We were panting in each other’s face. Our hands touching, feeling, caressing. I still couldn’t get enough of her. Neither could my mouth, kissing her lips, her cheek, neck.
“Tell me you’re coming home with me, so we get to do this again.”
“I wish, but I can’t.” She let out a long breath. “I didn’t bring my uniform with me, and it doesn’t make sense, distance-wise, to go from your house to my place to the assisted living facility.”
I held the back of her neck, taking in those beautiful blue eyes. “Tomorrow night, then?”
“I promise.”
TWENTY-SIX
Alivia
Me
Just wanted to tell you I love you.
Lex
Love you more. Will you please plan a trip here soon? I really miss my bestie.
Me
I promise I will.
Now go to bed. I’ll call you on my way to Charred tomorrow.
Lex
XO
Islipped my phone into my bag and pulled out of the parking lot behind Charred, my hand rubbing across my face as I drove. My skin was still a little raw from Walker’s beard and the way he’d ravished me on top of his desk tonight.
God.
That man.
Maybe it was because the countdown of moving out wasn’t ticking by fast enough. Maybe it was because each time I returned to Dean’s, I wanted to be there less and less. Maybe it was because, whenever I headed in this direction, all I thought was that I’d rather be spending the night at Walker’s. But every time I left a shift at Charred, the commute to Dean’s felt endless. The darkness outside would hit me hard. The road, although never quiet, felt like silence.
Instead of crashing out, I put my brain in a place that made me smile.
Like this evening.
Although it hadn’t started off quiet and I’d almost lost it outside Walker’s office door, the night had turned into something incredible. I swore, every day, my feelings for him grew stronger. When I cooked with him, I felt a warmth in my chest that had nothing to do with the fire from the gas range. When I sensed his stare on me, I felt beautiful. Wanted. Desired. When his arms hugged me, I could close my eyes, and every fear drained through my toes.
Love was there.
It beat like the bubbling boil of the vegan ramen we’d made.
A ramen I couldn’t stop thinking about as I parked my car under the streetlight and walked across the road that weaved through the small complex, climbing the two steps outside Dean’s front door. My key slid into the lock, and I quietly opened the door.
There was a chance he could be asleep. That chance increased the later I returned home, the beer eventually causing him to pass out.
But where was he sleeping? That was the question.
Sometimes, he was on the couch. That made things easy. But then there were times he was in the hallway, lying horizontallyover the carpet, his back against one wall, his legs stretched toward the other, so I would have to step over him to get to my room. That asshole lived to verbally torment me. And on a few occasions, he’d wake up just as I was stepping over him, and he’d grab my foot, the screaming immediately igniting from him.
I wasn’t lucky enough to walk into a sleeping Dean tonight.
