And then?—
Three loud raps, right on Mae’s door, and she almost fell off the counter.
She couldn’t remember a time Dell had knocked on her—his—door, a time he’d even set foot inside the ADU since that first day he’d let her in and handed over the key. Yet before she could even gather herself to get off the counter with grace, another key turned in the lock.
And Dell McCleary strode inside, door slamming behind him. In three long strides, he was there, in front of her, standing at her knees.
Mae blinked.
He appeared almost out of breath, eyes dark and serious. And even if the week of silence between them had, perhaps, hurt her feelings, she was so damn happy to see him that she couldn’t help but smile.
“Well, hello,” she said.
“Sorry,” he answered, running a hand through his hair. “Sorry I didn’t wait for you to get the door, sorry I haven’t?—”
He grabbed the ice cream from her hand, followed by the spoon. Placed them on the counter a safe distance away.
And when he was done, he rested his hands on her thighs, which had, unbeknownst to her, parted to make room for his.
“I’m sorry,” he said again. “I wanted to do this right, and I’m sure everything was probably fine anyway, but I wasn’t completely sure, that Luca hadn’t slept with anyone else, and so I went to get tested, and I’ve been waiting, but I just heard, and—are you good, too? Health wise?”
Mae was overwhelmed at the sudden closeness of him, so very close and surprising and wonderful, his hands moving up her thighs to grip her hips.
“What?”
Dell’s mouth twitched. “Have you been tested since your last partner?”
“I—” Oh god, he smelled likeDell. He was so close. She swallowed. “Yeah. I have.”
His hands moved again. They wrapped around the back of her neck, fingers gripping into her hairline, thumbs pushing upward against her jaw. She inhaled a breath she couldn’t quite release.
The amusement faded from his eyes, replaced by that dark seriousness once more.
“These lips,” he said, right hand crawling over her jaw, until his thumb pressed down on her bottom lip. “You are always biting this lip. Drives me fucking wild.”
And Mae had meant every word she’d said to Dell that night in his bed. She had been patient and understanding and she knew he’d stood behind her at the bar like he owned her, had pressed her against his truck; she knew he’d said the words the next morning—I want you so badly, too—but it was possible she hadn’t fully believed them until this moment. It was possible she’d forced herself to not believe them, this week. Until now. Until she saw the desire in his eyes. For her. Until his thumb pressed down into her bottom lip.
“Mae,” he said, voice quiet as sin, “do you still want this?”
Wordlessly, as much as she could under the command of his palms, she nodded.
The moment he clocked the movement, before her chin had barely dipped, he closed the gap and kissed her.
twenty-three
Dell kissedlike he had his safety goggles on: with focus and a quiet intensity. A powerful but controlled force, art left in its wake. And as with the first time Mae had seen Dell’s brow furrow as he contemplated a stretch of wood, she was gone for it from the start.
She hadn’t kissed someone with a beard in a long time. It tickled her chin, her cheeks. Her hands scrambled for purchase, grabbing at his shirt, wrapping around the prickle of his neck until they mirrored his. When his mouth opened to hers, a small, uninhibited sound emptied from her throat, landing on his tongue: surprise and relief andfinally. They were so close, but she needed to be closer; she scooted an inch forward. A darker sound, almost a growl, rumbled through Dell’s chest, becauseyes. It was just right, here on the counter: the apex of her thighs fitjust there, against the bulge in Dell’s jeans.
Mae pushed against him, wrapped her legs around his hips, kissed him with a sudden, bone-deep clarity: Dell McCleary was the one thing, other than her books and the ocean, that made her feel at home here. That made her feel safe. Like she belonged. And maybe even her books, maybe even the ocean couldn’t compare to this. Maybe Dell wasn’t just a bonus. Maybe he had been entwined with this dream from the start. Maybe he was everything. He kissed her back like he was letting her see the whole of him for the first time, someone a little angry but mostly soft—a quietly desperate person—and she washerewith him, fully here, like seeking like, kissing him fast and sloppy now—slow down, a tiny part of her brain whispered, but she couldn’t stop rocking against him, until everything hit her at once. That she’d wanted this for so long. That it felt so good. She needed to breathe or she was going to explode. She needed—she needed a breath.
She broke away with an unsteady gasp, turning to rest her cheek on his shoulder.
“You okay?” His voice was soft, ragged.
“Yeah, I just—” She tried to wipe surreptitiously at her face. Tried to swallow down her heartbeat, thudding in her throat. Tried to think of something to distract, to help her calm down. “I can’t believe you’re doing this now.”
“I’m—I’m sorry. I came as soon as I got the results, didn’t really think?—”
