The Apartment: The Complete Affair (14 page)

He could hear female voices laughing from the kitchen, so he set his bag down at the foot of the stairs and followed the happy sounds until he was quietly standing in the doorway. His mother, Emma, and Maggie were all sitting around the island counter top, talking as they plated various snacks and side dishes.

“Oh dear, don’t worry,” Barbara was giggling and patting Maggie’s arm. “When I was pregnant with Eric, I threw up all the time. I even threw up all over Richard once when we were… well, you know.”

“Mom!” Emma gasped, her laughter cut off abruptly.

Maggie waved her off and Barbara paid her no mind, continuing with her story. “And good lord, let me tell you, when I was pregnant with Emma and Ethan, they gave me twice the gas!” Both women broke into another fit of laughter, leaving poor Emma looking completely horrified.

When Maggie was able to stop laughing, she cleared her throat and spoke, her tone suddenly serious. “Thanks Barbara, I know that so many women can have a hard time of it. I’m just happy for any type of new symptom these days. I think I’d even be happy to get hemorrhoids if it meant that this pregnancy goes full term.”

“Eww, Maggie!”

“Oh, grow up, Emma. You are thirty-two years old. I think you can handle hearing about this stuff,” Barbara scolded. She turned back to Maggie, her expression turning to one of concern. “Darling, there is no reason you can’t say ‘baby’ by now, instead of ‘pregnancy.’”

“I just can’t yet,” she whispered. “Not again. It hurts too much when things go bad.”

Barbara moved to hug her, and in doing so she noticed the new addition to the room. “Ethan!” she beamed. “I didn’t think you’d be here tonight!” She met him halfway across the room as he entered, her arms already around his neck in a fierce hug.

“Of course! You know I can’t miss one of your amazing dinners.” He held her tightly, looking over her shoulder to mouth the words ‘thank you’ to Emma, who smirked back at him in a very
I told you so
sort of way. She had perfected that look.

“Well, you’re just in time. We were about to set the table. Why don’t you go find your father and the boys and tell them to meet us in the dining room?”

Ethan followed loud whooping noises into the living room, surprised to find Eric and Brandon jumping up and down in the center of the floor, brandishing white controllers that they aimed at the TV.

“Yeah, baby! Suck it!” Eric yelled after swinging his arm in the air toward the screen.

“Ah, shit!” Brandon swore, tossing his controller on the carpet in front of the entertainment center.

“Pay up, d-bag,” Eric laughed.

“What the hell are you guys doing in here?” Ethan interrupted his brother’s moment of victory.

“Hey man! Good to see you!” he crossed the room quickly, clapping him on the shoulder. “Brandon here bet me that he could take down my as-of-yet undefeated high score on tennis. Not only was he wrong, but I managed to set a new high score.”

“That’s… great?” Ethan replied, not having any exposure to game consoles since he decided in middle school that Eric could knock himself out on Super Nintendo all he wanted—he’d rather go to his room and sketch. “Mom wanted me to let you both know that dinner is ready. Where is Dad?”

“I think he’s still in his office,” Eric called back to him, already halfway to the dining room with a ravenous gleam in his eye, Brandon hot on his heels.

Ethan made his way down the hall, stopping at a closed door that he hadn’t knocked on in years. Tapping lightly, he could hear the muffled sounds of a one-sided conversation before his father’s voice rang out.

“Come in.”

As he walked quietly through the door, Ethan found Richard sitting at his large desk, his hand covering the mouthpiece of his desk phone. His eyes lit up when he saw who it was, and he whispered, “Ethan! Come on in, son. I’ll be done with this call momentarily.” He spent another minute wrapping up the call from the hospital, leaving Ethan to wander around and look at the many priceless works of art hanging on the walls.

When he spied a particular piece hung in an obvious place of honor, he felt a lump rise in his throat.

“Sorry about that,” Richard apologized, coming up to stand beside him. “Ah, I see you’ve found my favorite.” He nodded toward the painting with a smile.

“I… uh,” Ethan cleared his throat before speaking again. “I didn’t realize you owned this one.”

“Of course I do! It cost a pretty penny and I had to pull a lot of strings with the dealers I know to get it over here from Europe, but I knew as soon as I saw your catalog for that show that I had to have it.” The pride in his voice was unmistakable.

“Any reason you chose this one specifically?”

“Well,” he smiled, “everyone I spoke with tried to go on and on about the ‘Duality of Man’ and the struggle of ‘Adult vs. Child’ and blah blah blah,” he chuckled. “But I knew exactly what this was the moment I saw it. It’s a bit distorted, but there is your favorite rocking horse from when you were a boy,” he said, pointing to it “And there is your stuffed bear, and if I’m not mistaken, that is the old tire swing that used to hang out back.”

Richard patted him lightly on the back before adding, “It’s a beautiful piece, but I didn’t need anyone to tell me any hidden meaning. To me, this was simply evidence that my son had amazing talent, and that perhaps from time to time he missed us, too.”

Ethan blinked a few times, his eyes suddenly stinging. Richard had no idea how right he was.

Father and son walked back into the dining room together, joining the rest of the family who were already seated and waiting at the long table. With Barbara on one end and Richard on the other, the table stretched out to allow six more places, three down each side. Both married couples sat across from each other, leaving two empty places at the end near Richard.

Ethan sat down at his father’s left and glanced at the empty chair across from him. Rachel had only sat there a handful of times throughout the entire duration of their relationship—almost ten years total. He found it odd that only now, when that chair was empty once again, did he finally feel as if he were truly back home.

If he was being honest with himself, he had to admit that she had never fit there. He couldn’t help wondering if anyone ever would.

As his family ate and talked around him, Ethan realized that he was stroking the iPod he had tucked away inside his pocket, causing the metal to become quite warm. He had to force himself to loosen his grip, knowing that it would look odd to eat his entire meal with one hand in his pocket. Focusing his attention back to the room around him, he picked up snippets of a conversation between Emma and his mother.

“I’m telling you, Mom—you two have got to go eat there with us the next time you visit. They have the most delicious boneless chicken wings. I can’t get enough of them whenever we go.”

“You mean chicken nuggets?” Brandon interrupted with a smile before Barbara could reply.

Emma groaned and rolled her eyes. “Ugh, not again!” She looked at Barbara apologetically before explaining, “We get into this every single time we go there.” Turning her attention back to Brandon, she continued. “They are called boneless chicken wings; it says so right on the menu. Why do you insist on calling them nuggets? You make it sound like we’re eating at McDonald’s for God’s sake!”

Brandon’s face broke into a huge grin as he looked around the table, chuckling lightly to himself before answering her. “Baby doll, I don’t get this new trend of trying to fancy them up to sound dignified. I’ve eaten chicken nuggets my whole life, and those are nothing but chicken nuggets. They just cost more.”

“Exactly!” Maggie joined in. “I was just saying the same thing to Eric the other day! Everyone is jumping on that bandwagon!”

Laughter broke out at the table, leaving everyone but Emma either wiping their eyes or clutching their stomachs. She simply shook her head and looked mortified, wondering when her family had been replaced by a bunch of hyenas.

Ethan was wondering when he’d last laughed with his family like this.

Later that night, Ethan tossed and turned in the large bed upstairs. He had decided to stay over in his old room for the night because his laundry was only halfway done, but by 3 a.m. he was regretting his decision. The simple bed was comfortable but cold, and the room didn’t smell right. There wasn’t the right scent lingering in the air.

Get a grip, Foster
, he thought.
She’s just a fuck. An amazing, delicious fuck… but just sex all the same
. Sighing loudly, he threw back the covers and padded across the room to the stack of clothing he’d worn earlier. Fishing through his jacket pocket in the dark, he felt an immediate wave of calm flow over him the moment he had the iPod in his hand again. Digging deeper, he pulled out his ear buds and returned to the bed.

The moment he hit play and the mellow music began, his mind was flooded with images of warm mahogany tresses and soft pink lips.

He was asleep within minutes.

The next afternoon, Ethan was back at the apartment and putting the finishing touches on his latest painting when he heard light footsteps in the hall. He had plenty of time to go unlock the door, but it sent a thrill straight to his groin whenever he heard his beautiful stranger willingly using her key in the lock. By the time the final click sounded in the room and he saw the knob starting to turn, he was fully aroused.

Setting his brush down on the table, he turned in time to see her smiling face walk through the door. She was wearing her ever-present workout clothes again—this time it was a red t-shirt that said
Recycling: Not Foreplay, But Very Important
. However, instead of being empty-handed as usual, she was toting a large gym bag with her that she set down next to the wall as soon as she shut the door.

“Forget something?” he asked. At her confused look, Ethan nodded toward his docking station where he had returned her iPod. It was currently playing her
Sexy Songs
mix, as Ethan had been unable to think of anything but the previous afternoon all day.

“There it is! I was looking for that all night!” She ran over to the shelf and retrieved it, switching it out for his. He noticed that she set it to his
Fuck Songs
mix before walking away, which pleased him to no end. He watched her walk back to her bag and slip her iPod inside before zipping it back up, thoroughly enjoying the view as she bent over.

Walking up behind her, he felt the now familiar tingle in his fingertips that told him to reach out and grab what was his.
His
. There was that possessive feeling again. It made no sense to him at all, but that did nothing to lessen the urge.

Ethan wrapped his long, slender fingers around her hips, causing her to gasp loudly as he pulled her back into him, rubbing her firm bottom against the prominent bulge in his jeans. Lily groaned loudly at the contact, straightening up so that her back was flush against his bare chest. She laid her head back on his shoulder and closed her eyes.

“Mmm… did
you
miss
me
this time?” Reaching her hand around the back of his head, she pulled him down until her face was flush with the side of his long neck. Inhaling his hypnotic scent deeply before flicking the tip of her tongue along his skin, she reveled in the strong saltiness of his flesh. Lily finished with a simple peck on the edge of his jaw before rolling her head to the side in a daze, already high on the feel of him against her.

Ethan held her closer, tightly wrapping his arms around her middle while swaying slightly back and forth where they stood. “Mmhmm,” he mumbled as he nuzzled her skin, peppering light kisses along her collarbone and up her neck. “You know, I think I did.”

He smiled as he caught her earlobe with his teeth, tugging briefly before sucking it between his lips. Her loud moan caused him to buck his hips forward, creating the most delicious friction between them. Ethan began rubbing himself against her more firmly, shattering any coherent thought she might have been trying to form.

“Can you feel what you do to me?” he whispered in her ear, eliciting the sexiest whimper he’d heard from her yet. “I was hard before you even opened the door.”

“And I was wet the moment I saw you,” she gasped.

“Oh, really?” Ethan slid his fingers inside the band of her black Capri pants, beneath the lace of her panties, and through the tightly trimmed curls between her legs. He could feel the moisture collecting there, already making her outer lips slippery to the touch. The jolt of electricity that shot through him at the feel of her was enough to make him hunch forward and bite her shoulder, groaning into her skin.

Lily whimpered again and turned her head back to face him, tugging on his hair, making his perfect lips finally press against her own. She urged him forward, begging silently with her mouth and tongue, until his kiss turned hungry and he devoured her gasps with a growl. Their tongues fought with each other, leaving them both breathless and dizzy with need.

When they finally parted for air, Ethan panted roughly against her lips. “I need you. I need to feel you again.” He released her from his tight grip, spinning her around to face him and kissing her again quickly. When he pulled back, he was curious to see a dark blush spreading over her skin.

“What is it?” he asked, knowing instinctively that she was embarrassed about something.

Turning an even deeper shade of red, Lily bit her lip before meeting his eyes. “Well, I… um…” She took a deep breath and laughed at her own nervousness. “Sorry, I thought this would be easier by now.”

Ethan reached out and held her hands, looking deep into her eyes. “Hey, listen to me. You have nothing to be embarrassed about with me. We’re not here to judge. Can you trust me enough to share this with me?”

Lily nodded quickly, letting out a relieved sigh. “Yes,” she whispered.

“Thank you.” He leaned forward and kissed the tip of her nose. “Alright then, what is it?”

“I brought my toy.”

Whatever Ethan might have expected her to say, that was not it. Based on her reactions yesterday, he didn’t think she’d be ready for that one for a while yet. Once his heart rate had slowed enough for him to speak, he was able to choke out two words.