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"Come for me now."
She did, her response gushing over his fingers, her muscles clamping over his cock, making the climax all the more intense, particularly as her squeezing hold brought him over the same edge. They cried out, grunted, and moaned together, two people clawing and straining to be as close to one being as possible. Their bodies were joined, but it felt as if their hearts and souls had come together too, crashing and pounding, clinging to one another in a storm.
She'd thought of the many ways their paths could have intersected before this, and hadn't come up with anything she could have done differently to make it happen sooner, or work as well as it would work today. They'd been meant to meet in the here and now, after they'd each experienced the lessons they'd needed to make this work with one another.
So that was that. This was the time they'd been given. Whatever might happen to Des, that was the unknown. Their relationship, on the other hand, was meant to be.
There'd be no more turning back, for either of them.
Chapter Nineteen
Des wiped the sweat off his forehead and dropped to a squat on the roofline. This job, roofing multiple houses in the same subdivision, had taken him several hours out of Charlotte. He'd been away for four days. It would be the last time he took a job like this. He missed being with Julie. He also couldn't work at this pace anymore. If he hadn't committed to the job a couple months ago, a favor for a development manager who'd given him and his guys work when times were far leaner, he wouldn't have done it. He'd limited himself mostly to supervision on this job, more so than he'd ever done before, but this last day he'd pitched in, determined to be done with it and get home tonight.
He'd started the dialysis a couple weeks ago, and Betty wasn't seeing the results she'd hoped. They'd gone with the peritoneal dialysis, which he could do at night in his sleep and had equipment that could be easily transported, a nice rolling case he'd brought with him here. However, she was thinking he might respond better to the hemodialysis, though the data was inconclusive that one was any damn better than the other. Hemodialysis would require the surgical insertion of a fistula in his arm. They'd put in a catheter for the peritoneal dialysis already. He was starting to feel like a cyborg.
She wanted to push the damn kidney transplant thing again, he could tell. He knew she and Julie had been talking, because one night Julie had oh-so-casually mentioned some articles she'd been reading. He'd tried not to let his normal defensiveness assert itself, but he hadn't been altogether successful, and she hadn't been altogether successful in not being pushy. He'd told her he'd be working out of town the next few days, so he'd call her again when he got back. And that was the last time they'd spoken.
He was an official dumbass. He wanted to hear her voice. He wanted to curl around her in bed, bury his face in her hair, and keep at bay everything that seemed to be closing in on him, way too fast. Fuck, he'd had this under control for a long time, with a fuck-it, whatever happens, happens, mentality. But it was frayed at the edges. He should tell the guys they had to finish without him, and head for home. He felt like he needed to be home, with a sudden urgency he couldn't explain. He needed to be in his bed, with her. God, he felt like shit.
"You roofing this whole thing by yourself?"
The familiar voice surprised him. He rose so he could see the front lawn, where Marcus Stanton stood looking like a Michelangelo sculpture in Armani, the silver of his Rolex and his ebony black wings of hair catching the sunlight.
"We just finished this one. The other guys went for a dinner break. I was taking a breather, doing some thinking."
"It's a good place to think." Marcus's gaze coursed over the expanse of new shingles, the sunset sky building in rose and gold color behind Des.
"So why are you here?" Des asked. "Found some talent to recruit?"
"There's talent to be recruited everywhere, but no. You're about thirty minutes away from our North Carolina house. Julie told me you were at this job site. I need to talk to you. Well, we do." He gestured to his car, a gleaming Mercedes, where Thomas was sitting in the passenger seat. He lifted his hand in greeting as Des noticed him. "But Thomas and I agreed I'd talk to you first.'
Surely Julie hadn't worried so much about his phone silence he'd sent her friends after him? He'd been texting her, for Christ's sake.
His irritation must have shown, because Marcus's expression hardened slightly. "If you don't want to come down, I can come up."
His tone raised Des's hackles. "I didn't ask for company."
"Coming up it is, then." Marcus disappeared beneath the roofline.
"Climb up on this roof in those fancy shoes, you'll break your neck," Des called down.
"Yeah, and that one will be on you."
When Marcus's head emerged over the roofline, Des sat down on the peak, eying him. "Did Julie send you?"
Marcus gave him a puzzled look. "Why would she?" At Des's surprised expression, his eyes narrowed. "Did you two have a fight?"
"None of your business, and not exactly."
"When was the last time you talked to her?"
"A few days ago. I've been busy."
"Hmm. I would kick your ass off this roof if it wouldn't scuff my very expensive shoes." Marcus settled his hip on the top rung of the ladder, a half seated position. "I asked her where you were, she told me how close you were and I casually mentioned we might stop by to take you out for dinner."
Des studied his expression. The man could play poker in Vegas, because he wasn't giving anything away, but Des relied on his gut rather than physical cues. "Why didn't you tell her the real reason?"
"I'll let you answer that, after I tell you why I'm here. Julie told me you have this thing about not wanting to take a kidney that could go to someone else."
