Chapter 25
Chapter Twenty-Five
As Jo moved around her kitchen with far more ease than she’d expected to after the day they’d had, rosemary and garlic filled her senses.
She’d chopped the potatoes just how Amelia liked them—chunky and with the skin still on—and they were now roasting away in the oven beside the chicken breasts she’d stuffed with mozzarella and sundried tomato.
Her stomach growled as she wiped her hands on the tea towel and leaned over to check the timer. Eight minutes left.
She poked her head around the kitchen wall and glanced down the hallway.
The bathroom door had been locked for over an hour, and Jo had heard the water running almost the entire time.
She’d knocked earlier and left a clean towel and one of her favourite jumpers by the door.
Amelia hadn’t said much, just offering a soft, “Thank you,” through the door, but Jo could tell something had shifted.
As the day had gone on, she didn’t seem as haunted as she had first thing this morning. Jo had expected some kind of pushback over visiting Callum, but Amelia seemed almost relieved that Jo had taken care of that situation for her. Perhaps Amelia was just exhausted with everything going on.
Amelia finally emerged from behind the door, her skin flushed and her hair loosely tied back, those legs bare beneath Jo’s oversized jumper. Fuck me!
Jo almost forgot to breathe, but quickly managed to save herself. Now wasn’t the time to admire Amelia and her luscious, long legs. Jo knew it would be a while before they found their feet, especially given the heaviness of what today had brought.
“Feel better?” She asked, leaning a hip against the counter as Amelia wandered into the room barefoot, her expression relaxed in a way Jo hadn’t seen since everything had been put out in the open. Her eyes weren’t haunted anymore. They were…mischievous.
Amelia smiled, and God, it was devastating. “So much better.”
Jo narrowed her eyes suspiciously. “You’re grinning.”
Amelia stepped closer. “Am I?”
“Yes.” Jo angled her head. “You look like someone who’s either up to no good or someone who has just had a very good orgasm.”
Amelia’s laugh was low and sultry. A laugh Jo was used to, but one she hadn’t expected this evening. “Sadly, the bath was solo, but the night’s still young.”
Jo arched a brow. “Oh?”
“I’ve always enjoyed seeing you in the kitchen.” Amelia took another step closer, her gaze cast to Jo’s lips for the briefest moment. “You’re very domestic.”
“And you’re very—” Jo swallowed. “Jesus, can you stop looking at me like that. I’m going to burn dinner.”
“It’s very easy to fall back into what I know with you.
” Amelia skimmed a hand against Jo’s waist, eventually settling it on the small of her back as she snaked it around.
“I’m sorry you had to deal with me this morning.
That won’t happen again. I don’t want it to become a part of us.
” Jo’s breath caught when Amelia reached up and stroked a thumb against her cheek.
“You didn’t flinch earlier when I told you about everything.
You didn’t look at me like I was damaged. ”
“You’re not.”
“No.” Amelia smiled. “But most people wouldn’t have seen that. They’d have looked past who I am now, what I’ve become, and focused entirely on it. That’s why I want to move forward with you. I can’t change the past, but I can put my all into being happy with you, Jo.”
Before Jo could respond, Amelia’s hand slid into her hair, her mouth on Jo’s in an instant.
There was no hesitation this time. No ache of the past or a barrier of pain.
Just raw, hungry need. Jo whimpered as her back hit the edge of the counter, and Amelia pressed into her with an urgency that made her knees tremble.
Jo’s fingers curled into Amelia’s hips, holding her close, her body buzzing with every drag of Amelia’s mouth…
every flick of her tongue. She’d kissed this woman plenty of times now, but never like this.
Never with the full knowledge of everything Amelia had survived. It made it all the more electrifying.
Amelia tugged gently at Jo’s hair, the kiss growing fiercer, deeper, until Jo was gasping against her lips and arching into her.
“Jesus,” Jo whispered. “What are you trying to do to me?”
“Ruin you…in all the best ways possible.”
Her thigh pressed between Jo’s legs, and she lost it, her fingers clawing at Amelia’s jumper to bring her even closer.
And then…the fucking oven timer beeped.
Jo groaned and lowered her head to Amelia’s shoulder. “You have got to be kidding me.”
Amelia regarded her with a wicked grin and nipped at Jo’s bottom lip. “Well, that makes the rest of the evening all the more interesting.”
“God, I fucking hate chicken.”
“Baby, relax,” Amelia said, pulling away just enough to let Jo breathe. Her voice was a near-whisper as she brought her mouth to Jo’s ear and said, “If it makes you feel better, I fully intend to make it up to you later after I’ve sat beside you knowing precisely how wet you are.”
“Fucking hell.” Jo’s hands slid to Amelia’s waist as she steadied herself. “You know I want you, I’m dying to touch you, but are you sure you’re ready for that? After everything—”
“I’m sure,” Amelia said, brushing her nose against Jo’s. “I don’t want to disappear into the past anymore. I want tonight. With you.”
Jo pressed her forehead to Amelia’s and lost herself in those gorgeous eyes.
She didn’t care about dinner. She wasn’t even hungry for food anymore.
Just hungry for everything else. “Yeah. Me too.” Jo quickly broke away and reached for an oven mitt, turning her back on Amelia.
“Dinner first,” she said, knowing her cheeks were flushed. “Then you can ruin me.”
Amelia laughed and sauntered off towards the couch. She offered one final glance over her shoulder, sending a fresh wave of heat through Jo’s entire body.
Oh, you’d better be ready for her later.
Tonight, it seemed, was only just beginning.
Curled up on the couch after dinner, Jo’s blanket tucked over her bare legs, Amelia appreciated the comfortable silence they’d fallen into.
For the first time in days, maybe even years, she wasn’t holding herself together with trembling hands.
Something inside Amelia had eased, and that constant ache in her chest had dulled.
Because Jo had seen her. She’d listened, and she cared.
And now, she lay here watching Jo tidying up in the kitchen, her bare feet tiptoeing softly across the floor, humming something quiet under her breath as her hoodie hung loose off one shoulder.
Her hair was up, but a few strands had already fallen down, framing her face in that effortless way Amelia had always loved.
God, she’s beautiful.
Jo looked over at her with a gorgeous smile. One Amelia hadn’t seen in days. “You okay over there?”
Amelia nodded. “Oh, I’m fine. I have an excellent view.”
For the first time in over twenty years, she wanted to be touched as Amelia. Not as Lia, not as the woman behind the curtain, and not as someone hiding in a version of herself she’d created to survive.
No more hiding.
No more lies.
Just the unfiltered truth of who she was.
“I’ve been thinking,” Jo said as she crossed the room, her hand brushing Amelia’s bare shoulder as she rounded the back of the couch. “Why don’t you head back to your place tomorrow and get some things, then come back here and we’ll just take it easy until that dickhead has left the town again.”
That dickhead. Amelia laughed and pulled Jo into her lap the moment she landed in front of her. “You don’t have to hate him for my sake, Jo.”
“I already hated him. I just hate him more now.” Jo stroked her fingertips against the back of Amelia’s neck, sending a shiver down her spine. “How do you feel about him knowing about us?”
That was once a question that terrified Amelia, but now…not so much. “I don’t think it matters what I do moving forward. My relationship with Callum is strained, it’ll likely get worse, and there is nothing I can do about that.”
“I’m not expecting him to jump for joy, but I’m also not willing to listen to any bullshit. He did what he did, and now that I’m sitting here in your lap…I’m glad he cheated on me.”
Amelia regarded Jo with a sympathetic smile. “Jo…”
“I’m serious.” Jo lowered a hand and took Amelia’s. “I’ve wanted you for longer than I cared to admit to myself. Now that we’re here, I feel as though everything happened because it was supposed to.”
“You really mean that, don’t you?”
“I’d never lie to you.”
Amelia swallowed. She wanted to say she’d never lie to Jo either, but well…
she’d already been there and done that. “I know you’ll probably find it hard to trust me after what I did to you, but that’s not who I am, Jo.
Not deep down. I knew it was wrong and I spent weeks warring with myself, but every time I considered telling you, you talked to me about Lia and how much you enjoyed being with her…
and I couldn’t do it.” Amelia lifted their hands and kissed Jo’s knuckles.
“But moving forward, I’ll never lie to you again. You have my word.”
“I believe you.” Jo dipped her head and placed a kiss to Amelia’s jaw. “And thank you…for letting me in. It means the world, really.”
Amelia guided Jo up out of her lap, the blanket slowly falling to the floor between them. “You’re the only woman I’ve ever wanted to be myself with. It’s why I found it so hard to be honest. I wasn’t sure I could handle the rejection.”
“I’m sorry,” Jo whispered as she cast her gaze to the space between them. “If I hadn’t kept telling myself and us that it was a bad idea, you may have felt safer with me.”
“I’ve always felt safe with you.”
Jo stared at her, unmoving. Then, in the quiet that followed, Amelia reached up and fisted her hand in Jo’s hair, dragging her in close with the kind of hunger that had been simmering since the moment they’d been rudely interrupted in the kitchen.