“I had hoped,” she said. “But having never experienced the combination of what I’ve just felt, I wondered if it was more a fantasy than reality.”
He turned onto his side. “Oh, it was real. Every bit of it. And as much as I would have loved to have been your first back then, I’d rather have this be the memory of our first time.”
“You know what, Jayce?” she said, her voice soft, her hand trailing a path on his chest. “Me too.”
He gave her a quick kiss, then rolled off the bed and made his way to the bathroom.
It was the first he’d seen her suite. The one she’d shared with the ex-husband douchebag.
He had to get that out of his head. Not that he hadn’t been with women before who’d been with someone else in their room.
The same with him.
Only this time it bothered him more than it had in the past.
Yet looking around the bathroom as he took care of the condom and pissed, he realized everything in this room, and her entire house, had her touch on it.
From what he remembered of her and what he knew now, nothing around him screamed anything other than Farrah.
When he returned to her room, she was dressed in her T-shirt and shorts, then tossed his underwear to him in a playful move he appreciated from her.
He slipped them on and watched her eyes move over his body.
“Now I get a better look at you. I was too busy to admire it a few minutes ago.”
“Minutes? It felt like hours.”
She laughed. “Don’t get soft on me. I know you’ve got a lot more energy. You’re going to need it tonight.”
He laughed and walked closer to her, his arms out, and pulled her tight. “Nerves all gone now? I didn’t disappoint you? I mean, I had no worry you were going to disappoint me, so not sure where that all came from.”
She sighed. “You haven’t been divorced,” she said. “You don’t get it.”
“I haven’t, but I’ve been in relationships that have failed so I’m not immune to it.”
“Is it horrible of me to ask you to talk about that? I guess there is part of me that wants to know what you’ve done for years and if you’ve just never been serious about anyone or not.”
“I have been,” he said. “I’ve been in love too. I know what it feels like. I know what it’s like for it to end.”
He’d never talked to anyone about this before. Wasn’t sure he wanted to now, but if it got her to open up more, then it was worth it.
“Tell me about it,” she said.
He picked up his jeans, pulled them up, fastened them, then yanked his shirt over his head.
They left her room and went to the kitchen where she grabbed a bottle of water out of the fridge. She opened it and took a long drink, then he pulled it out of her hands and finished it.
She only laughed, then gave him a kiss.
“Her name was Jennie and it was a few years ago. We worked together. Not together in the same department, but she worked for the Hornets also. We had a lot in common and got along well.”
“How long were you together?” she asked.
She didn’t appear jealous in the least when other women used to be.
“About eighteen months. I was twenty-nine, she was twenty-four.”
“Five years isn’t a lot, but might be then. Most twenty-four-year-olds are pretty immature.”
