12. Carter
12
Carter
“W eeds,” I called after her. She wrapped a robe over her shoulders and walked down the hallway to another room at the far end. Her room, I realized, when I recognized her enormous bed and her fresh white furniture. I followed Ivy into the walk-in closet, my knees shaking and butterflies rolling through my stomach. She startled and turned to face me when I closed the door behind me, her wet hair in the beginnings of a braid down the side of her chest.
“Carter.” She gave me a small smile and went back to riffling through her drawer. “What are you doing?”
“Miss Washington,” I said, attempting to revive the game we used to play, the gentleman slut and his lady whore. I took a step closer, straightening my shoulders so my broad chest seemed even more imposing. She used to like it when I was fresh out of the shower. Proving my point, Ivy licked her lips and moved away.
Some things never change.
“You and I should talk.” I stepped closer, my hands linked together at the base of my spine.
She hummed and pretended like it had no effect on her. “About?”
“About the two years we spent thinking we didn’t want each other.” I danced my fingers over a lace panty set that caught my eye.
“Oh.” Her expression turned cross, eyebrows arching, stare eviscerating me where I stood. “What about the two years you spent fucking my best friend?”
And there it is. The reason she’d ignored me. The reason she’d rebuilt her barriers. The reason we couldn’t be who we were, not until we sorted this out.
“It wasn’t two years,” I said. “And don’t pretend like you didn’t do the same.”
“Lex and I—” she started.
“You and Lex have been in love with each other since you were kids,” I said. “Everyone on the planet can see it except for you.”
She didn’t say anything, just clenched her jaw and continued flinging stuff around.
“It still hurts,” she mumbled. “I’ll get over it. Just…give me a minute.”
“Get over it?” Another step toward her brought me close enough to feel the heat radiating off her tight body. “You think I don’t like that you’re jealous? That the thought of me with anyone else makes you run red hot?”
She bit the corner of her lip, her eyes searching mine for signs of trickery.
Oh, I knew my Weeds so well. She was waiting for me to pull the rug out from under her, to tell her this was all a big fat lie and I did love Miri more than her and perhaps I always would.
No, Weeds, I wanted to say. It’s you. It’s always you.
“’Cause the thought of you with Lex is making me want to choke the life out of my best friend,” I said. “Or fuck him. Or maybe both. It’s all very confusing.”
She giggled softly, and the sound was like a church bell calling me to kneel at her altar and beg her for redemption.
“Miri and I…” I shook my head and looked down between us. “It was to make it not hurt so much. I won’t say it meant nothing, because it didn’t. Miri means a lot to me. I love her.”
Ivy swallowed and nodded, her attention going back to the dresser.
“That doesn’t mean”—I softened my tone, slowly reaching out to cup her cheek and turn her face toward me—“that I don’t love you, Weeds.”
Bloodshot gray eyes met mine, tears trailing down her cheeks, and I wiped my thumbs across her skin so I could capture her pain and clear it away.
“I missed you so fucking much,” she said on a sob, clutching my wrists.
“Shhh.” I wrapped her in my arms, tucking her head under my chin the way I used to do. She smelled the same, vanilla and sugar and girl, and when I pressed my mouth into that velvet ginger hair, I almost came apart. The first girl I’d ever loved and lost, right here in my arms again. “I missed you, too, Weeds.”
“I’m sorry,” she said, pulling away, speaking in hushed whispers that came from some deep well inside her. Almost like she’d been holding on to this for eons and being trapped in this closet with me had forced the dam to break. “I’m sorry I didn’t go with you, that I didn’t fight harder. I shouldn’t have believed that stupid text. You’d never do that to me.” She was frantic now, shaking her head, tears streaming down her cheeks. “I shouldn’t have stopped fighting for you. I know better than that. I do?—”
I collided my mouth with hers, and even though her lips were wet from crying, the kiss vibrated through every cell in my body. We’d spent the last few hours getting to know each other mentally again, but this physical connection? This was inevitable.
Our bodies gravitated to each other from the start. I wanted her the moment I set eyes on her and every day since then. Her skin on mine brought out a side of me I thought was lost forever.
After the last few days, I was exhausted. My dick hurt, and my balls felt like they’d run a marathon. But when Ivy tucked her fingers under the edge of my towel and yanked, my cock sprang free. Instantly hard. Instantly ready for her.
We needed this intimacy in the worst way.
I tugged at the waistband of her robe and ghosted my palms over her waist to her shoulders, dancing my fingertips underneath the satin to slide it down her arms.
Standing naked together, I let myself look at her. Really look at her. My beautiful Weeds.
She had bite marks on her neck and thighs, nail scrapes going up and down her arms and torso, palm prints on her ass and hickeys on the mounds of her breasts. None of that was put there by me. It only added fuel to this infernal need to consume her, to take her again, to be so deep inside her that I could wipe out Lex and Miri and anyone else who’d come between the last time and this.
“You’re still my favorite girl,” I murmured.
Ivy let out a breath that sounded like it weighed a ton, and she sprang into my arms.
Fuck yeah.
She crossed her ankles at the small of my back and tunneled her fingers through my hair, nails dragging over my scalp in a way that urged me on. I lowered us to the ground so I was on top of her, my elbow pressed into the fluffy carpet near her ribs. I would spend ages going down on Ivy if I could, but we were beyond foreplay at this point.
I positioned myself at her entrance with my free hand and thrust home, all the way to the root.
“Fuck. Me.” It came out as a groan, my nose buried in her neck. I’d wanted this for so long, ages and ages, and now that I had it, I shook in her arms. My shoulders could barely support my weight, and I felt like I was in that treehouse again with Stephanie Hoppenheimer or the tiny dorm room with Ivy for the first time. I’d never trembled so hard in my life.
If I hadn’t spent the last seventy-two hours acting like I’d just discovered the world’s first cock, I wouldn’t have lasted thirty seconds. Good Lord, she felt like heaven here on earth, so familiar and welcoming, and a shiver went down my back even though I tried to hide it.
“You’re so tight, feels so good.” I pulled out a little and surged back in, and she moaned, her forehead pressed to mine.
“I can’t believe you’re here.” She coasted her hands over my shoulders to my chin, cupping my face like I was precious, like I was made of porcelain. “Really here with me.”
“I’m here, Weeds.” I kissed her. “And I’m not going anywhere again. I swear.”
I’d swear and swear and swear. I couldn’t leave her, not after losing her once and getting her back. I had a desperate clawing desire for Lex, yes, and I definitely had deep abiding affection for Miri. But Ivy was it for me. She was my sun and my moon and all the stars in my sky. I loved her like I’d loved no one before or since. To make sure she knew that, I intertwined my fingers in hers and brought her knuckles to my lips, carefully kissing each one while I rocked inside her.
Then I brought her hand to my heart and kept it there while I broke her to pieces. We took our time in that walk-in closet. We explored each other the way we used to when we were younger. We made each other moan and cry out for release, but instead of the heated frenzy of the lust, this was special.
This was a reunion of souls.
When I brushed the hair out of her face in the aftermath of our lovemaking, I saw the girl I used to know—guard down, boundaries blown to shit, just me and her and the years of trust between us.
“There she is,” I said, smiling and kissing on the tip of her nose.
“I love you, Mister Scott,” she murmured, trembling in my arms.
I brushed the tip of my nose over hers and grinned. “I love you, Miss Washington, and I always will.”