Chapter 40 Miss You, Goodbye
Miss You, Goodbye
Eve
Eve found this particular ride to Gatlinburg much easier than the last, her sadness exchanged for the confidence she’d been lacking for so many months now.
Excitement tickled her toes, and she wondered if this was what Jamie felt when he was driving in from Nashville on Fridays.
It was quite different—quite nice—not to be the one waiting.
It was a heady tonic, knowing the person you’re desperate to see is at the other end of the journey.
It was no wonder Jamie did it so readily every weekend.
Unsurprisingly, Eve’s heart beat faster when she reached their street and spotted that old Chevy sitting in the driveway. It put her at ease, that small sign that he was still himself, yet her pulse quickened anyway. That was the effect he had on her.
Eve pulled in and parked beside Jamie’s truck.
She glanced into the passenger window, recalling her first time riding with him—when he rescued her from a particularly jarring panic attack.
Maybe it wasn’t the healthiest thing in the world, being secluded in this place, but it— he —was what she needed at the time.
With a smile on her lips, Eve hopped out of her rental and smoothed her plaid shirt, figuring it wrinkled during her travels.
She got a quick glimpse of herself in the reflection of her window, her 4C hair still neatly in its high puff, with the headscarf she used as a headband perfectly in place.
She grabbed her purse and headed up the walkway toward the staircase, her toes still tingling with every step she took.
It all felt simultaneously familiar and foreign.
Reaching the steps, Eve stopped in her tracks when she realized Jamie was standing at the top of them, waiting for her.
Her breath caught in her throat as she took him in.
Him and that lazy smile. He was wearing her favorite denim shirt with the sleeves rolled up, showing off just enough skin.
He hadn’t shaved in about three weeks, she could tell, and his facial hair was perfect for it, all the different hues of gray complementing the blue.
His hair looked wet—darker, wavier than normal—and she wondered if he’d just taken a shower.
She couldn’t wait to smell him again. His scent, the comfort of it, was one of the things she’d missed most.
Grinning, she dropped her bag and started up the steps to meet him.
Jamie was already headed down, and they met somewhere in the middle.
Each seeming to know what the other was thinking, they didn’t waste time with words; instead, Jamie immediately leaned down to kiss her.
It was sweet—soft—at first, in a show of both affection and atonement.
But as Eve’s fingers found his hair, as was her wont, he deepened the kiss, and it felt like he’d literally taken her breath away.
As he tenderly slipped his tongue into her mouth, he hoisted her from the steps and into his arms. Eve broke their kiss, only briefly, to laugh when she felt herself lifted into the air, but she was quick to catch up, wrapping her legs around his waist.
She’d almost forgotten how good Jamie was at this.
He kissed like it was breathing for him, so utterly natural.
She never wanted to stop. And they didn’t, even as Jamie turned and headed up the steps, his hand square on her back, keeping her safe as they moved.
Their lips never parted for anything more than small breaths of air.
Within seconds of seeing each other for the first time since the last time, they were in a full-on lip-smacking, tongue-wrestling make-out.
It was as though they hadn’t seen each other in ten years instead of ten weeks.
Soon after they made it inside, Jamie practically threw Eve onto the bed, and he hastily joined her.
The room was already pleasantly warm, thanks to a small fire in the hearth, but it turned hot as soon as he made his way on top of her.
He removed the scarf that dressed her neck like he was unwrapping a gift, his tongue then diving for her skin.
He kissed her chin and along her jawline and back down again, taking care to cover every inch of her.
He unbuttoned her shirt, releasing a series of low moans as he moved down her chest until his tongue was tickling her cleavage.
He was careful and slow to pull down the cups of her bra to reveal her breasts, licking his lips at the sight of them, propped up by the underwire, her dark brown nipples stiff, before taking one into his mouth.
He rolled his tongue around one bud and then gently tugged at the other with his teeth before repeating.
He bathed them with long licks until they went soft and then hard again, all while Eve tangled her fingers in his feathery curls.
She had been thinking about exactly this on her flight. Images of him devouring her made the wait much shorter. She anticipated him being so eager to see her, there wouldn’t be time or need for words, and he’d delivered tenfold, not taking a single second for granted.
Eve had every intention of returning the fervor, and she needed to get to him before he did his thing; otherwise, she’d soon be useless.
As Jamie sucked on her tits like they were his dinner, she tugged at his hair, attempting to redirect his focus.
He obliged, returning his kisses to her lips, allowing Eve to undress him, her fingers blindly fumbling with the buttons of his shirt.
As soon as it loosened, she ran her fingers up his bare back and down again, the lines and curves of it so familiar to her, it made her warm inside.
That dimple where his backside began, she’d studied it in their previous life together.
She attempted to push down his jeans but didn’t get very far as Jamie moved back down her neck, seemingly oblivious to her efforts.
He pulled up from her briefly, licking his swollen lips as he caught his breath and kicked off his shoes.
But his eyes stayed on Eve’s, his hungry stare making her squirm until he pulled her to the edge of the bed by her leg, leaving her giggling with glee as he pulled off her boots.
She unbuttoned her jeans, and he removed those, too, his smile widening as her sheer teal thong stared back at him.
He was climbing back onto the bed when her foot stopped him; she wiggled her toes at the button of his pants, and he took the hint, stepping out of them posthaste.
Eve grinned, admiring his naked form as he returned to her, welcoming him between her legs as he resumed his kisses.
His tongue tangoed with hers, his erection teasing the inside of her thighs as his fingers dipped inside her underwear, the index and middle penetrating her wet center, eliciting a fervid moan.
“Jamie,” she whispered against him. Her mouth fell open as he went deeper, as his lips moved downward, latching on to her throat, and it was clear that he was going to do everything in his power to make her forget her name that night.
—
When morning rose, Eve was the first to wake, peeling her face from Jamie’s chest after hours of skin-to-skin contact.
She had a headache that felt like a hangover, which was apt, as she’d been fully intoxicated by the man beside her.
Her entire body, even her jaw, was throbbing, and she couldn’t bring herself to move; she simply stared into the distance, enjoying the view of the trees, the sun peeking through the forest of branches.
The promise of spring was in the air, green leaves just beginning to sprout.
She’d heard that it tended to snow well into March here in Gatlinburg, but Eve imagined flowers would start budding sooner than later this year.
She wished she would be around to see it.
Yawning, she ran her hand along Jamie’s torso, reveling in the feel of his warm skin beneath her fingertips. She loved watching him in slumber; it made her giggle, in fact, the way he slept so still, like a corpse. Then again, he was probably spent, too.
“What are you laughing at?” Jamie asked. His eyes were still closed, his voice thick with fatigue, and she delighted in every bit of it. She’d missed waking up with him.
“I’m laughing at you laying there like a cadaver,” she said, smiling as her fingers continued through his slight tuft of chest hair.
“That’s probably because you almost killed me last night.”
“Fair enough.”
“How long you been awake?”
“Just a couple of minutes,” Eve said.
Finally opening his eyes to the day, Jamie turned to her, amusement claiming his sweet face, the only evidence of his thirty-five years showing in the small wrinkles that started at his eyelashes and reached his temples.
He squinted too much, and he smiled even more.
Evidence of life lived. Despite his protestations to the contrary, he’d been happy before her; he could be again. She hoped.
As Eve’s mind wandered, Jamie leaned in for a kiss, and the second their tongues touched, he eagerly began to move on top of her.
Eve was quite happy to kiss him, morning breath and all, more than she should probably ever admit, and as his lips traversed her body, the more the tickle of his tongue on her stomach made her laugh, the less she wanted him to stop.
But she hadn’t prepared for this to be the only item on their agenda all weekend.
“Wait,” she said. She touched his left shoulder, reminded of their first time together as her fingers involuntarily scrutinized the shape of his muscles. And same as then, she was questioning her own hesitance.
Jamie stopped and he stared, his blue eyes catching the morning light, resulting in a playful gleam. “What’s wrong?”
Eve grinned at his concern. But she could also feel him teasing her, and she needed to get from beneath him before she gave in again. “We don’t have anything for breakfast,” she said.