Page 114 of The CEO I Hate

Plop.Plop.Plop.

She laughed, sitting up fully, gloriously naked as she stared at me, bemused. I just continued leaving my little trail all the way to the ensuite bathroom. “Seriously,” she said. “What are you doing?”

“Leaving you breadcrumbs,” I said, waving a sock enticingly before dropping it on the floor. I waggled my eyebrows at her, then turned to start the water in the shower. Once it was going, I leaned against the doorframe, taking her in. “I know your sense of direction isn’t the best, but all you have to do is follow the trail, Gretel.”

Her lips twisted. She stood, crossing the room in a heartbeat, and threw herself into my arms. “My sense of direction was good enough to find my way back to you,” she said.

“That’s true,” I agreed as the bathroom steamed up. “But I’m not ever gonna let you lose your way again, because you’re mine, Mia.” I cradled her face in my hands. “And I’m going to spend the rest of my life making sure you know exactly where you belong.”

After we’d gotten cleaned up, which took longer than I’d anticipated with both of us soaping each other up, we got dressed, and I’d texted Jake to let him know that my plan had worked. Mia and I were officially back together, and we were currently down the hall if he wanted to swing by to give me the shovel speech.

I’d mostly been joking about the speech, but if he wanted to deliver it, I was more than ready to hear it. I was determined to start this second chance on the right foot by being honest with Jake.

When Jake knocked on the door fifteen minutes later, with Gabrielle in tow, Mia answered, smiling.

“Hey!” she said.

“Heard you took him back,” Jake snarked with a grin.

Mia lifted her shoulder. “He’s kinda cute. I think I’ll keep him.”

“Kinda?” I protested from across the living room.

Mia winked at me as I parked it on the couch.

“You guys want to do dinner?” Gabrielle asked. “We could order Chinese?”

“Yes!” Mia said at once. After all our extracurricular activities, she was probably starving. She and Gabrielle pored over an online menu. “Definitely shrimp fried rice. And hot and sour soup.”

“Honey garlic spareribs or no dice,” Jake told them as he rolled his way over to me. He got close enough to knock me in the shoulder. It wasn’t very hard, but his stare was.

“I know, I know,” I said. “If I ever hurt her again?—”

“No shovel speech, man. Just…” He sighed, the corner of his mouth curling a bit. “Do better this time, okay? ’Cause I don’t want to have to choose between my sister and my best friend.”

“Not that it would be much of a choice,” I said. We’d both always choose Mia.

“Just love her, okay?” Jake said. “More than anything.”

“I will,” I promised. For the rest of my life.

39

MIA

“You look beautiful,” Liam said. “Have I told you that yet?”

“Only a couple dozen times,” I replied, smiling softly as I turned away from the limo’s window which offered a view of the red carpet where camera lights flashed and security directed the best-dressed for photo ops. We were currently in the drop-off line, and nerves had started to rattle around my gut. What the hell wasIdoing at the Emmys? I couldn’t believe it.

I distracted myself by drinking in every sexy inch of Liam—and God, what a distraction he was clad in a fitted dark burgundy Dior tux, his hair swept back, his brown eyes darker than ever. My stomach flipped pleasantly. “You don’t look half bad yourself.”

He winked at me. “Part of me would really like to take that dress off you here and now.”

“That’s a dangerous game,” I said as the limo pulled forward. “I am pinned into this thing so perfectly I don’t think we’d ever get it back on again.”

He huffed a laugh. “Well there’s a best-dressed idea.”

I ran my hand down the bodice of the dress. I’d gone with classic black, though the sheer cutouts in the corset made it a little fun, a little daring, and I’d caught Liam admiring my cleavage more than once. “As amazing as limo sex would be,” I said, “you’d definitely end up missing the show.”