“Three,” he corrects, scandalized. “Don’t diminish my contribution.”
Daphne ignores him completely and tugs my laundry bag off the desk, slinging it over her shoulder. I pop the last fry between my lips, wipe my hands on a napkin, and take one final look around the room. The too-small bed, the too-white walls. Italready belongs to someone else; this space was never meant for me.
“Hey, where’s Rosie?” Jay asks Hudson as they pack.
“Foxx is with her at our place, she’s napping.”
“I need snuggles with my chaos monster soon,” I say.
“Any time, you know that,” Daph says. “We can do a girls’ brunch next week, Rosie loves brunch.”
“She loves all food at all times,” Hudson snorts.
“Definitely your daughter, then,” Jay remarks.
They bicker and banter together, and as the space empties, I feel relief.
Jay nudges my shoulder gently with his own. “Ready?”
The answer is there before I even breathe. Yet, I hold it in. To remember this feeling, because so many are fleeting, but this feels permanent. So many moments in my life have slipped by me before I even realized they were happening, but this one… this one feels like something I get to keep.
Moving here might’ve been one of the scariest decisions I’ve ever made. I left the familiar, the expected, the version of myself that was stuck because it hurt less than hoping and healing. And somehow, in the wreckage of everything, I found someone who didn’t ask me to be anything but human. It never mattered how many times I called Daphne to talk, she’d always answer the phone. It didn’t matter what plans Jay had, he’d always make extra dinner for me. It didn’t matter that I started dating their best friend because their arms were open and accepting of me, no matter what.
Being scared is okay. Knowing those who love you will hold you while you’re scared, that’s what I have now. I think I had to leave the apartment, if only for a day, to realize I’m not anchored to fear anymore. I’m anchored to them. To this life I’m building, even if the ground still shakes sometimes.
“Yeah,” I say, grabbing my drink and stepping toward the door, where my chaos crew is already waiting. “Let’s go home.”
Chapter fifty-four
Jay
I’mnotsureIdeserve this woman.
“Are you sure, baby?” I ask, needing to hear her say it again.
Her eyes gleam with interest as her tongue darts out, licking a hungry line across her lower lip. “I’m so sure.” Then she lifts the spoon, offering me a bite of the molten chocolate cake she’s been guarding like treasure. “Now take it before I change my mind.”
I close my mouth around the cool metal, the taste of hot chocolate and sugar melting across my tongue. It’s sweet and rich, but nowhere near as addictive as the satisfaction in her grin.
“Happy now?” she teases, tucking her legs beneath her.
“Almost,” I murmur, leaning back on my hands. “Though I think we burned enough calories yesterday moving your stuff back, that dessert was earned.”
“I could burn some more,” she says with a teasing lilt. That damn lip gets trapped between her teeth, and I reach up to pull it free.
“Still hungry?” I ask, keeping my voice low. I trail my thumb from her lip, dragging a smear of wetness down her chin, listening to her breath catch. “I can fix that.”
I’m not sure who moves first, but suddenly we’re colliding, and everything inside me feels wired, ready, desperate. My hand slides to the back of her neck, her pulse fluttering beneath my thumb. She exhales fast, but I swallow it eagerly. She’s pulling at my shirt, unbuckling my jeans already as I lick my tongue against hers over and over, dragging every last taste of chocolate from her. I’m starving, and she’s my dessert.
Then suddenly, she’s gone. I blink through the haze of lust as I find her standing at the side of the bed, stripping completely until she’s only in her lace panties. My dick throbs in my jeans at the sight of her.
“Come to the edge of the bed,” she says with a fire in her eyes that has me immediately obeying her. My jeans hang loose around my hips from where she undid them, my dick bulging through my boxers. “Take off your jeans and underwear.”
Fuck. Don’t need to ask me twice. I move at warp speed to get naked for her, and for good measure, I take my shirt off, too. Her eyes drink me in, leaving scorch marks all over. My dick pulses in the air, already leaking at the sight of her nipples, curves, and hunger.
“What you gonna do, baby? Suck my dick or just look at it?”
She doesn’t answer. Just tilts her head, her tongue pressing to the inside of her cheek like she’s fighting a smile. “I’m deciding,” she says, voice sultry enough to make my stomach twist. “You look pretty worked up already.”
