WMIS 03 Play With Me (35 page)

Sonofabitch.

I
just laugh and hold it above my head. Jules hugs me and we pose for photos. The
photographer asks for a few more posed family photos, and when the last photo
is taken, Will returns to my side.

“Is
all the wedding crap over?” he asks.

“Yeah,
all that’s left is dancing and getting drunk,” I respond.

“Good,
let’s get out of here.”

We
spend the next hour making our way through the ballroom, saying our goodbyes,
posing for a few more photos, and hugging Jules and Nate.

“I’m
so proud of you, kiddo,” I hear Will murmur to Jules.

“Thanks,”
she smiles up at him. “And don’t call me that.”

He
laughs, a real Will laugh, and my stomach clenches. God, I love his laugh.

I
love him so much, and he’s about to break up with me, I just know it.

He
escorts me out to the curb and asks the limo driver to take us back to the
church where his car is parked. Once inside, Will sits at one side of the limo,
and I slide over to the other side, knowing I’m not welcome to sit next to him.

And
not being able to touch him is killing me.

So,
I’ll let him decide when he wants to talk about what’s eating at him. We sit in
silence all the way to the church. He gets me settled into his sexy car, and is
silent all the way to my house.

I
notice he doesn’t take me back to his place.

When
he parks in my driveway, he cuts the engine and we sit in silence, not looking
at each other, just looking straight ahead.

Finally,
after what feels like forever, I break the silence.

“Will,”
I whisper, “please talk to me. I can’t apologize to you if I don’t know what I
did wrong.”

He
scrubs his hand over his mouth roughly, then abruptly gets out of the car,
stalks around to my side, and opens the passenger door wide, indicating I
should get out.

So
I do.

He
follows me to my door, watches me disarm the alarm, and then turns to go.

“Please,
don’t go. Will, come inside and talk to me.”

“I
can’t talk to you,” he murmurs, not meeting my eyes. “It hurts too damn much to
talk to you, Megan. It’s killing me to look at you.”

“What
the fuck is going on?” I demand, my hands on my hips. “Don’t be a pussy, Will,
just say what the fuck is wrong!”

“You
are!” His head snaps up, his eyes pissed off. “I tell you every fucking day how
much I love you, Megan.” He moves closer to me, his face inches from mine.
“Every single day, I say it. I show you. I make sure you know that I am
completely in love with you.”

I
swallow hard, my eyes wide, and just watch him as he unloads, while my heart is
breaking. I feel tears gather in my eyes.

“But
you can’t say it back,” he continues. He throws his arms up and stalks away,
but then turns back to me, his mouth set in a grim line. “You can’t tell me
that you love me, yet you just stood on a stage before two hundred of my
nearest and dearest and told another man that you love him.”

My
mouth drops and a tear falls down my cheek.

“I
saw you,” he spits out. “I saw you tell him you love him after he whispered in
your ear and kissed you, which almost earned him a punch in the jaw.” He rubs
his mouth again and then plants his hands on his hips and another tear falls
down my cheek.

“I’m
so in love with you, Megan, I can’t see straight. You mean more to me than
anything. More than my family, more than football. More than anything.” He
shrugs and holds his hands out to his sides, as though he’s showing me
everything he has.

“But
you can’t say the same to me, even though I know you love me. I just don’t
think you love me the way I love you.”

He
closes his eyes and sighs, and then looks down at his feet. He’s standing
before me, in his suit, and I want so desperately to take him in my arms and
tell him how much I need him.

How
much I love him.

He
slowly raises his head and pins me with his sad blue eyes.

“If
you can’t love me the way I love you, maybe we’re just wasting our time.” His
shoulders sag and he runs his knuckles down my cheek. “Good luck to you,
Megan.”

He
turns on his heel and walks down my stairs and to his car, and I’m stuck.

What
the fuck just happened?

He
reaches his car, opens the door, and I spring into action.

“Wait!”

Chapter Twenty-Seven

~Will~

I
open my car door, my heart in my throat, and have to physically stop myself
from running back to her and begging her to forget everything I just said.

I’ll
take whatever she’s willing to give me, for the rest of my life, if I can just
have
her
.

But
not ever hearing the words come out of that sweet mouth will make me resent her
eventually, and that’s something I never want to happen.

Ever.

I
love her too much for that shit, so it’s best to cut our losses now.

“Wait!”

She
sounds panicked. I clench my eyes shut and grip the car door tightly.
Just
go back to the house, babe.

“Will,
wait.” She’s at my side now. I look down into her tear-filled hazel eyes and it
takes everything in me to not gather her to me and tell her everything will
work out.

Because
I don’t think it will.

“Meg,
look…”

“No,
you look,” she cuts me off, her hands in fists on her lush little hips, fire
coming out of her eyes.

I’ve
pissed her off.

“You
don’t get to drop that bomb on me and then just ride off into the sunset, never
to be heard from again, Will Montgomery. And if you think you’re breaking up
with me, you have another thing coming.”

I
love it when she’s pissed. But the knot in my stomach hasn’t eased yet.

“Will,”
she starts and takes a deep breath, “I love you more than you will ever
understand.”

The
breath leaves me, and I can just stare down at her, my jaw dropped to my knees.

“What?”

“Of
course I’m in love with you, Will.” She swallows and closes her eyes. Before
she can say another word, I take her face in my hands, the touch of her skin a
balm to my frayed nerves, and make her look at me.

“I
don’t want you to say those words just because you’re afraid I’ll break up with
you without them.”

Her
eyes smile up at me and for the first time in the past few hours, a calm
settles over me.

“You’re
smarter than that,” she murmurs in her sweet voice. “And you know me better
than that.”

I
pull her up into my arms, nudge the car door shut with my foot and carry her
inside her tiny house.

I
plan to sell this townhouse and move her in with me as soon as possible.

Which
means next year, because she’s so damn independent. God, I love her.

I
carry her into her living room and sit on her couch, cradling her on my lap.
Her eyebrows climb into her hairline.

“I
thought you’d be taking me upstairs.”

“Later,”
I respond and trace her lips with my fingertip. “First, talk to me.”

She
sighs and bites that lower lip.

“I
couldn’t tell you I love you because in my life, that’s always meant that
people would leave.” She shrugs and blinks, trying to hold back tears, and it’s
like a fist clenching my heart.

I
hate it when she cries, because she rarely ever does.

“Go
on,” I whisper and smile down at her. I love the way her small body feels in my
arms, all soft and small and like she’s meant for me.

“I
think I loved my mom when I was small. I don’t really remember,” her brow
creases as she thinks. “But I was taken from her, and honestly, I’m thankful
because that was for the best. But then I was tossed from foster home to foster
home. I met Leo in the first one, and I latched onto him like he was a
lifeline, because for me, he was.” She looks up at me with pleading hazel eyes,
begging for me to understand, and I think I’m finally beginning to.

“He
was the first person I’ve ever had in my life that was truly family to me. He
took care of me, and was kind to me, and didn’t want anything from me.” She
swallows, and brushes the tears on her cheeks. “But then I was taken out of
that first home, and Leo was taken away from me. Thank God I didn’t lose touch
with him.”

I
cradle her to me and let her talk it out.

“It
was always made very clear to me in each of those homes what my place was, and
it wasn’t as a part of the family I was staying with. I was relieved when the
state emancipated me at sixteen and I could go live with Leo.”

She
pulls back and looks up at me. “But then, after I’d been with him for years,
and we’d had the band and done well, he decided to take the band and go to L.A.
to try to make it in the business.”

“Why
didn’t he take you with him?” I ask.

“He
insisted I stay here and pursue my nursing career. He knew I was good at it,
and I’d worked so hard for it. And I think he could see the toll the long hours
of working and then playing gigs on the weekend was taking on me. He didn’t
want me to quit.”

I
frown down at her. “I hate to say it, but that makes sense, sweetheart.”

“Yeah,
now it does,” she agrees and nods. “But then it just felt like another person I
loved, the
most important
person I loved was leaving again.”

“I’m
not going to leave you, baby,” I don’t care if she can’t stand that nick-name.
“I love you so much, Megan.”

She
cups my face in her hands, the way she always does, and pulls her fingertips
down my cheeks, her eyes happy. “I love you too.”

Sucker
punch to the gut.

“Say
it again,” I whisper.

“I
love you too, Will,” she whispers.

I
stand with her still in my arms and carry her up the stairs to her bedroom and
set her on her feet. With my fingertips, I push the straps of her dress off her
shoulders and watch it fall off her delectable body and pool on the floor at
her feet.

“Fucking
hell, you’re naked under there.”

She’s
standing before me in just her black stilettos and diamond earrings, and it’s
all I can do not to come in my pants like a fucking teenager.

She
smiles shyly. “You’re entirely over-dressed.”

“Undress
me,” I demand, holding my arms out to my side, but she shakes her head and sits
on the bed, then scoots on her ass to the middle of the mattress, leaving her
heels on.

“I
wanna watch,” she responds with a sassy grin, showing off that dimple.

“So
damn lazy,” I smile down at her and can’t get out of this goddamn suit fast
enough. Her eyes darken as they roam over my nakedness and I smirk at her.

I
will train every day for the rest of my life to keep that look in her eyes when
she looks at me.

Finally
naked, I climb onto the bed and cover her small body with mine, her hips
cradling me, my elbows on either side of her head, brushing little wisps of
hair off her forehead with my thumbs.

“I
love you,” she murmurs with a happy smile.

“God,
I’ll never get tired of hearing those words come out of your sexy mouth, babe.”

She
chuckles and grips my ass in her hands. I tip my head down and kiss her, gently
at first, and then harder and roll us so she’s straddling my hips.

She
sits up straight and rocks her hips, rubbing her already wet pussy against my
cock. I suck a deep breath in through my teeth. “Easy, baby, or I’ll come
before we even get started.”

“Really?”
she looks happy with herself as she continues to torture me, the little vixen.

“Megan,”
I warn her, and suddenly she’s scooting down and sucking on my cock, jacking me
off at the same time and I jack-knife up on the bed. “Holy fuck!”

She
laughs and laps at the head like it’s an ice cream cone, and then sinks over it
again, sucking as she pulls up. I thread my fingers through her soft hair and
moan.

“Meg,
come back up here.” She shakes her head stubbornly and continues to wreak havoc
on my cock.

“I
swear to Jesus, Megan, if you don’t come up here…”

“What?”
she asks after she makes a loud
pop
noise. “You’ll what?”

I
grip her shoulders and pull her back up to me, kissing her deeply, and reach
between us to play with the piercing that I’ve grown to really fucking love.

It
makes her crazy.