Chapter Thirty-Five
Blue
Jules: So…
Blue: So?
Jules: This is your first night home. Got any special plans?
Dez: Is tonight a seductive, lingerie night? Or a fuck-it-just-take-me-naked night?
I listen for West in the shower, then glance down at the robe I put on after my bath.
Blue: It’s an in-my-bathrobe and happy-to-be-home night.
Now, they’ve got me in my head, thinking I should maybe change into something special.
Joss: My guess is he doesn’t care much what you’ve got on. That man’s just happy you finally made it back.
I smile at Joss’s message and decide that’s my favorite take on the situation.
Tonight’s been super chill so far. West helped me carry my bags inside, I took the longest bath of my life, then I unpacked while he’s been in the shower. I’m honestly just so relieved to be living under one roof again, I’m not thinking much about anything else.
Dez: My question is… why the hell are you texting us when you’ve CLEARLY got better things to do?
A laugh leaves me as I reply.
Blue: Because he’s showering. I have a few more minutes to kill.
Dez: Gotcha. Well, since we’re all here… Lexi, don’t you have something you’d like to share with the rest of the class?
I arch a brow when Lexi’s name pops up, and I’m curious what Dez knows as three dots bounce at the bottom of the screen.
Lexi: Damn, Dez! Good thing I planned to tell them anyway!
Dez: Why do you think I brought it up?
As I watch Lexi tapping out another message, I laugh as I envision her scowling.
Lexi: It’s not even a big deal. It was just flowers.
Dez: Flowers from who, though? That’s the important part.
Lexi: You’re pissing me off…
I’m laughing so hard I can hardly breathe when the shower suddenly turns off. I need them to make this quick, so I can get the gossip before West is back.
Dez: If you don’t spill it, I’m gonna just tell them myself.
Lexi: Again… not a big deal!
I sit up on the mattress, practically biting my nails off at this point. My heart wants to go in one direction, but I force myself not to think like that. I don’t want to get my hopes up that maybe, just maybe, the flowers were from…
Lexi: They were from Matt.
My heart sinks, and I hate that it does. I like Matt. Like, seriously. He’s been a constant source of support in Lexi’s life for years now. But… he’s not Sterling.
I breathe deep and decide to keep that thought to myself. Sterling is no longer an option, seeing as how he’s engaged. But now that I’m thinking about it, is he really?
Tiffany’s been M.I.A, and while I haven’t talked to him about it to confirm, things are rocky at best.
I shake the thought out of my head. No. He’s not an option. And if Lexi and Matt can find some semblance of happiness together, then that’s all that matters. She deserves that and then some.
Lexi: But I’d also like to add that they were to congratulate me on passing my exam. He knew I was super stressed preparing for it, so when I got an A, he… got me flowers.
Jules: Just fuck him already, Lex. That poor man’s been silently begging for it for years.
Joss: Jules! God forbid a girl take things slowly!
Jules: They’ve known each other what, five? Six years? How slow are we talking?
I’m locked in, wanting to see how the rest of the conversation plays out, but the knob to our bathroom turns when West steps out. I toss my phone to the nightstand and look up. His eyes are already set on me, but I’m having a hard time looking him in his.
A white towel hangs low on his waist where he secured it. His chest and arms are still damp, and tiny droplets of water drip from the ends of his hair, racing down his inked shoulders.
His eyes dance over me. Not in a wolfish way. There’s just this look in his eyes that isn’t hiding how happy he is that I’m home.
A smirk lifts one corner of his mouth. “I leave you alone for ten minutes, and you’re already gossiping?”
At first, I’m not sure how he knows, then I follow his gaze to my phone as it lights up almost constantly with messages from the girls.
“Well, if it makes a difference, it’s good gossip. At least, I think it is?”
I don’t elaborate about how I’m still not sure how to process this whole Lexi/Matt thing. When I say good gossip, I just mean it’s not celebrating anyone’s downfall.
He laughs softly, and the warmth of the sound moves over my skin.
My eyes stay trained on him as he turns his back toward me, then drops his towel.
My breath catches as I take him in. Every solidly sculpted muscle, every stretch of smooth skin.
Then, a few seconds later, the bedroom is dark, and he’s slipping into bed beside me.
Unlike last time, I don’t have to give him the all-clear to touch me.
We gravitate toward one another beneath the covers, and we fit together in that way I love.
His large body curves around me as I back into him, getting as close as I possibly can.
For too long, there was so much space between us, and now that we’ve finally made it back to one another, I never want to feel that again.
A soft kiss presses to the back of my shoulder, and my eyes close for a second at the feel of it.
“Thank you.”
I breathe a laugh. “For?”
“For believing we can still make this work,” he says. “For not forgetting how to love me through it all.”
I stroke the back of his hand where it rests against my stomach, tracing a thick vein near his still-healing knuckle.
“I could never forget how to love you, West. You’re all I’ve ever wanted. Even when things got bad… all I wanted was you.”
Another kiss warms my skin, and I expose my neck when his mouth travels there next.
I turn in his arms, and the movement brings us face-to-face beneath the covers.
A few seconds pass without either of us saying a word.
The only sound in the room is the soft hum of the ceiling fan and the steady rhythm of West’s breathing.
His hand slides up my hip to my torso, then my neck.
Warm, slow, familiar. He stops at my jaw, tilting my face toward his.
Our eyes lock and something deep and certain settles between us as his lips brush the corner of my mouth.
He’s gentle, almost cautious. But when I lean into him, making it clear I’m not holding back, the kiss deepens.
A current of desperation passes between us, and my body hasn’t forgotten what it feels like to belong to him.
Like all I’ve ever wanted is to be his.
He exhales against my mouth, and the sound sends a wave of warmth through me.
His hand leaves my jaw and slips into the edge of my robe where his palm rests against the bare curve of my hip.
He squeezes and my leg slides over his as the kiss deepens again.
Only, there’s been a shift, and this one’s different.
It lacks the caution and uncertainty from before.
Like we’ve both stopped questioning whether this is too much too soon.
His fingers drift slowly, tracing the line of my ribs before settling on my back, pulling me closer. His heart beats beneath my palm, and I feel the steady rise and fall of his chest.
“I missed you. So fucking much,” he murmurs against my lips.
A soft breath escapes. “Me too.”
I shift over him, pushing him onto his back as my robe loosens and falls open.
Through the darkness, he stares up at me, hands moving over my skin with intention.
The heat between us rises, and it burns away the desire to take things slowly.
I’ve waited for this for so long, the chance to have him without questioning whether it’s right or wrong.
Without questioning whether we’re irreparably broken.
Without fear.
I lean down to kiss him and melt into his warmth, reveling in how his body fits beneath mine. His hands tighten around my waist, and I grind against him, feeling him growing harder between my legs.
There’s no denying how badly I want him, and now he knows it, too, feels it, that I’m wet, ready.
“Blue…”
I never get tired of the sound of my name rolling off his lips. There’s this undertone of ownership that makes my heart race, makes my legs spread just a little wider.
The tip of his cock teases my entrance, and I’m tired of waiting. So, when he reaches between us, angling himself in just the right way, I lower onto him slowly.
The breath that leaves me drips with need and relief. I go slow, taking him a little at a time as he stretches me. Both his hands are back on my waist now, and my palms press into his pecs, gripping him as my mouth falls open.
A deep, guttural sound resonates in his chest when I’m fully seated on him. His solid length fills me, and when he thrusts up, pushing deeper, it’s like everything that’s been broken between us is finally being put back together.
“I love you.”
His whispered confession causes another breath to hitch as I match his rhythm, riding him slow because I want to feel all of him.
Everything.
“I love you, too.”
He’s hitting all the right places, and there’s no way this isn’t what heaven feels like. His pace quickens, and I meet him thrust for thrust, my body moving instinctively.
I tighten around him, the heat building to an inferno. I’m a woman possessed, chasing release as he pushes me to my limit, right toward the edge.
He flips me with one swift motion onto my back, driving into me again and again. I’m so close. My body is no longer my own. It’s his to command, to control, to use as he pleases, and I give myself over to him willingly.
He hooks my legs over his shoulders, and waves of pleasure crash into me, pulling me under. His name rolls off my lips as my body convulses around him, and he follows me right after, pulsing into me as he growls against my ear.
Deep, primal… intoxicating.
I pull him in, needing more. Needing to be as close as I can get, feeling him completely as he empties into me. When he’s spent, he doesn’t move, just places soft kisses down my neck to my shoulder.
We’re in a dizzying haze as our breathing slows. I don’t want to move, don’t want him to pull out, don’t want to break the connection. I’m exactly where I want and need to be.
West breathes into my hair, and I tilt my head back. He kisses me, slow and sensual, saying all the things words can’t.
When he finally pulls back, I see it in his eyes. Not the fear and desperation that’s haunted us for months. Not the sadness that once lived there.
Tonight, all I see is contentment.
He trails my cheek with his thumb, soft and gentle. “You okay?”
I nod, then turn his palm to my face and place a kiss there. “More than okay.”
He stares a moment longer, like he can hardly believe I’m here, but I need him to know what’s true.
That I’m not going anywhere. That I’m his, and I always will be.
“Welcome home,” he says quietly, and those words settle over my heart.
I slide my arms around his shoulders and pull him back down to me, fitting into his warmth like I never left.
I squeeze him tighter, and for the first time in a long time, everything feels exactly the way it’s supposed to.