“What?Why?”My brow furrowing.“I want you to stay.We’ll go back together.”
She darts a glance into the room full of people, and then back at me.Mikey’s got a bottle of tequila in his hand, and Dean’s leaning over some barely dressed girl against the wall.
“I don’t want to cramp your style.”She waves a hand in the direction of the door.“Go have fun with the guys.I’ll just see you later.”
“Lily,” my voice low, “You are all the fun I want and need.”I toss a look over my shoulder toward the room.“That’s just white noise.”
“Those are your best friends.”She contends.“I’m not having you choose between me and them.”
I blow out a sigh as I roll my shoulders in an attempt to chill myself out.“There is no choice here.Yeah, they’re my best friends.Nothing is going to change that.Not me being with you.Not having you on tour with us.Not me leaving with you instead of partying with them.”
I rest a hand on her shoulder and lean into her.“Whatever I do, isn’t going to change what they do or how they feel about me.You understand that?”
“Why do you have to be so perfect?”She shakes her head, trying to contain a smile as her teeth chomp down onto her lower lip.
“You know that drives me fucking crazy.”My eyes dart to her mouth.“I want to be the one biting that lip.”
“Luc,” Her voice barely a whisper.
“I’m trying to be patient, but I’m not going to lie baby.I want to fuck you more than I want to take my next breath.”I cup her face and sweep my thumb over her cheek, pressing a kiss to her forehead.“A man only has so much will power, and mine’s about to snap.”
“I want you too.”She confesses, eyes locking onto me.
We’re back at the bus within ten minutes, and the second the door clicks shut behind Rita, the silence hits.Not real silence, but the kind that wraps around you and saysthis moment belongs to no one but us.
Lily’s standing there in the soft lamplight, hair loose, cheeks flushed, the afterglow of adrenaline still clinging to her skin like stage dust on mine.She has no idea how beautiful she looks like this.How dangerous she is to me.
She turns, and when her eyes meet mine, something in my chest tilts off its axis.I’ve been on stages in front of thousands, bathed in light and noise, but nothing has ever felt as overwhelming as her in this quiet.
“Luc…”
My name from her hits harder than any crowd roar ever could.There’s hesitation in her eyes, but it’s not about me, but about the leap.About trusting where her heart is trying to go.I take a slow step toward her.Careful.Controlled.If I rush, I know I could ruin it.
“Tell me now if you don’t want this,” I say, voice low, steadying myself as much as her.“Because you know how I feel.”
She breathes in, shaky.Brave.“I want this.”
And just like that, every restraint I’ve been clinging to frays.Not snaps, but frays, soft and slow, like silk unraveling in candlelight.I reach for her face, fingers tracing her jaw, and she leans into the touch like she’s been holding her breath for two years.That alone almost knocks me out.I press my forehead to hers, eyes closed for a second.
“I’m not touching you like a memory,” I whisper.“I’m touching you like you’re my future.”
She shivers.My pulse stumbles.
When I kiss her, it’s soft at first, reverent, careful, tasting the promise she’s giving me.Then she makes this tiny sound in the back of her throat and my entire body tightens with it.I kiss her deeper, slower, like I have all night and all our lives.I’m going to savor every second of having her in my hands again.
We end up on the couch, her knees bracketing my hips, breath mixing with mine.She wearing a dress, very much like the one when we spent our first full day together two years ago.She hasn’t said it, but I know she did it for me.
My hands find the hem of the skirt, sliding under the material, relearning the map of her skin.She looks down at me, eyes heavy with want, and that’s it, every vow I ever made to take it slow, to be patient, goes up in smoke.
It’s not lust.It’s more than need.It’s recognition.Her body remembering what her mind forgot.“Lily…” My voice breaks on her name.I don't care.She deserves honesty, not armor.
Her fingers thread into my hair, gentle and yes, claiming.“I choose this.I choose you.”
Fuck me.Those words wreck me.They’ll stay under my skin forever.
I tug her closer, moving with her like we’ve done this a thousand times and never once forgot how.No hurry, no rush, just heat and breath and the kind of connection you don’t get twice in a lifetime, but yet, somehow, we managed to find it.
She lifts her arms as I peel the dress off and drop it to the floor.She’s in nothing but panties, my cock straining against denim and reason.I strip my shirt, and she’s already working the button on my jeans, rising to her knees so I can shove them down.She slides off to tug away my boots and jeans completely, her hair falling her face like a halo gone wrong.
