“If I say no, will you not call me that?”
“Probably not.”
He chuckles. “Alright, then. We’re engaged in this apartment only. I swear to God, Andrea, if your mom calls to congratulate me, I will spank you until you can’t sit down.”
“And you think that’s a threat that’ll work on—Ah, shit!” His surprise back and forth into me punches the air out of my lungs. “Okay,” I reluctantly agree. “We’re half engaged.”
“I can work with that,” he tells himself, still trying to salvage this.
Feeling very in love with him, I kiss the underside of his jaw, all the way to his ear, and whisper, “Now, if you could resume fucking your very needy fiancée, she’d appreciate that a lot.”
I feel him twitch inside me, and I know some of his precum is now coating my walls.
“Fucking hell… I’ll never win a single argument in this relationship, will I?”
“Probably not.”
“And I’ll never learn to say no to you.”
“I hope not.”
I bite the underside of his jaw, then run my tongue over the spot. “Now, fuck me,fiancé. Show me what a good husband you’ll make one day.”
Just like that, another twitch. Oh, this man is beyond whipped. I can’t wait to spend the rest of my life making him lose his mind.
The decades ahead of us might not be boring, after all. How could I ever be bored of this man?
Epilogue
Three weeks later
As I gaze up at the tall building, I’m thrown back to the very first time I saw it, to the day everything changed. Getting a job at Kelex brought both the best and the worst moments of my life. But regardless of all the shit I had to claw my way out of, I will never,ever, regret meeting the man standing by my side.
Flooded with nostalgic feelings, I peer up at him, looking all dapper in his dark blue jeans, gray T-shirt, and charcoal jacket. This time, I’m wearing a cream satin shirt and black pegged pants. No way I’m starting the same job underdressed twice. I’ll be back to my normal self as early as tomorrow.
“Are you ready to go in?” he asks, looking down at me and pressing an encouraging hand on my lower back. I nod, but before he turns his attention away from me, I extend my neck up to demand a kiss. He indulges, and with his hand still behind me, we enter the familiar building.
I’ve never had a second first day of work. It’s… stressful, but not as much as that very first time. I know exactly what to expect, and I have friends up there, whom I’m eager to work with again. As for my boss… I’ll have to renegotiate the terms of our half-engagement and demand that in his office, we’re also fiancés.
The hall is busy, like always at this hour, and I take Lex’s hand in mine, hoping the intense activity isn’t too hard on him. He’s been in sensory paradise for months, and having to readapt to the smelly, noisy, and crowded world has been a little harsh on him. We wait among the suited-up folks for the elevator, and when it arrives, we enter it with the flow.
It seems some things never change, and the eager mob hasn’t learned about manners during our time away. Lex and I are pushed likecattle into the small space, and he ends up forced between me and the stainless steel panel in the back.
The situation is oh so familiar, and a soft laugh rolls out of me as I glance up. There’s keen amusement in his eyes when they meet mine, an incredulous, crooked smile bending his perfect mouth. While it throws me back to the first time this happened, all I can think of are the differences between then and now.
This body I’m plastered against, which felt foreign and inappropriate back then, has become one I know better than my own. This man, who seemed like an unattainable demigod, is all mine. The dashing face that dazed me comes with a complex personality that I didn’t suspect when I first saw it. And the sexual tension that oppressed me then is still there, but it’s a familiar feeling, one I love. And contrary to when I wanted nothing more than to have enough room to set some distance between us, I don’t want to move from my spot. There’s no other place I’d rather be.
Nothing is the same, and yet here we are. Stuck together in that damned elevator, on our way up to the Kelex floors.
We’ve come full circle.
And Jesus fucking Christ, what a circle it was…
“Hey,” I say, flirty. “Do you work here?”
The corner of his lips twitches with amusement. “I do. You?”
“Yeah, first day at Kelex. Or like, second first day.”
