Chapter 19
CHAPTER 19
LAUREL
C ompletely overwhelmed by the wave of emotion that rose up in me at his words, I tossed my inhibitions out the window and surged toward him. Catching his beautiful face in my hands, I kissed him with more meaning than I probably ever had.
Leif groaned and kissed me back. His big hands immediately slid around my waist to the small of my back and pulled me closer to him. Every one of my nerve endings caught fire. He held me tight against him, his tongue in my mouth and his heart racing when one of my palms landed on top of his chest.
It felt like the chemistry between us was throwing sparks into the air as our mouths came together again and again, but it was different this time than it had been the night of the reunion. For starters, we were together again.
It wasn’t just a semi-drunken hookup with an ex. These kisses felt like they were shifting my world onto a different axis. Like he was breaking down my barriers and rebuilding them in a way that made room for him in my soul once more.
And I didn’t mind it at all.
The fact was that the space where he’d fit had always been there. All he was doing now was taking his rightful place and it felt like he was coming back to exactly where he belonged.
He rolled us over so he was pressing me into the mattress with the delicious weight of his body. I moaned into his mouth. The press of his bulge against my core was already driving me wild. My thin silk PJ set and his underwear were the only fabric between us and it didn’t do much to hide anything.
I could feel the hard ridges and lines of his shaft as it grew against my core. He groaned when he pressed into the heat seeping through my pants. Speaking against my mouth, he lowered his hands to my ribs, bunching the material of my shirt in his fist but pausing before he removed it.
“Yes?”
“Yes,” I murmured against his lips, kissing him again until our mouths were forced to part for the pajamas to pass between them. As they crashed back together, I slid my fingers into the waistband of his underwear, asking the same question between deep, tender kisses. “Yes?”
“Fuck, yes.”
He sealed his lips over mine once more, his tongue quickly driving me to the brink of insanity as it massaged my own. When I started tearing his boxer-briefs off over his ass, he lifted his ass and groaned as soon as they were gone.
“Yes?” he asked again as his palms slid into the elastic of my pajama shorts.
I nodded, fast becoming frantic. He put pressure on the waistband but not quite enough to pull it off.
“Yes,” I moaned, kissing him harder and sliding my hands along the strong muscles in his back.
As soon as he’d tugged my pants down, I kicked them away and wrapped my legs around his hips until I felt his tip sliding against my clit. I shuddered, need shooting through me like a lightning bolt. His chest expanded on another deep breath, but before he could ask, I nodded.
“Yes!” I exclaimed, not used to getting so loud but damn. I was loving this game of Yes we were playing, but I needed him now. We could always play the game again later.
Leif let out a soft hiss before he jerked his head in a nod. “Let me just get a condom.”
I wished I could tell him not to bother, but I knew we couldn’t take that risk, so I waited impatiently for him to do what needed to be done. As soon as he crawled back onto the bed, I sat up to pull him to me and wrapped my legs around his hips once more, locking my eyes on his.
As he lowered me back down on the mattress, I brought him with me, my gaze on those gorgeous blues. His tip nudged at my entrance again. Looking right into his eyes, I tightened my calf muscles and rolled my hips, urging him on. He slowly pushed into me.
I’d never thought of my room as a particularly romantic place, but as he moved inside me, alternating between kissing me and pulling back to look at my face, it felt like we’d been transported to the most romantic place on the planet.
A bubble where only he and I existed. Where only the love that was flowing between us mattered.
We moved together that way in perfect harmony, our movements synchronized. We kissed and stared into each other’s eyes, his fingers eventually finding mine and tightening around them.
“Laurel,” he breathed as his brow furrowed.
“Yes. Just yes,” I murmured. My hands slid down to his ass and felt it flex as he lost it deep inside me.
His orgasm triggered my own, and when he swelled, my muscles clamped down around him. My universe was reduced to wave after wave of intense pleasure. I’d never felt so connected to a man during sex, but it made everything so much better. In the aftermath, he collapsed beside me, pulling me against him as we both fought to control our breathing.
I lay with my head on his chest, listening to his heartrate return to normal and waiting for my own to do the same. Leif stroked his fingers gently through my hair. “I have something for you.”
“You do?” I glanced up at him, but most of his strong, angular features were bathed in shadow, so I couldn’t find any hints on his face. “What is it?”
“I was toying with the idea of giving it to you this weekend, but I wasn’t sure if it was too soon.”
“It’s not too soon for anything, Leif,” I said, surprising even myself with the force of my belief that it was true. “No matter what it is, you won’t scare me away if you give it to me now. Besides, if you weren’t sure, you shouldn’t have mentioned it.”
He smiled and pressed a kiss to my lips before he withdrew his arms from around me and rolled off the bed. “I said I wasn’t sure. As in, past tense. I am sure now, Laurel, but it’s good to know you agree.”
“Oh.” Watching closely as he strode—butt naked—to his pants, I took a quick moment to admire him in the buff.
He moved with the confidence of a fully clothed man, but I could understand why. The guy was an Adonis these days. Everywhere he had been softer once upon a time now rippled with muscle and definition. It was lean muscle, which I found so much sexier than bulges.
If I looked like him, I wasn’t sure I’d ever feel the urge to cover up. After he picked up his wallet, he pulled something out of it and I tore my eyes away from his laddered abs and tried to zero in on what he was holding. He kept it concealed in his palm.
A soft smile ghosted across his lips. He sat beside me in bed and reached for my left hand. “Laurel Guntry, would you do me the honor of wearing your promise ring again?”
Another tsunami of emotion crashed into me when he unfurled his fingers to reveal a little silver ring lying on top of his palm. I recognized it instantly as the one he’d given me when we’d been sixteen and at the height of our young love.
It wasn’t anything fancy, but I’d worn it for two years before we’d finally broken up and I’d loved it for every second of having it on my finger. A simple silver band with an infinity symbol on top, it was probably also a little bit cheesy, but my heart almost beat right out of my chest and into his when he pinched it between his fingers and held it out to me.
I nodded breathlessly and wordlessly. Tears stung my eyes as I watched him slowly slide it back into place. “I can’t believe it still fits.”
He grinned. “I can. It was made for you. Nothing could ever change that. Not time, not distance, not anything .”
Pride surged through me as I felt the light weight of it on my finger. It fit exactly as perfectly as it ever had. “Well, a few pounds might’ve changed that, but I love it. Where on earth did you find it?”
“In my bedroom in Austin,” he said softly, eyes tearing away from the ring on my finger to look into mine. “I remembered tossing it into the memory box Mom made for my baby things. It seemed like a good idea to grab it.”
I grabbed the back of his neck and yanked him to me for another kiss. A romantic heart beat in that chiseled chest of his, and it melted my insides. I couldn’t wait to call the girls later to brag about it.
Leif wrapped me up in his arms once more, and as we watched the snow drifting to the ground outside, we finally fell asleep together, holding each other close and not letting go. I woke up early the next morning in exactly the same position, finding him already awake and smiling at me.
“I didn’t wake you, did I?”
“No.” I returned his smile with a sleepy one of my own, nuzzling his neck as I slowly rejoined the land of the living. “Good morning, Leif.”
“Good morning, Laurel,” he murmured against my hair, tightening his arms around me in a quick hug. “I should head back to the hotel to get freshened up for the day and change my clothes, but I can take you out for breakfast after?”
“Do you really have to leave right now?”
He arched an eyebrow at me. “I don’t even have a toothbrush here, so yes. I do, but I’ll be back as soon as I can, okay?”
“Alright,” I agreed reluctantly, missing him as soon as he was gone, but I forced my lazy buns out of bed and started getting ready for the day myself.
After a quick shower and bundling up in warm clothes, I texted Gemma and Mariam, telling them that I needed to Facetime—STAT.
Throughout it all, I admired the ring on my fingers, even staring at it in the mirror while I was brushing my hair at my dresser. When my phone finally rang, I was still busy doing my makeup and I quickly told my friends all about the evening, the tree, Leif’s comment about his heart, and the promise.
“We made love, guys,” I whispered, too embarrassed to say it loudly, but that was huge for me. “It was so different from anything I’ve ever done before. What do I do?”
“What do you mean, what do you do?” Gemma asked. “Do it again!”
I laughed. “Well, obviously.”
“Frankly, I’m amazed the ring still fits,” Gemma said. “So I say if it fits and he’s what you want, wear it.”
“I’m just shocked he didn’t lose it,” Mariam said. “What kind of teenage boy keeps a promise ring that a girl who broke his heart gives back to him?”
I shrugged and smiled. “Leif, but I wasn’t asking what I should do about the ring. What should I do about him ? And about the list? Does that count?”
“I still don’t know what you’re actually asking us,” Gemma said.
Mariam rolled her eyes. “She’s asking if we think she’s got a chance at making it work with him even if their lives are in different cities. Things are getting pretty serious, pretty fast, and she’s getting nervous.”
“Not nervous. I just don’t want to jinx it, you know?” I stared at their faces on my screen. “I’ve never been this happy, guys. Never, but he lives in Denver.”
“So you screw his brains out whenever you’re together and buy a remote-controlled vibrator for when you’re not,” Gemma said. “Problem solved. As for the list, I’m not sure it counts, but maybe it does.”
“My vote is that it counts,” Mariam said, and to my surprise, she didn’t argue with the former part of Gemma’s thought. “That’s probably not the worst idea but also, just talk to him about staying in contact while you’re in different cities. Establish what you want from your relationship and then fight like hell to keep the romance alive.”
I nodded slowly, vowing right then and there that I would do that. “Fight like hell. Okay. Thanks, ladies. I’d better finish getting ready. He’s going to be here—” A knock sounded at my door. “Scratch that. I have to go. He’s here. I love you all. Bye!”
Ending the call, I jumped up and hurried over to the front door, relieved that I was at least mostly ready to go. As soon as he came into view, my heart skipped more beats and I grinned. This man had me wrapped around his finger, but I didn’t want him to know quite yet.
“Are you hungry?” I asked instead.
“Always. Any ideas about where I can take you for breakfast?”
“Merridees,” I replied without hesitation. “It’s a bakery downtown where they have these delicious breakfast sandwiches.”
Leif offered me his arm. “Let’s go, then. I’ve never ignored a breakfast sandwich calling my name. I won’t start now.”
I grabbed a coat and my purse from the stand next to my door before we left, arms linked. Leif was warm against me. I felt like I was floating beside him.
As we meandered down the street, I glanced up at his profile while rubbing the sides of my middle and pinkie fingers over my ring. “I seriously can’t believe you still had this.”
“What can I say? I like the look of my ring on your finger.”
I laughed, but I had to admit that I completely agreed. “I’ve missed having it there. Thanks for not getting rid of it, Leif. It’s not every guy who would’ve kept it.”
“It’s not every girl who would’ve taken it back.” He slid his arm around my shoulders and dropped a pair of sunglasses over his eyes. “Now lead me to these sandwiches, woman. We worked up quite an appetite last night and I’m going to need to refuel before we do it again.”