Chapter 317
**Sara**
I rolled my eyes. "So you only want me there because you're bored and lonely? Nice to know where I rank on your priority list."
"What? No!" Tom's eyes widened. "That's not what I meant at all."
"Sounds exactly like what you meant." I pulled the silk top down, covering myself. "Tom's bored, so he wants his little plaything around."
"Sara, stop." His voice turned serious. "You know that's not what I meant."
"Do I?" I pulled the covers up, wrapping them around me like armor. "Because it sounds like-"
"I miss you because every second I'm away from you feels wrong." He leaned closer to the camera, his eyes intense. "I miss your smile, your laugh, the way you scrunch your nose when you're thinking. I miss how you steal all the blankets and deny it in the morning."
"I do not steal blankets!"
"You absolutely do. I have photographic evidence."
"That proves nothing." I hugged his pillow closer, breathing in his scent. "And I only take what I need."
"The entire duvet? Really?"
"I get cold!"
"That's what I'm here for." His expression softened. "Or at least, that's what I should be there for. Instead, I'm stuck in this hotel room, wondering if you're safe, if you're happy, if you're thinking about me as much as I'm thinking about you."
Heat crept up my neck. "You think about me that much?"
"Every minute." He ran a hand through his hair, messing it up in a way that made my heart skip. "I can't focus in meetings because I keep wondering what you're doing. If you're wearing my sweater. If you miss me."
"Maybe a little." I buried my face in the pillow to hide my smile.
"A little?"
"Okay, a lot." I peeked over the pillow. "But don't let it go to your head."
"Too late." His grin was infectious. "I'm already planning ways to spoil you when I get back."
"Oh?" I perked up. "What kind of ways?"
"That's for me to know and you to find out."
"Tease."
"Always." He winked, and then his expression grew serious again. "Sara, you're not just some plaything to me. You're... you're everything."
My heart stuttered. "Tom..."
"I mean it. When I'm with you, everything makes sense. When I'm not..." He shrugged. "It's like the world's slightly off-kilter."
"Now you're just being dramatic."
"Maybe." His smile was soft. "But it's true. I want you here because being apart from you physically hurts. Because every time I see something interesting, my first thought is how much you'd love it. Because my bed feels too big without you in it."
"Even with all your blankets?" I tried to joke, but my voice came out shaky.
"Even with all my blankets." He leaned back, his shirt still tantalizingly open. "So please, don't ever think you're just some distraction from boredom. You're the reason I wish time would move faster so I could get back to you sooner."
"You can't just say things like that!" I buried my face in the pillow again.
"Why not?"
"Because!" I gestured vaguely. "It makes me feel things!"
"Good things?"
"Shut up."
"Make me."
I lifted my head to glare at him. "You're impossible."
"And yet you miss me." His smirk was infuriating.
"I'm reconsidering that now."
"No, you're not." His voice held that infuriating certainty, making me want to throw things at him.
"And why's that, Mr. Know-it-all?"
"Because," he shifted closer to the camera, those piercing eyes burning into mine, "I love you too much, and you love me too much. We're both just dancing around it, pretending we don't feel what we feel."
My heart stopped. Then started. Then did some weird flutter thing that probably wasn't healthy. "I... what?"
"You heard me." His voice softened. "I'm sitting here in this ridiculously expensive hotel room, staring at the Sydney skyline, and all I can think about is how much better it would be if you were here. How much I wish I could show you the view, take you to dinner, watch you try to figure out why Australians call flip-flops 'thongs.'"
I snorted, trying to hide how his words affected me. "You're just saying that because you're stuck with Leo and his terrible jokes."
"No, I'm saying it because it's true." His voice dropped lower, sending shivers down my spine. "And you know it's true, too."
"I know no such thing." I pulled his pillow closer, inhaling his scent. God, he was right - I did know it. Every word he said hit home like an arrow to my heart, but admitting it? That was scarier than facing my mother's interrogations about my love life.
"Liar." His smile could melt glaciers. "Your nose does that cute little scrunch when you're lying."
"It does not!" I touched my nose self-consciously.
"See? You're doing it right now."
"Am not." I stuck my tongue out at him, only making his grin wider.
"Real mature, Sara Parker."
"Says the man who got fake-arrested today."
"That was Leo's fault!" He ran his fingers through his hair, messing it up even more. "And stop changing the subject."
"I'm not changing anything." I flopped back against his pillows, staring at the ceiling. "You're the one who keeps insisting-"
"That I love you?"
My heart did that stupid flutter thing again. "Tom..."
"You're doing it again - running away from what we both know is true." His eyes were intense even through the screen. "We're both here, missing each other like crazy, pretending this is just some casual thing when we both know it's not."
"I'm not pretending anything!" I huffed, pulling his sheets tighter around me.
"Alright, sweetheart. No need to pretend when we both want what we want and just don't want to admit it." His voice carried that infuriating mix of confidence and amusement, making me want to throw my phone across the room.
"What's that supposed to mean?" I narrowed my eyes at the screen, watching him lean back on the couch with his smug smile.
"We can talk about that later. You need sleep." He glanced at his watch. "Aren't you going to your parents' place?"
I nodded. "Yeah, it's already Sunday here, so technically, I'm going this evening. Charles is picking me up."
"You should tell them about me." Tom's voice held a hint of something I couldn't quite place. Nervousness? From Mr. Confident himself?
I snorted. "Why would I do that?"
"Because I'm your boyfriend?"