My friends and employees had asked what had made her so special that I was willing to go without a woman for a year until I could make her mine, and I answered with the same reply every time. Willow was worth the wait. She was not only excellent in bed, but she was smart. So fucking smart. Late in the night, she was spouting off psychological ramblings about how that related to her Communication degree. I wasn’t even listening to half of what she said; I was too enthralled that she had come home with me.
I was lost staring at her. She was just as beautiful as I remembered - long, wavy blonde hair, pale skin with a hint of freckles from where the sun kissed her skin, and brown eyes that showed me every ounce of what she was thinking.
“What are you doing?” she asked me and I felt my frown slowly slide back into place. This was the day I planned to lay it all on the line – my secrets, wants, and fears.
“I was waiting.”
“For what?”
“For you to be ready,” I told her honestly.
“Ready?” she whispered as she glanced at a friend standing close by.
“For me.”
The woman next to Willow flushed and whispered something in the ear of her male companion. They appeared to be a couple as he wrapped an arm around the woman’s waist.
“We’ll meet you back at the apartment, Willow, and we can start looking for a new internship, okay? Make sure to bring your friend.”
Willow’s answering groan rang through my ears and my cock immediately tightened behind my pants. She watched her friend walk away before turning back to me. Her eyes scoured over my body, leaving a trail of warmth behind their path.
Around us, the crowd grew heavy on the grass field as families congratulated their loved ones. It made me wonder why Willow didn’t seem to have anyone with her, but I didn’t have time to ponder because she was shoved from behind right into my arms. Broken from her trance, she seemed to tense up as she glanced around, people closing in on us.
“How about we go somewhere quiet to talk?”
“Okay, that sounds good,” she replied, her hand gripping my shirt, knowing that I’d protect her just as I had at Covert.
Her fear of crowds wasn’t something we had discussed, but the moment my eyes had landed on her as she entered Covert, I could sense her fear and unease as if it were my own. Anyone would have had to be blind not to see the panic in her eyes when she had walked across the bar as the crowd jostled her. I thanked the heavens every day that I had been the one to notice her fright and not my business partners. Luke would have taken advantage of her disquiet instead of comforting her.
I guided us toward a shaded area of the field where Red Oak trees were clumped together.
Once we were safely away from the crowd, I reached up and stroked the back of my hand against her soft cheek, loving how she tilted her head into my touch.
“I’ve missed you, Willow.”
“But you barely know me. Other than our one night together, you know nothing about me,” she replied, her eyes dropping toward my lips as I spoke.
“I know enough that we are compatible. I know that you pulled me in the moment you walked into Covert. I know that I could never tire of listening to you speak. I know that I never believed in love at first sight – until you. And I know that I was going to regret it for the rest of my life if I didn’t find you.”
Her face was flush with emotion – thrill, fear, affection – they all flashed across her face at different moments. She took a step away from me, and I wanted so badly to pull her back, but she needed her space from me. I knew I was coming on strong, but I couldn’t help it.
“How can you say those things? I’m a stranger.”
“Willow, can you honestly look at me and tell me that you feel nothing? That you haven’t relived our moment together a thousand times in your mind, praying that you don’t forget a single detail? That you don’t regret leaving that morning?”
She was fighting an internal battle with herself; I could see it in the way she clenched and unclenched her hands by her side. A brisk breeze whipped up around us and swirled around our bodies. I could smell both of us in the air and I wished that I was able to bottle it up.
“I can’t.”
“You can’t what?” I questioned, reaching out for her hand because I couldn’t stand not touching her again.
“I can’t say that I haven’t done any of those things because I have. Every single one.”
I wanted to kiss her more than I wanted to breathe, but when I asked, she shook her head. Willow wanted to know how I found her and I was afraid she wasn’t going to like the answer. It was the main reason I had kept my distance, but I did it for her.
“The Dean of Wellington is my mother.”
“What?” She tried to tug her hand back, but I held onto it firmly. I knew if she slipped free, there was little chance of me getting her back. She needed to listen and let me explain, even if it wouldn’t make sense.
“You had a student ID with you that night; it fell out of your jeans in my bedroom. I may have bribed my mother’s assistant to tell me what she could about you, but she could only give me your term year and that you had filed for graduation. I didn’t want to interfere with your studies.” It wasn’t the likeliest of explanations, but it was the truth, and I hoped that Willow knew that and understood that I was trying to do what was best for her. I bided my time in the hopes that she would feel the same connection as I had when we were together; I never feared her finding someone else but was willing to accept it if she had.
“I have so many questions.”
“And I swear to you that I’ll answer them all, but can I please do the one thing I’ve been thinking about for almost a year?” Her cheeks flushed at my question and I began to wonder what she was assuming as she nodded her head. Stroking my hand up her arm, I snaked it around the back of her neck and yanked her toward me until the soft flesh of her lips met mine. She tasted better than I remembered, and if I didn’t stop myself now, I was going to make sure that we weren’t both kicked off of the campus for indecent exposure.
Something her friend said chimed in the back of my mind and I pulled back from Willow with an idea formulating. Her eyes were glazed over as I pressed one last kiss against her forehead. I wanted to see that dreamy stare on her all of the time.
“Your friend mentioned that you needed a new internship,” I stated, and for a second, Willow looked confused until she remembered where we were.
“Yeah, the television station I was going to intern at canceled the program. I have to find a new one before I can technically graduate.”
“Great, I have a solution. You can intern for me,” I said confidently despite her giggle.
“I don’t think the program accepts a personal intern.”
“Probably not, but one with our communication and marketing team will be.” As her brows furrowed in confusion, I continued, “I own a handful of clubs in Boston, and Covert is one of them. You could join the team after your internship since we’re expanding the clubs. It’s a perfect solution. That is if you wanted to stay in Boston. But I also have a new venture that you would be perfect for.”
Wide brown eyes met my green ones, and I could see that Willow was formulating a list a mile long with questions.