Greg cleared his throat. “Ah, yeah. We’re old friends.”
“Not now, honey,” I said near David’s ear.
He glanced around the table, then at Greg. “We’re going to chat tomorrow.”
“Maybewe girlswant to go surfing,” I said to dispel the awkward silence.
“Do you, baby? I’ll take you,” David decided before I could respond. “Brian and I are going to hit the line-up pretty early, but mid-morning should be good for beginners.”
“How about you, little lady?” Brian asked.
“I’m in,” Gretchen exclaimed and then reddened when she realized he was talking to his date. Kat only shook her head.
“We’d better get some rest then,” David said to me.
I clasped the big, rough hand moving back-and-forth on my leg and whispered back to him, “Don’t count on it.”
On the way back to the house, we fell into couples. “I know I said it already, but I missed you,” I told David as we walked hand in hand.
“Me, too.” He passed his thumb over my knuckles. “Baffling how we went all those months away from each other.”
I snuck my arm across his lower back. “You must be tired,” I murmured, snuggling into him.
“Yes, and I didn’t even get everything done.”
“I’m sorry,” I said, because it sounded like an admonishment.
“I’m not,” he said softly and stopped walking. I looked up at him as we stood still. “Everything is better when I can look into your eyes. That’s what I realized being away from you.” He touched my cheek. “They’re the most beautiful shade of green. They’re the first reason I fell in love with you.”
Warmth spread through my body, and I wrapped my arms more tightly around his waist. David could be so rough with me sometimes. In the beginning, I never would’ve believed he could also be endlessly romantic. “What did you see that first night at the theater?” I whispered.
“Hmm?”
“At the ballet when our eyes met. What did you see?”
“I just saw you. Clear. Raw. I felt like I was witnessing something I shouldn’t be. I’ve often wondered what you were thinking in that moment that you’d let me see inside you like that. Ironic, because for months after, you tried admirably to shut me out like everyone else.”
I closed my eyes and smiled as I remembered the night that changed everything. “I was with Bill, Lucy, Andrew, and Gretchen. The performance was so beautiful, wasn’t it? I remember thinking how much I loved it, and how I wished life was that perfect and flawless. I didn’t know that it’s not supposed to be that way,” I said, my voice suddenly hitching. “That a messy life can still be beautiful.” David raked a hand through my hair, soothing me. “I was thinking about how, even in a room full of people, I could still feel so alone. That’s the last thought I remember before I saw you.”
“You let someone in before you could stop yourself. You letmein,” he murmured. He pressed his lips to mine, and my body reacted instantly, melting into him. “I hate to think what would’ve happened to you if we hadn’t found each other,” he said.
“I had a good life, David. I never would’ve known anything else.”
“I can’t think of anything worse than nobody loving you as much as I do.”
My heart throbbed painfully with his words. I didn’t know what I’d done to deserve him, to deserve words like those from his mouth, but I promised to be good every day of my life to keep him.
He took my hand again, and we continued walking. At the house, he grabbed his bag from where he’d left it on the back porch. Though the rest of our group had already cracked open a round of beers in the kitchen, David and I said goodnight and went upstairs.
In the hallway, he dropped his bag with a loudthudand embraced me, dipping me slightly for a kiss. My arms automatically went around his neck. I was happy to know, and feel, that despite his fear of hurting me during sex, his desire hadn’t waned in the slightest. But I had yet to see if he’d still be able to let go with me.
With a low moan, he deepened the kiss while fumbling with the door to our room. I heard him kick his bag in without slowing the pace of our kiss. He backed me into the nearest wall before slamming the door shut with his foot. “I need you,” he growled between breaths. “It’s been too many days.”
“I tried to warn you,” I whispered back.
His lips devoured mine greedily as he pulled me away from the wall and closer to his body. He tugged the hem of my dress up around my waist as my hands plunged into his hair. His fingers hooked into my thong, and it dropped around my boots. I kicked it away, and his hands slid under my ass. He pried my cheeks apart while pulling me against him, inspiring a feverish heat between my legs.
His fingers found me wet, and I shivered against him when they massaged me. He slid two in slowly from behind, pulling out every few seconds to fondle my clit.
