I was untying the satin ribbon that wrapped around the box when I was suddenly lifted off my feet and swung up into a pair of muscular arms. I never thought I would be the type to swoon at being princess carried to the bedroom, but my heart was doing summersaults, and I immediately got goosebumps when Hyde growled into my ear, “I do want something sweet, but it isn’t the damn cake.”
Hyde
I DROPPED REMY on the bed and watched as she bounced slightly.
Her curls dropped over her forehead as she gave me a wide-eyed look of surprise from underneath them. I felt bad about waiting a heartbeat too long to let her in my house. I also felt bad about getting mad at her without properly explaining why I was upset in the first place. I was the one who forced my way back into her life and made myself comfortable there. It made sense she needed some time to adjust not only to me but also to Hollyn. It wasn’t very fair to ask her to immediately adjust how she operated just because I was used to being the most important thing in her life. It wasn’t cool to expect her to shift her priorities when she’d figured out a way to thrive on her own after I left. I had to admit to being a touch resentful of the fact she was better off without me than I was with her. Remy figured out how to live while I’d been gone, while I’d just struggled to build a life, just like my dad said.
I reached out with a finger to brush her pale hair away from her face. I rubbed my thumb over the arch of her eyebrow and smiled down at her. Maybe I was moving too fast for her because I was in a hurry to make up for lost time and cement myself by her side as something other than her childhood friend. She’d spent the time we were apart trying to forget me, while I spent it remembering every little thing about her and comparing everyone else to her. She said it took her a minute to switch gears, but I was already racing toward the finish line. It would be better for both of us if we figured out how to go the same speed somewhere other than in bed.
I cupped her small face between my hands and lowered my head to touch my lips to hers. Ever since I’d come home, I was moving at warp speed. I was in such a rush to make sure I could provide everything Hollyn needed, that I skipped the stage to properly grieve the loss of her mother without it being colored by resentment and anger. Even taking Remy to bed was hurried and often a race to the finish line. I wanted to make up for lost time, and these days I never knew when we might be interrupted by the baby or any other part of life that intruded. It was entirely possible I swept Remy up in the hurricane of my life without offering her any protection from the storm.
I kissed her softly, slowly. Instead of trying my best to devour her and take as much of her in as possible, I wanted to savor her. I wanted to use the years of friendship and fondness, decades of unrequited, untenable love, to show her how well I knew her. I wanted to prove I could meet her needs, and that I had the patience to wait for her to learn how to love me again.
I kept the kiss feather-light; our lips barely touched. I used my thumbs to stroke her soft cheeks and felt them heat up the longer our mouths touched. Her breath was sweet like maybe she already had a taste of the frosting from the cake. Every time it whispered over my parted lips, my tongue twitched, longing for a taste. I tilted her head back and pressed my lips to hers with more force, but still asking, not demanding, that she let me in. It would serve me right if she decided to torture me and keep me out in the cold like I did to her. I deserved a taste of my own medicine. Fortunately, Remy wasn’t petty.
Either that or she simply couldn’t resist me. My ego wanted to believe the latter as she purposely opened her lips and flicked the tip of her tongue against my upper lip. Her hands found their way to my waist, resting right above the top of my sweatpants. I felt her thumbs catch in the deep indentation above my hips and trace the line below the elastic holding my pants in place. My abs locked tight at the light caress, and my cock visibly kicked behind the soft material barely containing the length as blood started to flow south from other parts of my body.
Her tongue touched mine as my hands slid down the sides of her neck, holding her head in place with my thumbs pressed under her chin. I felt her shiver, and she smiled against my mouth as I sucked in a breath when her fingers wandered even lower under the waistband of my pants. The stretchy material was no match for her quick, clever hands as they moved closer and closer to the part of me that was currently straining for freedom and stimulation.
If she got her hands on my dick, my plan to go slow and show her how much I adored her, how much I was willing to wait for her, would be out the window. Only Remy’s touch made me lose my mind and shot my control to hell. Everything with her felt like it was amplified and explosive. All sex was enjoyable and a generally pleasant experience. Even mediocre sex was still sex and served a purpose to figure out what worked and what didn’t. Sex with Remy wasn’t like that.
It was so much more than enjoyable or pleasant. It was on another level than good—or even great—sex. Being with her engaged every single part of me, and because my heart and soul were involved in the process, it transcended simple sex and hovered squarely in the center of what I would consider making love. It felt like so much more than sex. I was trying to show her all the different ways I’d always felt about her with my body, and her body was answering in turn. There was a lot of love being shared between us, even if the words couldn’t make their way out just yet.
Remy’s hands got precariously close to my cock, so I tightened my hold on the sides of her neck and used my thumbs to push her head back even more. Her eyes got big, and she bit her lip, which made me want to kiss the spot that turned a pretty pink.
“Be good. We’re in no rush tonight.” I sucked in a breath through my teeth when she shifted her hands, so her thumbs were pressing against the base of my erection the same way I was holding her face.
She pressed against the underside of my heavy erection on either side of the throbbing vein. One of her pale eyebrows lifted, and her mouth curved in a flirtatious grin. “I am being good. Actually, didn’t you tell me I was the best not that long ago?”
I chuckled and kissed her with more force, finally tasting the sugary sweetness inside her mouth. She had a bite of the cake, or at least the frosting, before she got to my house. It seemed fitting that she tasted like dessert. She was always the sweetest part of my existence. When everything felt impossible, she was the reward for making it through the hard times. I had to earn the right to taste her, to enjoy her.
“You are the best. There is no one better, but tonight, I want to take my time. I feel like I’m always in a hurry, always racing to catch up. We have time to figure each other out. There’s time to make sure we get things right this time. If I keep rushing through everything with you, I feel like I might miss something important. I already missed so much. Let’s just take our time tonight.”
Her marble-like eyes narrowed slightly as she seemed to consider my words seriously. She ran her thumbs up the entire length of my dick, stopping to trace the tapered tip before pulling her hands out of my pants altogether. She put her hands back on my hips and grinned up at me.
“All right. You take your time and keep your fingers crossed that Hollyn plays along with your sudden desire to show me slow and steady. I’m not going to feel bad for you if she needs something before you finish.” She wiggled her eyebrows at me playfully. “Do your worst, Hyde.”