AllFreeNovel
Share Us
My tears slid down his bare skin, but he didn’t seem to care. He held me tight, rubbing soothing circles on my back and whispering sweet things to me, even though I couldn’t decipher a single phrase through my blubbering.
Finally, the tears stopped, and my body ceased shaking. I sat up, and Laurent wiped my tears away.
“You okay?” he asked, cupping my face.
“I am. Sorry I gave you another shower.”
He laughed, and the sound was a dose of pain meds to my soul. “You can cry on me whenever you want.”
I blinked, and when I opened my eyes, they locked on his. The familiar blue irises of my past, that I tried to find in every place I went, but could never quite match it. Every ocean, every lake, every river, every sky, every blue building was a reminder of him, but never close enough. No, this blue only existed in this man.
His hold on me tightened. “I want to kiss you so fucking bad right now, but I’m not going to.”
“Why not?” I wouldn’t oppose it. I fought so hard to ignore this attraction, chalking it up to old feelings resurfacing, but it was so much more than that.
“Because I’m afraid I’ll wake up alone tomorrow.”
I nudged his shoulder. “The only running I do now is for exercise.”
“I’m not taking my chances. Besides, we have a taxing day ahead of us tomorrow, so we need our sleep, and if I do exactly what I want to you, neither of us will sleep tonight.” He kissed my forehead and pulled away. “So I’m going to get on my side of the bed, and you’re going to get on yours, and we’re going to sleep, and we will continue this soon.”
Damn it. I hated he was right. I hated I had too much emotional baggage right now with the damn engagement party tomorrow; I didn’t need to add anything else to the bag. It was at capacity.
I got under the covers, and he did as well. We turned our backs to each other, but I felt empty and alone.
“Can you… just hold me?”
He didn’t say anything, but his weight shifted, and his big arm came around me, pulling me into his comforting warmth. My muscles relaxed, body calmed, and… something pressed into my ass.
“Um…”
“I can’t control it. You got me all worked up the minute you walked out in this sexy little nightgown.”
I smiled, grateful even after all this time I could still turn him on.
“It’s okay. He’ll get all the attention he deserves soon.”
“Jesus Christ, Phoebs. Don’t talk like that, or he’ll be poking you all night.”
We fell into silence, and I closed my eyes, savoring the feel of his body against mine. My hands twitched to reach between us, wrap around his thick length, pump my hand up and down until I brought him to ecstasy, watch the passion flash in his eyes as he came all over me…
Heat pooled in my core, begging me to succumb to temptation, but if Laurent could be strong, so could I. Besides, we had always been more than just sex. We had been friends. It was a bond that went deeper than any other friend or relationship I had since.
And if I believed in it, I might even call him my soulmate. Because after eighteen years, this should be awkward. It should not feel as normal and as right as it did. Except this time, I wasn’t scared of us. The only thing that scared me was breaking my word.
“Laurent.”
“Mmm?”
“I can’t promise I won’t fall in love with you.”
He brushed my hair behind my ear and kissed my neck. “Good.”
Anxious energy coursed through me like a kangaroo hyped up on speed. I ran around the room like a lunatic, trying to make sure I looked perfect. Or Marion would have a million and one comments about it. Maybe I should have ignored Laurent and jumped on his cock last night and rode out all these nerves. Who am I fooling? From what I remembered, his dick was nice, very, very nice, but it wasn’t magical. It couldn’t erase my anxiety.
Though if I did, maybe visions of what could have been last night would stop popping up in my head, driving me crazier than I already was.
Strong hands clamped on my shoulders, steadying me. Laurent’s blue eyes bore into mine. “Breathe,” he said, as if it were that easy. He had a decade and a half to recover from my step monster, unlike me, who was still trying to recover from the last get together. Only she could make me hate Christmas, my all-time favorite holiday. I knew I should have stayed home. But no, I continued to try to get along with the woman.
