“I want it to know something else.”
“You deserve that.”
“I want pleasure. I want closeness. I want you to show me what my body remembered before my mind could reach it.”
“I will.”
“Promise?”
“I promise to listen to you. Everything else, we discover together.”
His mouth tilted.
“That wasn’t especially seductive.”
I leaned closer, letting my breath touch his lips.
“When you’re ready, I’ll take my time until every part of you understands who is touching you and why.”
His breath caught.
“I’ll make certain you feel wanted without ever making you feel cornered.”
His body pressed nearer.
“And when you ask me for more, I’ll trust that you know what you want.”
Noah swallowed.
“Toast for dinner.”
I laughed. “You proposed meatloaf.”
“Meatloaf takes an hour.”
“Toast it is.”
He kissed me again.
We did eat eventually.
Not toast.
At nearly nine, we reheated the leftover stew while Noah sat at the kitchen counter wrapped in a blanket, looking entirely too pleased with himself.
Later, he fell asleep against me before the first television episode reached its final scene.
I stayed where I was, one arm around him, listening to the deepening rhythm of his breath.
For the first time in months, the future did not feel like an approaching threat.
It felt like a door.
And Noah had begun to reach for the handle.
Chapter 29
REID
