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He tilted his chin up to capture her mouth with his own. “But it’s still goodbye, isn’t it?” he asked in between the sweetest kisses.
A tear raced down her cheek as she pressed a kiss to the corner of his mouth and buried her face against the hollow of his neck as she nodded again.
He comforted her, massaging her back. “It’s cool. At least I know what love feels like for the first time.”
She raised her head. “Me too,” she admitted.
They made love with a fierceness that both frightened and excited them. Slow and steady. Fast and furious. Going still to hold off their climax, neither wanting their connection to end. And then, when they could no longer deny themselves, giving in to their passion they climaxed together, feeling the ultimate high. Riding the waves. Enjoying the splendor as they clutched each other tightly with their mouths locked in passionate kisses.
Long after the ride was over, they still clung to one another.
“Stay the night,” he softly demanded, pressing a tender kiss to her shoulder as he rubbed circles on her back.
“Okay,” she agreed, closing her eyes and inhaling deeply of his scent as if to capture it within her.
“So goodbyes in the morning?” he quipped.
They shared a laugh.
But the night was not for sleeping. Twice they made love, once in the shower and then again in his bed just as the sun was beginning to rise above the city. He rested on his elbows looking down at her face as he slowly stroked them to another climax.
“We can do this, you know,” Loren said, his eyes imploring hers, revealing his heart’s desire.
She kissed his mouth and held his face with her hands. “There is so much you don’t know; please believe if I thought we could find forever in this I would never say goodbye to the man—theonlyman I have ever loved,” she stressed. “You have to trust me on this.”
“Trust you while you break my heart . . . again.”
Desdemona rose from the bed and pulled her dress over her nakedness and stepped into her heels. The torn panties she left behind on the floor.
“Ali—”
She rushed over to kiss him again, ending him saying that name that was not truly hers. “Tell me you love me one last time and say goodbye,” she pleaded with him, her eyes soft.
“Please, Lo.”
“No,” he said, even as she saw the emotion brimming in his beautiful slanted eyes.
“I love you, Loren Palmer,” she said, placing a kiss on each corner of his mouth. “Goodbye.”
She rose from the bed again and picked up her keys from where they had fallen on the floor before making her way to the front door. Her steps were hurried but only because she was afraid she would never leave him.
His hand on her shoulder surprised her.
She turned and looked up at him as he pulled her close and kissed her. “I love you,” he spoke against her mouth. There was a long pause before he finished. “Goodbye.”
Desdemona smiled, reaching to stroke his chiseled cheek one last time before she turned and did the hardest thing ever in her life by leaving.
Epilogue
August 2020
“Okay, this is me.”
Desdemona shifted her leather sack on her shoulder as she opened the door to the classroom and entered. The size and setup of the room surprised her, with the seats and desks aligned in semicircles in descending levels before a large whiteboard. People passed her by with more confidence, claiming seats that weren’t already occupied.
I can do this. I just traveled the world alone for a year. College won’t be the end of me.
Taking a breath, she moved down the steps and eased past people seated at their desks to claim one in the middle of the row. She opened her messenger bag and removed a notebook, pen, her book, and the case holding her reading glasses as she crossed her ankles.
