As soon as I saw her stricken face illuminated by her phone screen, all my feelings of pain and anger turned into concern.“What’s wrong?Is everyone okay?”
She tilted her head up and swallowed.“Fuckboy lawyer.”
“Fuckboy?”
“Uh, not mine.Sorry.He’s in Lansing.He’s helping me.”Rubbing the back of her neck, she lowered her eyes back to her phone.“He just texted me and Sadie, ‘It’s going to shit.I’m sorry, ladies.They’re getting special permits to begin excavating before the deal is even finalized.I’m still fighting it, but it’s not looking good.’”
“So, what do we have to do?”
Her mouth hung open for a minute as if searching for words.Finally, she shrugged her arms heavy at her sides.“I need all of my signatures now.”
The quiver in her voice was torture.I ran a hand down her arm, not that I could feel it through the baggy fabric of my coat.“The permits will take a little while, right?”
“Depends on how tight they are with a judge.But I’m so close.The petition is almost there.”
Furgie climbed the stairs and shook, sending clumps of snow flying.Alicia ducked her head, and I angled my body to block her from being hit.The tap of paws on carpet registered somewhere in the back of my mind, but I was too preoccupied by the pinch of Alicia’s brows and the defeat in her eyes.
“We’ll get this figured out.”I brushed a loose strand of hair behind her ear.“No one is more devoted, and creative, and ...you don’t give up.You’ll figure it out.We’re not done.We’ll get everybody rallied, and fuck ...I don’t know, Leese, but we’re not giving up.Not when this means so much to you.Not when it’s the right thing to do—”
Whatever I was going to say exploded into nothingness, along with everything else I’d ever known, because Alicia’s mouth was on mine.My entire existence began and ended right there.
Her hands fisted into the hair at the base of my skull.I took hold of her ribs and pulled her to me like I was the moon finally able to plunge into the ocean instead of pushing it away.The taste of her, so rich in my memory and real on my tongue.The whimper at the back of her throat.The feel of her body hot against mine.She was my entire world.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Alicia
Givinginhadneverbeen so good.No other craving I had ever surrendered to had been this fulfilling.Remi was the richest chocolate cake the day before my period, and the drippiest ice cream cone on a hot day.It was too good to even care if I’d regret it later.I stood on my tip toes, needing to get closer, taste more.His arms around my waist kept me from falling on my ass, my arms around his neck couldn’t pull him in tight enough.I hooked a leg around his waist as if I could literally climb him, before long he took hold of both of my thighs, and hoisted me up.
I was not a small woman.
He didn’t even grunt when he did it.
His coat was bulky around my wrists.I couldn’t get my hands on him like I needed.
And God did I need it.
Somewhere in the back of my mind a voice whispered about consequences, but I drowned it out by rocking my hips against his erection, hard and thick inside his sweatpants, sending electricity throughout my entire body.He groaned moving his hands up to cup and squeeze my ass.
My logical mind knew this was dangerous—that my feelings for him were more than lust and something like friendship.It was clear that there were only a few scenarios where this didn’t end up with me, and him, brokenhearted.Again.
But I still needed more.
And less.
Less clothes.Less distance.Less logic.
What was the point of logic anyway, when no amount of it could have kept me from right here pressed between his body and the interior wall of my apartment?And logic never felt this good.Nothing had.
Only him.
He pulled his glasses off of his nose and tossed them somewhere.Then he moved to kiss my neck, and I sucked in a sharp breath at the scrape of his teeth.
“Please tell me you have a condom,” I gasped.
His hands slipped under the opening of his coat to cup my breast in his big hand, brushing his thumb back and forth over my already sensitive nipple.“In my wallet.”
“Get it.”
