by Emma Scott
He smirked. “Do your best.”
Key cards in hand, we rode the elevator up to the thirty-third floor. The air seemed to thin out as we rose higher and higher, anticipation rising with it. I glanced down at Thea beside me. She looked up, rainwater dripping from her hair, glistening along her skin. Without a word, she stood on tiptoe and planted a kiss on my mouth. Soft lips and the smallest touch of her tongue before pulling away.
Goddamn, if nothing else happens, tonight is already perfect.
The lamps in our room were off, the drapes drawn. The lights of New York City were the only illumination. The grid lay spread below us or rose high in towering pillars. Obelisks of light.
“It’s so perfect,” Thea murmured, echoing my thoughts. She dumped her bag on the bed and moved to stand at the window.
I set my guitar against the wall and my duffel on the other bed, claiming it as mine if that’s what she wanted. For so long, even sitting across from her felt like an invasion of her privacy because she had no way to know if she wanted it. No memory to ask or answer.
Now she can tell me what she wants.
I joined her at the window, and we watched as lightning cracked across the dark night.
“I talk a good game,” she said. “But I’m suddenly really nervous. My heart is racing.”
She took my hand and laid it on the warm skin her tank top didn’t cover. Her pulse thudded under my palm.
“We do what you want to do, Thea.” I brushed a stray lock of damp hair from her cheek. “Whatever you want or nothing at all.”
“I don’t want to do nothing,” she said. “Not ever again. But…” She broke off with a small laugh, looking away.
Inhale. Exhale. “Is this your f-first time?”
“No.” She ran her fingers over my jacket, her gaze following, until she raised her eyes to mine. “But right now, standing here with you, I can’t remember anyone else.”
She moved into the circle of my arms, pressing against me. Every molecule in my body wanted to grab and take but I held her gently. Loosely.
She tilted her head up to mine. “Just kiss me, Jimmy, and let’s see what happens.”
No script. The entire night waiting for us to make of it what we wanted.
I bent and kissed her softly, tasted her lips that parted for me at once, despite the nervousness I felt trembling through her body like an electric current. I deepened the connection, my tongue venturing into hers and she moaned. God, Thea’s moans were like matches tossed on a smoldering fire.
She kissed me back, her tongue sliding against mine, exploring, while her hands slipped into my hair, then to either side of my face, holding me like I was something valuable.
We kissed with growing urgency. When thunder boomed, neither of us flinched. Thea pushed my jacket off my shoulders, her hands roaming as our mouths devoured and plundered, biting and clashing, with our breaths rasping between little sounds of want neither of us could control.
“I’m not nervous anymore,” she breathed. “Because I remember all of you. Us. Everything you ever said or sung to me, Jimmy. Not in my broken mind but here.” She laid her hand over her heart. “I kept you here. Even when my memory wouldn’t let me tell you.”
“You told me,” I said, my own breath coming hard. “I heard you.”
“You fought for me,” she said.
I kissed her again and lifted her up. She wrapped her legs around my waist, never breaking our kiss as I took her to the bed. I laid her down, and she shoved her backpack to the floor, then reached for me as I sank down on top of her. Her body beneath me, straining for me, was driving me out of my mind. I’d never wanted a woman like this in my life. I’d never had a woman like Thea, one I wanted and who wanted me just as I was.
Her hands slid down the sides of my body to my waist. She pulled me against her, lifting her hips to mine, and I ground down on her while I kissed her, sucking gently, eliciting more of those soft little moans that made me crazy.
She tore her mouth from mine, gasping. “Jesus, how do you do that?”
“Do what?” I asked, kissing her neck, her throat, and the delicate skin beneath her ear.
“Kiss me so it feels like I’m falling into you.”
I didn’t answer but kissed her like that again and again, until our hands craved skin. I sat up and kneeled on the bed, to reach behind and pull my shirt over my head by the collar. Thea’s eyes widened at the sight of me. Unabashed, she slipped out of her tank, then reached behind her to unclasp her bra.
I’m a dead man…
Her skin was luminous in the dim light. The green gem on its gold chain glinted between her breasts that were fucking perfection. I bent and kissed her there.
“You’re so fucking beautiful,” I murmured against the beat of her heart. I closed my eyes and inhaled the scent of her, savoring this moment. Her arms cradled my head, fingers sinking into my hair.
She gently raised my face to hers, eyes and fingers trailing over my lips and nose and eyebrows. The moment held and then we kissed, a last, gentle touch. Then Thea got up on her knees and pressed her body against mine. Skin to skin, her breasts against my chest. My hands slid down the silken skin of her back to the waistband of her jean shorts, then around to undo the buttons. Her fingers tore at the zipper on my jeans, our eyes meeting between frantic, biting kisses.
I kicked out of my pants as she stripped out of her shorts. Clad only in lacy pink underwear, she leaned back, propped on one hand while her other trailed down between her legs. My erection grew painful as her fingers made circles over her panties. In answer, my hand went down the front of my boxer briefs, and I stroked myself while her fingers rubbed and dampened the silk of her underwear.
Holy fucking shit…
“Oh God, Jimmy,” she said, watching me, her breath coming short. “No man’s ever made me feel like this. Made me want this so bad.”
“Good,” I said.
I withdrew my hand and hauled her onto my lap so she straddled me, her dampness tight on my erection; her silk against the cotton. I kissed her raw and deep.
She whimpered into my mouth and rolled her hips against mine. I gripped her with both hands to grind her harder while my mouth found one of her nipples. I sucked and bit as she rode me. Her head fell back, fingernails scraping the back of my neck as I moved her on my lap, tortured by the clothing still left between us, and savoring what was to come when I tore it away.
“No more, I can’t…” she cried. “Jimmy, please. Now…”
I took her nipple mercilessly one last time, before laying her roughly down on the bed. I tugged off her panties and stared a moment at the sight of her, naked and perfect and mine. Then I stripped out of my underwear and Thea let out another of those little moans.
“God, you’re going to ruin me for anyone else.”
I kneeled above her. “You’ve already ruined me.”
She ringed her hands around my neck and pulled me down. I lay over her, straining to be inside her but holding back by a damn thread.
“I’ll go slow,” I said, bracing my arms on either side of her face. “Whatever you want. Tell me and I’ll do it.”
Her body beneath mine softened everywhere at those words, melting against me, her legs opening to take me, and I settled between them. Every molecule in my body screamed to feel the wet heat that was between her legs and sink myself deep into it.
“I want you inside me,” she whispered against my lips. “Right now.”
“Wait, I need a condom,” I gasped.
Thea shook her head. “I’m on the pill and I want to feel everything.”
She tilted her hips up, offering. My need to have her roared in my ears so I couldn’t hear my own thoughts. She reached between us; her brazen eyes holding mine as she rubbed the tip of my cock against her soft wetness.
“Thea…” I gritted out. “Jesus…”
“I want you to feel everything,” she said and then moved her fingers to spread herself for me. “I want you so bad…”
&nbs
p; It took every ounce of self-control I possessed to slide slowly into her instead of thrusting hard and deep. Her tightness gripped me like a fist, wet and hot and slick. My eyes fell shut, and a moan rose out of me when she lifted her hips to take more, her hands at the small of my back, clinging to me as I sank inside her.
“Oh God,” she breathed, her voice in whispery tatters. “God, yes. Just like that. Ah, God…”
She bit her lip, her eyes squeezed shut as I entered her completely, hip to hip, her body taking all of me.
I searched her face and she nodded quickly.
“Yes. So good, Jimmy. Please, more… More…”
I rolled my hips, pulling back and thrusting in, building a slow rhythm. She responded to every movement with the same vigor she treated everything else in life. She gave me all of herself and I took more and more, greedy for every moan, every soft sigh of ecstasy.
I pistoned my hips harder and faster and our kisses turned sloppy, a desperate mashing of mouths and clacking teeth. Her legs came up to wrap around my waist as I reached between us and under her, my fingers splayed on her ass, spreading her wide, trying to drive in deeper.
Her nails raking my back. “Oh God… I’m going to…”
“Come,” I grunted, my face buried in her neck. “Come for me, Thea.”
Our bodies crashed over and over, flesh slapping flesh, until Thea tensed, back slightly arched, as if offering herself to me completely. I took her, hard and deep and relentless, her cries filling the hotel room, then tapered to whimpering moans.
“Now you,” she managed between ragged breaths. Her knees fell open and her hands pulled me to her mouth for a kiss. “Fuck me, Jimmy. However you want. Come inside me. I’m yours. No one else’s. Ever again…”
The release that had been building in me rose into a crescendo. I let go instead of holding back, thrusting hard and spilling deep inside her. Wave after wave of it, rolling through me and into her until I was utterly spent.
I collapsed on top of her and she wrapped me in her embrace. I closed my eyes, floating in a perfect delirium of sweat-slicked skin and hard breaths and pounding hearts.
“I was right,” she said, catching her breath. “You ruined me in the best way. And you’ve ruined this trip. I’m not going to be able to get out of bed for a week.”
“That works for me,” I said, starting to move off of her.
“Don’t go,” she whispered. “Stay right here forever.”
She was teasing, and yet she meant it. Her eyes held mine intently and her face was so beautiful in the city lights; her happiness full in every curve and line. Right there in my hands.
Too good…
“I’m too heavy.” I kissed her softly and pulled out of her, my body missing hers instantly. My thoughts already whispering there was no such thing as forever.
Shut up. Let me have this.
We lay entangled in one another as the rain smattered the windows. My head in the crook of her neck and her fingers toying lazily in my hair. My entire view the soft hills and valleys of her body.
Tiny tentacles of fear wormed into me as sleep came on.
It’s too good. Nothing good lasts.
“Thea,” I murmured.
“Hm?” Her fingers in my hair grew still as sleep came for her too.
Nothing lasts at all…
I closed my eyes. “Nothing.”
Chapter 29
Jim
I dreamed her…
My body weighed a thousand pounds. Heavy and sated. Thea was wrapped around me, still, the ghosts of my past whispered this was all a lie.
She raised her head, her hair tousled and smiled sleepily.
“Hi,” she said.
“Hi.”
She propped herself on an elbow and made circles on my bicep with her fingertip. “So last night was… um… pretty mind-blowing. Wasn’t it?” She plucked at the sheet now. “It’s been a while for me.”
“Fucking mind-blowing,” I said, brushing a lock of hair out of her eyes.
“I’m a mess,” she said. “Hungover from you.”
“You know what they say about curing a hangover.”
“Hair of the dog that bit you?”
I nodded and leaned in to nuzzle her neck, then lightly bit the skin above her collarbone.
“Mm,” Thea sighed. “I see what you did there.”
She writhed as I worked over her neck and jaw, one hand cupping her breast and running my thumb in circles over the nipple.
“And just like that, I’m wet for you,” she whispered.
I hauled her on top of me and watched her ride me as morning light streamed in from the windows. When she came, I flipped her onto her back and took her hard—as hard as she wanted and as hard as I needed—to prove this was my life.
Nearly an hour later, we collapsed in another tangle of arms and legs, her head pillowed on my chest.
“Jesus, you’re a beast,” Thea said. “No, a warrior. My warrior.”
I kissed her, slow and deep, running my tongue over her swollen lips.
“No, no, no, I will not succumb to your manly seductions again,” she said, hauling herself from the bed. “Today is our first full day. We have so much New York-ing to do. You care if I shower first?”
“Help yourself.”
She bent to smack a wet kiss on my lips and headed to the bathroom.
I lay back on the bed and watched the light grow stronger outside. The storm had passed in the night. A new day. Mine and hers.
Don’t let all that old shit from the past fuck it up.
Thea’s phone rang from inside her backpack.
Delia.
Not my business.
Thea’s phone went silent and my phone rang ten seconds later.
“Ah, hell.”
I went to the window and dug it out of my jacket pocket.
“Ms. Hughes.”
“Why isn’t she answering her phone? What’s happening?”
I glanced down at my nakedness and smothered a laugh. “She’s in the shower,” I said, climbing back into bed and pulling a sheet over me.
“You’re sleeping with her.”
I wouldn’t call it sleeping.
“It’s none of your business, Ms. Hughes. Thea is fine.”
“Fine,” Delia said. “Because you would know.”
“I knew how she was in the amnesia better than you ever did,” I snapped, then rubbed my eyes. “Sorry. I didn’t mean that.”
Delia sniffed. “She has to take the Hazarin at seven. Every morning.”
I glanced at the clock. 7:09 a.m. “I’ll make sure.”
A pause.
“I should have you arrested.”
“For what? Taking an adult woman exactly where she wants to go? She wants to be here. With me.”
“And where is here?”
At a hotel in New York City. Maybe you could try calling around to each one until you find us.
My bitterness didn’t hold. Delia was scared for her sister.
“I’ll tell her to call you,” I said.
“James?”
“Yeah?”
“She’s the only family I have left.”
I gritted my teeth. Delia didn’t give a shit that Thea meant everything to me too. I wondered how many snakes I’d have to kill to prove it.
“I won’t let anything happen to her,” I said. The water shut off in the bathroom. “I’m going. Goodbye, Ms. Hughes.”
I hung up and put my phone on mute. A few minutes later, Thea emerged from the bathroom, wrapped in a towel, her hair falling around her shoulders in damp waves.
“Your sister called you,” I said. “And then she called me.”
“Did you tell her I was in the shower, rinsing off bodily fluids and sweat from our fourteen-hour sex-a-thon?”
“Didn’t mention that.”
“She’s a smart gal. I’m sure she’ll put six and nine together. Get it?” She waggled her brows.
“Yeah, I got it—”
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“Six and nine. Sixty-nine.”
I rolled my eyes with a laugh. “She said you need to take the Hazarin at seven every morning.”
“On it.”
Thea tucked the towel tighter around her body and dug the pill bottle out of her backpack. “I’m going to splurge on an eight-dollar water from the mini-fridge.”
I watched her swallow the capsule that kept her tethered to the present. Infinitesimal molecules forming a bridge between the damage done in the accident and the repairs from the surgery. A bridge she crossed every millisecond to stay on this side of consciousness.
I wondered if the bridge were rickety and frail, doomed to fall apart piece by piece. Or if it were iron and steel, engineered to last for decades.
I sat up and swung my legs over the side of the bed. “No side-effects?” I asked, then wished I hadn’t. It felt like kicking the foundations of that bridge to see if they’d hold.
“Not a one,” Thea said. She started to put the pill bottle back in her backpack.
“You should put that in the hotel safe,” I said. “In case your backpack gets lost or someone swipes it.”
“Good thinking.” She kneeled and created a code for the safe and stowed the medicine. “The code, should you need it, is nine-nine-eight-six.”
“Because?”
“Because Michael Scott worked at Dunder Mifflin for…” She inhaled and sang slightly off-key to the main tune from Rent. “9,986,000 minutes. That’s like watching Die Hard eighty thousand times.”
She laughed and took another swig of water, completely unaware of what she was doing to me, minute by minute.
I’ve never loved anything as much as Thea loves that TV show. Until I came to Blue Ridge.
“You should call Delia back,” I said.
“Later.”
“She’s worried about you.”
Thea slowly bent and captured my lower lip between her teeth, sucking gently before letting go. “Later.”
“I thought we had New York-ing to do.”
She cocked her head and lifted the edge of the towel. Offering.
I tore it off her. “Later, it is.”
Thea called Delia while I showered. I changed into the other pair of jeans I’d brought and was pulling a fresh white T-shirt over my head when Thea rolled her eyes and ended the call.
