73

ALEX
Drew’s plan had worked.
I could hardly believe it.
The magnitude of joy and relief currently coursing through my body was sufficient enough to have me levitating off the car seat, but by some miracle, I remained sitting. Pretty sure the only thing keeping me grounded was the woman sitting beside me.
She’d forgiven me.
Laura forgave me.
I’d gone so long without her, it seemed implausible that she was actually here. That she’d entered my car willingly and I hadn’t even had to come up with an elaborate excuse to get her in.
I knew I should probably stop turning her way every quarter of a second like a fucking creep and keep my focus on the road, where it should be, but I couldn’t help it. Hell, I was half scared she was going to jump out of the car the second I stopped and never look back. Or that this was another one of the painfully vivid dreams of her that haunted me at night.
The ride to her place was quiet. Several times, I found myself wanting to say something to her-to initiate conversation-but I didn’t know what. Was she going through the same thing? Her neutral expression had me thinking I was alone in my turmoil, causing my shoulders to sag with disappointment.
Finding a parking spot at her building was easy, so I pulled the car off the road and turned to her only to see that she was already staring at me.
My heart jumped into my throat. Laura’s beauty was angelic, making her appear unreal at times. Now was one of those times. I couldn’t believe I’d had someone so precious and had almost lost her due to my own foolishness. I couldn’t lose her again. I would do everything to make sure I didn’t. Including walking on eggshells around her until I was certain she was comfortable around me again.
Shaking my head when I realized I’d been staring at her like the moron I was, I got out of the car and rounded it, opening her door. I cleared my throat. “I’ll walk you up.”
Her ‘okay’ was so low, I wouldn’t have caught it had my entire existence not been focused on her.
Placing a hand on the small of her back, I led her in, hoping I did a decent job of hiding what that little contact did to me. It got worse in the elevator, the confined place seeming to draw us closer even though we maintained the same distance between us as we had outside it.
Her back was tense under my palm. Actually, her whole body looked tense and she seemed to be carrying herself woodenly and not the usual way she walked which never failed to have my eyes glued to her form.
I hung back as she opened her door, then followed her in because I assumed she wanted me to, seeing as she’d left it open. Inside, I stood near the door, unsure of what to do with myself. It was funny how I’d gone from holding myself back when I was around her so that I didn’t come off as too much, to getting comfortable around her, only to go back to the way I was before.
Months of effort wasted. All because I’d screwed it up.
How long until we got rid of this tension? Weeks? Months?
Laura kicked off her slides before walking over to the island where she dropped the bag she’d been carrying. The one I knew contained heels Drew had used to lure her out earlier. Heels I’d paid for.
But she didn’t need to know that.
She finally faced me-and time seemed to freeze. For a moment, we stood exactly where we were staring at each other, our eyes saying everything that our mouths couldn’t. I wanted to go to her with every fiber of my being. The past few weeks without her had been really fucking tough. The only things I’d been capable of feeling were pain, numbness and an intense longing. Now that it was certain she had finally forgiven me, lust was riding me hard.
I needed to get the hell out of here.
I blinked in surprise when she started walking to me, my heart rate accelerating by the second. Without saying anything, she lifted on her toes, placed an arm sround my neck and hugged me. Thrown because I hadnt been expecting that, it took me quite a while before my brain could catch up and I returned the hug.
She could probably hear-if not feel-my heart racing in my chest but I couldn’t be bothered to give a fuck though because she was hugging me. Aside from the fact that it felt like heaven, it meant we really were okay. That knowledge should have had my tense-as-hell muscles relaxing a fraction except they didn’t because Laura’s. Body. Was. Pressed. Against. Mine.
The lust I’d been struggling to keep at bay came surging back and my dick hardened. There was no way she wasn’t feeling it, but I would rather die than break away from this hug right now. She felt like home and I’d been away from home for a very very long time.
Like warmth after a long day of being out in the cold.
Keeping my hand on her back and fighting the urge to slide them lower like I usually did was one of the hardest things I’d ever had to do.
When she began to pull away, I tried my best not to let my dissapointment show, forcing myself to let her go when every single cell in my body rebelled against it.
I looked everywhere but at her. “Yeah-uh…I should probably go.”
Without waiting for a response, I turned around to leave before I did something stupid like attach myself to her and not leave until the next decade-and even then, she’d have to push me away.
I was already at the door when I heard her call my name. Heart in my throat, I turned around slowly.
She glanced up at me from beneath her lashes, wringing her hands. “You don’t have to leave.”
I blinked, tension stealing through my body. I didn’t have to leave?
Were my ears playing tricks on me? If so, then that would be an unbearably cruel thing to happen to me right now.
I wasn’t sure how long I stood there, unmoving like a statue, but it was enough for Laura to curse and shove her hands into the back pockets of her pants. She looked up at me, looked away, then shifted her weight from one foot onto the other.
She obviously wanted to say something but was hesitating. I could have just saved her the stress and told her that I didn’t really want to leave either, but after the past few weeks of relentlesslly and shamelessly chasing her, I needed something from her.
Anything.
I also wanted to be sure I’d heard correctly.
Then, as if making up her mind, she looked up at me. “Screw this. I guess what I’m trying to say is that I want you to stay.”
“Thank You, God.”
I wasted no time erasing the distance between us because I didn’t want her to change her mind, and I could have sworn I saw a small smile lit up her face-maybe because of the way I’d reacted-before our lips met. Honestly, if you asked me who moved first, I wouldn’t be able to tell you. All I knew was one moment we were apart and the next, we were kissing.
Her lips were the softest thing and they never failed to make me lose my mind.
Unlike our kisses which usually started out slow, this one didn’t. It was hard and explosive, mimicking the lust surging through my bloodstream.
My tongue brushed the seam of her lips, seeking entrance as I lifted her. Laura wrapped her legs around my waist as I moved over to the island, placing her on it. I almost came in my pants when her tongue brushed mine. My hips flexed, my raging hard-on brushing her center through our jeans.
I almost protested when she broke the kiss only to see that it was to take her top off. Then she tugged on mine, muttering, “Off.”
Her tone suggested our clothes were an inconvenience and considering the fact that they stopped my skin from being in direct contact with hers, I agreed. My shirt was up and over my head in a flash before I attacked her neck, dropping open-mouthed kisses everywhere I went and dragging my tongue along the soft skin.
But there was no time for foreplay. Didn’t even get the chance to prep her up and make sure she was ready for me before her hands went to my pants and unbuttoned them, swiftly rolling down the zipper. She wasted no time dipping her hand into my briefs and wrapping her fingers around my length.
I hissed, dropping my face into the space between her shoulder and neck, breathing raggedly as she jacked her hand up and down. It was the sweetest torment and I would have very much loved for her to have her fun, but if she kept at it, there was no way on earth I was going to last. And it would be a big fucking shame to come before I had the pleasure of feeling her again.
With shaking hands, I went to work on her pants. Getting the button undone was akin to cracking a code with my trembling hands but I eventually did and she braced her free hand behind her on the island as she lifted her hips to assist me in dragging both the pants and her underwear off.
I knocked her hand away and positioned myself at her entrance, sealing my lips over hers before I pushed in, effectively swallowing her moan.
Fuck, I’d almost forgotten how good it felt to be inside her.
Hot and tight and so fucking wet, she hadn’t needed much foreplay after all.
I dropped my forehead to hers, focusing on my breathing as I struggled to get myself under control. She wiggled her hips impatiently but I quickly held her in place, groaning.
“Give me a minute, baby,” I all but pleaded, my voice so airy I barely recognized it. “I just need some time to…”
My words died in my throat when she tightened her inner muscles around me and my eyes rolled back in my head. When I looked up, I saw that she was watching me through half-lidded eyes. But there was a challenge in them.
Dragging my gaze from hers to her tits trying to escape the confines of her bra, her slightly swollen belly-which I dropped a kiss on-then to the sight of her pussy lips stretched tight around my cock, said organ jerked and I accepted that there was no way I wasn’t going to come quick.
I just needed to make her come first.
“This is going to be quick but I’ll make it up to you later,” I warned, pressing a quick hard kiss to her mouth.
Then I placed the pad of my thumb against her clit, massaging it as I moved.
I peppered kisses on her tit, keeping as much of a steady pace as I could. When Laura started circling her hips against mine, however, I lost whatever remnants of sanity I’d been holding on to and snapped, my hips slamming against hers. The sound of our skin slapping against each other, her moans and my grunts could probably be heard by her neighbors but I didn’t give a fuck.
We’d never been very good at being quiet and we weren’t going to start now.
Laura stiffened against me, crying out as she came and I fucked her through her orgasm, drawing it out into another one.
My balls were drawn up tight from holding off my orgasm and when I finally let go, her name a chant on my lips.
We stayed there, joiner, for a while as we caught our breaths.
***
Later, we lay on her bed with her head on my chest and my arm around my waist. We’d made love once more and I could say that I was feeling satiated. At least for now.
“I missed you too, you know,” Laura said suddenly, making patterns with her fingers on my chest.
I looked down at her, confused. “What?”
“When you told me you missed me earlier, I didn’t tell you back but I did.” Her voice was low. Quiet. “I missed you so much.”
My heart cracked in my chest. “Baby…”
She hid her face so that I wouldn’t see her. When I tried to get her to look at me, she refused to budge. So I turned us around until she was lying face up on the bed and I was above her. This way, she had no other option but to look at me.
I cupped her face gently. “Laura, one thing I’ve always wanted is for you to feel emotionally safe around me and it’s something I’ve tried to work towards. It kills me to know that you’re hiding from me.” I swallowed. “I don’t know if I’ll ever get you like that again but I promise to keep trying until you never have to second guess anything with me.”
The doubt in her eyes as she nodded killed me. I hated myself more and more for the fact that I’d put it there.
Her eyes darted between mine. “Don’t hurt me again, Alex.”
“Never,” I whispered before I kissed her.
My heart beat a steady rhythm in my chest, sure and strong.
If I was the one she was worried about then we didn’t have any worries at all.
I’d found the love of my life and I was never letting go.