Cry For You_A Second Chance Romance

by Shaniel Watson

  She brushes back my wet hair with a trembling half-smile. “Let’s go, before you catch a cold, and I’m forced to nurse you back to health on account of you being temporarily crazy.”

  I smile, seeing she’s okay with what happened. “It would be a small price to pay to be near you.” I kiss her again and lead her out.

  “Now that we’ve lived life, how do we dry off?” She hugs herself by the truck door, hopping up and down.

  “Wasn’t in the plans,” I chuckle rubbing my lower lip. Really wasn’t. This was purely spur-of-the-moment craziness. “Screw it. Let’s get in. We’ll be dry enough by the time we get home. I’ll crank up the heat.” Her hands on her hips, she cocks her head to the side. Holding my finger up I grab the picnic blanket, shaking it out and throwing it over her shoulders. I swing her into my arms placing her in the car. Close the door securely, get in closing my door, and crank the heat up full blast. “Better?”

  She wrinkles her nose. “Almost.”

  “I’m not sure what else I can do until the heat does its job. I said I’d keep you warm, and I’m failing.” My lips quiver on a totally fake sob.

  “You haven’t failed yet.” She taps me on the lip, and I’m overcome with the urge to bite her finger sucking it into my mouth. “When you made that promise your arms were securely holding me close. As cold as I was, I hardly noticed. You should try it again. I believe it’ll work again.”

  The best solution for the night without a doubt. “I can make that happen. Come over here.” I pull her into my arms and take full advantage in a kiss lasting way longer than expected for either of us, yet absolutely not enough when we come up for air, breathless and panting, clinging to each other.

  It’s too much to ask, for this night not to end. I can’t imagine it getting any better than this: Lacey snuggled close, safe in my arms, and me on the highest cloud of happiness imaginable.

  As usual, we don’t need words to fill the silence between us as I drive her back to her house. It’s a nice, easy ride, shared with the woman who has been in my heart and life for years, Even when she hasn’t physically been there: the love of my life, always.

  With one hand on the steering wheel and her head on my shoulder, I park at the side of the house so as not to wake her mother or Jacob. I kiss the top of her head before jumping out to walk to her door, hand in hand. I don’t want this night to end, but here we are in front of her door. I’m not even remotely close to ready to say good night.

  “I don’t think Shay would approve of the time. It’s close to midnight.”

  She opens her door, still holding my hand. “I don’t care what my sister thinks. This is not her date. It’s mine.” She smiles. “I’ve had a wonderful time, thanks to you and your crazy living and learning.”

  “That was my intention. I’m happy I delivered, and you had a great time.”

  “I did. Thank you.” She leans up, and I meet her halfway, kissing her with slow sweeps of my tongue, loving and memorizing every second of the last few minutes of tonight.

  Damn sure I’m going to be reliving it all night, every detail, when I’m alone at the bar on a lumpy, fold-out bed. Yeah, I’m going to be horny as hell.

  Forcing myself to pull back, I take a deep breath with my eyes closed. “I had a wonderful time. Goodnight, Lacey.”

  “Date’s not over. Come inside; I’ll dry your clothes.” It comes out as if it’s no big deal.

  But my face goes into frozen shock.

  “Do you know what you’re saying? Nothing good happens at this hour of the night at the end of a date.”

  “I’ve been in total control of every decision that was made tonight. I don’t know about other dates, Landon. This one will end with only good things.”

  I look deep in her eyes. This could be one of the greatest nights of my life. Doesn’t matter what happens—just being with her is a bonus. I’m going to follow her lead, but I need to make sure she’s okay with the smallest decisions made, starting here before I walk through her door. “You sure? I don’t want to wake Jacob or your mother.”

  “He’s spending the night with Shay. My mother is picking him up tomorrow.”

  “Are you sure you want me to come in, Lace?”

  “Yes.” She nods.

  “It’s late,” I remind her again.

  She barks a laugh, exasperated with me. “I know. Come in.” She pulls me through the door, closing it behind me before I can ask again.

  I’m not a nervous guy, but I classify this as being in the realm of nervous. We’ve known each other a long time. This is different. I locked her door, and she locks two more behind it.

  “I haven’t noticed before how many locks you have.”

  She sighs. “It’s a thing. I’m working on it.”

  Then I notice a security alarm. If I didn’t know before, I knew then I had to tread lightly, and take this, her inviting me in, with the utmost seriousness. I don’t want to trigger a setback...I just don’t know. I need to know if tonight is going to turn into more than she’s ready for. She disappears into the bathroom, leaving me with my thoughts.

  A few minutes later, she comes out of the bathroom in a lime green robe with pictures of pies all over it. I smile, seeing her in my mind, hard at work making those pies, with flour smeared on her nose. “It had to be pies.”

  She shrugs, smiling. “Of course.”

  I notice a bag in her hand. “What do you have there?”

  She holds out her hand. “My wet clothes. I had to take a quick shower after taking these off.”

  Great. Now I’m thinking about her naked and wet, and I need to shift things around down below. “Okay.”

  “You can take a shower, if you want. When you’re done I’ll put your clothes in the dryer and I’ll go see if I can find you something that doesn’t make you look like the Incredible Hulk busting out.” She laughs.

  “You do that.” I get in the bathroom, strip and stick my hand out the door, dangling my damp clothes. She takes takes them and replaces them with a towel. I take a quick shower, but spend most of my time drying my hair. I don’t hear Lace, so I wrap the towel around my waist and come out. “Lacey?” I call.

  She comes toward me looking down at some stuff in her hand. “I tried but I think you’re out of luck.” Her eyes meet my chest when she stops. “Aw, shit. These won’t fit. Sorry.”

  “It’s all right. I didn’t think anything would. You okay?” I ask a beat later, since she hasn’t looked up past my chest and the tattoo of her name.

  “Yes. It’s just—you’re more than I remember. I mean, bigger. I…” Her eyes meet mine, a shade of pink tinting her cheeks, and we smile. “I sound like an idiot.” She rolls her eyes. “The superpower of pecs. They had that effect on me at seventeen, too.”

  My brow arches up. “The power of pecs?”

  “Don’t make fun of me.”

  “I’m not.” I tilt her chin up. “I love your perusal of me. Makes me less nervous being nearly naked in front of you.”

  Her eyes open a fraction. “You’re nervous too?”

  “Of course. Not every day my dream comes true.”

  “What’s your dream?”

  “To be with the woman of my dreams. To have the chance just to be close enough to her again, to at least be allowed to touch the beauty that is her. That’s the best fucking dream come true for me.”

  “Landon.” Her hand covers mine, still resting on her face. She moves in, kissing each side of my chest. My eyes close at the feel of her lips then jolt as her warm mouth opens on my skin. The cool rush of air covering the spot her mouth has branded sends a need spiraling through me.

  “Goddamn, Lace.” My hand smooths up her back, pressing her body fully against me. I don’t mean to, but I can’t help it. I know she can feel exactly what’s happening under this thin towel that’s masquerading as a barrier. “I wasn’t prepared for tonight—to go this far.”

  “Neither was I.” Her hands caress the side of my ribs with her fingertips,
dipping into sensitive grooves, sending cords of electric heat through me.

  “I don’t know, Lace? What do you want? How far do you want this to go? You need to tell me, so I know exactly what not to do,” I tell her, trying to control every single breath I take.

  “I want you to spend the night with me. In my bed, with nothing between us. I want you to kiss me...I want you to kiss me like there is no tomorrow. I want to get lost in us, like we are never going to part again. Even though I know when the sun comes up, we will. I’m okay with that.”

  Hell, yes. I want that. But I don’t want it only for tonight. I want it every night. Forever. “I want that more than anything.” I kiss the shell of her ear. “I swear I wasn’t prepared for any of this. I want to love you in the worst way possible, but first I need to know, are you sure this is okay for you? I don’t want to hurt you, or set you back in any way.”

  “As long as it’s you, I’m fine.” The tip of her finger brushes back and forth across my hardened nipple and the beautiful scroll of her name forever etched into my skin, making me groan with a restraint I hardly have.

  “You want me to cry?” I rasp against her touch.

  “For the right reasons.” She kisses the tip of my nipple lightly, rubbing the delicate soft pink of her lips against it.

  “Oh, God help me, Lace.”

  “I’m sure he will,” she says with a sweet, teasing smile.

  I laugh, shaking my head at her. “Where’s your room?” She takes my hand, leading me into her room to the side of her bed.

  I’ve wanted this moment for so long. I’ve imagined it—a few million times. It was always too much, too painful to realize it wasn’t going to happen. But here I am, and here she is, and it is happening. I sure as hell don’t want to mess it up with mistakes and regrets.

  I stroke the side of her face slowly, kissing her lips without seeking the deep warmth and heat I crave, not yet. “I wasn’t prepared for this, Lace. I don’t have anything with me. Do you?”

  “Look.” She softly says, holding her arm up. “It’s under my skin. As long as it’s there, I won’t get pregnant. I’ve been tested. I don’t have anything. You?”

  This is a painful dose of reality. I don’t want to think about why she needed to have this thing inside her body. I don’t want to think why she needed to be tested. If things were as they should have been...but they’re not, and this is where we are. This talk is necessary, doesn’t mean I want to have it. I sigh. “I’ve never cheated. I’ve gotten tested with a full physical every year for my insurance. Last one was two months ago. Perfect health. Haven’t been with anyone since.”

  I kiss her forehead, pulling her between my legs as I’m sitting on the bed. Staring in her eyes, it reminds me of the first time we did this. She was so young and innocent. My Lacey baby. And I was a little arrogant, and completely smitten. I part her robe, keeping my eyes on hers, clenching my fist around the fabric for control of my emotions. “Lacey baby, is this all right? If it’s not, tell me, and I’ll stop, no matter what.”

  “I won’t break. I’m in your arms; I’m not breaking.”

  My throat constricts, trapping the flow of words, and I try to control my voice before I speak. She leans down, kissing me, and at the same time parting her robe with my hands, taking me closer to heaven when my hand touches the curve of her ass. She drops her robe. My breath catches. She’s more beautiful than ever.

  With the help of my massive erection and her hands on my thighs, the towel falls away. She looks down, her face glowing with the sweetest tint of pink. “Just the thought of you has always done that,” I tell her. She bites her lip. I run my hand over her ass and down the back of her thighs, opening her legs and pulling her forward until she’s sitting mid-thigh on my legs. She’s close enough that I can feel her heat on my erection, but not actually touching. “Touch me, Lacey. Anywhere but there,” I say, pulling her chin up “Anywhere but there, if you want this to last.”

  She chuckles, and puts her hand on my chest, lightly raking her nails down. A hiss of air escapes between my clenched teeth as I watch her chest rise and fall. I palm her breasts in both hands, fondling and rubbing the sides, rotating my thumbs over hardening nipples. Her head goes back, a sweet moan falling from her parted lips.

  God, it does two things to me. One I expected, and one I didn’t. Longing and pain, in the cruelest way. I hear her voice the first time I ever touched her like this, and the first time she was hurt and in pain, broken and alone in a hospital bed. “Shit.” My hands stop and slide to her face, not moving but feeling, welling up with every emotion I’ve ever felt for her: love, lust, pain, and hate. Hatred and pain run deep for the time we’ve lost, almost as deep as the love, as well as hatred of the man who did this to her and us.

  She looks at me, heat still in her eyes but searching in mine. I’ve never been able to hide this from her. She knows. “Landon, no. Don’t let him.” She strokes my face between her hands, holding firm.

  But I can’t help it. I feel like I’m crying for her all over again. I pull her closer, stroking her back. Pressing, joining our bodies together, pulling a noise of deep torture and pleasure from me and a moan from her as her wet heat slides against the skin of my cock. She kisses me, parting my lips with her thumb. I melt into the kiss as our bodies slowly move against each other in pleasure as her legs wrap around me. The tear I didn’t know I had falls between us.

  “Every tear I’ve cried since that day has been for you. This is the first time it’s actually happened in front of you.”

  “I won’t break.”

  “I know.” I know.

  “Do you?” She wipes away my tear. “Landon, I’m forever changed. I will not be the same again. When people look at me, they see a victim. They don’t see the person I am, or the girl I used to be, they don’t see me laughing or living. They see something left behind.

  “That word, that act, eclipses everything I was, I am. He accomplished what he set out to do. Expose me, shame me; he was right, I will remember him forever. He’s the voice in the dark corner in the back of my head, jumping out of corners and dark creaky places. Sneaking through the halls when no one’s home. Slithering around me on the lonely streets, vanished whenever I look behind me. Creeping out of my dreams on hind legs, looming over me in the light of day making me recoil and retreat in horror.

  “His mark on me was an insidious poison seeping through my life, suffocating me. Strangling the life out of all the things and precious moments of joy and happiness. For a time he broke me. Ushering in a darkness I thought I would never, never, ever recover from. I was weak. I couldn’t go on. I saw no way. Until the curse he gave me was ripped out through me in a savage brutal pain seared in my mind. It cried, and I cried.

  “His cry of need eclipsed mine, and I opened my eyes. Oh God, Landon, I hate to admit this.” She takes a deep breath heavily sighing but controlling her emotions better than I have. “I’ve never admitted this before, at least not out loud. I hated him, but I was drawn to him. I couldn’t let him go. He was my baby, Jacob. I learned to love him.” She touches her forehead to mine before she goes on. “That took a lot of therapy to admit. I look at him now, and I can’t imagine not having him with me. He makes me laugh. When I’m sad, he crawls into my lap laying his head on my chest. ‘I love you, Mommy.’ It gets me every time.”

  Nothing can describe how much I feel for this amazing woman. The strength she’s shown me. How her heart has this endless capacity to be refilled with love, over and over. To give it back when no one in the world would expect her to. Back then I couldn’t see past blinding anger to see how strong she could be. With or without me. “Lace—”

  “No, let me finish, so you know where I am today.” I nod, letting her continue. “He didn’t break me completely. I survived. I’m here, standing tall. I’m living and learning.” She smiles. “And I can love deeply. I have fault lines and cracks, some you can see, some are hidden, but with as much time as I need, they will heal.”
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  She takes a deep breath, and I take it with her, amazed and in awe of who she is and the woman she’s become.

  “If this is going to work, you need to let it go. Forgive yourself. Don’t give him power. He’s taken enough.”

  “I’ll learn to, for you and Jacob. I will.” She shifts against me, stirring my need for her, the desire to be inside her, to feel her warm heat around me, consuming me. I kiss her neck, palming her ass, rolling her hips against my length. “Are you ready for me, Lacey baby?”

  With a nod from her, I part her thighs. My fingers graze over her folds, and she exhales my name when my finger slips inside her, finding her wet, open, and completely ready for me.

  “Landon,” she breathes.

  “Shh...baby, I want to love you.” Lifting her up as gently as possible, I slide the head of my cock into her tight heat, sliding her halfway down. Gritting my teeth, I groan, forcing myself not to drive into her. “Damn, you’re so sweet and tight.” I lick the side of her neck, savoring the taste of her skin.

  “Mm, Landon, all the way. Please don’t stop.”

  “Baby, I won’t,” I rasp. Her mouth opens wide on my shoulder with a grunt as I lift my hips, bucking up, engulfed in the softness of her slick, warm body. The greatest place on earth. I pant as she rocks her hips back and forth, my hand wandering over her flushed body, caressing every part of her.

  Leaning her back, I place her hands on my knees, telling her to hold on while I repeatedly lick the tips of her puckered nipples, making her pussy quiver and shake around me. My hips are pushing into her, one hand gripping her hip and the other gently playing with her clit. Spreading her wet lips open with two fingers, I press deeper in her swollen flesh, my cock filling her, driving her body wild with pleasure. Watching her writhing on my lap, I’m hypnotized by the rise and fall of her breasts.

  My tongue eagerly flutters over her nipple again, sucking hard then letting it pop free of my mouth. Her body rocks forward with a needy moan, trying to pull my head back, fingers tightly fisting my hair. I catch her hand, kissing her fingers. “Baby, be careful. Come here.”