23. Taylor
CHAPTER 23
Taylor
I fluff my hair again, then double-check my lip gloss in the reflection of my microwave.
“Shit!”
I panic when I see the time. It’s been fifty-six minutes and if I know Austin, he’s probably seconds from opening that door.
I tiptoe to the edge of the kitchen island, making sure my heels don’t click loudly on the floor. Then I quickly hoist myself up in a very unceremonious fashion, thankful that he isn’t here to see me in this position with nothing but these shoes on. I’m on my hands and knees, attempting to very ungracefully maneuver myself into a sexy position.
“Okay, think sexy,” I say, glancing around as if I’ll see something that will assist me in coming up with a sexy pose. But it’s too late because I hear the jingle of my keys in the lock of my door.
“Oh no.” I whip my head up, turning to look over my shoulder just as Austin opens the door. “You’re early,” I squeak out in a panic, hoping it will somehow explain why I’m on all fours, naked, with my ass facing him.
The red roses in his hands fall to the floor. The Gibson’s bag hanging down by his leg in his other hand drops as well, thankfully only a foot or so. He slams the door behind him quickly.
“And you’re fucking perfect.” He closes the distance between us, stopping me in my attempt to climb down, his greedy fingers already gliding over my ass. “Goddamn, this is the hottest surprise.”
“I was trying to get in a sexy position,” I groan, worried I’ve ruined the moment when he grabs my hips, tugging me across the island several inches. “Oh!”
“This is perfect,” he says, spreading my cheeks and leaning in to slide his tongue straight up me in one long lick.
“Ohhhh.”
“I told you I wanted to eat you for dessert.” He grabs a barstool, dragging it around to the end and straddles it, his face now perfectly eye level with my most intimate areas. “And I’m about to eat my fucking fill so I hope you’re ready to indulge me.”
His hands caress and spread me, his tongue swirling, dipping, and flicking me in ways that have my moans filling my apartment. I don’t even notice that my knees have gone numb from how long I’ve been kneeling when I shake through my third orgasm in a row.
“Come here. I don’t want to wear you out yet.” He helps me onto my back, then pulls me upright so that he’s standing between my spread thighs at the edge of the counter. My body half-limp from the intensity of my climax.
“Is it always like this with you?”
“What do you mean?” He looks at me like he always has, his eyes roaming over my face like he’s trying to memorize everything about me.
“So intense.”
“No.” He kisses me and it’s tender, the taste of my own release on his lips. “What you and I have is like nothing I’ve ever experienced.”
“Sometimes I worry I won’t be able to keep up.”
“With our sex life?” I nod and he smiles. “I won’t deny that I have a healthy appetite, but I also have never had access to you before.” His lips are back on mine, his hands sliding up my thighs.
“We can’t just have sex every night.”
He pauses kissing me for a second. “Sex not every night, got it.” He begins to unbutton his shirt but returns to kissing me.
“Wait.” Now I pull back. “I didn’t mean we can’t have sex every night. I meant we can’t only have sex all night.”
“Fine,” he agrees, tossing his shirt on the ground before reaching for his belt, “not a lot of sex.”
“We can have a lot of sex. I?—”
“Baby,” he finally says, holding back his frustration, “I’m gonna need you to please put a pin in this conversation for me, okay?” His hand is around the back of my neck, the other holding his cock. “I promise we can talk about fucking or not fucking all night, but I’m about to lose my goddamn mind if I don’t get inside you within the next thirty seconds, okay?”
The strain in his voice is evident. He drags me from the counter, kissing me like he’s about to be sent off to war and then bends me over.
“It’s gonna be quick.” He’s already sliding into me. “And a little rough.”
It’s rough but it’s not very quick.
I’ve learned that quick according to Austin is waaay longer than quick according to Noah. By the time he finishes, I’ve come once more and I’m in deep need of a break.
“Just relax.” He kisses my nose after cleaning me off and sitting me on the stool. “Allow me.” He reaches down, bringing my foot up to unbuckle the ankle strap. “You never did tell me what occasion these shoes marked.”
“I feel a touch embarrassed saying it out loud now.”
“Are we doing anal tonight?” He wriggles his eyebrows and it makes me giggle.
“The last pair I bought were for a sad occasion, things ending with Noah and me. I wanted to have a pair that had to do with us.”
He places one on the floor, reaching for my other foot.
“Is that what these signify? The beginning of us?”
“Not the beginning, no. I like our beginning, our story of how we met on the train.” He smiles, running his hand up my calf after removing the other shoe.
“I do too.”
“These are me answering your question.”
“Question?”
“Five years ago, when I came over to your place that night you said, and I quote, ‘I know what you’re thinking, am I worth the risk?’”
His smile grows wide, a laugh erupting from his chest.
“You remembered that?”
“Of course I remember that,” I say, grabbing him around the neck and pulling him toward me. “I’ve thought about that question so often all these years, and yes, Austin Blake, you are one hundred percent, undoubtedly worth the risk.”
“ W hat’s going through that pretty head of yours?” Austin runs his hand over my hair, causing me to look up from where my head is resting on his chest.
“Just thinking about the conversation I had with Becca when she came by my apartment after that kiss on the court.”
“Oh?” He shifts a little, his tone changing as well.
“Nothing bad,” I say with a smile, reassuring him. “She was just right is all.”
“About?”
I roll onto my back beside him and stare up at the ceiling.
“She basically told me to get my head out of my ass and deal with my feelings regarding Noah, so I could finally embrace my feelings for you.”
I look over at him, and his smile is contagious.
“So she’s on my side, huh?”
“Uh, no.” I prop myself up on my elbow to look at him. “She’s my best friend. She’s always on my side. But she does like us together.”
“Well, that makes me happy.” He brushes the back of his hand against my cheek softly. “But I also want to make sure you like us together.”
“I do, very much,” I tell him.
“And the fears you expressed before?”
“Still there a little. I’d be lying if I said I don’t worry about how this will impact the future us, but I can’t live like that. You’re my best friend,” I say as we slide closer together, our foreheads touching, “and I can’t think of anything better than being in love with your best friend.”
“Have you told her?”
“Told her what exactly?” I play coy. “That we’re…sleeping together?”
He’s over me in a flash, with my hands pinned above my head.
“You know damn well that’s not what this is.”
“Are you sure, Mr. Stop-Asking-Me-That?” I giggle, reminding him how many times he avoided labeling us.
“You changed the game when you told me you loved me.”
We both smile, staring at each other for a few seconds. I wonder if we’re both feeling the butterflies right now or if it’s just me.
He leans in closer and says, “And we both know I only avoided answering that question because I didn’t want to scare you. If I had it my way,” his lips graze mine, “I would have told you that you’re mine. Always have been, always will be.”
He releases my hands after kissing me but stays on top of me.
“She’ll be happy. She’s always known we had feelings for each other. I think she clocked that pretty early on.” I laugh at myself, remembering how obvious I was about it at times. “It was nice to talk with her about it so openly. She’s always been so good at reading me, just like you.”
“She’s a wise woman,” he says with a wink.
“Plus, her showing up with coffee and donuts was a very nice way to get in my door. Oh,” I recall, “that’s actually why I didn’t text you back when you told me you were sorry for crossing that line with us.”
“You got distracted by coffee and donuts?” He shakes his head in jest.
“Oh please,” I tease him back, “we both know you only sent that text to needle a response out of me.”
“Funny that she showed up with coffee and donuts the day after the pickleball incident. Mia did the same to me. Early as hell too.” He rolls onto his back and drags his hands over his face, reminding me how late it is.
“That is weird, huh?” I recall Becca bringing Mia up while she was over and telling me how nice she was and that we should hang out. “Wait a minute.”
“Huh?” Austin perks up, looking at me.
“I think they planned that. She gave her a ride home that day. I think they were trying to meddle. Play matchmaker.”
“You think? I knew Mia had an ulterior motive when she showed up, but when I called her on it, she asked me for Miguel’s number. Oh, sorry, I forgot to tell you that I gave her Miguel’s number. Hope that was okay?”
“Yeah, she actually told me about that.”
“She did? When?”
“Earlier today,” I say, then I glance at the clock, which reads 1:19 a.m. “Er, yesterday now, I guess. She was grabbing lunch with Miguel, and then she popped her head into my office.”
“He really seems to like her. We talked a little about it at golf.”
“You know, Mia mentioned two other things I thought were interesting.” He quirks a brow curiously, and I reach my hand out to slowly drag a finger down his chest. “One being that you two never did anything.”
“No, not even close,” he says casually, and I stiffen my finger, digging my nail into his chest. “Oww, what the hell—I thought that would make you happy.”
“It does, but why didn’t you tell me that?” I grumble.
Realization dawns on his face. “Oh shit, baby, did you worry about that?” he asks, and I nod. “Fuck, I’m sorry. No, we didn’t do a damn thing. She actually…she was crazy hung up on her ex and ended up talking about him at dinner.”
“She said she cried about him?”
“She did.” He nods, then chuckles. “It was a very awkward and strange first date, that’s for sure. But it was also refreshing. She just straight up told me she shouldn’t have said yes to a date with me because she wasn’t over him.”
“Damn, at least she was honest, so you guys didn’t waste more of your time—wait,” I sit up, “why’d you go on more dates with her then?”
“To talk. That’s why I said it was refreshing. I told her my own little secret that night.”
“That you were in love with your business partner?” I can’t keep the smile off my face as I say those words out loud.
“Damn, I really don’t have secrets anymore do I?” He chuckles.
“Sorry.” I shrug.
“But yes, I did tell her that.” He smiles too, then leans forward and kisses me for several long seconds that take us right to the brink of no return. “Anyway, she asked me out again to get an honest and unbiased response to her dilemma about her ex—if she should pursue him still or whatever—and I was able to vent to her about you.”
“That weirdly explains so much. I expected her to freak out when you kissed me that day, so I walked over to apologize to her, and she didn’t seem fazed at all. In fact, she said something weird about how it would make sense but that she shouldn’t be the one to explain it or something.”
Austin laughs. “What a convoluted and jumbled love story we’ve managed to construe.”
“Makes me wonder if we could have skipped over all of this if I would have just communicated my feelings better. Or hell, I should have kissed you back that night because I now know damn well it would have told me everything I needed to know about choosing you.”
He reaches his arm out and pulls me closer, wrapping his body against mine.
“I like all of this, and I wouldn’t want to change a thing about us or our story. It’ll be fun to tell our grandkids someday.” He nuzzles his nose into my hair.
“Our grandkids, huh? Seems like that’s an entirely different conversation we need to have.”
“No, it’s not,” he says against my neck. “We both know you’re going to be my wife and the mother of my kids. Noah knows that, too.”
“He does?” I turn my face and pull back, our noses almost touching.
“Mhmm, I told him that right before I walked out of his apartment earlier. I made sure there wasn’t an ounce of confusion about what you are to me and to what lengths I’ll go to protect you,” he slides his hand down, his fingers stretching wide as he presses his hand against my belly, “and our family someday.”
I continue to stare at him long after his eyelids—heavy with sleep—finally close. His breath grows deep and even, his hand that’s resting on me growing heavier.
My heart feels heavy because of the time I wasted running from what was right in front of me this entire time. I fought so hard for a man to love me, to want to spend time with me, to want me…all baseline things I thought were undeserved on my part, only to find out I was a pawn in his jealous game.
But the feeling that Austin gives me, the love and warmth he has brought into my heart, is worth it. I fought so hard for five years against falling when I was already head over heels.
And he waited for me.