Chapter 29
KEATS
Sosie’s been staring at that paperwork for days.
She seemed positive that getting the apartment was the right move when it arrived, but she can’t bring herself to sign it to close the deal.
So the rental agreement remains spread out on the countertop for her to peruse when she’s in the mood to do such things.
It’s been killing me not to say anything, but she must make this decision on her own, so I leave her to it. Looking over at me on the couch, she says, “I need to get out of the apartment. How are you feeling? Up to go out?”
“What are you thinking?”
“Fresh air and dinner. How do you feel?”
“Stir-crazy. It would be good to get out.” It’s been incredible to spend so much time together, cementing what we already knew.
We’re good together. Though we’re in what some might call the newlywed stage of our relationship because it hasn’t been tested.
I know that’s untrue because we fought to get where we are, even if it was years of being isolated from each other.
She’s given up her entire life to be here for herself and me.
Something deep inside had me sacrificing years of my life waiting for her.
I could have been playing the field, and by most guys’ opinions, I should have.
But that wasn’t me. Once I met Sosie, I was a goner for her.
“Let’s go out and be a couple,” I say, hoping she understands what I mean.
“I want the whole world to see us together.”
She’s in the shower not five minutes later.
Frowning with a face covered in shaving cream, I analyze the bruising that remains.
The swelling has gone down, though it’s still tender around the one eye.
Otherwise, it feels good to shave again now that most of the soreness has gone away.
Looking worse for wear is apparently an aphrodisiac for my girl, so I’m not wasting any opportunities that present themselves.
She opens the door and peeks out. “I can’t stop thinking about how you said you want the world to see us together.”
I drag the blade through the soapy water in the sink, catching her eye in the reflection of the mirror, and grin—wild and goofy at the same time. I feel my age for the first time in years, rather than the old soul I’m always told I am. “What has you thinking about that?”
Her hair is wet and still cut crooked. If I had known she wasn’t going to fix my sloppy haircut, I would have made a better effort to keep it straight.
But like her, I like it. It’s not perfect, just like we aren’t.
Water drips from the tips and off her chin, but she doesn’t seem to mind getting the rug wet.
“Because Gregory, my mom, and even my father sometimes used to center everything on me. Gregory would say that other guys would be jealous when they see me, or he couldn’t wait to show me off.
” I hate his fucking face and pretentious name.
I hate that he paraded her on his arm like a trophy he’d won.
I fucking hate that bastard. I grit my teeth when I turn around because she deserves more than my back.
“My mom used to talk about guys wanting to talk to me because I would look particularly attractive one night or another, and my father . . . there always seemed to be a clause with the extortion regarding my appearance.”
I’m not sure what I did that was so different, but I set the razor down on the counter and cross the bathroom. “Anyone is lucky to be with you, but it’s not because of how gorgeous you are, which you are. It’s because of who you are that has captivated my soul and made it yours for the taking.”
Running her wet fingers across my chin, she eyes it before her gaze reaches mine. “That’s just it. I’m not arm candy. I’m an equal in your eyes. You see me, and that’s so incredibly sexy.”
“Sexy, huh?” The towel wrapped around my middle never stood a chance against the vision of those full pink lips.
My body’s reaction is instant, and when the towel falls, I take it as the sign it is.
Running my hand around the side of her slick neck, I kiss her and then deepen it as I walk her back into the shower stall and close the door behind me.
The steam billows from the spray as I slide my hands down over her body.
I kiss my way across her jaw, then bend to tackle her neck with my lips, a carnal instinct kicking in to mark her as mine. I flatten my hand over her stomach and go lower, desperate to feel her pussy wrapped around me again. But no way am I passing up the opportunity to watch her come beforehand.
When I slide a finger through the silk of her slit, she moans before I swallow it whole, relishing the feel of her ecstasy against my lips.
I pull back, realizing I not only want to feel her but I also want to hear everything she can’t keep inside.
My mouth waters for the taste of her euphoria, my name rolling off her tongue, and her body trembles as she loses herself in the love we make.
Water pools in the divots where her shoulders meet her neck, and I lower to lap it up as my hands knead the soft skin of her tits. Turning her head, her lips against my ear, she whispers, “I can’t wait to feel you inside me again.”
My dick twitches, my heart sent into overdrive to thunder in my chest. But it’s my head, the thought of her wanting me inside her that stirs my core, already demanding an early release.
Her hand comes around my cock as I slide my tongue across her collarbone while holding her against the wall of the shower.
I lift to bring her higher, not sure I have the patience to wait to plow into her when she talks to me like that.
The graze of her tongue across my shoulder pulls me back from the brink of existence to savor the here and now, her and the ecstasy of gratification ahead of us.
I bite, igniting a gasp from the shallower parts of her chest. My cravings only harden my dick.
“I’ve never wanted anything as much as I want you, Spark,” I whisper in need to please her, and to get off again.
Her arms come around my neck, and she lifts onto her tiptoes.
Swaying back as if in a trance, she tilts her head, allowing the water to wash over her.
I stare in astonishment that this stunning woman is in my arms, that she wants me as much as I desire her.
The graceful lines of her neck, the curve of her waist, the bow that caps her top lip, and the softness of her hips.
“I was captivated by her beauty erupting all at once,” I whisper, kissing the mounds of her chest and then nip her peaks to watch her react.
“It wasn’t one thing in particular that drew me to her.
. .” I slide my hands between her thighs and kneel in front of her, quoting a line from my book.
The hot water soothes the lingering pain in my muscles, but she makes me forget about it altogether.
Looking up, I watch as she takes each breath like it can save her.
She looks down at me, and I say, “But all of them that made her up.”
Running her fingers underneath my jaw, she says, “Always my Poet.” Her voice and the feel of her soft touch against the roughness of my scruff, the way her eyes shine like gold in the dimmer light of the shower, it all makes me feel like I’ve won the grand prize.
But that exhilaration can’t stick when her love shines down like a beacon in the night, guiding me home.
“Always yours.”
My gaze journeys from that bottom lip being bitten to the awning of dark lashes that try to shadow the sparkle in her eyes and fails.
With the weight of her breast in my hand, I massage and am rewarded with another plea for more.
“I need you,” she says in a voice already on the cusp of begging.
I slide my hand down to her waist, digging my fingers in to hold her still as I find her entrance with my other hand and tease before dipping inside her.
Her breathing is lost to the sound of water raining down on us, her chest rising and falling while her hands are pinned to the cold tile until she drops them to my shoulders and follows through with pressure to keep me there.
No way in hell am I going anywhere until she’s coming on my tongue.
I lean forward to kiss her before slipping my tongue between her luscious lips.
“Oh God.” She releases a jagged breath just as I peer up to catch how the color of her lips has already deepened as they round for me.
I lift her leg and tilt my head to go deeper, my tongue filling her and thrusting as she struggles to stand still.
Gliding her back on the wall, she can’t find the leverage she’s seeking to sink down on me.
I grab her hips with both hands and fuck her good and proper with my tongue, knowing this gets me closer to the heat of her body’s embrace wrapped around me again.
Her fingers twist through my wet hair, and she tugs while her nails dig into my other shoulder. Anchoring her leg on my shoulder, I lift and lower her onto me several times before teasing her clit. It only takes a nip and flick of my tongue to send her over the finish line.
She pulls at my hair again, my shoulders taking the brunt of her fingertips as they grasp for something to hold on to.
Her head falls forward under heaving breaths, and she opens her eyes.
A smile, not showy or for display, glides into place.
It’s one I only see when we’re in bed and falling asleep, happiness that can’t be hidden inside even when she dreams.
Rolling her fingers around the hair behind my ears, she asks, “Want to get out?”
I hit the faucet and hand her a towel. I roughly dry myself off, appreciating every inch of her as she slides the towel over her body. Twisting it around her head, she takes my hand and leads me to the bedroom with confidence. The Sosie I met has made a full comeback.
She doesn’t hide any part of her body when she climbs onto the bed and invites me to join her with a come-hither motion of her finger.
I drop the towel and climb over her, licking the space between her breasts and wedging my knees between her legs.
The scrape of her nails over my lower back encourages me to kiss a trail over her chest, along her neck, and higher to nip at her bottom lip before kissing it.
There’s not an ounce of tension in her muscles or hesitation in her eyes.
It’s easy to forget that we haven’t been able to do this as much as we’d like.
It feels so effortless with her, like we’ll never change or be apart.
What plagues us isn’t something to worry about as we find a new path forward. Us against the world.
I rest my elbows above her shoulders and kiss her once and then again, tasting her tongue as ours tangle together.
The urgency to see her, to look into her eyes, penetrates my need to stay steady.
I pull back and graze the back of my hand over the sweet pink of her cheeks.
Desire becomes too much when a slip of a moan and, “Make love to me,” follows as a plea from the tip of her tongue.
A hint of rapture has me pushing into her consuming heat.
The release of a sigh relaxes her shoulders against the mattress as if this is what she needed as much as I did.
Her arms tighten around me, and her kisses dot my neck.
I tuck my arms under her to hold her just as tight, pulling my dick out and pushing with more power each time.
The slick of our bodies has us finding a rhythm together as the vibration between us overcomes all else.
The spur of heels to my ass, the exhalations remind me of a symphony leading to the big finale, and the extraordinary sensation when I’m deep inside her.
It’s so good. “You feel incredible, babe.” I kiss her head without missing a thrust or pull as I drive into her, seeking relief and pleasure.
But my mind plays tricks on me—the desire for her to reach her peak first, to fight the orgasm that races in my veins faster than it should. It’s her. “I can’t hold on.”
“Don’t,” she whispers with the same burning desire coating her throat. “Please. Please. Please.”
Meeting me thrust for thrust, the ache for more overtakes everything else, and we fuck and love and tangle together right to the cliff that leads to our salvation.
The arch of her back leaves her wanton mouth unattended.
When I press my lips to hers, it’s all it takes to have her cry my name in her angelic voice.
The shift of her body is all it takes to send me over the edge with her.
A pledge.
A promise.
The pleasure.
The pain.
I crash into her as I push to completion, my body betraying me by not sparing a drop of energy when I come and land back in her arms. I can’t move. I don’t want to anyway. I feel too good. She feels even better beneath me.
“Keats,” she says. “You trying to kill me?” She laughs as she pushes me off her.
“Sorry about that.” I roll onto my back, letting my soul return to its rightful place.
With her head on my arm, she rolls toward me and drapes her arm and leg over me to get more comfortable. Kissing my chest, she asks, “Promise me it will always be this good.”
Chuckling, I finally open my eyes and turn to kiss her forehead. “I’ll do my best.”
“I don’t mean the sex.” Propping herself up, she grins. “Well, I do, but I mean us. This. It feels like a dream, and I don’t want to wake up from it.”
“You’re a dream come true. We don’t have to sleep to find paradise. We found it in each other.”
The response seems to satisfy her as she shifts her head back into place on my arm. Our breathing takes a while to even, but when it does, she whispers, “I wish I had my camera.”
“What happened to it?” The aches from the week begin to sneak back in, but nothing an ibuprofen can’t fix.
“I left it behind in my rush out the door.” She snuggles, shifting to close her eyes. “I thought I wanted to go out, but I’d rather stay home.”
Whether she meant to say it or not, an uncontrollable smile instantly spreads across my face.
Home. I’ve found a home in her as well. I don’t call it out because it was said from the heart.
She meant it, so I don’t want to tempt her to take it back.
“If you had it, what would you take pictures of?” I ask instead.
Her breath has leveled into a deeper stance as if sleep is dragging her under. “You. I don’t have one photo of you.”
Caressing her cheek, I whisper, “We should remedy that.”