Final Call (The Call #2) (19 page)

I really did warn him.
After one long hour of wandering back and forth through the shop
and trying on a few items I wasn’t so sure of, he handed over his
card and a few hundred pounds. Despite my cringe at the time, I’ve
accepted that it wasn’t my fault.

He made me do it with
talk of pulling me out of and fucking me in it all.

And after sitting in a
restaurant with him for two and a half hours, I’m more than ready
to see if he’ll make good on his promises. But first…

“Can I ask you
something?”

“It sounds
serious.”

“It is… Kind of. Did
you mean what you said earlier?”

“About fucking you in
that devil-sent red outfit? Absolutely.”

I climb from the car
after him and follow him into the house. “No,” I say slowly,
kicking my shoes off at the door. “The other thing.”

“I said a lot of things
to you earlier, Bambi. You’re going to have to elaborate a little
more than ‘the other thing.’” He raises his eyebrows in amusement,
and the movement tugs his lips up with it.

I sit on the edge of
the kitchen table and watch as he maneuvers his way around it. He’s
certain in everything he does, even if it’s only throwing a teabag
in a mug and pouring water over it. If I’ve noticed anything, it’s
that he never falters in his movements. There’s never a tremble of
his hand or a slip of his fingers.

That’s something
reflected in the rest of his life. He never does something unless
he wholeheartedly means it, and the same goes for his words. He
never says something he doesn’t mean.

“When you said that one
day everything you have will be mine.” I swallow, and he freezes.
“Did you mean that?”

“Does that scare you?”
he asks without looking at me.

“Will that make a
difference to your answer?”

“No. I’m just
curious.”

I put my hands in my
lap and look down, uncertainty swirling in me. Right now, we’re
polar opposites. “Yes. It does—a little.”

A mug hits the
countertop, and he appears in front of me. One of his hands creeps
up my thigh, opening my legs, and he slips between them.

“Why does it scare
you?”

I shrug one shoulder.
“It just does. It’s a big step.”

“Now tell me the real
reason.” He hooks two fingers under my chin and lifts my face until
our eyes meet. “Dayton.”

“It’s something I can’t
control,” I say softly. “I can’t control whether or not you want to
ask me, and I definitely can’t control whether or not you do. And I
wouldn’t ask you to wait until I definitively said I was ready
because I might never be ready.”

“I would wait until you
said so if that’s what freaks you out.”

I shake my head. “I
wasn’t ready to go with you to Vegas. I wasn’t ready to say yes
when you begged for another chance. I wasn’t ready to come here.
It’s when the best things happen. Sometimes you want the exact
thing you think you’re not ready for because you actually are.”

“Look at me.”

I keep my eyes
down.

“Dayton, look at me,
sweetheart.” He brushes a thumb across my cheek. “I’m not answering
your question until you do.”

Reluctantly, I meet his
gaze—his raw, emotion-filled, honest gaze that tugs at a part of me
buried deep down.

“Did I mean what I
said? Absolutely. I meant it with everything I am. One day, you
will have everything I have. One day, you’ll walk into a store,
they’ll call you Mrs. Stone, and you won’t have to correct them.
You’ll smile and nod instead.” He swallows audibly and cups my
face. “But only when you’re ready. If I have to wait ten years
until you’re ready to say yes, then I will. You’re mine anyway. I
know in my heart you belong to me. I don’t need the validation of a
piece of paper to tell me you’re mine for the rest of my life. But
it will happen, Dayton. There’s nothing I want more than to see you
walking down an aisle toward me knowing you’re giving me
everything.”

“But you’ve done it
before.” My words are a mere whisper.

He touches his lips to
my forehead and lets them linger for a long moment. “My body might
have, but my heart hasn’t. My heart has always been married to
you.”

I wrap my arms around
him and bury my face in his neck. His go around me just as tightly,
and I take a deep breath. I just need him to hold me.

This conversation
wasn’t supposed to happen for a long, long time. It’s just one more
wrench in the works of my life right now.

Except that this is the
kind of wrench that sets my heart beating frantically with both
excitement and fear.

“You still have to
convince me to move in with you first,” I mumble against his
skin.

Silence.

“Aaron.”

Silence.

“Aaron!”

I pull back and study
his smirking face. It’s the same look he had earlier when I
mentioned it. It’s the look that says he knows something I don’t,
and it sets my body on red alert.

“Aaron,” I put a
warning in my voice this time, and he laughs.

“Don’t worry. I’m not
doing anything ridiculously impulsive or drastic. Not right now.”
He covers my mouth with his before I can respond, and I lightly
punch his chest.

“What have you done?
Are you doing? Going to do? Whatever it is. What is it?”

“Nothing. I’m messing
with you. I haven’t done anything. I promise.” He drops another
kiss to my lips.

“Yet? There’s always a
yet with you. Always.”

“I’m not promising I
won’t, but I haven’t done anything at this moment in time.”

“Oh, because that makes
me feel so much better,” I scoff, rolling my eyes. “You scare me.
Do you know that?”

He pushes away from the
table and grabs his tea, watching me over the rim of the mug with
amusement. “Yes. I’m terrifying. I’m amazed you haven’t run from
the room screaming yet.”

I grab a grape from the
bunch in the fruit bowl behind me and throw it at him. “Shut up.
You scare me because I can tell you not to do something and you’ll
go and do it anyway. Why do I bother?”

“Yes, Dayton, why do
you?” His eyes twinkle.

“Because I have an
insane, evidently naïve idea that I can ask you not to do something
and you’ll actually follow my wishes. Gasp! Imagine how beautiful
that day would be.”

“It would be very
beautiful and even more unlikely.”

“So what we’re saying
is the whole conversation we just had about the rest of our lives
was a total waste of my time.”

His effort to keep a
straight face is admirable but wasted. “I’ll maybe give you six
months. A year if you catch me on a more amicable day.”

“Presumptuous, pushy
bastard.”

“Seems like she’s got
you all worked out, cuz.” Tyler strolls through the door and puts
his camera bag on the table next to me. “What’s he on about this
time?”

I sigh. “Don’t ask.
Just don’t ask.”

“Suit yourselves. By
the way, Tessa said she’ll pick you up at ten tomorrow. She needs
someone to help her decide her final hairstyle or some bullshit I
don’t care about.”

“But your mom is here
now.”

“I know.” He grins.
“Have fun.”

Chapter
Seventeen

Bridezillas make the
best brides.

After standing for so
long, watching Tessa say her vows, I know this to be true. She may
have been a nightmare for the past few days, but so far, her day
has gone off without a hitch.

It’s absolutely
perfect. From the figure-hugging white dress that flares into a
full skirt at her hips to the powder blue of her bridesmaids’
dresses and the matching bouquets of flowers everywhere. I can’t
begin to imagine the work—or the cost—that’s gone into this
day.

I’ve been to more
weddings than I care to count, but none of them hit me the way
Tessa’s has. Perhaps it was the raw honesty in her voice when she
promised to give Michael the rest of her life. Perhaps it was the
way they looked at each other, so in love, and sealed it all with a
kiss.

Or perhaps it was the
way Aaron held my hand tightly throughout the ceremony or the way
my emotions were running rampant in my body, still raw from our
conversation about this very topic a few days ago.

“Dayton!” Tessa shouts
my name and waves me over.

“No.” I shake my head.
“These are your family shots.”

Several pairs of eyes
turn to look at me. Tessa’s, Tyler’s, Carly’s, Brandon’s, Tessa’s
parents’, and Aaron’s. Aaron’s are the hardest as he approaches me
and takes both my hands in his.

“You are family,” he
says softly. “And Tessa wants you in these pictures.”

“I…” I look at her
pleading eyes and let him pull me forward. “Okay.”

Everyone smiles as I
join them, and Aaron tucks me into his side.

“Whoa. Don’t crease the
dress,” I mutter, much to everyone’s amusement.

“Excuse me,” he
responds, his own laughter in his voice. “Was it expensive?”

“I wouldn’t know. I
wasn’t allowed to see the price.” I grin and slip my arm around his
waist as the photographer shouts for us all to smile.

I’m passed from here to
there and back again over the next fifteen minutes. In and out of
photos. In and out of Aaron’s hold. By the time they’re all done,
I’m glad to have a chance to sit down for dinner.

“I didn’t see the price
either, but it was worth every cent,” Aaron says as he takes a seat
next to me. “The dress,” he says at my questioning look.

“Oh!” I smile. “What do
you mean you didn’t see the price?”

“I rarely see my
accounts. My accountant is aware of all my finances and he watches
them carefully. I only see them when something isn’t as it should
be.”

“Oh, to be so
rich.”

He brings my hand to
his mouth and brushes his lips across it. “You know my feelings on
this.”

“I do and I acknowledge
them, and I refuse to take this discussion further.” I punctuate my
last words with a raise of my brows as the entrées are brought
out.

As I suspected, the
meal is incredible. One of the best I’ve ever had by a million
miles. The wine is crisp and fresh, and you don’t need to be
familiar with the label to know that they’re expensive bottles. I
wonder how much this cost.

“You’d pass out with
shock,” Aaron whispers.

Crap. Did I say that
out loud?

“You whispered it.”

“Dammit. I need to stop
thinking.” I pick up my glass and drink before I say something
else.

“I won’t give you an
exact figure, but it was comfortably in the six-figure
bracket.”

I choke as I swallow my
wine. “Six figures?”

“Did you expect
anything less?”

“On a wedding?”

“That’s what we’re
attending.”

“Oh my God.”

Aaron smiles. “I love
how shocked you get at money.”

“Money doesn’t shock
me. I have plenty myself, but I don’t understand the frivolity, I
guess. Spending just because you can. It baffles me.”

“This, from the woman
who almost snapped my bank card two days ago?”

I hold up a finger. “We
all have our exceptions, Mr. Stone. That’s mine. Besides, that will
all get used.”

“I can guarantee it.”
He touches my back and kisses the corner of my mouth. “Now
eat.”

“Yes, sir.”

We spend the rest of
the dinner in silence before we all step into the gardens for
drinks while the tables are cleared away. I engage in casual
conversation with Tyler, doing my best to keep him away from yet
another of Tessa’s bridesmaids.

“Come dance,” he says,
dragging me back into the room.

“Your sister has to
have her dance first, and I think Aaron would likely kill you.”

“Tomorrow, maybe, and
he’s not here right now. Let me steal one.” He winks, his grin
oozing boyish charm instead of sexuality, and I find myself giving
in.

“Fine. Okay. But I’m
not being held responsible for this.”

“I’ll take the
blame.”

We stand by the side
and watch as Michael takes Tessa in his arms. A smile teases my
lips as they move elegantly across the floor, never taking their
eyes from the other. Their parents join them on the floor, followed
by the wedding party and their dates, and Tyler grabs my hand.

The grip is broken, and
Aaron presses himself against the back of me. “Nice try, Ty. Better
luck next time.”

He sweeps me away onto
the dance floor and envelopes me in his arms. I wrap mine around
his neck and look up at him, unable to hide the smile on my
lips.

“What? No one is
dancing with you tonight except me,” he murmurs, lowering his face
to mine.

“I’d be offended if you
let them.”

We slowly move around
the floor, in perfect sync, our bodies swaying together with ease.
Like we’ve always danced together.

“Do you remember the
first time we danced together?” Aaron asks quietly, his fingers
twitching against my back.

“Do you think I’d
forget?”

His mom’s birthday is
in the middle of the summer, and his dad threw her a party. Aaron
insisted I go along with my parents, and I protested at dancing. I
wasn’t a dancer. I never have been, but he made me do it
anyway.

“I never wanted that
song to end,” he admits. “I could have danced with you all
night.”

“You did.” I smile. “I
think you would have tried again the next day if I hadn’t have
jumped on you to make you stop.”

He laughs. “Yes. I
suppose you’re right.” He kisses me softly as the song ends, and I
feel his cell vibrate in his pocket between us.

“Aaron!”

He slides it out and
glances at the screen. “I have to take this. I’ll be right
back.”

He kisses me quickly
and disappears out of the large doors behind us. I watch him,
shaking my head. Unbelievable. Can he not leave work at home for
one night?

“Looks like I get my
dance after all.” Tyler appears in front of me.