I closed the space between us immediately and kneeled in front of her, my knees scraping against the concrete floor. My hands went to her face, cupping her cheeks and bringing her face to mine, our foreheads touching.
“How could I forget someone like you, peaches?” I placed a soft kiss on her lips, then pulled back. I looked her in the eyes and the tears I saw forming before were now trickling down her cheeks. I used my thumbs to wipe them away. The only reason I knew they weren’t sad tears was because of the brightest smile that was plastered on Erica’s face.
“Why didn’t you ever say anything?” Erica’s words were soft, and unlike when she first asked them, her voice had a little laughter to it.
“The first time I saw you after leaving, you introduced yourself to me like you had never met me and then when you came to work at The Ink Well, you did the same thing again. I honestly thought you had no idea who I was.”
Her smile disappeared instantly and I wanted it back so badly. She put her hands up, resting them against my chest, and I just prayed she wouldn’t push me away.
“Wait. So, you never said anything because I introduced myself? Oh my gosh.” She removed her hands from me, placing them over her face, blocking it from my view. I tried to pull them down, but her will to cover herself was far greater. “This is all my fault.”
Her words were muffled in her hands. I wanted her to know that this wasn’t her fault. It was no one’s fault. It was a time and place and miscommunication. No one could be blamed for neither of us ever saying anything.
“No.” My voice was stern and Erica’s hands came down immediately. “It’s no one’s fault. If you want to blame someone, blame me. I should have made a move years ago when you started at The Ink Well. Here I am after seven years, just now making a move. I’m the one who kept us farther apart than we needed to be.”
I took her face in my hands again and kissed her. This time she grabbed for the collar of my shirt and pulled me toward her.
“I’ve waited so long for this.” Her words struck my heart and I knew exactly what she meant.
“Same, peaches. Same.” I crashed my lips to hers and her legs wrapped around my waist. I reached behind me to turn off the fire pit, then picked her up and walked us into the house. My hands grabbed her thighs as I moved us toward my bedroom. I wanted to take this as slow as I could, but there was something about Erica that had me wanting to be stripped bare right this second.
“Just know, peaches, there’s never been anyone else.”
She pulled far enough away from me to look me in the eyes. They were lust filled and we were suspended in time in the hallway right outside the door to my room. She licked her lips and looked down at where I held mine between my teeth and then back up at my eyes.
“Never?” Her word was a whisper as she moved against me, her center hitting the top of my cock. I moaned and lifted her higher. I wasn’t ready to go off just yet. I needed more time with her.
“Never.” I leaned my head in and nipped her bottom lip. “No girlfriend, no dates, nothing, because nothing could compare to you, peaches. So I waited.”
She whimpered against my lips and I descended upon her again. I pushed open the door to my room and laid her down on the bed.
“Wait.” She propped herself on her elbows just as I was about to reach for the hem of my shirt. My fingers played with the stitching, waiting as she asked me to, but seeing her lying against my sheets was what I had waited years for. I wanted all of her in this moment. “I haven’t either.”
“Haven’t what?” I questioned. My heart stopped in that second, my brain trying to work faster than my dick to get me caught up. Was it possible that we had both waited for each other? That my first kiss by Old Mills Lake was her first kiss too? That these feelings and the knowing of what was going to happen tonight would be both our first times?
“I haven’t been with anyone either. No boyfriends, no dates, nothing.”
I pulled my shirt over my head and tossed it to the side of the room, not caring where it landed. Her eyes roamed over my body and I moved closer to her, parting her thighs with my hands. He legs were soft where her skirt rose up against her thigh. I wanted it higher.
“How did I get so lucky?” I asked the question, but didn’t really need an answer, because I already knew it. It was fate. It was us.
“You tell me.” Erica’s voice was raspy and I knew she needed this as much as I did, but I needed something more important in this moment. I needed to know that this was something she undoubtedly wanted.
“Do you want to be with me, Erica?”
I looked down at where my hands where, but Erica’s hand came out and grabbed for my chin, lifting it up until I was looking at her. She sat up fully and pulled her top over her head, sitting there in just her skirt and bra, her breasts filling out the top so perfectly. I pictured myself running my tongue along the tops of them, but I had to wait. I needed her to answer me. I needed to know she wanted this as much as I did.
“I want to be with you, Chase. I want this more than anything in the world.” She put a hand on my chest and looked up at me. My muscles jumped at the touch of her skin on mine and I placed a hand on top of hers, never wanting it to leave that spot. “I love you.”
“Fuck.” I crushed my mouth to her and pushed her against the bed, my weight bearing down on top of her. I only pulled away for two seconds to say the words I needed to. “I love you too, peaches.”
And that night became ours.
One that made everything we had gone through completely and utterly worth it because now, we had each other, and that was all either of us had ever wanted.
A life together.
Forever.
