Deep Surrendering: Episode Ten (8 page)

By the time I got to Sloane’s studio, I was absolutely soaked. I didn’t think I’d ever been that wet, not even when I went swimming.

“Did you fall in the river?” Sloane said, her eyes darting around. Uh oh. She was buzzed out of her mind. Even had that weird little eye twitch.

“Not exactly. It’s raining outside, haven’t you noticed? Guess I forgot my coat.” Sloane started stripping me and fortunately, her employees and interns had left for the day so it was just the two of us.

“I think I’ve got some towels here somewhere,” she said as I pushed her hands away so I could undress myself. After she got me down to my underwear, she rubbed me all over. It was like being exfoliated with sandpaper.

“Jesus, not so hard! You’re going to take my skin off,” I said, ducking away from her. She just sort of chased me around with the towel, which actually dried me off enough so I could put my dress on. First, she tucked my hair up and wrapped it in a towel so it wouldn’t drip on the dress and then she helped me carefully step into it.

Sloane pulled it up and zipped the back before stepping away and turning me so I faced the mirror.

With the towel on my head, I might have looked silly, but I could barely take my eyes off what was below the towel turban.

I’d seen it on me before, but now that the ball was only two days away, the reality that I finally got to wear it was setting in. Oh, how I wished Fin could see it.

I turned from side to side to check out the back and realized Sloane wasn’t there.

“You look utterly, devastatingly beautiful,” someone said behind me. I locked eyes with someone in the mirror.

“Oh. My. God.”

That was my last thought before I ran and flung myself into his arms.

Or at least I tried to run. The dress tripped me up and I almost did a face-plant. But Fin was there to catch me.

“Easy there,” he said as my fingers dug into him to make sure he was real. He certainly felt real, but this could be just a really good hallucination.

“Are you real?” I whispered and he smiled and it was just as I remembered.

“Yes, my Marisol. I’m real.”

The towel fell off my hair, but I barely noticed.

“You’re really here?” I asked. We had done this type of reunion before, but this time was different. So different.

“I’m here. And if you want, I’m not going anywhere,” he said.

That was when I lost it like I’d never lost it before.

The tears were so frequent they soaked the top of the dress and Fin’s jacket, which was already damp from the rain.

“I’ve got you,” he said, again and again. We sat on the floor of Sloane’s studio, me in my dress and soaked hair and Fin in his typical slacks and jacket.

I hadn’t been ready to see him again, but here he was and I knew. I couldn’t compare this feeling that swept over me to anything else I’d ever experienced. It was wild and chaotic and intense and calm and soothing. All at once. That didn’t make any sense, but it was what it was.

“I love you,” I said, tipping my face up and meeting his eyes. He leaned down and kissed the tears running down my cheeks.

“I love you, Marisol.” It was the first time I’d heard him say it out loud and the only thing I could do was smile. And then I started laughing. No idea where it came from, but when it started, I couldn’t stop.

“What’s so funny?” he said.

“I don’t know.” I shrugged and held on even tighter. “I don’t even know anymore.”

Eventually we got up off the floor. Both of us were totally wet, and the dress was completely wrinkled. Sloane was probably going to have a fit when she saw it.

“How did you get here?” I asked. I hadn’t let go of him yet. I was afraid that if I did, he might go away again and I couldn’t deal with that.

“I might have had some help. Did you know your friend Sloane is a romantic?” That sneak. So that was why she’d been freaking out about me not being at the studio when I was supposed to be there. Made sense now.

“Wow. I’m going to have to thank her. A lot. Like, forever.” She was going to get so much thanking she wasn’t even going to be able to handle it.

“And the larger question of how I got here is that I flew. I’m back, at least for a little while. We’re regrouping and trying to form a new company. It’s not going to be easy since everything about my father is now coming out. There aren’t a lot of people who will trust the son of the man who did so many nefarious and illegal things, but I still have some loyal clients that I think I can bring over. We’ll see. That’s not important right now.” It didn’t even matter what he was saying, he was
here.
He was here and he was real and this was happening.

There was a knock at the studio door and then it slid open.

“Sorry. But I’d really like to get that dress off her before you tear it off, Mr. Prince of Darkness.” Sloane always gave people nicknames. I liked this particular one.

I finally uncurled my fingers from him, and for a second, I thought he was going to vanish, but he didn’t. He stayed right there as Sloane dragged me back behind a screen and unzipped the dress.

“I brought you some clothes,” she said, going back to the door and grabbing a bag of things. She almost always had something in my size on-hand. Sloane was good that way.

I got dressed again and Sloane quickly braided my hair and clipped it up so it was out of the way. Then she slapped my ass and shoved me out from behind the curtain.

“Go get him,” she said with a wink before turning her attention to the dress. I hoped it wasn’t ruined, but Sloane would never construct a shoddy dress that would be undone by a little bit of rain and some crushing.

I walked slowly toward Fin. These moments were still so surreal.

“What now?” I asked.

He laughed and shrugged.

“I have absolutely no idea.”

W
e ended up going downstairs, where Carl was waiting with the Town Car. I laughed and hugged him too.

“I missed you, Miss Marisol. It’s so good to see your face again.” He beamed from ear to ear and I couldn’t stop smiling either.

We got into the car. Now we just needed a destination.

“Your place.” I said the first thing that came to my mind. I let my gut tell me what to do. And my gut told me that we needed to go to his place right now.

“I agree with the lady,” Fin said and Carl tipped his hat at us before he set off into traffic.

Suddenly I was thinking about all the questions I’d wanted to ask him, most of them from my letters.

“Tell me everything,” I said. “I just want to hear your voice and hold you. It doesn’t matter what you say. Tell me about the places you went and everything you saw. Hell, you can describe every single meal if you want. Just keep talking.” I curled myself into him and he put both arms around me.

Home. This was home. I could tell myself that we weren’t right, or it was too complicated, but this feeling right here couldn’t be denied. It couldn’t be ignored.

“Whatever you want, Marisol. I’ll do whatever you want.” So he started with the night he left, telling me about going to the airport and getting on the plane, the annoying woman who sat next to him and hogged the armrest and the turbulence. He went into such great detail that it lasted all the way to his apartment. At this rate, he was going to be talking for the rest of our lives. I was perfectly fine with that.

He kept talking as he unlocked the door. I inhaled the scent of his place and wow. Memories. Such vivid memories. We were making another one right now.

Fin stopped his story and walked toward the kitchen.

“Speaking of food, are you hungry?” I didn’t know if I was or wasn’t, but I’d say yes to anything he asked me at the moment.

“Sure,” I said as he opened the fridge. I hadn’t been here in a while, but the fridge had food in it like it always did.

“How about egg drop soup?” he said with a smile.

“Absolutely perfect,” I said. It was the first meal he’d cooked for me. “Do you want to dress me again?”

“Well,” he said, getting out the soup pot and starting to assemble the ingredients on the counter, “that would require you to take your clothes off first.” Oh, right.

“I’m not sure that’s a good idea.” My body (especially certain parts) were screaming at me to change my mind, but this was one time when my head was in the right. I couldn’t just jump back into bed with Fin. At least not before we had had a long talk. Probably more than one long talk. Lots of talks. I also needed to cool down from the heat of the moment of seeing him when I wasn’t expecting it.

He pulled some things out of the fridge and then closed it.

“As much as I would love to tear into you right now, I think that’s a good idea. We shouldn’t… let ourselves get carried away.” No, there would be no carrying. Away. Carrying away. Was that how you said that?

I couldn’t stop watching the way he moved around the kitchen. If he was trying to seduce me, it was working. The thing about Fin, though, was that everything he did was beyond sexy and designed to turn me on.

He was a walking climax waiting to happen. Again. And again.

“Something wrong?” he asked. I’d been caught staring.

“You know there isn’t. I’m just appreciating the view,” I said, leaning against the counter. I wanted to make him hurt just as much as I was. So I put my elbows together and leaned forward in a way that I knew accentuated my chest. The shirt Sloane had given me was low cut in the front. She was good, that woman.

Fin’s gaze lowered just where I wanted it and then he narrowed his eyes. The rain had made his hair curl more than normal and I longed to dig my fingers in it as he went down on me.

“You’re being quite the tease, Mari Cherry,” he said, his voice low and in a tone that did things to me.

“Oh, is this bothering you?” I said, standing up and stretching my arms above my head. The shirt rode up and gave him a little peek at my stomach. It also pushed my chest out again, drawing his attention to it. He took a step toward me and reached out, but I backed up.

“No, no. I don’t think that’s a very good idea.” I was playing with him, but I’d have to put the brakes on pretty soon or else we were going to end up exactly where I thought we were going to end up.

“You can’t be that way and expect me not to want you, Marisol. It has been a while since I’ve had you. I’ve spent hours upon
hours
imagining different ways to torture and pleasure your body. I may have also brought a few things back with me. Things you might like. Or you might not, but that wouldn’t bother me. I’ll make you like them.” He kept stepping closer and closer and I was powerless to back up again. Oops. I’d pushed things too far.

It took everything inside me to put my hand up, palm out. The universal symbol for stop. Fin froze in his approach.

“I’m sorry. I was just playing. I pushed a little too far. We shouldn’t. I don’t think I’m ready for that yet. There are still a lot of things we need to discuss.” He listened to me intently, but it was hard to concentrate on his face when I could see that part of him (in his pants) wasn’t listening to me.

Now that I’d seen
that
, it was even harder to concentrate on saying no. But I had to. Hopefully I could make both of us see that.