“Noted,” I muttered with a nod, and she unlocked the door.
Inside, it was dark, save for a small lamp near the staircase, but even in the dim light, I knew it was a history buff’s wet dream. Carved crown molding, scrolled newel post, and creaking hardwood floors. My mouth was practically salivating as I stood still, waiting for Audrey to lead the way, when I quickly heard another door open.
“Okay,” she whispered, grabbing my arm. “This is my place.”
I followed her through the door nearest the house’s entrance and waited for her to turn on a light, but she never did.
Instead, she attacked, wrapping her arms around my neck and seeking my mouth with hers in the darkness. I stumbled, walking backward a few paces until my legs hit what I assumed was a couch, and I fell back.
“Please tell me you don’t have a roommate,” I mumbled between kisses as she fumbled with the buttons on my shirt.
“Nobody’s here,” she answered hurriedly, giving up on my shirt and moving to my jeans instead.
“Good.”
I kicked my boots to the floor and moved my hands to assist her in undressing. I unzipped and unbuttoned my jeans, shoving them off, and then reached for the waistband on hers. In seconds, they were thrown to the floor, and with our underwear discarded with them, my body filled hers with fluttered eyelids and a sigh.
“Fuck,” I exhaled, reaching up to press my palm to her cheek. “How can you feel so fucking good?”
I hadn’t meant to ask the question. It just slipped out between my open lips and into her dark apartment as she worked against my body with lazy movements. But, now that it was out, I let it settle in my heart while she leaned forward and rested her lips once again on mine, to kiss me lazily while our hips moved in a perfect, slow rhythm.
The answer was so obvious to me, and it glinted like the cross around her neck. Whether it was Fate, God, or simply serendipity, it was right. Nothing but right.
Audrey and me. Us.
We.
Chapter Twenty
IT’S SUNDAY.
I woke up with the reminder screaming through my mind, loud and clear. Almost as loud as the banging resounding through the apartment.
My eyelids snapped open to a chandelier I didn’t recognize, and my brow furrowed with immediate suspicion.
Where the fuck am I?
The confusion was fleeting as I felt Audrey move against me, and I noted we were both naked from the waist down. I chuckled through the sleep still rasping my throat, realizing we must’ve fallen asleep immediately after sex, and wondered if we’d ever sleep together without booze floating through our veins.
“Hey,” I whispered, nudging her cheek with my knuckles. “Audrey.”
“Hm?” She nuzzled her nose against my neck and hummed sleepily as her arm tightened around my shoulder.
The knock against the door persisted and then came a voice. “Audrey? Audrey, are you home?”
With a flash of platinum hair, Audrey sprang from the couch and threw my jeans and underwear over my bare legs and groin. “You have to get dressed,” she hissed, demanding and scrambling to collect her own clothes. “Oh, Lord, what is she doing here now?”
She was talking to herself, muttering with worry and frustration, and I watched as she hurried to smooth her hair down.
“Oh, when have we done this before?” I snickered teasingly.
Audrey turned me to with pleading eyes as the banging continued. “Please, Blake. Put your pants on.”
“I’m doing it,” I muttered, pulling myself up and getting dressed.
“Okay,” she breathed out, shaking out her hands. “I’m opening the door now.” Another deep breath. “Okay, gonna do it now. Right now.”
I lowered my mouth to her ear and asked, “Are you actually gonna do it, or should I?”
Wide-eyed, she turned her blue gaze on me and shook her head. “You better not.”
“Then, I suggest you do it, because my hangover really isn’t appreciating that fucking noise.”
Nodding with understanding, she laid a hand against her temple, as though remembering just how much we’d both had to drink the night before. She moved slowly toward that damn door, two knocks away from being busted open, and unlocked it.
But right before she opened it, she turned to me with a nervous bite of her lip and said, “Brace yourself, okay?”
I crossed my arms over my chest and narrowed my eyes with scrutiny. “Why?”
“Just … brace yourself.”
Before I could ask again what exactly she meant by that, she opened the door. I immediately saw the older woman, her dark hair pulled back in a ponytail, greying at the temples. She grinned with taunting acknowledgement at Audrey, her pale blue eyes twinkling, and I knew this must be Audrey’s mom.
I backed further into the room at the knowledge, tightening my arms around myself. I didn’t do this. I didn’t meet parents. Hell, judging from previous experiences, the parents I had met didn’t like me, even if those experiences were limited and from over a decade ago. I tried to imagine what the good doctor would have to say about all of this. No doubt, she’d make passive aggressive comments about putting the right foot forward or some shit like that.
“Oh, hi, honey. Were you sleeping?” Her mother’s voice sounded like hers, if a little raspier. Her tone lilted with playful teasing, and the tension in my arms relaxed just a little. “I seem to remember someone telling me she’d call last night when she got home, but …”
“I’m sorry, Mom,” Audrey groaned in reply, laying a hand over her face. “I got a little, um … distracted.”
“Uh-huh. Distracted.” Her mother allowed a little laugh before sighing. “I didn’t want to bother you, honey. But someone didn’t want to wait any longer before coming down.”
Audrey’s breath released from her lungs with a long-winded exhale that I was sure must’ve hurt. “Oh, uh, yeah. Okay.”
She quickly glanced in my direction, worry laced between the hints of silver in her eyes. I couldn’t decipher what was happening in her mind, or what was happening at all, until her mother said, “Get over here, Freddy. What did I tell you about playing with that plant? What did it ever do to you?”
As Audrey crouched to the floor, my heart raced toward panick territory as my eyes quickly scanned the living room. It’d been so dark the night before, I never noticed the toys littering the coffee table or the buckets of Lego stacked in the corner. But now I did, and I understood with clarity, Audrey had a son. My palms began to sweat as the realization seeped beneath my skin and chilled my veins, and I turned to see the little brown-haired boy appear in the doorway.
“Hey, pal,” Audrey greeted him sweetly, successfully pushing any hint of a hangover or irritation from her voice.
“Mommy, Grandma doesn’t have pancakes,” he replied.
“Oh, here we go with the pancakes again,” Audrey’s mother muttered.
“What about pancakes?” Audrey asked, looking up to her mother, then back to her son.
“He wanted to have pancakes for dinner last night,” her mom explained with a sigh and a shake of her head. “I didn’t have the stuff to make them, so this is all I’ve heard about since.”