Page 83 of All The Ways to Miss You

We help each other up from the ground and find our way to the main road, where I flag down a taxi. Soon we’re rushing into the apartment to warm ourselves from the falling temperatures and worsening conditions.

“I’m taking a hot shower,” she says, kicking off her shoes while slipping out of her coat and hat.

“I’ll make us some hot chocolate.” I head for the kitchen but she tugs on my shirt, pulling it tight. I boomerang back to her side.

“Or you can join me.” There’s a naughty gleam in her eyes.

Before I can decipher her words, she pulls her top and bra over her head, revealing her perfect breasts. She drops her sweatshirt and sports bra on the floor at her feet and gives me a sexy look, but I’m frozen in more ways than one as she continues her seductive striptease. She moves through the apartment, leaving socks in the kitchen and leggings on the floor in the hallway, until she’s finally teasing me in just her underwear.

I have a moment of sheer stupidity because it’s gradually settling on me that after two months of heavy make-out sessions, I’m finally going to be with this woman. Light feet carry me along the heavenly path of clothing leading to her room. I arrive as she drops her panties, revealing her naked body. She offers me a come-hither look that makes me stumble forward, and then she disappears into the bathroom.

The shower turns on, and I follow the sound. At the doorway, I watch her step inside. Her skin is flushed pink, her hips and ass round and as perfect as her breasts. I step closer, one foot at a time, watching her soap herself behind the fogging glass door.

Before I can comprehend what’s happened, I’ve removed all my own clothing and stepped into the shower with her. Yes, I’ve been confident all this time, but now I’m the most vulnerable I’ve felt, and I’m nervous as hell.

The feeling falls away as soon as I scoot in behind her and press my chest to her warm back. My fully alert dick slips into the curves of her ass, sliding over her smooth skin. My eyes flutter shut at the contact, and I bite my lip. She turns and brushes her hardened nipples across my chest. When I open my heavy eyelids, her fiery and seductive gaze lands on mine.

She rubs her soapy hands over my abs, my shoulders, across my back, and over my ass. Every place she touches sparks alive, causing blood to rush faster and harder south, where my dick aches to be inside her.

Thinking I need to slow myself down, I turn the tables and soap all of her body, leaving no part untouched. Under the hot pelting shower, I memorize every curve, every freckle, and every strand of her beautiful hair. My plan backfires because feeling her body shudder beneath my fingers turns me on even more.

When we’re clean and dried, I kiss her and back her out of the bathroom and into her room. We halt when her calves are pressed against the side of the box spring. I’m wound so tight and horny that I’m ready to explode, but I want everything to be perfect.

“Are you sure?” I whisper, dragging a thumb across her swollen lips.

“Touch me.”

With her words, she ignites the fire within me. I lean into her and kiss her again. Her cheek presses to mine, tickling the scruff on my chin. She summons the buzz I’ve held for her since the day we met. It’s ringing louder than it ever has. It’s in my ears and chest, and I want to share and drive the feeling straight into her.

Intense kisses. Twisting tongues. Our bodies entwine until there’s no air between us.

We fall on the mattress and tumble until she’s on top of me, my torso locked between her strong thighs. She opens for me. I quickly slip on a condom and press inside.

She’s so tight. Moaning at the connection, I sit up, placing my head on her chest. I kiss all of her, claiming every piece as my own. My lips graze her breast as I grasp her ass, and I lie back and lift her, rolling us together, driving all of myself into her until we come, wrapped into each other’s arms.

The second time is playful, with nipping, biting, giggling, and a few smacks from the red spatula. Afterward, wrapped in each other’s arms, I have a true moment of bliss. It’s a completeness I never knew could exist. Total chick shit I need to keep to myself, but it’s there, real and inside me. Then an unexpected sight further elevates my mood.

“Is that my picture on your vision board?” I prop myself on my elbows and focus. Some of the covers fall away.

“I told you everything I wanted was on there.” Cait pulls me back to the bed, fits herself into the curve of my side, and traces my chest. I slide my hand across her thigh, which is hooked over my side.

True happiness fills me. Turning, I cup her face in my hands and peer into her sparkling eyes. In them, I see the two of us, and the thing I’ve been waiting to say slips out as easily as breathing.

“And everything I want is right here. I love you.”

thirty-eight

“We’ll be snowed in for days,” Cait says, watching an angry swarm of flakes drift past the living room slider door.

“Fine by me.” From behind, I wrap my arms around her waist and kiss her neck, then bury my face in her smooth hair, inhaling the smell of her sugary shampoo like a damn drug.

It’s January in Chicago. Snowberia at best, the Ice Age at worst. We’ve been lucky with little blasts of snow every few days, nothing that’s amounted to more than an annoyance. But this time, we prepared for a blizzard.

Cait and I made a run for books, a ten-pound canister of hot chocolate, DVDs from the dollar rack at Goodwill, and enough food to stock our kitchen for a month. Heck, I’d be happy if we were stuck here forever. At the very least, we have another week to enjoy each other before school starts again.

When I step to the window to check the weather, a black SUV with tinted windows stops in front of our building. Its tire tracks ruin the untouched snowy scene. I should take it as a bad omen, but instead I watch with curiosity as a driver jumps out and rounds the car. He opens the back door and a stately figure steps out.

Beside me, Cait presses her nose to the window. Her breath fogs the glass, but she smears the cloudiness away and looks again. A bundled woman steps through the snow, around the building maintenance man, Mr. Gusterson, who’s shoveling the sidewalk, and then she climbs the front stairs. Two men escort her.