***
Afterward, Sean watched her hand move up and down his stomach, and although it tickled a little, he remained silent. With the lust in his body sated, at least for the moment, his mind moved back to his original thoughts. He’d expected that when Mia checked out on Sunday they would end their little...Sean’s thoughts paused. What should he call this thing between them? It wasn’t a relationship, at least not a romantic one. Maybe the term fling described it. Whatever you called it, he figured the expiration date on it to be Sunday. Her proposal to continue it surprised him, and he wasn’t dumb enough to say no. Any red-blooded male would give anything to be with Mia Troy, voted two years in a row as the world’s sexiest woman.
That said, something nagged him, made him wonder if letting things continue was wise. For the most part, he didn’t seek out relationships that remained purely physical. When he dated, which wasn’t often, he sought out women who wanted the ring and white picket fence. Someday he’d like the perfect marriage much like his friend Tony’s parents had, but so far he hadn’t met the right woman. And while he enjoyed his time with Mia, he knew she wasn’t marriage material. Even he recognized that Hollywood relationships didn’t last. Despite this knowledge, ever since the block party Mia had managed to evoke a gambit of emotions inside him that no other woman he’d ever met had. He’d experienced everything from protectiveness to embarrassment. Even now with her just resting next to him, she caused unfamiliar emotions.
The constant feeling that he was dreaming made perfect sense. After all, men everywhere dreamed of finding Mia Troy naked in their beds, and he, Sean O’Brien, a nobody from North Salem, Massachusetts, had her. The ever present desire made sense as well. But the contentment and peace he experienced when they spent time together perplexed him. Over the years he’d accepted his situation in life and, while not how he’d once pictured his life, he’d been happy with it. Or at least he thought so. Now as he went about his day, a restlessness plagued him, this sense that he belonged somewhere else, doing something else. Yet once he and Mia got together, whether for dinner or a game of pool, the restlessness disappeared. Over the past two weeks, he’d come to look forward to sharing his day with her. No matter how boring or mundane, she listened and then shared her own day. He’d never done that with anyone he’d dated, nor had he wanted to.
Don’t get used to it. Once she’s done here, she’ll be off to California again. All she wants is some fun while she’s here to pass the time.
“What are you thinking about?” Mia asked, her hand still moving across his skin.
Sean grabbed her hand as it ventured close to the bottom of his rib cage, one of the most ticklish spots on his body. “You.”
Mia propped herself up on one elbow and looked down at him. Her disheveled hair hung in a loose mass around her shoulders. When they’d come upstairs, the only makeup she’d had on was lipstick, but now that was gone. With makeup she looked glamorous, but he preferred her like this.
“What about me?”
Her hair brushed against his shoulder when she moved her head. The scent of her shampoo reached him and visions of the beach sprang to mind. “You baking.” He used the first thing he thought of. “Ma said you helped make muffins yesterday.” He’d cut off his left hand before he told her what thoughts had been going through his head. “I can’t picture you measuring out flour and beating eggs.”
“I used to do it all the time before I moved to California and loved it. Well, the baking part at least. I hate the clean up.”
When she mentioned clean up, he remembered the pizza mess in the other room. He should clean it up before Max came in and polished it off. The dog was known to eat anything and everything regardless of whether it was edible or not.
“I’m getting hungry again. What about you?” More than half Mia’s salad should still be in the other room, too.
“Me, too, but not for food.” Mia sucked on his earlobe as she freed her hand from Sean’s and let it disappear under the blankets.
When her warm hand wrapped around him, he groaned as raw heat shot through him once again. Food could wait.