“Of course not.”
“You haven’t lost yours, either, then, gorgeous.”
She sighed softly. “I don’t want to feel like I’m past my prime. Fine, I’m just a bartender when it comes right down to it. I know I’m not teaching the youth of America or curing a terrible disease. All I’m doing is making something tasty, so I should stop stressing about whether I can do it well. It’s only entertainment.”
He held up his hand, his lips turning into a ruler-straight line. “Hey now. Never underestimate the power of entertainment. It’s what I do, too. We find our ways to bring a little joy to the world. You’ve created a place at Speakeasy where friends hang out, spend time together, and enjoy the company of those they care about. That’s a good thing. It makes life richer, makes people happier. I’m no different—I make deals to help creative people share their ideas with the world in the form of plays, movies, and TV. Nothing wrong with that. As far as I’m concerned, there’s not a whole lot better than going to the movies with the girls I love,” he said, planting a kiss on her temple. “Makes me happier than anything else.”
She flashed him a smile that couldn’t be contained. “It’s my favorite thing to do with you and Carly, too. Dinner and a movie, and I’m good to go.”
“You’ll be an easy date for our anniversary,” he said, taking a drink of his Scotch.
She elbowed him playfully. “Seriously, though. I don’t need anything fancy. Though, if you want to take me to Fiji, I’m certainly not going to turn it down. But I’m more than content to get Thai food, hold your hand during a heist flick, and then take you home and make sweet love to you.”
He tugged her closer and ran a finger over her lips. “Or maybe I’ll be the one making love to you.” Warmth rushed through her from his words. It turned to heat when he said, “Fucking you. Taking you. Having you.”
She shivered, sensing where this evening was heading.
15
“Remember the first time we made love on your balcony?” she asked, snuggling into his arms.
“I could never forget,” he answered, and the memory snapped before his eyes. It was more than eight years ago, the night he’d taken her right here on this deck. Heat thrummed in his veins as he pictured her blindfolded and fucking her own fingers, then on her hands and knees taking him in her mouth. After that she’d straddled him, and he’d cuffed her with the black silk, tying her hands behind her as he’d told her all the ways he wanted to fuck her, asking her if she’d ever let him into her body everywhere.
He craved this woman as if she was air, and he was consumed with her. He couldn’t deny that a part of him wanted to claim all of her.
But that time on the balcony was more than one of the most intense nights of lovemaking of his life. He’d known then, with a bone-deep certainty, that she was it for him—heart, mind, and body. He might have been the one tying her up, but she’d stolen his heart, and it would be hers for the rest of his days. She’d captivated him, and he knew there would never be another like her.
She was his passion, his home, his love.
She was everything he’d ever wanted. She still was. She was all that and more—the mother of his child, the friend he wanted to fuck, his partner in all of life’s wild adventures.
Their tryst had started with just sex, but it had transformed into the great love of his life.
“That’s the night I knew I was wildly in love with you, Clay,” she said, pressing a soft kiss to his lips, and a grin tugged at his mouth with the reminder of how utterly in sync they were.
He grasped her hips and pulled her on top of him so she straddled his thighs on the wooden bench, the warm summer air wrapping around them, the notes of a New York evening playing a soundtrack to their night. Voices floated up from the sidewalks, cars whipped by on the street, buses rumbled down the avenue.
But here, it was just her and him.
“I remember everything about you, and every goddamn detail about that night,” he said, nuzzling her neck, brushing kisses all along her sweet, soft flesh.
“What do you remember?” she asked, her voice feathery as she looped her arms around him, holding on.
“How much I needed you,” he said, speaking the barest truth.
“You knew that then?”
He nodded against her, nibbling on her earlobe before he whispered in her ear, “I knew you were my everything, Julia. I knew you were the woman I wanted to share a life with, forever and ever and always. I knew I would never love anyone else the way I love you.”