Our Saving Grace

Ulterior Motives - Kota

Forty-nine, fifty, fifty-one...

Mia never stayed in the bed longer than a minute after we have been intimate. Never. Sex with her was exciting and always got my blood boiling, but I always hate this next part. The part where she gets up before my heart even has a chance to return to his normal resting pace. The part where she makes me feel bereft and like we were missing out on the intimacy of the moment.

Fifty-two, fifty-three.

Mia's hand moved to rest on my chest for a moment before she patted it and used that hand to push herself into a sitting position. Then she rolled away from me and started searching for her discarded clothes. I had been surprised when she texted earlier, wanting to meet for lunch. Usually, Mia waited for me to reach out to her to make plans. It was one of the reasons that we worked so well. Mia was very self-sufficient and didn't feel hurt when I spent a span of time without being able to spend time with her.

When I had told her that I was already out to lunch with friends, she had actually volunteered to come to join us. She never asked to be included with stuff that I did with the guys, and I decided that this was a good sign. A sign that maybe we can start moving forward after keeping things at about the same level for almost a year.

Sang and Mia didn't like eachother. It was evident in both of their body languages and I was trying to puzzle out why. Both were sweet women that were on the shy side. I could see that Sang would have issues with trusting any unknown woman because of her history, but that didn't explain why Mia didn't like Sang. Someone would have to go out of their way not to like Sang. The only possible answer that I could come up with was that Mia could intuit that I cared for Sang.

Which was a novel feeling. Mia hadn't ever been the jealous type. Another reason why I was content with her. She wasn't one to create drama where there wasn't any. She knew that I would never betray her by cheating and trusted me.

"So I was surprised to see Sang leave the diner with North," Mia said, bringing me out of my musings and catching my attention. "I thought she was dating Gabe. I mean she did kiss him in front of everyone at the party."

Interesting. I must be wrong about the jealous aspect because she didn't sound that way at all. She simply sounded curious. The same simple and understandable curiosity she had about anything relating to the Academy. "I don't think Sang is officially dating anyone right now. She just got out of a relationship and is healing from her car crash," I told her, not wanting to get into the possibility of Sang starting to date most of my team.

"Really?" Mia said as she bent towards my dresser mirror so that she could reapply her lipstick. "Break-ups are so hard. What happened?"

I followed the movement of her hands as they moved in a confident pattern over her lips and replied, "He was cheating on her, and now is trying to get her back. He keeps hanging around even when she told him she wasn't interested. That is why we are helping out and sticking close to her." I figured this was as good of an excuse as any as to why Sang was staying with us instead of her own apartment. And it wasn't even a lie.

"Oh, how horrible. I am so lucky to have found you. You would never treat me like that," Mia said before turning and giving me a small sweet smile. And she was right. She was one of the only things in this world that was normal and separate from my Academy work. She was like my life raft. Or rather my anchor to the real world so that I didn't totally lose myself.

I needed to remember that. I needed to be more careful around Sang.

"You don't need to leave," I hedged and half hoped that I could talk her back into bed. Maybe we could just lay here together for the rest of the day. Even an hour would make me happy. Hell, five minutes of just being able to hold her would settle my restless soul.