Page 46 of Teasing a King

“No,” I say. “Anyone can tell you what color the ocean is. But you have a way of describing a beach in Bali so well that I feel the sand between my toes.”

She lightly pinches my side. “You keep up that smooth talking and I’m liable to keep you awake even longer tonight.”

I laugh.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” She asks softly.

I shrug. “I was embarrassed at first. Then, I felt like too much time had passed. It would just be awkward.”

“So, why tell me now?”

I pull her closer. “Because I wanted you to know how incredible you are. That your writing matters. You joke around about it like it’s just this thing that pays the bills. Like it’s just a job, but not everyone can do what you do. It takes skill and talent.”

She’s quiet for a long moment before speaking again. “Thank you. That means a lot.”

“Anytime,” I murmur, kissing the top of her head.

She’s quiet for long enough that I wonder if she’s dozed off. Then she leans up as if a thought just occurred to her. “Does anyone else know about your obsession with me?”

“I wouldn’t call it an obsession,” I say.

“Whatever,” she says dismissively. “That’s what I’m telling our child when I tell the story later. Answer the question. Does Wyatt know?”

I smile and shake my head. “Just you and me.” I laugh. “The first time Hope came to family dinner and talked about her best friend and business partner named Mya, I almost choked on my food. I wanted to know more about you, but Finn kept asking about her work and her plans.”

“See?” Mya says. “Obsession.”

“Yeah, yeah,” I mutter, pressing her head back to my chest. “Go to sleep.”

She gives a contented sigh and squeezes me tighter. “Goodnight, stalker.”

I lie awake for a long time, long after Mya’s breathing evens out signaling that she’s sound asleep. I hold her to me as I stare up at the ceiling, trying to come to grips with tonight’s revelations. Well, it’s really just the one revelation. But it’s a big one. And I don’t know what to do about it. I know it’s liable to change things between us if I tell Mya, but I don’t know how much longer I can pretend I’m not completely in love with her.

I don’t know when it happened. I can’t remember any one thing that sent me over the edge. I can only define it as life before Mya and life after Mya. I can’t remember falling in love with her. But tonight, something shifted inside me, and all at once it just hit me. Now I can’t imagine not loving her. I can’t imagine not seeing her smile each day, not making her laugh or kissing her lips. I can’t picture my life without her. And I can’t even tell her. At least, not yet. Not until I have a better idea of how she feels about me.

It’s possible she’ll be overjoyed when I tell her, and she’ll say she loves me too. But it’s also possible my confession will ruin the fragile dynamic we have. We’ve never talked about feelings, at least not for one another. We’ve stuck to safer topics, like impending parenthood and whether to breastfeed. I left that one up to her to decide. But love? We’ve never talked about love.

I know Mya cares for me. I know she likes me. And I know for sure that she likes having sex with me. But does that mean she loves me? She was willing to uproot her life and move in with me for the sake of our baby. I know she’d do anything for the baby. But her feelings for me are a mystery. I lie awake until nearly dawn, trying to think of a way to decipher Mya’s feelings for me without outright telling her I love her. But when I finally drift off to sleep, I’m no closer to figuring it out than I was before.

Chapter Nineteen

Mya

“Are you nervous?”

My eyes shoot over to Van’s. “No,” I say. “Why should I be?”

He shrugs, pulling to a stop at a red light. Looking over at me, he smiles. “It’s a big deal,” he says. “We get to see our baby today.”

I sigh. “It’s just an ultrasound,” I say, but I can tell he’s excited. “I’ll just be happy to know our baby is healthy. That’s all I need to see.”

“You don’t want to know if it’s a boy or a girl?” he asks as the light switches to green.

“Nope,” I say. “As long as it’s healthy, it doesn’t matter to me either way.”

“You really don’t have a preference?” he teases.

I shake my head. “I really don’t,” I say, rubbing my belly. It’s grown larger in the past few weeks. I finally had to break down and start wearing maternity pants. Luckily, Quinn went shopping with me and showed me that maternity doesn’t have to be ugly.

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