"We have to get you out of these clothes," I said. I shut the door and towed her toward the small laundry closet near the kitchen. "You could've called me. You didn't have to walk down here in a godforsaken thunderstorm."
She helped me peel the heavy, wet layers from her body and drop them in the dryer. She was left in a damp bra and thong, but her skin was pebbled with goosebumps and her shoulders still trembled. Distressed, I ducked into the bathroom and returned with a towel.
"I wasn't sure Icouldsee you," she said, patting her hair with the towel. "I've been walking up and down your street for twenty minutes, arguing with myself."
"Why?" I pulled her close and tucked her head under my chin. "I don't understand what you're saying, honey."
She clawed at me, her hands reaching for my arms, shoulders, anything. "Can I stay here tonight? With you?"
"Of course," I said, still confused. "But first, tell me why you didn't come to the door the minute you got here."
"This is all your fault." Her shoulders were bunched tight and wobbling to work out the chill. "You never warned me that I'd fall for you, and now I have," she said, her chin shaking as a sob broke free. "I can't work my way out of this, and I can't send it away. You're leaving me tomorrow, and I've flat-out fallen for you."
I tugged her into my bedroom and kicked the door shut behind me. "All my fault?" I asked, backing her toward the bed. "Who the fuck are you kidding, honey? You come at me with this luscious body, and the tender heart underneath all that snark, and you thinkyou'rethe one falling?" I pointed at the blue quilt and matching pillows. "Allow me to offer a first and final warning: if you get into that bed and open yourself to me, I'm never letting you go. I might leave, April, but I'm never leavingyou."
She tossed the towel aside and stepped out of my arms, trailing her fingertips over the bed linens as she went. She watched me over her shoulder before drawing the blankets down and slipping beneath them. My shoulders were heaving as my heart slammed against my ribs and my lungs fought to replace the oxygen she'd stolen from me.
"April, honey," I warned.
Her long hair was on my pillows and her bare skin on my sheets, and my cock was pulsing with single-minded desperation. I tore my clothes off and snagged a condom from the bedside table, frantically maneuvering it over my length. She stretched her hand toward me, and I took it, our fingers laced while I joined her under the blankets, claiming my place between her legs. I pushed into her without preamble.
"Never letting you go," I promised, my words spoken directly to her heart as she twined her arms and legs around me.
"Say it again," she whispered.
I did, over and over until the words disintegrated into jagged syllables that made sense only to us.
