Page 95 of Against The Boards

“I love you,” I moaned.

She pushed me off so she could look me in the eye. Instead of the loving look she had been giving me, she looked pissed off. “You what?” she screeched.

“I love you,” I repeated. “I can’t believe I haven’t said it before, but I do.”

“It’s too soon.”

“Is it? We’ve been going behind our friends’ backs for weeks. Do you think I didn’t fall in love with you before we made this official?”

“It doesn’t count if you say it during sex!” she complained, but she bucked her hips to meet my thrusts.

I pressed my hand against our connection, giving her feather-light touches across her clit while I rolled my hips against her, pressing deeper inside her. Maybe it was the wrong time to say it to her, but in that moment of passion, I wanted to see her face and tell her what I felt, what I’d wanted to tell her for weeks.

“I love you, Roxanne Desjardins, and I’m never letting you go.”

She reached up to cup my face in her hands, and her thumb caressed my beard. “Benny, you don’t mean that.”

“I do. I love you. Now be a good girl and come for me.”

Her eyes flashed in anger, but then her eyes squeezed shut as I hit her spot, and she unraveled underneath me. Watching this woman come undone was a beautiful sight indeed. With an animalistic grunt seconds later, I was right behind her.

I pulled out and threw the condom away in the trash, then laid on my back next to her. Her eyes were closed, but her hand patted at my chest.

“That was like…so good,” she breathed out. Her chest was still heaving from the exertion.

“You’re out of breath? I did all the work,” I teased.

She gave me the finger.

“Happy birthday!” I exclaimed and buried myself in her neck, kissing her and making her giggle.

“I can’t believe the first time you told me you loved me was during sex. It doesn’t count!”

“What? It so counts!” I argued. I hugged her around the waist and put my head in the crook of her neck. “I’ll say it again. I love you, Roxanne Desjardins, you infuriating, complicated woman.”

She squirmed in my arms but only so she could shift onto her side and look me in the eye. She reached up to push my hair out of my face. “I love you too, Michael Bennett, you patient, gentle giant,” she whispered.

I groaned at my phone buzzing on the bedside table. To my surprise, there were a lot of messages from TJ.

TJ: Hey, are you home? I didn’t tell Roxie I was gonna be home late tonight so we could grab a drink for our birthday.

TJ: NEVER MIND! Do you always fuck chicks this loud??

TJ: Why is my sister’s phone in the living room? And she’s not here?

TJ: WHAT THE FUCK DUDE!

“Love, what’s wrong?” she asked me. “You look like you saw a ghost.”

“Um, Rox...angel...don’t freak out.”

“What?”

I showed her my texts, and her face went pale.

We were so fucked.

Chapter Twenty-Seven