“Because I belong here. Because I belong with you. Because as much as you try to fight it, you know you belong with me too. Because somewhere in between hearing you sing to Maura, teaching you to make scrambled eggs, and dancing with you at that wedding, I fell in love with you.”
She took a shaky breath as a tear slowly rolled down her cheek.
I gently wiped it with my finger, holding it up in the air. “Because I want to make sure you never cry again.”
“But that night, after the wedding… you didn’t want me.” She swallowed and looked down at the ground.
“That’s not true. It’s not that I didn’t want you. Jesus, Michelle, all I’ve wanted for months is you. I didn’t want the guilt that came along with you, but fuck it. I’m ready. I’ll deal with the guilt every day for the rest of my life if it means I get to wake up and you’re still mine.”
“Really?” Her voice cracked again as tears flooded her eyes. Tears of guilt. Tears of relief. Tears of hope.
“Yes. Really. I’ve never been more sure of anything in my whole life.” I wrapped my arms around her and pulled her so tight against me I could feel her heart beating on my chest. “I have no idea what the future holds. But I do know that I’ve never wanted to try with another person before. Just try. Put all the other bullshit to the side and really, really try.”
She was quiet for a minute, and I started to worry that maybe I’d misread her tears.
“I wasn’t drunk,” she finally mumbled into my shoulder.
“Huh?”
“The night of the wedding, I wasn’t drunk.” She pulled back and stared up at me. “I had two drinks, but by the time I got home, I was barely even buzzed anymore.”
“So you kissed me because—”
“Because I wanted to finish what I’d started. I still do.” She raised up on her tippy toes and ran her nose along my jawline. “I’ll deal with the guilt too. I’m sure it’ll be hard, but nowhere near as hard as trying to convince myself that I don’t love you too.”
Something in me broke, and I just didn’t care anymore. I couldn’t fight the urge to kiss her one more fucking second.
I cupped her cheek in my hand and angled it up toward me, pressing my lips hard against hers. She sighed and leaned into me. We didn’t move our lips. We didn’t move our tongues. We didn’t move at all. We just stood there, connected… finally.
That didn’t last too long. Not only had neither of us had sex in a very long time, but the buildup between the two of us was at a complete boiling point. The minute she shoved her hands up the back of my T-shirt and I felt her nails on my back, every nerve in my body sprang to life. I’d seen scenes in movies where a couple kisses for the first time and they show a series of shorts clips—fireworks going off, a band marching, a tea kettle whistling—I was all of those things combined, and multiplied by a thousand.
For the first time in my life I had no clue what to do with my hands. I didn’t want to just fuck Michelle; I wanted to show her how much I loved her. I wanted to touch her everywhere, all at the same time.
We moved slow, our lips flowing in sync like we’d been kissing each other our whole lives. With my one hand still on the side of her face, I moved the other one to her hip, gripping it softly. She sucked on my bottom lip, pulling it in and gently pinching it between her teeth.
“If you don’t touch me soon, I’m gonna explode,” she said with my lip still between her teeth.
I tugged my lip back and grinned at her. “I’m gonna do more than touch you, but you’re right—you are gonna explode.”
I dropped to my knees and quickly pulled her sweats down to the floor. She stepped out of them and flung them off to the side. I started kissing the top of her feet, slowly making my way up her lower legs to her inner thighs. Even from my knees, I could hear her breathing hard. I grabbed the edges of her panties and pulled them down. Light pink and lacy as hell. I expected nothing less from her.
She stepped out of those too and moved them off to the side with her sweats, but before she could put her second leg back down on the floor, I decided to throw rule number two out the window. I lifted her leg, hooked it over my shoulder, and sank my tongue right into her. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw her hands as they gripped the edge of the counter. Her head fell back and she moaned out loud. Really, really loud. The leg that was still on the ground started to shake, and I knew she was right there, but I was nowhere near done with her. My tongue licked and rubbed against her clit until she shoved her hands into my hair and started to convulse, calling out my name over and over.