CHAPTER SIX
Being around Mia was slowly driving me crazy. I had a constant semi and my brain was wired for sex. Somehow my mind found something dirty in everything she said. And that kiss, that kiss had kept me up half the night with a raging hard-on. We’d decided to skip the apartment hunting yesterday when Mia had a breakdown over her shabby clothes.
I thought she looked fine in her denim cut-off shorts and the skin-tight tank top that her boobs almost fell out of. But she said she didn’t want to have to add slut to her résumé and then burst into tears. Ivy came to the rescue on that one and gave Mia some clothes to borrow. She then told me the names of some good charity clothes shops that she thought Mia would like.
We spent yesterday afternoon in The Salvos and Lifeline digging through racks of second-hand clothes until Mia had enough outfits to last her a week without washing. I would have taken her to any clothes shop she wanted, but it was pretty clear she didn’t like me spending money on her.
It was the strangest thing. Women I’d spent time with in the past had always wanted me to buy them shit, but here was Mia, carefully adding up the cost of the clothes she had picked in a charity store to make sure she could pay me back one day. I would never accept her money, but it wasn’t an argument we needed to have, so I left it be… for now.
We’d spent this morning doing up Mia’s résumé. It was a very informative exercise. I found out her last name is Lynn, she’s twenty-three, and hasn’t worked for the last three years. She explained about Trent making her quit her job when they moved in together and how things got subtly worse from there.
It was easy to see why she let it happen. The more she spoke about her life with and before Trent, the clearer it became. She was so determined not to end up like her mother that when she was offered a different future, she took it without a second thought.
I had conflicted feelings about this Trent guy. In one way, I was glad he got her out of her mother’s home. But then I was furious with the way he treated Mia— as if she were his maid not his woman. Then I was back to glad again because if he hadn’t been such a controlling wanker, I would never have found Mia.
Earlier, I’d sat down with Mia and quizzed her on her previous employment history and education while scribbling down notes on a pad at the kitchen bench. Now I was sitting at my laptop, typing up what I hoped would be a decent looking résumé.
“How’s the résumé coming along?” Ivy asked from behind me. I was still sitting at the kitchen counter when she got home from grocery shopping with the girls. Mia was taking a nap.
“S’ok. I think it looks alright, but she honestly doesn’t have much work experience. The douche she was with made her quit her job a few years ago, and that was the first and only job she ever had.”
Ivy nodded her head thoughtfully as she put the groceries away. “What did she do?”
“Checkout chick. She’d been promoted to supervisor a couple of months before she quit. She’s smart, like really smart. She aced everything at school, and she said she took a few free online courses at the library on the sly over the last few years, too.
“I’m just not sure who would take a chance on her when she’s been out of the workforce for so long, you know? I mean, she could easily pick up work at another supermarket, but she’s better than that.”
Ivy remained silent as I rambled on, just listening to what I had to say. Then Gabe walked down the hall from his office. “What kind of courses did she do?”
I grabbed the notepad off the bench beside my laptop. “Umm, she did her certificate in office management, one in customer service, and another in basic computer skills.”
Gabe looked over to Ivy, and she was beaming while nodding at him. They then turned back to me. “We need a part-time office girl to help Ivy. It’s too much on her, trying to keep up with the books and look after the girls. I’ve been picking up the slack, but I fuckin’ hate paperwork. You think your girl could handle it?”
I knew Ivy was struggling with the books, but they hadn’t said anything about hiring anyone else. I hadn’t even thought of it when I was trying to figure out something for Mia. “I’m pretty fuckin’ sure she could, but I’ll talk to her. She’s already weirded out by the amount of help we’re willing to give her. She thinks everything has a price, like she keeps waiting for me to tell her I expect something from her in return for my help. It pisses me off.”
Gabe shrugged. “Whatever. Just ask her. If she wants it, it’s there. If not, I need to know so I can get someone else.”
I nodded. “Will do.” I shut my laptop down after saving the résumé in case Mia didn’t want the job.
Just as I stood up to leave, Ivy stopped me with a hand on my wrist. “I called my doctor this morning. They can squeeze Mia in on Wednesday next week at 3 p.m.”
I kissed the top of Ivy’s head as I thanked her and headed down the hallway to see if Mia was up yet.
I knocked on the bedroom door softly but didn’t hear an answer, so I quietly opened the door and slipped inside. Mia was snuggled up in my bed, still out like a light. Her dark hair splayed across the cream pillowcase in soft waves. I wanted to run my hands through it to feel if it was as soft as it looked. But I knew better than to wake a pregnant chick.
I’d woken Ivy up by accident once— never a-fucking-gain. She delivered the most severe glare I’d ever seen. I swear my skin was about to melt off my flesh. Then she proceeded to rant at me about the importance of sleep for pregnant women and to never ever interrupt one of her naps again, or the punishment would be severe. Judging by the look on her face, I didn’t doubt that one bit.
As quietly as humanly possible, I put my laptop back on my desk and turned back towards the door when Mia’s smooth voice stopped me in my tracks. I glanced over my shoulder to see her propped up on an elbow watching me with a puzzled look on her pretty face.
“Shit, I’m sorry. I was trying to be quiet,” I said, hoping she wasn’t about to go crazy pregnant chick on me.
She tilted her chin to the side a little making her hair spill over her shoulder. “It’s okay. You didn’t wake me.”
“Oh, okay then.” I straightened and decided to talk to her now about Gabe’s job offer since she had woken up. I walked back over to the end of the bed. “Mind if I sit?” Mia shrugged, so I sat on the edge but turned my body towards her. “I was just talking to Gabe and Ivy about finding you a job, and Gabe said they were planning on hiring a second office girl and thought maybe you’d be interested?”
Mia’s sleepy eyes widened. “For real?”
I smiled at her reaction. “Yeah, for real. Why not? I told him about the courses you took at the library. You’d be great. Ivy will show you the ropes, and you’ll pick it up in no time.”
She blinked at me a few times. “That’s, umm,” she shook her head, “it’s more than I was expecting to get. I mean, I’ve never worked an office job before. I thought I’d just pick up work at a supermarket again.”
I nodded my understanding. “I know. And I don’t mean to be a crusher of dreams here, but I don’t know how easy it would be to pick up where you left off. Why would a supermarket pay a twenty-three-year-old to do what they can pay someone fresh out of high school to do for less money? Do you know what I mean?”
Mia began chewing on that damn bottom lip again. It drove me nuts. I know it was what she did when she was nervous or thinking. I’d picked up on it pretty quick, since every time she did it, a shock wave went right to my dick and told me to suck on that lip when she was done with it. I inwardly chastised myself for being such a pervy bastard and made myself focus on the issue at hand.
“Do you get what I’m saying, Mia?” I asked as I reached out to grab her foot that was peeking out of the blankets near where I sat.
She slowly started nodding. “Yeah, I guess I do.” She closed her eyes, tilted her head up towards the ceiling, and ran her fingers through her hair down to the ends where they got caught in a tangle of knots. “Ow,” she muttered as she struggled to tame the mass of hair.
I moved closer to her upper body on the bed, took the hair from her, and started untangling it as I spoke. “I think you can do it. Ivy will be a great teacher, and with her help, you’ll pick it up in no time.”
Mia tilted her face to mine. “You really think so?”
She was so uncertain of herself that I wanted to find the fucker who took away her self-confidence and beat his arse to a pulp. “Yeah, Mia, I really think so.”
She smiled her heart-stopping smile at me and leaned into my body. “Thank you,” she whispered.
I couldn’t help myself. I wrapped my arms around her and leaned back on the pillows taking her small body with me until we lay flat on the bed. She snuggled in closer, and I kissed the top of her head.
We lay in comfortable silence for a few minutes before I remembered about the appointment Ivy had made for her. “Ivy made that appointment with her doctor for you. It’s on Wednesday.”
Mia’s body stiffened. “I thought I told you I couldn’t go to Ivy’s doctor?”
Fuck me. This woman was impossible. “Yeah, you did. And I didn’t listen.”
Mia squirmed in my arms, trying to pull free, but I tightened my hold. “Let me go, Kai!”
“No,” I replied with a harshness in my voice I didn’t mean. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. “Let me do this for you, Mia. If not for you, for the baby. Ivy’s doctor is one of the best. For once in your shitty life, you deserve the best. And goddamn but I want to be the one to give it to you.”
Mia stopped struggling against me and went completely still. “What do you mean? I, I don’t understand what you’re saying, Kai.” Her words whisper soft.
I hadn’t meant to say all that, but it was true. Every word of it. I wanted to be the one to give her better. To treat her the way she deserved. I looked into her smooth chocolate eyes and stroked her cheek with the back of my knuckles. “I want…”—I swallowed back my nervousness—“I know you just got out of a relationship, and I understand if this is too much too fast, but I gotta tell you, Pretty Girl, you’ve done something to me. I can’t exactly explain it, but…” I blew out a breath. This was harder than I thought it would be. I took my hand away from the smooth skin of her cheek, ran it through my hair, and fisted it at the back of my neck, frustrated that this was so hard. “I want you, Mia, like I’ve never wanted anything else before. I have this insane urge to wrap you up in cotton wool and protect what’s mine.”
A slow smile spread across her full lips. Her gaze flicker between my eyes and my mouth. “Nobody has ever wanted to look after me before.” She said with a sigh.
“I don’t just want to look after you, I want to look after you and the baby,” I explained.
Her breath caught in her throat as tears gathered in her eyes. “I don’t know what to say.”
I released the tight grip I had on the hair at the back of my neck and moved my hand to her still flat stomach. Her eyes followed my movements, and the tears that were building spilled over and began to roll down her cheeks. “Say yes, say you’ll let me do this. Say you want me as much as I want you.”
“I do, Kai, I really do. I don’t understand it, but I do want you.” She reached for my face and held it between her petite hands. “But I don’t know how to let you take care of me without feeling like I’m trapped again. As soon as I found out about the baby, I knew I had to take charge of my life. I can’t let you do this. I have to do it on my own. I just have to.”
She was still crying, and I knew in my gut she was going to fight this every step of the way. She wouldn’t cave and let me take care of her. I clenched my jaw in an attempt to hold my tongue. I didn’t want her to feel trapped. I wanted her to feel secure, safe, protected. How did I do that without making her feel like I was taking away her freedom? I released a deep sigh. “Mia, that’s the last thing I want. But I gotta tell you, Pretty Girl, it’s not in my nature to let you deal with this all by yourself.”
A hint of a smile reached her eyes as she said, “I’m getting that.” She closed her eyes and snuggled into me. “What about a compromise?”
I was instantly suspicious. “What kind of compromise?” I asked as I wrapped her more securely in my arms and nuzzled her hair at the crown of her head.
“How about I let you help me get set up in an apartment, I take the job Gabe is offering, and I go to Ivy’s doctor when I can afford it,” she suggested.
“No,” I said bluntly refusing her. “This is my counteroffer. You let me help you get an apartment, you take the job, and you go to Ivy’s doctor on Wednesday as planned. The sooner you see a doctor the better. You can start paying for the appointments when you start working. That’s my final offer.”
Mia lifted her head to peer up at me. “You’re not very good with this whole compromise thing, are you?” she mumbled.
I shrugged in response. “I did compromise. I’d rather you just stay at home and let me take care of you, but that’s obviously not going to fly with you. So I agreed to you working for Gabe, and I also put in there about you paying for future appointments. I don’t want you to pay for shit, but again, I get the feeling that’s not going to work for you. See, I’m being flexible.”
She laughed, and it was beautiful. I loved that sound. “Oh yeah, you’re flexible alright.” She rolled her eyes. “As flexible as concrete.”
My eyes narrowed on her still laughing form. “Bullshit, I’m making concessions. What more do you want from me? It’s going against my nature to stand down on these things, so you better appreciate it, woman.”
She laughed harder, and I couldn’t help but smile at her as tears leaked from the corner of her eyes. “What’s so funny?” I asked.
Shaking her head she replied, “I don’t know how I got myself into this mess. Look at me, pregnant and homeless, yet here I am, wrapped up in this amazing man’s arms and laughing harder than I have in as long as I can remember.” She wriggled away from me a little so she could bring her hand up to my cheek again. “I don’t deserve you, but I’m not going to give you up.”
Emotions I thought I was long past finding again rose in my throat as I stared into her brown eyes, they were like smooth, melted chocolate, and I never wanted to look into another woman’s eyes again.
I swallowed past the lump of emotion in my throat. “Mia”—I breathed—“I hope you mean that, Pretty Girl, because I can’t give you up. Not even if I tried.” I lowered my head and pressed a whisper soft kiss to her lips.