Filed To Story: Filthy Beautiful Lies Book PDF Free by Kendall Ryan
In the shower we lather the soap together and first he helps me clean off, his rough hands slip smoothly over my back, my arms, my hips. I savor every touch from him, and his hands relish my body’s every curve. Next I help him clean up. My hands slide along his smooth muscular body, appreciating his hard muscles. His six-pack abs are too much for me to resist and I run my fingers down his stomach.
He pulls back laughing.
“Sorry,” I say. “I forgot you’re ticklish, too.”
He quickly pulls me back to him. “You don’t ever need to apologize for touching me,” he says. He reaches behind me and turns the water off, then reaches out and grabs a towel, wrapping it around me.
As we get dressed, there is a knock on the door. “You guys got it out of your system yet?” It’s Pace.
Collins’ eyes darken, and I can see in his reaction that Pace has just broken some guy code, but then Collins meets my eyes and his expression softens once again.
Collins tugs his shorts back on, and checks to make sure I’m covered by my bikini before he answers the door. “This isn’t Dad’s small boat, plenty of other bedrooms to choose from.” His voice drops at the last word as if he’s not seeing who he’d expected beyond the open door. I peak around him and find Pace holding Max’s hand and giggle.
“Hey, little guy,” Collins turns to Max. “What’s up?”
“Max and I were exploring and found the theater room. He was wondering if we could watch a movie. We tried to figure it out without you, but we can’t seem to find the remote, and nothing works without that thing.”
“Of course we can watch a movie,” Collins says. He slips his hand around mine, and we all head to the theater to find everyone else already in there. Sophie and Colton have claimed one of the four love seats, Kylie is sitting on another, and Max runs over to join her.
“What movie should we watch?” Collins asks as he pulls the remote out of a hidden panel in the wall. We take one of the unclaimed seats and he wraps his arm around me. I curl up against his side.
“Gremlins!” Max shouts. I realize it’s an odd request right away. I was born the year the movie came out, and only know about it because of my old thrift store shirt, the one I wore the first time Collins saved me.
Sophie giggles, “What’s Gremlins?”
Kylie turns back to her, “It’s the movie Collins named his boat after.”
Pace laugh-snorts. “Yeah, that’s right, Collins named his boat after an eighties movie.” His voice drips with sarcasm.
Colton joins him laughing. “Yeah, he just can’t get enough of those cute furry creatures.”
Sophie jabs Colton in the side. “What? What’s so funny?”
Pace is laughing so hard he can’t answer, but Colton finally manages. “He named his boat after his first love.” His voice is teasing.
Sophie and Kylie look at the guys as if they’re nuts.
I feel my cheeks flush and attempt to hide my face in Collins’ chest.
“Gremlin is his nickname for Mia,” Colton finishes.
“Awe,” Sophie and Kylie both sing out at the same time. Their eyes are full of envy.
I give them both a meek grin. Then look up at Collins, expecting him to be angry at his brothers for breaking the guy code again. I’m surprised to find his eyes, kind and caring, staring lovingly back into mine. He chuckles and kisses the top of my head. Apparently, he’s totally okay with this round of jabs. And more than that, he’s not denying it. He’s not even embarrassed by his brothers calling me his first love. My heartbeat kicks up, and I reach up and kiss him.
“Ugh,” Pace says. “Get a room.”
The others laugh. Then he thinks better of it. “Never mind. We’d never see you again. Stay, but let’s keep things PG.” He squeezes into the loveseat next to Max and Kylie, throwing his arm around Max as if to emphasize why we are keeping things PG.
Collins says, “Right, Gremlins.” He pulls out the remote and locates the movie easily on one of his satellite services.
“You’ve seen this, right?” he asks me.
I shake my head.
“You mean all this time you just let me call you gremlin, and you weren’t even curious?”
“I knew from the shirt it’s a cute little fuzzy creature.”
Collins shakes his head incredulously and sets the movie to play. He dims the lights, and I settle in next to him. The others all settle in too. I look around me, feeling warmed by their company. I know that we haven’t talked seriously about our future, but still, being here with him, and with his family, everything just feels right. I wonder, and hope that gatherings like this one might become a tradition. I’d love to be able to look forward to family day on the boat each Sunday.
I realize that when I showed up here several weeks ago I was ashamed and embarrassed by my situation and am happy to find that is no longer the case. Now I know I’ve got nothing to be ashamed of. I feel wanted. And I love it.
Collins leans down and whispers that we should stay the night on the boat and I gaze up at him, my heart filled to bursting.
Chapter Twenty-One
Collins
I power down my laptop, and gather up my belongings from my desk. It’s Friday, time to start the weekend, and can’t wait to spend it with Mia. Dating Mia Monroe is an experience I was wholly unprepared for. She’s fun and carefree and easy going. Nothing like the Botoxed, uptight women I’ve been with since moving to LA.
Mia and I have been casually dating for the past two weeks. We’ve been to the ballet, made a trip to a world-renowned winery, and attended a designer’s first showing of a jewelry collection-during which, Mia actually yawned. It’s time to change up my game. This is
Mia.
My Mia. And tonight I’ve got something perfect planned. At least I hope I do.
Smiling to myself as I stroll toward the elevator, I say goodbye to a few dedicated employees who are still here after five o’clock on a Friday. There was an office-poll about my recent transformation. Apparently I look more rested, smile more often, and just seem happier. Shit, one brave soul even asked if I’d had work done, implying I’d gotten plastic surgery. They thought I was unaware of the whispering and quiet conversations had behind cubicle walls. But I wasn’t. In fact I was as curious about this transformation as they were. At first, they assumed my twenty-three-year-old supermodel girlfriend was responsible for the smile on my face. But then they’d seen Mia bring me lunch one day-a steak sandwich from my favorite deli-and realized I was no longer dating Tatianna. I didn’t say a word. I actually thought the whole thing was quite humorous. Besides, it was none of their damn business. I felt happy and ten years younger, and it wasn’t just the fantastic sex I was having. It was because Mia brought out the best in me. I grin as I pass by a particularly chatty administrative assistant. Raising one eyebrow, her gaze darts away from mine and she begins frantically typing on her keyboard. I have a feeling if I look closer, it’ll all be gibberish. “Good night, Miss Corrigan,” I say.