Page 89 of Wild

"Don't blackmail me, Wilder."

"I'm not," Mia says, though the mischievous smile won't leave her face.

"Let me think about it, okay?"

"Of course." Mia curls up and pulls the sheet over herself.

"The pain still hasn't let up?"

"It has, but it's slow. I think I'm going to close my eyes for a bit."

"Okay. I'm going down to the gym. I'll have my phone on me — call me if you need anything," Erin says.

Mia murmurs something Erin can't make out, and Erin leaves the room to go work out. There are barely two other people in the gym when she walks in. She sits down on a bench against the wall, scanning the machines and deciding where to start —but she finds herself thinking about the singer's proposal almost immediately. Even though it had never figured into any of the scenarios she'd imagined, she's liked the idea from the moment Mia said it. She likes working with Mia, traveling with the tour, how easy everything feels out here. She can picture herself as the doctor for all of them, and that prospect motivates her even more than she already is. They'd become recurring patients — people she could actually help, with real continuity, instead of a constant stream of strangers who hold back half their history because they don't trust her yet.

It would also solve her problem with Mia. They'd be able to see each other regularly while still keeping their independence. On tour, two separate rooms even if they usually ended up in the same bed; off tour, she has her apartment and Mia has her house. The only thing that unsettles her is what happens if things between them don't work out, but since she's sick of worrying about everything, she decides to trust that they're both mature enough to handle it if it comes to that. She laughs to herself picturing the scenario, because she's pretty sure they'd just reset to the beginning: she'd be prickly and Mia would be the same provocative girl she first met, but she's sure they'd end up getting along fine.

She stands up and pulls her phone out of her pocket to make sure Mia hasn't texted her — and that's when she sees the earlier notification, a message from her sister Brooke.

Brooke Dooley

You're hooking up with her and you can't even introduce her to your own sister? What's going on — did having a famous girlfriend go to your head? No wonder you're so alone if you're this selfish.

Erin sits back down, unsettled. She hadn't expected Brooke to come around this quickly — hadn't even been sure she was capable of it — but this was definitely not what she'd expected, and she can't stop wondering whether she herself has something to do with the cruelty that seems to live in her sister. She taps to delete the message, but when the confirmation prompt appears, she changes her mind and leaves it in the thread — a reminder of exactly what kind of person her sister is, for the next time she feels the urge to call and check in on her.

She closes the app and scrolls to Barry's name in her contacts. It's been days since they talked, and he's also the first person she wants to share her decision with.

Chapter 33

Erin makes a sound that's somewhere between a grunt and a gasp.

"I'm sorry," Mia breathes, her fist tight in Erin's hair just above the nape of her neck, squeezing hard as she tries to hold back an orgasm that's already right there.

They're in the shower, Mia wrapped around the doctor's waist, back pressed against the tile, the water streaming between them and Erin's fingers inside her. Gray eyes locked on the singer's, she moves at a relentless pace, swallowing Mia's sighs—and a little water—as she gasps against her mouth.

"I'm going to come, Erin." Her voice comes out strangled, closer to a plea than an announcement, because she doesn't want to let go this fast, but every time Erin fucks her like this, she gets so worked up she can't hold on.

"You know how much I love hearing you, honey," Erin hisses.

The doctor's voice has just as much effect as the position, and the moment Mia hears it, a violent tremor rolls through her belly and she can't hold back the full force of her orgasm, her moans swallowed up by the sound of the water pouring over them both.

"I'm so glad you said yes—I don't know if I've told you that yet," she whispers against Erin's neck, still holding on to her while she comes down from the wave of pleasure that just swept through her.

Erin smiles and kisses her shoulder.

After the gym, she'd come back to the room and spent the day with the singer without doing much of anything besides lyingin bed, and when Mia started feeling better, they decided to go down to the restaurant for dinner.

"There are going to be people around us," the singer warned when Erin suggested it.

"I know."

"And you don't mind?" Mia wanted to be sure.

"If you're okay with it, so am I."

The crooked smile crossed Mia's face and her blue eyes lit up brighter than a calm sea.

"I couldn't give less of a damn what people say," she shot back, and Erin rolled her eyes.