“You want to make it a bookish bar becauseIlove reading? Brad,” her voice starts to wobble as a tear rolls down her cheek, “how are you even real? Just twenty-four hours ago we were both seeing other people, and yet you still made my hobby part of your dream bar?”
I don't even get a second to process her words before her pillowy soft lips are on mine. It's gentle, grounding in a way, for both of us, I think. As she slowly breaks the kiss, I pull her in tight for a hug and just breathe her in. Jasmine, sunshine,home.
We sway like that for a while and she starts singing softly. It takes me a moment to realise she's singing A Bump In The Road by Jenna Hendricks. A song that has always reminded me of her.
You were a bump in the road
I thought I'd pick myself up from this fall
Just a bump in the road
But I realise that you are my all
My all
When she finally speaks, my heart tries to beat right out of my chest and into hers. “What did you say?” I squeeze her even tighter so she can't escape.
“I said I love you, Brad. I don't even know how to put this feeling into words because I love you doesn't feel big enough. But I'm terrified because our age gap issignificant. What if you don't feel the same in five, ten, fifteen years when I'm saggy and wrinkled and you're just hitting your prime? What if?—”
SHARI
“You think I care about age?” Brad interrupts my spiral, letting me go to pace away in frustration, and I immediately feel the loss of his body wrapped around mine. I stare at him in silence because the lump in my throat won't let me speak.
“I don't. I care about the future, about chemistry, feelings, and joy. I care about our daughter.” He steps closer with each statement. “I care aboutyou!” His forehead drops to mine, but he never breaks eye contact, and my lips tremble.
I reach forward and slowly run my left hand up his strong chest, over his shoulder, up around the back of his head to tangle in his silky-soft hair, and ghost my lips over his. The flare of hope and desire in his eyes is all I see before he consumes me.
This kiss isn't sweet or gentle, it's pure emotion — relief, longing, maybe even a little anger at all the time we lost because of my insecurities. It's sinfully carnal and within minutes we're a mess of tangled limbs — jeans unbuttoned, hands and lips and tongues everywhere they can reach. I'm so lost in him that I forget where we are until I'm ushered into a storage room. The heat of us burning the frigid air.
He reaches between my thighs and groans at the veritable ocean of lust he finds there. “So wet for me, baby. I promise I'll worship every inch of you later, but right now I need to be inside you. It's been too fucking long.”
“Yes, please, to all of that. Now, Brad!”
He kneels to yank my jeans and panties off, and picks me up to pin me against the wall as I wrap my legs around his waist. With one swift thrust, he's completely sheathed inside me, and my pussy already starts to pulse around him. I don't think I'veever been this close to coming this quickly before, but I amherefor it.
“Oh, fuck, Blaze, I'm not gonna last. Too good.Fuck! Are you close,at all?” Brad's voice is all agonised grit.
I somehow manage to squeak out, “With you!” amongst all the unintelligible noises I'm powerless to suppress. And as I fall over the edge of the planet, he's there to catch me.Like always.
As we drive home,I realise I never asked him about the names he came up with.
“Wait, you said you narrowed your bar names down to three, what are they?”
He smiles and picks up my hand from his lap to kiss my knuckles, and doesn't lower it when he speaks. There's something erotic about the way his lips move on my skin. Or maybe I'm just sex-starved for this man.
“Ok, if you think they're stupid, we can come up with something else. I was just brainstorming, so I'm open to other suggestions.”
“Brad. You're adorable when you're nervous. They won't be stupid, just tell me!”
He still looks a bit uncertain but finally relents, “Well, the three I like best are: Read Between The Wines, With A Twist, and Texts On The Beach.”
My entire being goes fuzzy at how much thought he's put into this. And how his brain is just as sexy as his body. And face. And smile. And eyes. And abs. And—snap out of it Shari, you can climb him when you get home!Seriously, when did I become such a nympho?
“Oh my god, Brad! They're such clever names! I love them all. Truly.”
He hits me with an intense smoulder – yes, my man can smoulder, and yes, he’smy man– as he rumbles, “I loveyou. Truly.”
Oh, would you look at that, Puddles McGee is back. And she giggles like a schoolgirl.
