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I didn’t want it to end.
I’d told Charlie that I’d never been in love before, and I hadn’t, so I didn’t exactly know what all-the-way-in-love was supposed to feel like. But in that moment, I thought maybe it would feel like this. Like being linked to someone who challenged and excited you, who wanted and appreciated you, who opened your mind and your heart when you’d never realized they were closed. Like wanting to make someone else happy so you could revel in their pleasure and, in doing so, achieve your own. Like you were half of a larger whole but also more authentically and totally yourself than you’d ever been.
I watched Charlie thrust in and out of me. With his brows furrowed in concentration, his hair damp around the edges, and his pulse flickering unsteadily in his neck, he was the absolute most beautiful thing I’d ever laid eyes on.
My fingers tightened on his hips a split second before I cried out my release. I watched with bleary eyes as he shuddered above me, but I was too out of it to do more other than smile stupidly.
Charlie reached down to remove the condom before falling next to me on the bed. We both lay there, attempting to catch our breath, when I turned to face him. “Stay. Please.”
I could tell he was unsure of my meaning, whether it was a teasing request for round two or a serious invitation.
I… wasn’t entirely sure either. I didn’t know what was right or fair to ask for. What he wanted. What he needed. All I knew was what I wanted—as much of Charlton Nutter as I could get.
“Please,” I repeated, making sure he understood there was nothing but honest entreaty in my tone.
My heart pounded, and my stomach churned with uncharacteristic nerves. Normally when I wanted something, I put my head down and found a way to get it, but I had a feeling stubbornness wasn’t going to work here. Charlie and I had just had sex… and not the casual kind. We’d made love—something one should definitely never do with a partner who lived several hundred miles away and probably had no interest in making a drastic life change.
He reached out to run his fingers through my hair, and his dark eyes softened. “I would have even if you hadn’t invited me,” he admitted before leaning over to press a soft kiss to my lips.
I gloried in the simple touch and told myself that there’d be time to deal with the fallout of this tomorrow. In the meantime, I could enjoy both Charlie’s body and his company.
It was funny how, in one short day, Charlie had gone from being a person I thought I couldn’t stand to being… well, a person I craved spending time with. Like now that all the bricks of anger and misunderstanding I’d spent fifteen years stacking between us were gone, the sweet, understanding friend I’d thought I’d lost was back… and exponentially sexier and more fun to be with than ever. Talking with him tonight had started out as foreplay, but hearing his thoughts on everything from the Thicket to my business had given me a fresh perspective on my own life that made me more appreciative of the things I had.
Once we were cleaned up and back in bed, I snuggled up next to him as close as I could get, resting my cheek on his chest. I wanted to tell him I was falling for him, that I wanted him more than just for sex.
That I wanted him to stay.
Instead, I bit the bullet and asked, “When do you head back to Chicago?”
His fingers, which had been stroking the hair at the nape of my neck, twitched slightly. “Sunday afternoon.”
“Mm. Busiest travel day of the year,” I murmured. “You could always… I dunno… change to Monday or whatever. Just to avoid the crush.”
“Yeah… maybe.” Charlie sounded so noncommittal my heart sank.
“Right,” I said softly. “Well, no pressure.”
“It’s not that I don’t want more time here…” he explained in a rush. “But I just got promoted to VP a couple months ago, and my boss only approved my time off this week because I have six weeks of unused vacation.”
My fingertips dragged haphazard patterns across his chest as I considered this. Last time I’d talked to him about his job, it hadn’t gone over so well, but lots of things had changed since then… for me, at least. I hoped the same was true for him.
“Charlie, you know that’s not healthy, right?” I began gently. “You deserve to have a life outside of work. And I’m not talking shit about your career. I get it now—”
He dropped a kiss on the top of my head. “I know.”
“—I’m just saying there are other jobs in your field, right? Maybe even ones in, uh… places besides Chicago?” I couldn’t bring myself to actually suggest him moving back to Tennessee, though everything inside of me wanted to.
