Chapter Forty Coming Home
He arrived a day early, exhausted and unshaven and utterly unwilling to spend one more night away from her, appearing at the door of Larkspur Row in the late afternoon with his jacket rumpled and his tie long since abandoned somewhere over the Atlantic.
Elena heard the car in the drive and was at the door before Greta could announce him, and the sight of him — travel-worn, imperfect, entirely hers — undid something in her chest she hadn't realized had been held tight for five days.
"You're early."
"I couldn't stay away a full day longer.
I told them the deal was finished enough to leave the final signatures to my lawyers.
" He crossed the distance between them in three long strides and pulled her against him, burying his face in her hair with a groan of pure relief.
"God, I missed you. I have never in my life wanted to be anywhere as badly as I wanted to be here, with you, instead of in that hotel room. "
"I missed you too. Ridiculously. I taught myself three notes on your mother's piano out of sheer boredom and desperation."
"Play them for me." He pulled back just enough to look at her properly, exhaustion and adoration tangled together across his face.
"Later. Right now I need—" He kissed her before finishing the sentence, slow and starving, five days of longing collapsing into the single, unhurried press of his mouth against hers.
They didn't make it past the entryway for several long minutes, and when they finally did, it was to the bedroom rather than anywhere requiring further conversation, five days of separation dissolving into an urgency that left them both breathless, tangled together, murmuring each other's names like the answer to a question they'd both been asking all week.
Afterward, sated and entwined in the fading afternoon light, Elena traced idle patterns over his chest and felt him press a kiss to her hair, the same small, unconscious gesture that had become, over the months, the truest measure of how deeply he loved her.
"I don't think I can do that again," he murmured. "The distance. I built an empire out of not needing anyone, Elena, and apparently that entire foundation collapses the moment I'm forced to sleep in a bed without you in it."
"Then don't do it again," she said softly, smiling against his chest. "Bring me with you next time. Milan, Paris, wherever the business takes you. I'd rather see the world beside you than wait for you to come home to me."
"Done," he said immediately, without a moment's hesitation, and sealed the promise with another slow, unhurried kiss.