LOGINHe felt it and with a groan, he sped up. His grunts echoed in her ear, his cock slammed into her, his hands held her in place for him to drive his length home, over and over again. Her muscles started to ripple on him, long waves of pleasure, and the clenching and loosening sent him over the edge. With a growl, he thrust into her as hard as he could, and that was what she needed. She came with a scream, her whole body shaking with the force of her climax. King bit down on her shoulder as he plunged once, twice more. He erupted, his fingers digging into her hips, his whole body locked tight. He forgot to breathe, and he felt dizzy as stars exploded behind his eyelids.“Jesus,” he breathed, running his hands over and over her body. “Jesus, Naomi.”“Yeah,” she agreed, still panting. “I'm with you.”“Are you?” he asked, turning her face to his. “With me?”“All the way.”“You promise me?” His eyes were holding her in place. “You'll move in with me? Be with me all the time? Open up to me,
Her tears came now, and he opened his arms. She walked into them, pressed her whole body against his. He lowered his lips to her neck and mouthed tiny kisses along it, his lips gentle and warm. Matt’s scent washed over her, and its familiarity was both sexy and comforting.“I’m sorry for making you wait for me,” Naomi whispered to his chest. “You deserved better than that.”“No.” He lifted her chin and rested his forehead on hers. “I deserved you at your best, and for that to happen, you needed time. I’d have waited forever to see you truly happy and confident.”“I am now.” She smiled. “I promise you, I’ve got myself back.” She paused. “Or maybe I’ve got myself for the first time in my whole life.”He had no words anymore, so King kissed her, hoping that everything he was thinking and feeling could be communicated that way. He knew right away that she both heard him and felt him: she moaned and arched into his kiss.“Matt?”“Yeah, honey?”“Make love to me.”His whole body went hard. “
So King held on. And as the last dark and chilly winter days faded away, and spring broke, he felt his spirits rise. The city was slowly, tentatively, starting to blossom. Green was shyly appearing everywhere he looked, and flower buds were peeking out at the world, wondering if it was safe to come out now.When Naomi finally called on that warm day in early April, he was at home making dinner. When he saw her name come up on his cell phone, he dropped the strainer full of rice straight on to the floor, and truly didn’t give a crap.“Naomi.”“Hi, Matt.” She sounded happy. “How are you?”“I just dropped a whole package of rice on the floor.”She paused. “Cooked or uncooked?”“Cooked and steaming hot.”She laughed. “Sorry to hear that.”“How are you?”“Good. I’m really good.” He heard her take a deep breath. “Can I see you?”Jesus Christ, yes. Anytime, anywhere. “Yes. When?”“Now?”He was already moving towards the door, grabbing his jacket. “Baby, where are you?”“At work. Can you mee
Three weeks laterAidan slid the beer across the bar to King without a word, then he waited. He knew King was there to talk and Aidan wasn’t about to push. Carefully, he observed King, taking him in. He hadn’t been around too much lately, and Aidan had started to worry, maybe just a little bit.King was here now, though, just walking on into the bar at four o’clock on a Wednesday afternoon like that was his normal thing. He looked uncertain and unbalanced, like he’d been hit over the head with something heavy. Then again, he had been… not literally, of course, but man. Aidan knew damn good and well that love could deliver one hell of a wallop when it wanted to.So here King was, shifting around on his feet like a high school boy standing next to his locker and asking his crush to the prom. Aidan crossed his arms loosely, waited some more. But as the seconds ticked on by, he realized that King didn’t have the first fucking clue what to say, how to put into words what he really wanted t
That stunned him, and he sucked in air like a drowning man. “Naomi –”“Time, Matt. Give it to me. Please.”“Of course I will. I’ll give you anything you need. But – can I ask why? If you believe me, and you know nothing happened with Janine… why can’t we be together?”“Because yesterday shocked and scared me,” she said slowly. “Even after all my hard work, and everything we’ve been to each other, when the shit hit the fan, my first instinct was to run and drink. I hid away from the world, and shut down, and stared at bottles of alcohol. Had to fucking talk myself off the ledge all alone – again.”“Yeah,” he said reluctantly. “But –”“No ‘but’,” she said softly. “Running and hiding and drinking will always be my ‘go to’ instincts, Matt. Always. That’s just how I’m made and wired, and that’s the truth. But the fact that I know that and still chose to act that way yesterday… that shows me that I’m not as ready for all of this as I thought I was. As I hoped I was.”“‘All of this’ meaning
Naomi smiled and shook the last person’s hand, accepting congratulations and best wishes. She was both relieved and hurt that King had gotten up and left as soon as the meeting had ended, and she was still undecided which emotion was strongest. She wanted to talk to him, and she knew she would talk to him – but maybe this wasn’t the time or the place.The man left and Naomi looked at Mirrie. The younger woman had an odd expression on her face.“What?” Naomi said.“I told him to go down the street and get a coffee,” Mirrie said, cutting right to the chase as always. “At Frank’s?”“Yeah.” Mirrie touched her tongue to her lip ring, her one sign of being nervous. “I didn’t say you’d be there. I just said I’d tell you where he was.”“What did he say?”“That he’d wait for you.”Naomi sighed. “Yeah, he would say that.”“It’s your decision, sweetie. What do you want to do?”Naomi looked at her in surprise. “I’m going to go and talk to him, of course.”“Yeah?”“Yes. I didn’t get the chance to







