Under the Surface (19 page)

Ren grabs
onto my hand and tugs gently, getting my attention. “I know what you’
re doing. You
’re
doing your favorite thing in the whole world, overthinking. Stop it. Say
exactly what is on your mind right now. Please. I think if you say it you’ll
stop thinking it.”

I don
’t know if I can.

“Say it,
Emmy. Say what’s on your mind, and I’ll tell you everything that’s on mine. And
believe me,”
he says while smiling. “I’ve got a lot to say too.”

I want to
tell him, but I can’t find the words.

“What’s
wrong?”
He asks me quietly. “Tell me what’s going through this head of
yours.”

I shake my
head back and forth. “Nothing’s wrong. It’
s just
…I’m worried
that because we just had sex things are going to change between us.”

I look at
him, trying to gage his reaction.
What are you going to say?

His look
surprises me, his brows are pulled together and I can tell that he’s choosing
his next words wisely.

“Of course
things are going to change…this changes
everything
.”

And that’s
exactly what I was afraid of.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Ren

Emmy and I just had sex.
Emmy
and
me. Me and
Emmy
. Holy Fuck.

But now
something’s wrong. I can tell it just by looking at her, and she wanted to be
completely silent after we finished having sex. And I’m not having that. Nope, not
at all.

“You regret
this,”
I say.

“No!”
She’s quick to respond. “That’s not it. I thought well…Do you? Do
you
regret this?”

What?
I’m the last person who would regret this. I had a million things
going through my mind when she stole my truck earlier tonight. When I finally
got into the car I just decided to go for it with Emmy, and she was all for it.
I even asked her several times if she was okay with it, and she was. Thank fuck
she didn’t regret this. That was an immediate worry of mine, but she has no
idea how much I
don’t
regret this.

“I
absolutely, without a doubt in my mind, do
not
regret this. And I’m glad
you don’t either. Truthfully,”
I say while scratching the
back of my neck. “I didn’t think when I kissed you it would lead to sex. That
was uh…
nice
surprise.
”
Okay, maybe that wasn’t
that best way to end that statement.

Emmy starts
laughing, like full on head-thrown-back laughing. And I find myself joining
her. The tension lifts from the car.

“
Nice surprise,
”
she says, copying my words. Emmy does so while wiping a tear that
slipped out of her eye while she was laughing. “I would say the same damn
thing.”

“You want to
get out of here now? I’m kind of creeped out being parked on the side of the
road in front of an old motel.”

“Yeah, let’s
get out of here.”
She says.

Emmy grabs
both her sweatshirt and my shirt off the floor of my car, putting each on.

“Hey, what am
I supposed to wear back?”

“You are
going to drive us home dressed exactly how you are. I’m not done looking at you
yet. So deal with it,”
she says, sounding unapologetic.

I can only
laugh. I start up my car and head in the direction of her apartment.

“How long
have you been going there? The hotel?”

“Since I
moved to my new apartment.”

“You really
like swimming that much? It has to be freezing in that water?”

“Well, I do
like swimming, but it also helps me relax. I used to have a bath at my old
apartment, and soaking in the tub would help calm me down. But since I only have
a shower now, I had to think of a new option.”

“You probably
won’t be able to come here much longer. The weather starts to get colder in the
months ahead.”

“I know. I’ve
already starting thinking of other options.”

“I have a
bathtub.”
And you are more than welcome to soak in it whenever you want.

“I’m
definitely going to take you up on that.”

The drive I
know is short, but it feels like it’s taking me forever to get to her apartment
in the silence of the car. I’ve found that Emmy is comfortable in quiet
situations. Completely at ease just sitting and thinking, but that’s something
that’s worrying me. I need to think of how I’m going to approach telling her
how I feel. I think I’ll just be straight up and say it the second I park.

That will
probably work best. Hopefully.

Once I pull
into the parking lot and turn off my car, Emmy almost immediately jumps out,
completely ruining my plan. I hurry behind and follow her to her apartment.

She goes to
unlock the door.

“Hey,”
I say, putting my hand over hers on the door to stop her. “
We still haven
’t
really talked about what happened, just established that neither of us regret
having sex with each other. Which is a good start. I think.”

She looks up
to me, her brown eyes looking directly into mine.

“I have to
say something first,”
she tells me.

I nod.

“I had no
idea you felt anything for me. Whether this is just attraction or what, I never
knew. Tonight was probably the biggest surprise of my life. It …
I …
just go on and say what’s on your mind.
I’m going to shut up now.”

Good
surprise? Well, here goes nothing.
“Trust me
when I say this, Emmy, it’s more than just attraction. Yes, I am attracted to
you,
very
much so, you’re gorgeous, every guy would agree with me. But I
do care about you, and I do have feelings for you. Tonight just went in a
completely different direction then I thought it would. I never thought that
when I kissed you it would lead to what happened, and I thought tonight would
end with either me going home after I left your apartment or us having another
pissed off conversation. I know that the two of us having sex will change
things—we’re too close of friends for it not to—but I like you. I want to be
with you, Emmy. I just …,”
fuck
, “I just hope to God that you feel the same way.”

There. I finally
got it all out there. Now I’m scared to death of her response. I’ve never
wanted someone the way I do Emmy. She means more to me than any other woman
I’ve been close with. She’s funny, calls me out on my shit, and makes me happy.

The look on
her face is hard to read, so I have no idea what she is going to say.

A small smile
graces her mouth. A good smile hopefully.
Hurry up and say something woman!

“I want to be
with you too, Ren. I have for a while now, but I thought I was alone in my
feelings. I want to try this, but I don’t want us trying out a relationship to
ruin what we have. Can you promise me it won’t? And can we kind of take things
slow? Like continue with where we’re at, and maybe work our way up to all the
couple stuff? To everything else?”

I’ll fucking
take it.

Although I
don’t know if I understand what she means by all the “
couple
stuff
,
” I’m one hundred percent down with agreeing. We can work up to
“stuff” later, although I do hope this means that we’re not going to stop
having sex, because sex with Emmy is pretty fucking amazing.

“That sounds
perfect to me,”
I respond.

We both
continue to stand here, grinning at each other like idiots. She finally pulls
out her keys to unlock her apartment door.

“So…I’ll see
you tomorrow?”
She asks.

“You can bet
on it,”
I say. She smiles at me, and I take a step in her direction. She’s
standing in the doorway of her apartment, but hasn’t fully stepped inside yet.
I take my hand and cup the side of her face. I gently rub my thumb across her
bottom lip.
So plump and so sexy. And now so mine.
I lean forward and
kiss her. I don’t linger, I just barely graze my lips against hers.

“Tomorrow,”
I say against her mouth.

I walk away
leaving her standing there speechless.

As I head
down the stairs and towards my car I look up and see her still staring at me,
“And lock your doors!”
I shout.

She flips me
off in response. Still sassy as ever. I know she’ll lock up, but I still like
saying it. I see her shake her head back and forth and her shoulders are moving
up and down so I can tell that she’s laughing. She closes the door and I step
into my car.

* *

Mason is up when I get home. Which isn’t a
surprise since the kid is a complete night owl. I’m still shirtless, thanks to
Emmy, and I’m carrying her shoes and leggings in with me. Both of which we
forgot were in the back of my truck.

Mason is
holding a box of cereal, shuffling handfuls into his mouth and topping it off
with milk right out of the carton.

He smiles so
big when I walk into the kitchen that food actually falls out of his mouth. He
quickly chews it up so he can talk.

“No shirt,”
he says, and reaches his arm out to grab the clothes in my hands.
“And you’re holding a woman’
s pants. Emmy
’s I assume. So from what I
see here, there is a pantless, or maybe even
pantiless
Emmy walking
funny around her apartment right now. And you my friend have the look of a man
who just got laid.”

I say
nothing, not wanting to give away any of the details, but I know he can tell
the answer from my face. I join him in his stupid, big grin and head to my
room.

I can hear
Mason clapping his hands slowly in the kitchen before I shut my door.

Chapter Twenty-Three

Emilie

Noel is practically squealing in delight.
I look around the isles of a popup Halloween store and make sure no one is staring.

“So are you
guys, like, boyfriend and girlfriend now?”
She asks.

“I’m not
sure. Honestly, Ren and I haven’t really talked about labels yet, we just sort
of decided that we both wanted to be together. So I guess we’ll figure out all
the details as we go along.”

Ren came over
the morning after we decided to give a relationship a go. Nothing was awkward,
thank god, and the only difference between us really is that we kiss. A lot.
And he’s much more open about his attraction to me, and I’m the same with him.
We haven’t had sex again, this was my choice, but we did have a great day
together. I assisted him on a photo shoot and was dubbed “the best assistant
ever.”
And when I asked him if he’s ever had an assistant before, he
plead the fifth.

Noel is still
beaming. “This makes me so happy, Emilie! I knew the two of you had something.
Like seriously, I called this from the beginning. I also knew it from the way
he looked at you.”

I want to roll
my eyes at her, but I don’t. She did sense something between Ren and
I
, but we were both too blind to notice it.

Noel holds up
a flapper girl costume. “How about this?”

I shade my head.
“No, I want to
go as something sexy, and are we still planning on matching?”

“Duh! I was
worried you would ditch me for a couples costume with Ren. And if we’re going
sexy we have to do a classic slutty girl costume.”

“What are the
classic slutty girl costumes?”
I ask.

“You know
like slutty sailor, sexy cop, and naughty nurse. Things like that.”

“
Hmm
, I don
’t know which
one to pick.”

“Why don’t we
just try a few on and then decide.”

I agree and
we head to the fitting rooms. There are four in the back of the store. Each
constructed from large planks of wood and a curtain hung from a rod as the
door.

I try on the
cop costume first. I brought multiple sizes in each, and they all look a bit
ridiculous on me. The shorts don’t fit in proportion to the tops and there is
too much, whatever-Halloween-costumes-are-made-of material. Next, I try the
sailor. I think the outfit is cute but not sexy.

“Noel,”
I say through the “wall”
that is the wooden plank.
“It’s a no for me on both the cop and the sailor.”

“Yeah, I
hated the sailor too. I thought the cop was okay though, but I really want to
match, so hopefully the nurse works.”

The nurse
costume is the last one for us to try on. I pull the flimsy white garment out
of its clear package. At first sight it’s so tiny, I’m not sure it will
actually fit me. I strip off the sailor costume and pull on the nurse. It’s a
skin tight, white dress that reaches just below my ass. There’s a collar and
plunging V-neck, perfect for showing off some cleavage. Red buttons line the
left side. The costume comes with a fake stethoscope, gloves, and nurse’s cap.

The overall
look I do have to declare is sexy.

“Okay, Noel,
I need to show you this one.”

“Eek! Me
too!”

I step out of
the room just as Noel does. She looks incredible. The outfit hugs her lithe
little body like a glove, and she’s even paired it with knee-high red, pleather
platform boots.

“We have to
wear these costumes, Emilie. Holy fuck they are perfect.” Noel says while
strutting around the changing area.

I completely
agree. I can’t wait to show this off to Ren at the Halloween party. I’ll just
have to keep it a secret from him until then. And maybe I’ll add a little
surprise underneath.