It was too soon to throw in the towel. I needed to figure out some way to prove to Lydia that we belonged together, without being pushy or demanding.
“You’ll be alright,” Luke said. “Love is a powerful beast. It can make you feel like your insides are being ripped out and stomped on, but that’s just part of the deal. You fall in love, and that’s the risk you take.”
“That’s less helpful than you think,” I deadpanned. Cold beer slid down my throat as I swallowed the last of the drink that I had been nursing since we got here.
“I’m going to head out. You should do the same,” he said.
“Yeah. I’m not staying here,” I told him. “Thanks for meeting me for a drink.”
We settled up with Ronnie and walked out together. The warm night air was still sticky with humidity. The cloud covered sky promised some much-needed rain that would hopefully take the humidity with it when it rolled out.
I pulled up to my house in a daze. It wasn’t due to the one drink I’d had with Luke but rather from images of Lydia, smiling and laughing at a girls’ night, perfectly fine without me. I pushed my key into the lock, never even registering the fact that the handle twisted in my hand before I engaged the key. The house was illuminated from the light of the television. I didn’t remember leaving the TV on though. As a matter of fact, I hadn’t even been home since this morning, and I hadn’t turned the TV on at all that day.
I nearly screamed when a head popped up from the couch as I closed the door behind me.
I stilled. “Lydia.” Her name on my tongue fed my soul. My heartbeat started an Olympic sprint in my chest. She was so damn beautiful. Her silvery-purple hair was loose, hanging past her shoulders. One of Reid’s large T-shirts dwarfed her much smaller frame, and a peek of pink shorts with delicate lace around the bottom hem looked like nothing she would have picked out herself.
“Hey. Can we talk?” She stood from the couch and started toward me, studying me, a nervous energy emanating from her.
“I’m sorry, Lydia. I shouldn’t have said those things to you. If I could take them back, I would.” I took a step closer to her, and when she didn’t take a step back, I tried another one. “I don’t care what you post or share on my accounts. I don’t care if the entire world thinks I’m a terrible business owner or bad with money. I don’t care if SD Ink flourishes or flounders. I never should have called you crazy or said that I would deny the reality of what you post. That was a dick thing to say, and I know that. I’m so sorry.” I was only a foot away from her. I wanted to reach out and touch her, but I didn’t.
“I know. I think you panicked, then I panicked.” She shrugged, her eyes soft. She looked down at the floor for a beat before lifting her gaze to me again. “What I said that night, about you and… him… being alike. It wasn’t fair and it isn’t true. You are nothing like him, Sebastian. You couldn’t be more different in all the world. I’m sorry too.”
A tear hung from her lash before gravity pulled it to her cheek. I couldn’t stand it anymore. I swiped the tear away, my thumb lightly caressing her soft, smooth cheek. She looked up at me, a question in her gaze.
“You don’t have to apologize.” With my hand around the back of her neck, I pulled her to me, wrapping my other arm around her in a tight embrace. She rested her head against my chest, clinging to me like a lifeline. “I won’t make that mistake again, little wild, I promise you. I can’t promise I won’t make any mistakes, but I never want to make you question yourself. I love you.”
“I love you.” She lifted her head and placed a kiss to my jaw. “I’m going to be honest.” Another kiss peppered my jaw. “I missed you a stupid amount.” She kissed right below my ear. “In just two days.” She sucked my lobe into her mouth, takingit between her teeth.
I growled, capturing her lips in mine. Lydia tried to take control, but I tilted her head to just where I wanted her and deepened the kiss. My tongue slid across hers, filing the Lydia-sized hole in my heart with love. She wrapped her arms around my shoulders and hopped up, circling her legs around my waist. I caught her midair, one arm holding her weight while the other was threaded into her silky hair.
“Lydia,” I groaned. My cock pulsed in my pants. Having Lydia in my arms, her warm body flush against mine, was enough for me to nearly lose control. I slid her down and back up, dragging her thin shorts over my bulging erection. The urge to sink into her tight channel was overwhelming. Sweat beaded at my temple as I continued to stoke our flames through our clothes.
“Seb.” Lydia’s grip tightened. Her head fell back, and I took the opportunity to kiss, lick, and bite a trail up the side of her neck. She turned her face to mine, heat blazing in her eyes. “Make me come. Make me come just like this and then again on your tongue. And then again when you’re fucking me bare.” She rode me hard, her beautiful face contorting as she raced closer and closer to her climax. “I dare you, Seb. I dare you to make me come all night long.”
This minx was going to be the death of me. Her thighs squeezed my waist, and I had to fight to stay in control. She screamed my name. I crashed my mouth into hers, swallowing her moans of pleasure.
“A dare, Lydia? Really?” My voice was husky and low. “You know how serious I take a dare.” I carried her to the bedroom, the light from the still on TV lighting the way.
“That was kind of the point,” she sassed, sucking on myneck as her hands pulled at the collar of my shirt. I lifted it up and off, Lydia still clinging to my waist.
She slid down my body as I put her on her feet. “Promise me.” I kissed her, pouring every emotion I’d felt over the past two days into her. “Promise me, if I say something stupid or hurtful that you’ll tell me.”
Her mossy green eyes locked on mine. “I will,” she said.
“That’s not a promise.”
She rolled her eyes, a smile pulling at her lips. “I promise. And I promise to give us a chance to fight it out instead of leaving. I promise to always remember that you are not my past.”
“I’m not,” I agreed. But I would be her future, her forever, if she let me.
I snaked my hands up her shirt, lifting it over her head. We undressed each other slowly, deliberately, enjoying the intimacy of two people being in this moment together just as much as the physical act it was leading up to.
“You are my world, Lydia,” I told her, backing her up until her knees hit the side of the bed and she sat. “I don’t want to put that on you as some sort of pressure to live up to. But I need you to know.” I leaned into her, tasting her soft lips while I gently pushed her to her back. “And I’ll give you anything you want,” I said, falling to my knees in front of her, spreading her thighs. Arousal glistened, shimmering in the moonlit room. “Starting with this.”
My tongue swiped through her center, and the sounds she made drove me wild. I licked her clean from the last round, ready to make her scream my name again. If she wanted to do this all night, that was fine with me. I fucked her with my tongue until she was writhing beneath me. My hand held herdown on her lower abdomen, pinning her in place while I worked over her clit in quick, firm flicks. She was getting close, her muscles tensed, her breathing labored and erratic. I pulled back from her clit to spear her pussy with my tongue.
“Seb,” she cried. “I need to come. Please.”
