by Claire Adams
“He didn’t take his eyes off me, I don’t think.”
“Then, he was listening. Let that be enough for now,” she said.
“I don’t know what I’d do without you.” I hugged her neck before giving her the rest of the coffee. I’d talked through her entire break, and she had to get back to work, and I suddenly felt that tug to do the same thing. I knew I probably needed to take one more day to myself, but I also knew I had a ton of work stacking up that couldn’t wait until Monday.
So, I decided to go back to my house and get my things before I headed to the office.
I drove down the road turning over everything Daisy had said to me. I knew she was right, but the hard part was going to be for me to take a back seat. I’d never been good at sitting back and letting things come to me. That’s never how my life worked. I didn’t get to lounge back and have everything fall into my lap, but it was that same personality trait that put me in the situation I was in now.
Even if it killed me, I knew I had to take her advice.
I pulled up into my driveway and turned off my car. I started for the porch, running down the things I wanted to get accomplished before dinnertime rolled around, and I figured I could slip a note underneath Christian’s office door. Not a romantic note, but an update telling him the things I was getting done so he didn’t have to talk to me until he was ready.
I was serious about letting him come to me.
But, when I got to my walkway I noticed a bunch of red petals on the ground. I bent over to pick one up and felt the soft, velvety texture rolling over my fingertips. I brought it to my nose and sniffed deep before I furrowed my brow and looked up at my front door.
My front door that was wide open.
Why the hell were there rose petals in front of my house?
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Christian
I heard Stella’s car pull up while I was cooking her favorite meal. I tossed the last of the stir-fry in the wok before I set it off to the side to let it cool, then I popped open a bottle of red wine. I could hear her footsteps approaching the porch before they stopped, and I knew she had to be confused as to why red rose petals were lining her sidewalk. My hands shook in anticipation while I poured the glasses, and as I set them on the table, I heard her walk in the front door.
“Hello?” she called out.
I had rose petals trailing throughout the main level of her home. When I got here, things were an absolute wreck: her pain pills were spilled everywhere, her doctor’s orders were crumpled and on the floor, her dirty clothes were everywhere. It broke my heart. I wanted her to see I’d cleaned up so she wouldn’t have to worry about it. I wanted her to know I had her, that I was going to take care of her.
I wanted her to know how much I’d missed her, and I’d be here to take care of her while she continued to grieve and recuperate.
I heard her gasp walking around her house while I set everything on the table for dinner. I put the rest of the bottle of wine between the two place settings just before I turned around, and when I did, Stella was standing in the doorway.
With tears in her eyes.
“Christian?” she asked.
“Hey, Stella,” I said.
“What are you doing here?” she asked.
“Cooking. I thought you could use a decent meal. Figured you probably weren’t eating much with everything going on.”
She looked down at feet while her tears dripped to the floor. I wanted to rush over and take her in my arms. To hold her close, so she knew she was protected and loved. I wanted her to know how sorry I was.
I wanted her to know that I wasn’t going anywhere.
“Stella.”
“Yeah?” she asked breathlessly.
“What happened to you?”
She slowly raised her gaze before her eyes fell on dinner, and a slight smile crossed her cheeks. Just seeing her smile because of something I put together made my heart soar. It felt like forever since I’d seen that genuine smile cross her cheeks. But, when her eyes got back to me, I saw the shame from the courtroom roll back over them.
“Stella, please talk to me,” I said.
“When everything happened.”
She swallowed hard, and I took a step toward her to see what she would do. Her gaze whipped up, but she didn’t step back. I took another step forward. A small one, so I didn’t scare her. The last thing I wanted to see was her turning and running for another room. I’d seen enough of her backside. Enough of both of us walking away from one another.
I wanted to run toward her. For us to run toward each other.
“When everything happened,” I said.
“I came by your house. To try and, you know, find you,” she said.
“Uh huh,” I said.
“And I ran up onto the porch and just started knocking on your door. But, you didn’t answer, so I started banging. I banged over and over, and I just wanted you to open up. I just wanted you to open the door, so I could beg and cry for your forgiveness. I wanted you to open up so I could drag you out here and take you back home with me so I could show you how much you meant to me after the weekend we spent together. And when you didn’t answer I just… lost all hope. I’m so sorry, Christian, please. I never meant for all this to get so out of hand. That weekend we spent together in New York was the most incredible thing I’ve ever experienced. Ever.”
I strode to her and wrapped my arms around her while I tried to hold back tears of my own. I felt her arms fling around my neck while she buried her tear-streaked face into the crook of my neck. Her chest hiccupped against mine with sobs of sorrow and guilt, but the only thing I could think about was her.
How much she was hurting and how hard she was shaking against my body.
“I’m so sorry,” I said, whispering. “Stella, I’m so, so sorry.”
“I didn’t mean for any of this to happen.”
“I know,” I said. “I know.”
I ran my fingers through her hair while she continued to cry. I sighed with relief at the feeling of her soft hair against my skin again. It felt so wonderful to have her in my arms, to have her breath so warm against my skin. I could feel her tears dripping onto my clothes, and I hoped that if I held her tight enough, they would stop.
“I am so sorry I walked away, Stella. I was hurt and so angry. I thought that maybe the weekend we spent in New York was part of some grand plan. And the mere fact I could’ve ever thought that in the first place makes me sick to my stomach. Please forgive me, Stella.”
She pulled back from me and looked up into my eyes while her hands wandered to mine. I moved my gaze down to survey them, watching while her fingers intertwined. I took her hands within mine and slowly danced my skin on top of them as I heard her let out the slightest of sighs.
How I’d missed her touch.
“Your reaction was valid, Christian. It was me who put all this shit in motion. That day at the hospital, when I watched my father pass. It broke my heart.”
I ran my thumbs along her fingers while she gathered her words. It gave me time to gather the ones I wanted to tell her. I understood now why I had done all of this at her house. Why I had cooked this dinner and poured this wine and used her spare key to get into her home in the first place.
Because I had one important thing I wanted to tell her.
I raised my gaze up before I slid my arms around her waist. The smells of the kitchen wafted around our heads, but when she raised those beautiful green eyes to mine none of that mattered. Her nose was snotty, and her eyes were red, but the only thing I could feel was the warmth of her body against mine.
I dipped my lips slowly down to hers, stopping just shy of them before I fluttered my eyes open. I studied her, with her lips slightly parted and her eyes closed and ready, and I smiled before she closed the gap between the two of us.
Our lips moved in tandem with each other as I pulled her closer into my body. I dipped her back, trying to draw as much of her into me as I could.
Then, right before I swiped my tongue across her lips, the words tumbled from my tongue as effortlessly as they had in my dreams.
“I love you, Stella.”
I felt her pull back and my eyes fluttered open. Her wide-eyed stare was bouncing all along my face, no doubt searching for any sign that she’d heard me right. I could tell she was confused and taken aback, but there was no going back from what I’d said. I meant every single word of it, and whatever that meant for us is what I would have to live with.
“You love me?” she asked.
“You know when I knew it? Really knew it?” I asked.
“When?”
“The lunch we spent on the boat going to the Statue of Liberty. I opened up to you about emotions I hadn’t even talked to my best friend about. Things I didn’t think I’d ever tell anyone after I’d read the letter Mom left me. We got off the boat, and you kissed me anyway, then we went back and held one another. That was the moment I knew.”
“That you loved me,” she said.
“Yes.”
I could see the wheels turning in her mind. She was digesting what I’d said. Breaking it down into bite-sized pieces her overstimulated body could handle. She was logging it away, absorbing everything about me with her eyes so she would never forget this one moment.
Then, she smiled. The biggest smile I’d ever seen her have. It closed her eyes before she rose up on her toes, and the way her arms flung around me and pulled me close told me she was happy.
What I didn’t expect, however, was what came next.
“You want to know when I knew I had feelings for you?” she asked.
“When?”
She put her lips against my ear, and my legs began to grow weak. Her breath was pulsing against my skin, breathing into me a desire I hadn’t felt since that weekend in New York City. My hands began to roam under her shirt, touching the soft skin of her body underneath my fingertips.
Holy hell, how I’d missed the way she felt.
“The moment in the park, when you held me a little too tight in your arms,” she said, whispering.
My lips found the crook of her neck. I peppered light kisses along her pulse point as she nuzzled her nose against my cheek. I wanted her. Then and there. No matter what had happened to her hands. I no longer cared about dinner or the wine I’d opened. I didn’t care about the cleaning I’d done or the talking I thought we were going to do while eating.
All I cared about was making love to the woman I held in my arms.
I slowly backed her into the living room and felt her ass hit the back edge of the couch. My lips trailed down to her breasts just before my hands pulled her shirt over her head. Her skin glistened in the sunlight that streamed through her windows while I undid the button on her jeans. I slid them down her legs, kissing her skin all the way down as it revealed itself to me.
Then, I picked her up in my arms and carried her upstairs to her room.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Stella
I felt my back hit the cool sheets before he began to yank off his clothes. I felt myself flush in wanton anticipation, my eyes searching his body as it came into view. His strong shoulders attached to a chiseled chest. It melted into a rippling abdomen I reached out to touch with my fingertips. They fluttered down the divots and peaks of his body while his pants fell to the floor, and I couldn’t help but take notice of his cock standing at attention in need of me. His thick legs twitched with delight as my fingertips slowly fluttered around his clothed cock, and as I thought about removing his boxers from his body, I watched him hook his fingers into the band himself.
Clad in nothing but his beautiful skin, he descended upon me. He leaned me up and unhooked my bra before he tossed the fabric to the side, then his lips sank to my pert nipple. I sighed at the sensation, reveling in the attention he was giving me while his tongue ran itself around my swollen bud. I rolled my hips against him as my hands flopped off to the side, and for the first time since I’d been with Christian, I felt like I wouldn’t be a complete partner in bed.
And he sensed something was wrong.
“Stella?” he asked. “Are you alright?”
“It’s just… my body,” I said breathlessly.
“What about it?” he asked.
“I’m so tired from everything, and I just…”
I closed my eyes and sighed, mentally tearing myself apart for neglecting myself the way I had.
But then, I felt him smile on my skin. I felt him slowly beginning to inch down my body. I felt his lips kiss my skin while my hands ran through his hair, his touch pulling sighs from between my lips while his tongue danced along my skin.
But the moment he sank between my legs, I lost all train of thought. His fingers hooked into my panties and slid them off my body, kissing every inch of my leg before he tossed the fabric off to the side.
“Look at me,” he said.
I opened my eyes and tilted my head up as I watched him kneel on the bed. His cock was raging, leaking precum I wanted to have sitting on the tip of my tongue. His wild blue eyes were hooked onto me, and his skin was flushed, and I felt myself spilling from between my pussy folds.
“Let me take care of you,” he said.
Without another word, he dipped back down between my legs. He licked a thick stripe up my pussy, drinking down my juices as he lapped at my folds. I felt his rough stubble against my thighs as he tossed my legs over his shoulders, and I allowed myself to get lost in him as his tongue found my clit.
He licked and sucked, enjoying himself while my body shivered and contracted at his every whim and want. He moaned into me, rattling my ribcage with his voice while his tongue pressed into my clit, and my entire world began to spin as I curled my fingertips into my sheets. I didn’t care about the future and I didn’t care about my heartache. All I needed right then and there was something to hold onto. Something to keep me grounded.
Something to remind me this was real.
Christian dug his fingertips into my thighs, pulling me closer while he ate his fill. I rolled my hips into his lips, painting his cheeks with my essence while my heels dug into his back. I locked my legs around him, pulling him as close as I could get him while his tongue flicked across my clit.
And then, I felt myself climb.
I climbed higher and higher while my eyes rolled back in my head. His tongue flattened over my clit, pushing it side to side slowly while a slow-burning flame began to flicker into a raging fire. All at once, my body pulled taut. My legs contracted and my back arched, and suddenly I was being thrown into a delightful ecstasy with nothing but Christian’s tongue rooting me to reality.
“Oh, yes,” he murmured between my legs. “Give me all of it.”
I shook and quivered while he lapped me up. I collapsed back onto the bed, panting and sweating as he kissed the inside of my thighs. I was trembling on top of my bed, my head spinning with the pleasure I was drowning in. But, Christian’s kiss pulled me back to the surface as I tasted myself on his skin.
“You taste divine,” he said.
I parted my legs for his body, and he sank his cock between my legs. His thick dick teased my entrance, his hips holding himself there while he gazed into my eyes. I could see the love he had for me, the unadulterated respect we had worked hard to achieve, and I realized a very enlightening truth about my own relationship with him.
I realized I loved him, too.
I bucked my hips up and captured his dick between my pussy folds. He slid in with a pop, his eyes widening before we both dropped back to the bed. I wrapped my arms around his neck, pulling his lips down onto mine while his dick sheathed itself into my body, and all I could do was lay there and wait for his attack.
It was the first time in my entire life I’d ever enjoyed being helpless with another person.
“I’ve got you,” he said, whispering into my lips. “I’ve got you, Stella.”
Slowly, he began to rock. His dick coated itself with my juices as he slowly pu
mped, and I could feel his body shaking against mine. I ran my fingertips through his beautiful hair, and the entire time he didn’t take his eyes off me. I spread my legs for him, allowing him more control over my body, and I locked my legs around his waist so I could feel as much of him as possible.
“Oh, Christian,” I whispered. “You feel so good.”
He began to pick up the pace before my back dropped back to the bed. His arms supported him, chiseled and strong, while his hips rolled deeper into mine. I’d missed this massive cock of his and the way it made my skin pucker. I missed how it hit me in all the right areas, making me tremble with anticipation while he hit my sweet spot deep inside. I missed how it throbbed against my walls like it was doing now while my juices dripped down his balls.
I missed the way he bit down on his lower lip as his pace grew furious.
His hips snapped against mine while my tits bounced back and forth. I ran my fingertips up his arms, feeling every divot and ripple as his muscles flexed in exertion for my pleasure. I dug my heels into the mattress to raise my hips to his thrusts, and he lost himself deeper into me. He switched to supporting himself on his elbows as our sweat intermingled with one another’s. We breathed each other’s air while our tongues danced a sloppy tango between our lips. I could feel his dick twitching inside of me, begging to be released so it could enjoy the home it had found within the confines of my body.
“Cum for me,” I whispered into his lips.
“Cum with me,” he said.
I raised my hips to him one last time before my body popped. My walls clenched around his dick as my jaw unhinged with pleasure. He pressed his forehead into mine, grunting while my pussy pulled him in deeper and deeper. With every pulse my pussy made, it milked his cock for all he had. Then, I felt it happen.
His hips stilled against mine, and his balls pulled into his body.
“Stella. Stella. Oh, fuck yes. I’ve missed you so much. I love you. Holy shit, I love you.”
My back collapsed to the bed while stars burst behind my eyes. I could feel Christian painting my walls with his cum, grunting with every pump while my pussy begged for all of it. I heaved for air, trying desperately to find the breath to tell him the words I wanted to scream from the rooftops.
