His bare body pressed against mine, head to toe, skin to skin, I threaded my fingers in his hair and pulled his mouth to mine. His kissed mine back insistently. When we broke the kiss, he shifted to the side, pulling me half on top of him, our chests heaving.
Lying on the couch, propping my head on my palm, one leg over him, we looked at each other in sated silence.
“Thank you,” he said.
I couldn’t help but giggle.I suppose that’s the polite thing to say after an exchange of sexual favors.
I was about to saythank you,too, when recognition flashed across his face. He laughed. “No, I mean. Thank you for telling mewhat you like. I’m not always sure what to do. I always want you to tell me what feels good.”
I was aghast. He saw it on my face.
“What?” he asked.
“Luke, you’re like, the best-looking man I have ever seen. I find it so hard to believe that you feel you’re inexperienced. You just told me about your last relationship…”
“Well, it’s not really because I’ve sought it and failed, but more that I haven’t sought it that often, and I’m out of practice. That relationship was short; we didn’t experiment that much. I was shy in high school and most of college. I only cared about sports. And then I became a single dad at twenty-eight, so my window wasn’t very long, and mostly just alcohol-fueled summer flings. So…”
I could feel my heart expanding in my chest. As if he couldn’t be any more endearing.
I cut him off with a kiss. “You do realize you just made me come twice in the span of twenty minutes.”
A smile broke through his sheepish expression. His eyes shone with a glint of pride. Even his dimple made an appearance. “I guess that’s true.”
I rolled my eyes playfully, smiling too. “So proud of yourself,” I teased.
He looked at me and popped his right shoulder up, the self-satisfied grin still plastered on his face, and I giggled.
I love this.
Going from intense intimacy one minute to joking friends the next.
I love him.
The realization got caught in my throat, and something must have changed on my face because he asked, “What is it?”
I shook my head, closing my eyes briefly. “Nothing, I just like this.”
He leaned down, pushed his fingers into my hair to hold it back from my face, and kissed me deeply. “I like this, too,” he said into my lips, our foreheads touching. He pulled back, only a fewinches, and looked at me like I was something remarkable. “Who’d have thought I’d have the Morning Glory girl all to myself on my office couch.”
My cheeks tugged my face into a wide, disbelieving smile. “Did you really call me that?”
“In my head, yeah. I regretted not learning your name or really anything about you that day.”
“I went back.” The confession bubbled out of me, unprompted. “Once, around the same time, wondering if I’d see you there again.”
“Really?” His eyes squinted in confusion, like he didn’t believe it.
This man.
I shook my head incredulously.Did he already forget what I just told him?“Well, I don’t know if you know this, Luke, but you’re, like, ridiculously handsome.”
He chuckled, his white teeth and dimple showing, as if to prove my point.
He twisted a strand of my honey brown hair with his fingers. “I don’t know if you know this, Valerie, butyouare ridiculously beautiful.” I could melt from hearing my full name come out of his mouth.
I beamed, wrapped my arms around his neck, and buried my face in his broad chest. In that moment I didn’t care if anyone else in the world told me I was beautiful ever again. Only him.
34
