Savior

Thirteen: Wes

I somehow managed to make it through breakfast without ravishing her completely, which surprised no one more than myself. Things were different to Mia. Did I want to fuck her? Absolutely. But... I wanted more. I wanted to show her the type of relationship she deserved, the type... of love she deserved. Fuck. Yeah. Love was a scary thing, especially for me. I'd lost my mother and my father, and I went through a long period in which I was certain that I was to blame. That I was... unlovable in some sort of way. So, the older I got, the more I made the idea of someone loving me not even an option. Yeah, I knew Bill and Belinda and the family loved me, but never the women I was with. I never kept them around long enough to give them the option. But Mia? With Mia it was... different. I wanted to see where this could go. I wanted us to have a future. I wanted to do things right and take my time and make sure she knew that this, what was going on between us, was real. I wanted a LIFE with this woman, and that... that was mind-blowing to say the least.

After breakfast, I headed for the shower, insisting that I was taking her out for some sort of romantic excursion. In truth, I had absolutely zero idea what we were going to do, but I was good at making things up as I went, so I figured I could pull it off. But when I emerged from the bathroom, one towel around my waist and the other in my hand, drying my hair, I found Mia, sitting on the bed, straight as a board and paler than I had ever seen her.

"Babe?" I asked, watching her carefully. She wasn't looking at me, or anything really, more staring off into space, her phone lit up on the pillow in her lap. "What's going on?"

Mia shook her head a bit and lifted the phone, stretching her arm out to hand it to me. "Jazz sent me this."

Brows furrowed, I took the phone, only to find a picture of us, stowed away in the corner at the engagement party the night before, staring back at me. It was obvious neither of us knew our photo was being taken. My hand rested precariously low on her back, sitting just atop the curve of her ass, and we were gazing at each other like there was no one else in the world. All in all, it was a great photo, but the fact that I was looking at it from some gossip rag on the internet, put a bad taste in my mouth.

"How'd they get this?"

She just shrugged. "No idea. Jazz saw it this morning and sent it.. Said it's not the only one."

"So... someone at the party sold us out."

"Looks that way."

"Who?"

Mia sighed and leaned her head into her hands. "I don't know, Wes. I don't fucking know."

"What do we do?"

I could hear her gulp. "I don't know. Your uncle is going to freak out."

"No, he's not."

Mia let out a shrill, disbelieving laugh as she sat up. "Of course, he is, Weston. That looks... the complete polar opposite of professional. Let's be real."

"He knew I was coming."

Suddenly her dark eyes were on mine, wide and fearful. "You told him?"

"Of course, I did," I stated with a bit of a chuckle that she definitely did not appreciate. "Not... that we're dating or... whatever we're doing. I just... I told him that you had to go to this wedding, and you were super nervous because things with your family are tense and... I volunteered to come with you to... lighten the mood a bit."

"And he bought it?"

I shrugged one shoulder. "I mean, he definitely thinks I'm trying to bang you. I doubt he thinks you're into it though."

A small smile creased her once worry-ridden face. "I think the look on my face in that picture says that I definitely am."

"So what?" I said with another shrug. "We keep this going, we're going to have to tell him eventually."