Page 67 of Cocky Tech God
She continued to stride through the water to me, her eyes steady as she approached. “After everything, we can’t at least be friends?”
What was she doing? What was she trying to prove? That I could walk away from this week and continue as before, after everything? I’d bared my soul to her. I’d told her something I’d never told another woman. And she wanted to just be friends? I didn’t buy it.
“Are you serious?” I turned away because the sight of her made me weak. I didn’t know what I’d do if she moved any closer.
Her touch was like fire on my skin. I flinched, loving and hating her hands on me as they wrapped around my waist. She pressed her face into my back, her words muffled but clear as day. “I’m sorry.”
I groaned, the prospect of what her words meant making me want turn and do the thing I feared I would.
“I was almost a parent too,” I said, to my surprise. “Anais was six weeks’ pregnant when she died. We had no idea she was pregnant. I think about my baby every day.” The day came back strong. Every word. Every spike of despair. But with Lucia, I could actually take it. I could feel it and not want to retreat into my solitude, which I did for years after Anais and our unborn child passed.
“Hansen…” My name was a whisper on her lips. “I’m so sorry. I had no idea.”
“I know loss, too, Lucia. And I know disappointment.” I gazed down on my hand under the water waving with the gentle undercurrent. “You’re not the only one.”
“I can’t give you kids if we do this. Do you really understand what that means?” She choked on her words.
“Yes,” I said, my heart fluttering, my blood moving in my veins at full speed. “I meant everything I said on the phone last night.”
“Are you sure you won’t care that I can’t have your children? Are you sure this won’t be a point of contention later?” Her voice cracked with emotion.
“I want you, Lucia Mendez. I’m in love with you, and I don’t care about anything else.”
She whimpered, and I spun around, surprising her with my speed. I pulled her to me, crashing my lips onto hers in a kiss that was pure passion. I wanted to kiss her like this all the time.
I picked her up, her skirt riding up around her waist as her legs wrapped around me. We kissed harder still, desperate for each other. The night alone had felt like an eternity, but in our kiss, I felt that eternity was just a beginning.
“Maybe we should make a new pact to see how it goes?” she said, her warm breath on my neck.
“Fuck no. No pacts.” There would never be a pact between us that didn’t include her walking down an aisle to marry me. “No. A relationship. Something real. Something you can count on. Something you’ll never doubt.”
“I won’t doubt you again.”
“Good.”
A plump tear rolled down her cheek. I wiped it and held her for a long time in the water. Letting the ocean anoint us. Making everything between us new again.
Lucia
Hansen and I held hands, sopping wet as we rode in a taxi back to The Ritz-Carlton. Hansen wouldn’t make his flight back to New York after all. When we got back to the concierge, he handed them a wet ticket, and they gave him two designer monogrammed suitcases.
“We’ll have to shower in your room. I already checked out.”
He weaved his fingers with mine and, hand in hand, we walked to the elevators, gaining stares for obvious reasons. Hansen Holte, the playboy of the cybersecurity world, had been holding hands with me, proclaiming to the world I was with him. And the truth was, I had never been prouder to be with Hansen out in the open.
I admired his handsome face, as we stood in the elevator. I’m going to marry this man one day.
“What, Luci? You’re staring.” His gaze remained forward.
“This is weird.” I rubbed my face against his arm. “I can actually touch and kiss you in public.”
“I know,” he said, finally turning to me and dipping down to plant another kiss on my lips at the exact moment the doors opened with a crowd of attendees waiting.
“Hansen.” I grinned against his lips, pulling back and following him out of the elevator.
“Did you hear?” an attendee said. The nametag around her neck read Kate. “Morgan Financial Holdings announced a winner.”
My heart surged. “They did?” I looked at Hansen.