Chapter Forty-One
We fit together like a pair of stacking cups afterward, listening to the storm outside.
My body is a ripe plum, heavy and swollen and sweet, but my mind is calm.
Finally at rest. It’s not because I just had an orgasm that George drew out almost endlessly, until he was coming, and hearing my name from his lips had me cresting and falling again.
It’s because everything has changed exactly when it was supposed to.
It’s because every fiber in me is sure about how right this is.
I don’t sleep for long, and when I wake, I let myself stare at George.
He’s always moving or thinking, but when he’s sleeping, there’s nowhere for him to be, no problem to solve, and his edges soften.
His lips and eyebrows relax. Even the steel jaw seems less sharp.
I stare at the freckles scattered across his nose. He looks younger without his glasses.
I reach for them on the nightstand—filthy—and clean them on the sheet.
I’m tempted to wake him. I’m greedy for more, hungry to get as much of him as I can. As if he can read my thoughts, George’s hand reaches out, patting around with his eyes shut.
“You can have your Pradas back if you promise me something,” I say.
His fingers freeze. A smile coasts across his lips.
He cracks one eye, squinting. “Tell me what you want, and if you’re nice, I’ll consider it.”
“No fair,” I say. “You know I don’t do nice.”
“That’s true.” He takes his glasses and pulls me onto his chest, hugging me close. “A promise for a promise, then?”
I love how the words feel as he says them. I tilt my chin so I can see his face. I adore this face. It’s so familiar to me, but it looks brand-new. The red, well-kissed mouth. The sex-rumpled hair. The smell of us on his skin.
“I think you’ll like this one,” I say. “Promise me we can stay in bed all day, and I promise to make it very worth your while.”
He looks at the bedside clock and groans. “I hate to say this, but there’s somewhere we need to be.”
“This,” I say, running a finger over the bow of his top lip, “is exactly where we need to be. You’re leaving for Mexico tomorrow.”
“I’m only gone for four weeks.”
A whole month without George. I thought I missed him before, but now I feel like I might not be able to breathe at the thought of parting so soon. This thing between us feels delicate—something we should tend carefully until it grows strong.
“You could come with me,” George says. He makes the offer cautiously, like he’s not sure if it’s too much, too soon. “Or come for a visit while I’m there. I’m bouncing around a bit, but I have two weeks in the Yucatán Peninsula, where I’ll have a home base and a kitchen.”
My mind thrills at the idea. I could stay for a week. Even longer.
“I want to,” I tell him. As soon as I say it, I can see he’d been holding his breath. I feel him slacken beneath me. A smile creeps across his lips.
“I want to be where you are right now,” I tell him. “Being together, it feels so…”
“Important?” George supplies, his fingers running up and down my spine. I realize the storm has eased.
“I was going to say necessary.”
His eyes hold mine. “That’s a much better word.”
We’re in a precious in-between space, that bridge between who we were and who we’ll become. Our past on one side; our future on the other. I don’t want to rush this moment, this slice of time that will carve our lives in half.
“I don’t want to leave this bed,” I tell him.
“I’m afraid we have to sooner or later.”
“Later,” I say, pressing my lips to his. It’s a soft kiss, but I feel George grow hard. “Or never.”
His fingers wind in my hair, holding me as his tongue searches my mouth. It’s an urgent kiss, a kiss that’s laced with desperation. I feel it, too. The need to claim George as my own.
But he breaks us apart with a frustrated growl and climbs out of bed, hauling me with him. “Now.”
He kisses me again, then he looks me in the eyes in a way that makes me feel like prey.
“Later, you’re going to tell me everything you want me to do to you, and I’m going to excel at all of it.
” I whimper as he brings his lips to my ears.
“I’m going to treat you so fucking well, you’ll hate me for not doing it sooner. ”