Dear Ava(52)

“Maybe. What time do you get off?” he asks.

I push my hair over my shoulder, and he inhales sharply.

“Doors get locked at midnight. I’m closing, which means I have to clean the kitchen and the tables.” I sigh. “Won’t finish up till one. I saw you in my sociology class.”

“Saw you too. Wanna sit with me next time?”

My body vibrates, buzzing. I try to speak, but—

“Am I moving too fast?” he asks.

“No.”

“You got a phone number?”

I scribble it on a napkin and pass it over to him.

He tucks it in his pocket. “Do you like to eat? Like on a date?”

Do I like to eat? I laugh. Oh, Lee. You’re doing everything so right. “I haven’t had a date in, like…dang, never.”

“No way. You’re gorgeous.” His eyes linger on my face, touching on my lips then skating down to my low-cut tank, lingering on my locket.

I lean in and whisper. “True. A guy has never paid for my food on a date. Guess I’m waiting for the right one to walk in.”

“Damn.” He takes a swig of his beer. “Can’t say I’m sad about it. Has he walked in yet?”

“Ava! Stop flirting and help me with these sorority girls!” Carla yells from the end of the bar where she’s drowning in Deltas.

“You have to go.”

“Mmmm,” I say, not moving, reluctant to leave.

He smiles. “You best go.”

“My legs don’t seem to work. Carla can manage.” She yells at me again, and I blow out a breath. “Geeze. Can’t she handle those drunk girls by herself?”

“You work. I’m not going anywhere.” He stands up from the stool and strides back to his friends, and I sigh, watching him go, my heart jumping fast. He avoids the girls that flock to him, veering to the right and talking to one of the other players. He sees me looking and tips his beer at me.

I see promise in his eyes.

I see…

Me.

Later after we’ve closed, Piper lets out a long sigh and heads to the door. “Girl, I wish I had the stamina to wait another hour for you, but Wyatt’s outside with a ride. I’m dead tired.”

“I got it.” I’m used to the long hours. “Get some sleep.”

She pauses at the door and turns back. “Hey, I saw you talking to someone at the bar earlier. This place was wall to wall with people, and I didn’t get a good look at him. Potential date? I mean, I know you tell everyone you’re taken, but don’t you think it’s time to go out with one of these guys who keep asking you out?” She grins. “Oh crap, you’re blushing. What did he say?”

I shrug, keeping my secrets. “Nothing.”

She leaves and I get to work cleaning up while Carla counts the register receipts in the manager’s office. The other waitresses leave. A little before one, I’ve gotten the place straight and lock up the back.

Carla and I walk out together to the parking lot across the street.

“Someone’s waiting at your car,” she tells me, indicating the tall man who’s leaning against his Mercedes parked next to Louise.

I nod, barely breathing. “It’s okay. I know him.”

“He’s fucking hot,” she murmurs then makes her way to her sedan and drives off.

I stand there for a minute, just looking at him. Then, I take a deep breath and walk over, humming.

He’s here.

He’s waiting.

He’s been waiting.

We both have.

Like time hasn’t passed, I stop when we stand chest to chest. I reach out and touch his face first, brushing over that scar on his cheek, tracing it down to his upper lip.

He bites my finger.

I jump and laugh.

He grins.

“Thought you were just gonna call me,” I say, my shoes absently toying with a piece of gravel on the concrete.

“Wanted to see you before I went to sleep. You tired? I’m sure we can find an all-night place open if you’re hungry.”

My body tingles with heat. “Not tired. Or hungry.” I’ve never felt so alive.

His hand tucks a piece of my hair over my ear. “When I saw you this morning, I didn’t want to rush you—”

“Rush me.”

A long exhalation comes from his chest. He swallows. “Come home with me.”

“Where’s home?”

“Apartment nearby. I moved in this weekend.”

“Alright.”

He moves around his car and opens the passenger door, and I slide into the sleek leather interior.

He gets in, starts the engine, and pulls out onto the road. There’s not much traffic this late, but a few cars pass us, their headlights lighting up his features.

“You’re staring,” he says on a small laugh, darting his gaze at me then looking back at the road.

Oh, I see the promise in those beautiful eyes of his. The seriousness. The heat. I see him. He’s the kind of guy who doesn’t love often, but once he does, it’s with everything he has.

“Can’t help it.” My throat is thick with a sharp, visceral, primal need to hold him. It’s been so long, so fucking long, and now he’s here, and I can’t breathe or think or—

As if he knows, he reaches over and takes my hand. “Hang on, Tulip. Almost there.”

He whips the car into a nice apartment complex near campus, jumps out, and comes around to my side of the car to open the door for me.

“Fuck yes,” he groans when I jump up in his arms and lock my legs around his waist.

“Inside,” I murmur into his neck, inhaling his scent.

He runs with me, up two flights of stairs and down the hall to a door. Fumbling around, he works the key into the lock and kicks it open.

Briefly, I see a dim room with boxes everywhere, most of them unpacked, his textbooks sitting on a desk, the TV on ESPN on mute. With me in his arms, he falls to a sitting position on a leather couch and I straddle him, my hands running over his face, touching him, fingering his hair, tracing his face, his shoulders.

He holds my eyes and lets me map out his features. He does the same, his lips pressing a hot kiss to my palm, his fingers dancing over the pulse on my wrist. His hand trembles over my heart for several long moments, his breathing rapid as he strokes up to my collarbone then around my neck, tangling in my hair. He buries his face in it and says my name, the tone layered with anguish and reverence, blended beautifully.

My legs tighten around his waist.

I can’t let go of him. My breath hitches when he cups my face. I’m underwater and I need him, I need him like air.

“Kiss me,” I beg. “Kiss me. God, please, kiss me and forgive me for leaving you, because if you don’t—”

He takes my mouth hungrily, a man starved. Our lips cling, ravaging the other, licking and sucking and nipping.

He tugs my shirt off while I rip at his, yanking it over his head.

My bra is blue and lacy and he strokes his fingers over the fabric, cupping me. I groan at the light touch. Longing and craving, pent up and banked for so long, dance and scream along my nerve endings.

“Tulip, all mine, all mine,” he says, his voice low as he dips his head and sucks my erect nipple through the lace.

I stare at his chest, my mouth drying at his sculpted muscles, the six-pack, the deep V that leads down to his jeans. I see his tulip bouquet tattoo, the script letters at the top of the pink blooms. My eyes blur. Emotion lifts me and destroys me at the same time as I trace my fingers over the words.

Tulip. Waiting for you. Always.

He gasps for air. “Tulip, damn you, damn you. Don’t ever leave me, don’t. Stay here and be mine. I did what you wanted. I let you go, I let you find yourself, and I found me too. I did, I did, but I can’t do it without you again. I can’t look at another beach or mountain or country while wondering where you are or who you’re seeing and if you still love me…” His voice breaks as he grabs my face. “Tell me you still love me.”

My heart cracks then stitches itself back together. “Lee Knox Grayson, I love you till the end of time. I never stopped. I never gave up. You’re my destiny. I’m yours. The universe fucking owes me, you feel me?”

He shudders. “I never stopped watching out for you, Tulip. I’ve known where you’ve been since day one.”

“I didn’t doubt it for a moment. You love me. You love me.”

“We needed a new beginning and I wanted to give it to you. Maybe you met someone. Maybe you…didn’t want me anymore. Maybe you walked away and never thought of me again.”

“Never.” My lips brush over his.

“I want you so fucking bad, and I know I just showed up—”

“Take me, please, I’m yours.”

He groans and kisses me, our hands pulling and fumbling as we manage to get our pants off, our shoes. And then he has me back in his arms and I’m staring down at him, drinking him in. I clutch his head, writhing against his skin, feeling the ridge of him through my panties.

“Shhhh, I got you,” he murmurs, kissing my throat, his teeth nipping at me.

I pull his face to mine and kiss him, hard and deep, searching his mouth, sucking on his tongue like I want to devour him. Fast and hard and fast and hard and fast and hard…

I shove his underwear down and even in the dim light, I can see he’s long and thick and firm.

“Tulip, I’ve pictured you in my mind, in my dreams like this, so many long nights without you and nothing is right without you, not beaches or mountains or the sky because I need you, need you, need you. You’re the only one who knows me, who sees me the way I am inside.” He exhales, moving his hips up against my hand.