you and your job. I just have to learn to deal with it in my own way.”

He pulled me close and cupped the back of my head. “This has been in the works for years. The plan was to buy her out completely, but I can only afford fifty percent right now. In the future, who knows. In the meantime, we have an entry-level position in our legal department—drawing up contracts and stuff. You got plans when you graduate?”

My heart leaped into my throat. “How do you know I don’t want to be a litigation lawyer?”

He shrugged. “You can be whatever you want to be, but the idea of having you by my side every day is too hard to resist.”

“What if we fight? I don’t know how we’d go living together and working together.”

“Living together?” His eyebrows shot up.

I waved my hand dismissively. “Whatevs. You know it’s inevitable.”