Chapter Thirty-Five Lucy
Chapter Thirty-Five
Lucy
Hunter turning up and declaring his undying love for me wasn’t what I was expecting this sunny New York day.
But it was exactly what I needed. I thought handsome men making grand declarations of love was the kind of thing that only ever happened to women like my sister or in the novels of Jane Austen.
Up until recently I’ve felt like a supporting character in everyone else’s life.
Today, Hunter made me feel like a leading lady. The heroine of my own story.
Hunter explaining how his perceptions of the world have shifted rang true for me too.
His honesty, his vulnerability, the pain I saw in him when he talked about his father.
Hunter is no longer running. And that’s what it took for me to believe everything that Hunter was saying about loving me was true.
Maybe that’s also what it took for me to accept my own feelings about him.
All I know is that Hunter collapsed every single one of my defenses today, but I’ve never felt so safe. So loved.
He believes in me when I don’t have enough faith for myself.
And I know he’s going to be brilliant even when he doubts himself.
We understand and accept each other’s flaws and are better because of them.
We’re far from perfect, but we fit together like each one of us doesn’t quite work without the other.
I’ve met the love of my life. And he loves me back. I’m not sure life gets better than that. It’s more than I could have ever hoped for myself.
The thing about New York is that even when you reconcile with the love of your life during your lunch hour, capitalism still calls. Five minutes after Hunter told me he wanted to be with me forever, I headed back to my desk and he to his.
In buildings next door to each other.
I tried to leave on time, but a last-minute motion in a live trial meant I had to work late.
I finally buzz up to Hunter’s apartment, exhausted from what feels like the longest day ever.
“I don’t want to live in Brooklyn,” he says as he opens the door.
A surge of energy moves through me. It’s so good to see him.
So good to know we’re moving forward and not taking steps back.
Now is the beginning of our shared life together.
The path to get here has been difficult and treacherous.
But somehow, looking at Hunter, I know everything’s going to be a little easier now. “I want you to move in.”
“Move in?” I say, wondering whether I misheard him. “When?” Presumably he means eventually, when we get to that point in our relationship. Or maybe he doesn’t. Maybe he feels this sense that I have, that everything finally fits. Everything works. Everything’s finally in place now.
“We could go back to your place now and get some stuff if you want to.”
“Are you insane?” I laugh at him. He’s moving at warp speed. We’ve only been back together since lunchtime, but Hunter’s impatient. “It’s nearly nine at night.”
“Okay, so maybe not tonight. But there’s no point in delaying things. Why would we not live together? We both work incredibly demanding jobs. We should make the most of the time we’re not in the office.”
I smile up at him. I’m barely across the threshold, and he’s got all these ideas for the two of us. I get it. We know what our future holds. Why wait? I close the door behind me, and he pulls me into his arms. “With that logic, you’d have us getting married a week from Tuesday.”
“Fine with me,” he says like it’s no big deal.
Maybe it isn’t. All the big decisions have been made.
We’re better together than apart. We’ll love each other forever.
We’ll care for each other until the day we die.
What’s left but to get married? I watch him as he talks animatedly about which parts of the apartment could be changed or remodeled.
“Maybe we should just move. We could get something a bit closer to work. And the park. Portis is making more money now. We could get something nice. Bigger.” He drops a peck on my lips, and I push my hands into his hair.
He closes his eyes in a long blink, and his entire body relaxes. “My mind is working overtime.”
I laugh. “I can tell.”
“It’s good to have you here,” he says, pressing a kiss to my neck.
“It’s good to be here,” I reply. Wherever he is, feels like home. As we hold each other, I realize I’ve never felt this . . . at peace with someone. Hunter is so solid. So warm. He’s always been this rock of a man. And now he feels like mine. “God, I really love you.”
He grins at me. “You say that like you’re surprised.”
“I think I am a little,” I say honestly. “I’m not sure I ever thought I’d meet someone I felt so sure about. It feels as if I’ve been waiting for you and now you’re here.”
“That’s because there have been too many people in your life that you should be sure of but you weren’t. But that’s changed now.” His grin widens. “You can be sure of me.”
“I am,” I say. “And you can be sure of me.”
He nods, slowly, an expression of lust unfurling on his face. His hands snake up my back and find the top of my zipper. He pulls it down and off my shoulders until it pools at my feet. I don’t have matching underwear on, and I don’t care. I know Hunter isn’t focused on my underwear.
I reach for his belt, and he groans before pulling my hands away.
He lifts me up and over his shoulder and marches us into the bedroom.
My ass is in the air and there’s nothing I can do about it.
He launches me onto the bed and crawls over me.
I can’t help it, I’m wet already. Probably since before I rang his buzzer. Probably since lunchtime.
“I’ve missed you so much,” he says, pressing kisses between my breasts. “So much.”
I sigh, content to let him explore me. I love how reverent he is with my body. How he treats me like I’m precious. It makes me feel adored. And to be adored by a man like Hunter feels better than anything I could possibly imagine.
I grab at his T-shirt, desperate to feel more of his warm skin against mine.
“So impatient,” he says.
“Yes. I want you. I want all of you.”
“You have me,” he breathes, sitting back on his heels, pulling my ass up onto his lap. “And I have you. Body and soul.”
I think he took my soul way before he took my body.
“You have both,” he continues, before I can confess that he owns me entirely. “And I’ve given them willingly. And I want to be with you and marry you and tell the world how I feel, but I can’t possibly feel more for you than I do in this moment.”
He plunges his fingers into me and I gasp. I’d forgotten how good he feels, how he knows exactly what he needs to do to unlock my bliss.
“Jesus Christ.” He sucks in a breath. “You’re always so wet.”
“I’m always ready for you,” I say.
“Even when we’re in line for sandwiches?”
I nod. “Anytime I’m anywhere near you.”
He grunts and curls his fingers inside me. My back arches and I grip the sheets beside me. My orgasm is just a breath away, but I’m not ready for it. Not yet. I want to feel more of Hunter. I want to feel all of him.
“Please, Hunter,” I say. I don’t need to explain myself anymore. He tears open a condom packet. He knows what I need. When I manage to focus again, he’s over me, naked, gazing into my eyes with pure love.
I open my legs as wide as they will go. Ready for him. Ready for forever. His tip teases at my entrance, and I want to be teased, but not now. Now I just want to feel him. And he knows. We lock eyes and he slams into me with such force, he drives me up the bed.
It’s exactly what we both need.
I can barely breathe, I’m so completely full of him. I can’t move because I know that the slightest movement will send me over the edge. My clit buzzes with anticipation, crying out to be touched, but I know even a breeze could make me come right now.
“You okay?” he grunts into my ear.
“More than,” I say.
“You’re so tight, so fucking tight.” His voice is strained with the effort of not coming. We’re both so tightly wound, so aware that this moment is full of meaning because it’s the start of forever.
“I love you,” I whisper on an exhale.
His chest heaves between us. “I’ve always loved you,” he says, sliding out, slowly, carefully, like I’m made of glass.
His eyes are molten lava. Full of heat and energy.
It’s me that’s doing that to him. It’s my body, my pussy.
Me. I reach around to his ass and hit bliss as he pounds into me again.
Except this time, he doesn’t stop to revel in me.
He doesn’t stop for anything. It’s like he’s tripped a switch and can’t stop what he’s started.
But I don’t want him to. I want more of him. I want all of him.
My body sheets with goose bumps and sweat at the same time, and my fingers dig into his flesh. The tendons in his neck strain, and I know he’s trying not to come, or just trying not to feel some of what’s between us.
But it’s impossible.
The drag of him between my thighs is the only thing I can think about.
My entire body starts to vibrate, and I cry out, a deep guttural noise I’ve never heard myself make before.
Hunter brings out a side in me that I didn’t know was there.
It’s always been the case with him, and I think it always will be.
He sees the best in me because he sees the whole of me. And he loves it all.
I lift my hips from the mattress, desperate for him to be as deep into me as possible. He groans as our bodies slam together. I feel him inside me and hear him whisper my name like he can’t quite believe this is real.
But it is real and it’s forever. I have no doubt about that.
“Fuck, Lucy. I can’t hold out much longer.”
My hand slides up his chest to cup his jaw. He looks down at me, and our orgasms spiral around us like both are joined as one, lifting us higher and higher, binding us tighter and tighter.