Chapter 8 #2
During long, lonely months in the hospital, she’d thought about being with him this way. She’d dreamed about him on many a night, and the emotional punch of this moment filled her eyes with tears that spilled down her cheeks.
“What?” he asked, brushing away her tears. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing is wrong for the first time in so long.”
“Same.” He smiled as he leaned his forehead against hers. “I had no idea how much I’d missed you until you came home.”
She reached up to caress the handsome face that was at once familiar and new. The beautiful boy had become a sexy man while she was gone.
“What do you say we see what it’s like to sleep in a bed together?”
“I’m all for that.”
Max withdrew from her and went to tend to the fire, closing the doors to keep any stray sparks contained. Then he held out a hand to help her up. Keeping a grip on her hand, he led her into his bedroom, which had a king-sized bed with a blue-and-green-plaid flannel duvet cover.
“This is nice,” she said.
“It’s nothing special.”
“It’s your home, your bed. That makes it special.”
“Having you here with me makes everything special.”
“Everything that’s happened is beyond my wildest dreams. That you still feel the same way I do, that nothing has changed except we’re twenty-eight rather than eighteen. It’s amazing.”
“It always was. A few years after I last saw you, I forced myself to stop thinking about you, to stop wondering where you were or why you hadn’t called me.
I stuffed you in a box and put you in the back corner of my mind because it was just too painful to wonder anymore.
I didn’t think about you or talk about you or wonder about you anymore, but even then thoughts of you would pop into my mind and I’d ache with missing you.
Now I know it was always you, Lex. Always. ”
“For me, too.”
When he kissed her, Lexi went up on tiptoes to kiss him back, wrapping her arms around his neck the way she used to do all the time. Kissing him was familiar, but sexier, hotter, needier—and that was saying something, because they’d been hot for each other back in the day.
He raised her sweater up and over her head, and then she did the same for him. Next was the long-sleeved thermal that left her in only a bra and jeans.
Lexi shivered at the loss of the warm clothing.
“Are you cold?” he asked.
“Always.”
“Hurry, let’s get under the covers.”
They shed their jeans and got into bed, reaching for each other the way they used to do in the bed of his first pickup truck. “Remember the truck?”
“I remember everything.”
“I remember being cold,” Lexi said with a laugh.
“I warmed you up.”
“Yes, you did.”
He ran a hand over her back, setting off a burst of goose bumps that made her shiver. “The sweetest memories of my life involved you.”
“Same.”
Their lips came together in another greedy, tongue-twisting kiss that had them straining to get closer.
Max moved his hand to her bottom and pulled her in tight against him.
Lexi felt like she’d died and gone straight to heaven.
This was perfection, Max thought as he kissed her and held her.
It felt like no time had gone by as all the turmoil inside him settled.
On any other day, Chloe’s reappearance would have sent him into a tailspin.
With Lexi there to give him much better things to think about, the concern was still present, but it wasn’t all-consuming the way it would’ve been otherwise.
He’d figure out the best way forward for Caden, the way he always did. But tonight, he didn’t have to think about any of that. Not when he had Lexi back in his arms for the first time in years, and in his bed for the first time ever.
Max was determined to make this amazing for her. He wanted her to leave here on Monday with no doubt about where she belonged and who she belonged with. He kissed her face and neck and down to her chest, where he encountered a bump under her skin.
“That’s my chemo port. They want me to keep it for another year. Just in case.”
He couldn’t bear to think about her being sick again, so he didn’t dwell on that, not now when everything felt better than it had since he was last with her.
“Max…”
“What, honey?”
“I’m different than I was. Thinner. Bonier. Just different. And I have scars.”
“You’re as beautiful as I remember. Don’t worry about anything.
Just relax and let me love you.” He reached behind her to release her bra and eased it down, revealing the breasts that had been the source of his youthful fantasies.
Hers were the first ones he’d ever seen or touched.
He’d been obsessed with her and would be again before this weekend was over.
The thought of her leaving on Monday made him sadder than he’d been in a long time, and it was still only Saturday.
Maybe he could talk her into staying. That possibility sent his spirits soaring as he kissed her abdomen and down to the waistband of her panties.
Hooking his fingers into the elastic, he eased them down her legs and tossed them aside.
“Are you warm enough?”
“I’m very warm,” she said with a suggestive smile.
“Let’s see if we can make you even warmer.” He settled between her legs and opened her to his tongue and fingers.
“Max… What… Wait…”
“Shhh. It’s okay.” They hadn’t done this in the past, so it was probably new to her, which was even more reason to make it as good as it could be.
He set out to bring her nothing but pleasure with his tongue and fingers.
He’d learned a few things in the years since they’d been together, and he put them all into practice, curling his fingers to hit the spot inside that would set her off.
“Relax,” he whispered. “Let it happen.”
He doubled down and had her straining toward release in a matter of seconds.
Lexi cried out when she came, her inner muscles tightening around his fingers.
Max withdrew from her. “Don’t go anywhere.”
Her laughter made him smile. “Couldn’t move if I had to.”
He went into the bathroom and found a box of condoms he’d bought a while ago but had never opened. Colton’s commentary from earlier ran through his mind. As much as Max hated to admit his brother was right about anything, he’d been right to push him toward Lexi.
He washed his face and hands quickly and returned to her.
She was snuggled under the comforter where he joined her after rolling on the condom.
Her arms and legs wrapped around him felt like a homecoming of sorts, and the feeling of rightness that came with being with her was just as he remembered.
“This feels so good,” he whispered against her lips. “So right.”
“Yes, it does.”
“You ready for more?”
“Mmm, so ready.”
He rolled them so he was on top of her, gazing down at her sweet face.
She looked up at him with love and trust and so much affection.
“How did I live so long without you, Lex?”
“I don’t know how I did it either. It was torture.”
“It’s all good now, sweetheart.” He pushed into her, overwhelmed by the memories, the sweetness, the heat, the love. “We found each other twice in a lifetime. How lucky are we?”
“So, so lucky.”
Max had never felt quite as lucky as he did having her back in his arms and in his bed for the first time. Caden was his greatest joy, but Lexi… She was his one true love, and now that she was back in his arms, he would do everything he could to keep her there.