My lips crushed hers, and her arms wrapped around my back as I kissed her to sweet oblivion, when my phone rang.
It was my dad.
I pulled back reluctantly, glancing at the screen before declining the call and setting the phone aside.
After my bitter and honest words with him last time, he seemed to have repented. I got messages from him occasionally, congratulating me on events. Like on a new company we’d invested in. He’d been following the news to see what I was doing.
I wasn’t going to speak to him yet.
Someday, maybe.
His most recent message had been one where he wanted to set up a brunch meeting with me. I wasn’t ready for that, but I couldn’t help but think about it when I saw his name on my phone. He’d actually asked if he could meet me for brunch two months from now, ‘without any agenda. Just to catch up with his son’. And he’d been the one to initiate it and attempt to set it up.
I turned back to Lexi, who was watching me with a smile.
“All good?” she asked as I crawled back into the warm bed beside her. She was soft, and her skin was like silk as I pulled her to me, her breasts touching my chest as her fingers trailed lazily up and down my arms.
“My dad wants to see me,” I said, touching her all over, my fingers going down her back to her naked butt and cupping her curves. “For no reason at all,” I added, kissing her forehead.
“How strange. I always have an agenda when I want to meet you,” she responded, undressing me.
“It’s just my body, eh?” I grunted, when she’d gotten me naked as well, and her fingers wrapped around my dick. I groaned, forgetting everything else when she moved down and her moist lips wrapped around it.
Soon, she climbed on top of me, straddling my hips, and I felt how wet she was as I sank deep into her. Her lips parted, her head falling back as she moved up and down a few times. I sat up and pulled her closer, and our lips touched. We kissed while she rolled her hips on top of me, my hands roaming freely over her back.
This was the first overseas vacation we’d taken together and there wasn’t a business associate in sight. It felt strange not to think of an upcoming meeting but of endless hours upon hours with Lexi. Topless Lexi, Lexi wearing my shirt, and Lexi in the shower. I didn’t ever tire of it.
“You can want me for my body,” I said, referencing our earlier conversation, as she collapsed against me, spent and limp. “As long as I get to call you mine.”
Her hand found mine, and her fingers wove between mine. “Always.”
With Lexi beside me and memories of Evie’s excitement about the animals she had spotted during our safari, I finally understood what peace felt like.
EPILOGUE
Jonah—A Year Later
Iwoke up in a Villa at the Thermal Club in Palm Springs to an orange sky just as the sun was rising. Lexi and I had forgotten to draw the curtains before we went to sleep, and I blinked in the sunlight.
For a few seconds, I lay in bed, watching the sun creep up with my arm around Lexi’s waist.
It took me a moment to realize we had company. Or rather, an audience. I laughed, and Lexi stirred as I propped myself up.
“Well, hello, Mama Deer,” I said as a little one joined the older one to watch us.
Lexi squealed, and the two deer took off while she turned to me, her mouth falling open.
“Maybe next time, save the excitement for later,” I said, dipping my head over her face for a quick morning kiss.
She laughed. “I’m practicing my squeals for when you’re going to propose.”
I balked. “What makes you think I’m going to do that?”
I am.
She shook her head knowingly. “Jonah, you anxiously clutched the breast pocket of your suit every ten minutes last night during dinner.”
“That’s from the impending heart attack that I know I’m going to get today. Evie asked me yesterday if babies come from kissing, and I nearly choked on my coffee.”
