I take another step and another, and then I close the final gap between us.
I stare down into her eyes as I try to come up with words—preferably meaningful words, but really any words will do—and I can’t seem to form them.
She’s here.
I’m here.
This is our second chance.
All the caveman thoughts plague me about what this means, and nothing going through my head at the moment would be appropriate to say aloud right now.
I reach out and tuck her hair behind her ear, grazing her cheek with my knuckles as I withdraw my hand, and she closes her eyes for a beat as she leans into my touch.
When she opens her eyes, they’re heated. “Motley Crue,” she says softly. “You came.”
“Nashville.” One side of my mouth lifts. “So did you.”
We stare at each other another beat, and then we both move at the same time. She crashes into me, and I pull her against my body. Our mouths collide, and I don’t know if this hotel has some magical powers for us or what but it just feels like everything is going to be okay.
Better than okay.
Maybe because she’s here in my arms again—the place where she belongs.
It feels like we’re at the start of the most important piece of my life’s puzzle.
Her hand finds my cheek, and her fingertips graze along my jaw. I wrap my arms more tightly around her, our kiss turning too passionate for a hotel lobby.
I pull back, but only from her mouth. I still clutch her in my arms, my fingers digging into the flesh of her back as I start my impassioned speech that I’ve said in my head a million times. “I love you,” I say. “I’ve loved you since the day you were semi-naked on a massage table next to me, and I wish I could take back every stupid thing I’ve said and every mistake I’ve made, but I can’t and it doesn’t matter anyway. I want to be with you. I want to take these next steps with your hand tight in mine.”
She stares at me for a beat before she responds. She presses her lips to mine softly and just for a quick beat. “I love you. So much. I know we’ve got obstacles and challenges ahead, but I want to figure them out together.”
I lean my forehead to hers. “You and me.”
“Me and you. I promise that no matter what happens, I will never, ever abandon you.”
“And I promise that whatever happens, I will never order anything with cinnamon in it.”
She laughs and smacks me in the arm, and then she kisses me again.
And then we take it upstairs to her room because, well, we can’t exactly fuck here in the hotel lobby.
When we get to her room, she seems hesitant and we haven’t even left the doorway yet.
“What’s wrong?” I ask.
“I just...this is all happening so fast,” she says.
I realize we have plenty of time for all the sex, and that’s not why I showed up tonight...but I still feel a sense of disappointment.
“Then let’s take it slow,” I say.
“I, um, had four glasses of wine,” she says, moving toward me. She boxes me in with her hips, pinning me against the door, and I let her. “I’m not drunk since I was able to build a tolerance during filming, but I’m a little tipsy and I know what I want.” Her lips move to my neck, her breath hot.
And then her hand moves to my jeans, and she cups my dick over my pants and Jesus Christ it’s been way too long since I’ve been with her and just the thought of sex right now makes me feel like I’m going to lose it.
“Fuck me, Gage,” she murmurs, her eyes hazy with lust, and I’ve never heard that word drop from her lips in the short time I’ve known her but holy hell between the need in her eyes and the way she’s touching me and the words we just said to one another...it’s the hottest damn thing I’ve ever heard. “Fuck me right now.”
And so I gladly give the woman what she wants.
CHAPTER 60: LEXI
I don’t think I’ve ever uttered those words to a man before, but the heat of the moment overtook everything, including my normally somewhat more proper mouth.
I need him.
I need him inside me, on top of me, surrounding me. I need to breathe him in and I need to feel him. I need to know that this isn’t a dream, that he’s really here and he really loves me.
I need to know that we’re both moving forward from the mistakes of our past to a future that we can navigate together.
His mouth is hot on mine, and clearly the words I spoke worked since he’s thrusting his hips against me and I can feel that solid piece in his pants he’s about to use to bring me to the throes of pleasure.
Except he decides that this is the time he’s going to take his time.
I’m filled with a well of need and lust and want for this man, and he’s kissing me like he has forever.
And maybe he does. Maybe we do.
But I also have an ache pressing between my legs that he has the power to quell.
We didn’t have all the time in the world the last time we were together like this. We both knew there was an expiration date. But the words we just said to one another held a layer of promise that was missing before.
And that layer means absolutely everything.
It’s infusing our kiss with more passion and more adoration, and I can only imagine what that layer will bring to the table once we’re stripped naked.
His hand cups my neck, and I’m reminded of the times my eyes fell to those talented hands as I watched him play bass.
His fingers dig into my hip, and I’m reminded of the time we had sex in another room in this hotel and he similarly clutched me to him.
He walks us backward over to the bed, and then he turns and pulls me down on top of him so I’m straddling his legs. He pushes his hips up toward me, and I meet his by slamming down on his lap.
He grunts. I grunt. We do it again.
Somehow we didn’t need more getting to know you time because we’ve been there. We spent the entire competition ignoring the flame that burned between the two of us, and now it’s a wild inferno that’s completely out of our control.
He reaches under my shirt and unsnaps my bra with the flick of his wrist.
I reach under his shirt and pull it over his head.
He cups my breasts as he continues to kiss me, thumbing my nipples in that way he does that feels familiar even while it feels so completely brand new.
He reaches beneath my hair and cups my neck, pulling my mouth still closer to his. I don’t know if I’ve ever been kissed with this much passion and desire before in my life, and that only tells me that he wants this as much as I do.
And I don’t mean sex, though we both definitely want that.
I mean a future together.
He pulls my shirt over my head and pulls me against him for a few beats, my breasts smashed against his chest. He kisses me again before he trails his lips down. He sucks one of my nipples into his mouth, and I arch back and shove my breast more fully at him. He lavishes it with attention before giving the other one the same tender care, all the while thrusting his hips toward me as a way of doing everything he can to show me how much he wants this...how much he wants me.
He flips me without warning so I’m lying on the bed, and he nuzzles my breasts before moving his lips down to my stomach.
“I love you so much,” he murmurs against my skin.