“I’m pretty curious,” she admitted.
A twinge of vulnerability twisted in my gut, but I agreed, “Show me yours, and I’ll show you mine.”
“Deal.”She rolled onto her stomach to army crawl to the edge of the bed, and I took the opportunity to give the full curve of her ass a playful slap.First she gave a surprised gasp and then sighed as I kneaded her sensitive skin.I placed a few more kisses on her spine.Every movement was a distraction, but eventually we lay side-by-side on the bed holding each other’s phones.
“These are pretty tame,” she observed.“I’m not even naked in some of these.”
I placed a kiss on her temple, and muttered, “You make me into such a pervert, I can objectify you no matter what you’re wearing.”
I could hear the smile in her voice as she said, “Oh yeah?”
“Bring that puffy coat of yours next time, and we’ll act out one of my fantasies.”
Laughing, she rested her head on my shoulder and continued scrolling through my album of her.
She had fewer photos of me than I did of her, in them I was younger and skinnier.Less wrinkles on my face.Less meat on my bones.I envied that version of me, but not because of his youthful looks, but because he still had her.But that version of me could never have ended up back here sharing a bed with her.He was frankly too dumb to figure his shit out.
I would never return to him even if somehow I was offered the opportunity.
In one of the pictures, my old robe hung open, with a mug of coffee in my hand tipped so far it was about to spill.A surprised intensity in my eyes made it clear that I was watching her just past the camera, and whatever she was doing to herself had me completely hard.Another, she had taken as I leapt off a rock naked, a deep blue sea extended behind me.It was a good picture, and my thighs and ass were flexed.My thighs had always been her favorite feature of mine.The last was a video, in it I was jacking off telling her how badly I wanted her with me.My grip on my cock was white-knuckled, and the muscles of my arms and shoulders were bunched.A vein strained against my neck, as I fucked into my hand.
“I need you,”I had groaned.“I love you.”
She went unnaturally still.I could feel the tug of her growing distant, like a wire around my heart tightening.All I wanted was to suspend this moment between us, to keep us here—clearly feelings weren’t the way to do that.
Not yet.
“Do me a favor,” I said, handing her the phone.
She lifted her eyebrows, and her nipples grew taught as I knelt between her thighs again, this time lowering to my elbows.“Watch me lose my fucking mind over you, while I get you off.”
“Oh, fuck, Remi.”Pink grew in her cheeks, and she licked her lips.Her knees fell open wider.
I grinned up at her devilishly.“Hit play.”
She did.I lowered my mouth to her sweet cunt, teasing her closer and closer to her orgasm while the younger version of myself said,“I love you,”over and over.
Chapter Thirty-One
Alicia
“I’mbeingcompletelyshutout here,” my firm’s Michigan lawyer, Jamison, said through the phone pressed to my ear.
I looked up at my kitchen ceiling; wheat stalks were etched into the frosted light fixture from the fifties.My jaw was too tight, but I couldn’t convince it to relax.Through clenched teeth, I said, “So, it’s signatures or bust?”
“And fast.I don’t know what kind of deals are being made, but almost everyone I had on board to put the property to public auction has flipped.”He sighed.“They won’t even schedule a meeting with me.”
If not for spending most of my nights with Remi, this week had been shitty.That damn party was all anyone wanted to talk about.I’d bring up the wetlands, and then drama from the weekend would become the subject of conversation.Everyone throwing out the same questions and speculations as everyone else.“What did Olivia mean about sex not getting better?”“Where did Nora go?”“Could you believe Brooks?”And those were just the speculations about people I actually knew.
It was so annoying.
Muffled sounds of a Counting Crows album carried through the wall dividing my place with Remi’s.An album I knew by heart because it was Remi’s favorite.He listened to it when he felt pensive and needed comfort.What was he thinking about?Was it me?He was on my mind like a patch of earth that had been worn away by a thousand footfalls.It wasn’t a path intended to be there, but it always followed the same twists and turns until he was my destination.
I needed to stop wondering about him and focus on my job.Time with him was ...so good.Terrifyingly good.He made me feel less alone as all the work I was doing came to a halt—falling apart into so many pieces.I couldn’t find these last few signatures, only people who had already signed.Every night, he came back with a few more names on the petition he was circling around, and I’d combine it with mine.It was helping, just not fast enough.
Every night I found myself wrapped in his arms, soothed by his touch, and comforted by his words.
I needed to get this job done.At least if I was able to force the emergency vote, I could postpone going home for a few more weeks to shift gears and drum up support.
