“It’s alright if you’re not ready to tell me about her. I don’t need to know,” I reassure him. As much as I have opened up to Remington, there are still things from my past that I’m not sure I am ready to share with him. Things that I have not shared with anyone, not even my therapist knows all the little details. So I won’t push him to tell me anything, ever. He has to come to me openly, in his own time. Hopefully I can be a safe space for him the way he is becoming a safe space for me.
“No,” he surprises me, “I want to tell you so you know more about me. More about why I am the way I am. A lot of it has to do with what happened with her, with Cora.” He says her name on a hiss, a tone of disgust so deep, one I haven’t heard from him.
“I’m here,” I tell him. “You can tell me anything, Remington. I know who you are, and more importantly what kind of man you are.”
Taking a deep breath, Remington lays out everything. And there isa lot. He grew up with Cora, she was Sutton’s best friend, and they are all close in age. They started dating in high school, and he told me about all the pressure he felt from everyone about them being a couple even that young. The more he talked, the more my heart ached for the boy that grew into a man with a person by his side that did not see him for who he was. Cora sounds like a selfish, self-centered person. I can’tsee Sutton being best friends with someone like that. I can’t seeRemingtondating someone like that, loving someone like that. Hot discomfort licks my gut, and I know I am feeling jealous of a relationship that is long gone, but obviously still has a hold on the man sitting in front of me.
His past wounds are not fresh, but they are deep, just like mine.
Remington ends his heartbreaking tale with the night he kicked Cora out of his apartment, the day they graduated college. He is vibrating with the anger of the memory, and I am raging on his behalf. Furious that anyone could hurt the man I am quickly developing deep feelings for, making him question his life and judgment.
“I can’t believe she did that to you. How dare she disrespect your relationship that way. But the thing that makes me the most upset—and honestly I can say this because you know I have also been cheated on—is the way she spoke about you being a firefighter. She thought it was something you were just messing around with at college and were going to get over? Give it up for her own company?” I stand up and pace my small living room, unable to contain the buzz of contempt rushing through my muscles, needing the movement.
“Yeah, I know,” Remington agrees. “I was upset about the cheating, obviously, but being a firefighter is what I am called to do. I didn’t know it right away, it took time to figure it out, but once I did I was locked in. She acted like it was a joke. Even after she watched me spend years working hard to earn my degree and make up time for my first year and a half pursuing the finance degree.”
“Remington, youdo nothave to justify your decision to me. Most college kids change majors at some point, sometimes more than once. I know that you are meant to be a firefighter. I can feel it, see it with how passionately you talk about it. I got to go to the station and meet your friends and coworkers. They all love you. You’re a family there and it’s special.That womanhas no idea what she is missing out on. Thank God she ruined her life so that mine could be made better by knowing you.” I pour my words out, standing in front of Remington while he’s still seated on the couch.
“You really believe that?” he asks, voice rough with emotion. His hands grip my hips and pull me closer, pull me down toward him.
I straddle Remington’s lap, and frame his face in my hands, a light stubble scraping across my fingertips. “You are the best man I have ever met. There’s nobody else like you.” I lean my face in and go to gently seal the sentiment with a kiss, but Remington meets me halfway with passion. One large hand grips my waist while the other slides into my hair.
This kiss feels raw, primal, and opposite of the sweet and gentle one I was aiming for, but I don’t want it to end. I moan when his delicious tongue sweeps into my mouth. He’s like a man starved and I am the only thing that can satisfy him in this moment. My hands run along his hard chest, and his muscles ripple as his arms explore more of my own body. I grind down on his lap and gasp into his mouth when I feel his hard length press against my wet center. I am so turned on, just from this kiss, I might explode from barely being touched.
“You feel what you do to me, Lainey?” Remington says, kissing me, biting my bottom lip, and sucking it seductively into his mouth.
“Y-yes.” I whimper when he switches to slowly trailing kisses down my neck, then nipping my collarbone.
“You are the most beautiful woman. I haven’t been able to get our first kiss out of my head. Thinking about what would have happened if we were alone.” Claiming my mouth again, he kisses me deeply, pushing his hips up into me as I roll back into him. And oh, holy shit does that feel good, feel so right.
“What would have happened?” I ask breathlessly.
“This. A lot of this. I want to touch every inch of you, know every part of your perfect body, Lainey.” Remington pauses his kisses, looking into my eyes for permission.
“Yes, don’t stop,” I plead.
He flips us onto the couch and grips my ass. Our kisses feelmolten, and the fire in my soul is sparking all along where his body is making contact with mine. I want more. I want to feel more of him, of us. I reach up and pull my shirt off, leaving me in a lavender lace bra and my yoga pants.
Remington is grinning down at me like a wolf. He licks his lips and runs the tips of his fingers ever so softly over the top of my bra, where the scalloped lace is brushing my skin. “Lavender,” he whispers. I just nod. He bends his head and kisses along the swell of one breast then the other, and when he looks up at me with questioning eyes, I nod again. That wolfish grin comes back and he yanks the cups down, exposing my breasts to him. His stare and the cool air make my nipples instantly pebble. “Fuck,” he whispers, then sucks one nipple into his mouth, rolling his tongue around the aching bud, and I gasp.
“Oh my God,” I say. “That feels so good.” I let out a needy moan and run my fingers through his blond hair.
Remington pops my nipple out of his mouth, and says, “Nobody here but me, Lainey. You only get to call outmy name.” His hard length presses firmly into my hip, driving home his point, and his hand slips into my pants.
“Holy shit,” I whisper, “Remington.”
“That’s right, beautiful. How wet are you going to be for me right now after everything we have been doing, hmm?” he says in a sexy, questioning tone.
“Soaked,” I reply honestly. He is only seconds away from discovering for himself what he does to me.
Slipping his fingers lower, he finds my slit and hums, kissing me deeply as he pushes one finger inside, making me gasp again. “Yeah, you are absolutely dripping for me.” Remington slides out the one finger and replaces it with two, circling my clit with his thumb and kissing me like I have never been kissed before.
I feel like I’m drunk. It’s all too much. I have never in mylife been touched like this, worshiped like this. My hips buck wildly as he pumps his fingers and finds places deep within my inner walls that I didn’t even know existed before this moment. My clit is throbbing and my whole body is tingling. “Rem-Remington I’m so close. More,” I plead.
“I know, baby, I know,” he whispers in my ear, kissing up my neck, moaning and grinding into me harder, bringing unrelenting pleasure to my body. Heat rushes through me, and stars explode behind my eyes, body locking in a tight, perfect release. Remington groans before slowly pulling his hand from my pants. My eyes flutter open in time to see him licking my release off of his fingertips, his greedy eyes locked on my face.
“Oh, my ...” I trail off, lost for words, having never seen something so hot in all twenty-six years of my life.
When he’s done, he leans in and gently kisses me, smiling. I readjust my bra cups and look at him.
