Chapter 24
W
hen our lips touched, all the pent-up tension seemed to evaporate from Nick’s body. He tugged me deeper into his embrace, then slanted his mouth over mine. Deepened the kiss in a sensual lick of his tongue that had me shivering with need.
“I’ve missed tasting you,” he panted against my mouth.
That made me throb. My belly tightened, and my pulse fluttered in my core. “Me too,” I said in a breathy voice. I pulled away long enough to take his hand and lead him into my room.
He followed without a sound. The door shushed closed behind us. Then he was on me again, his hands everywhere, his mouth tasting and nipping and licking. My fingers clawed his shirt apart, fumbled at his pants, and then we were both standing there in our underwear.
His arousal was hard and heavy between us. Nick darted a hand to my naked waist and tugged me to him. Our bodies were flushed with warmth, our mutual heat feeding into each other. “Do you feel how much I want you? Do you have any idea what you do to me?”
With a quirked smile, I reached down and palmed his erection through the thin fabric of his boxers. He groaned, and I felt him twitch against my hand.
“I missed this,” I said as I skated my tongue along the line of his collarbone. He shuddered under my ministrations. I pushed down his boxers and let him spring free, then cupped the globes of his ass.
His hands locked on my wrists, and he shoved me away, then pushed me onto my bed. Laid me down and pressed his body against me. His hands slid all over my skin, from ankle to calf, from knee to thigh, up my belly, skating along the edge of my breast. Again. Again.
After a few minutes of that, I was squirming for more. My breasts were ripe and full, nipples aching. I was clenched in need for him.
“Please,” I begged him.
He gave me a wicked smile and leaned to my ear. “Please what, Megan?” His tongue and teeth played with my earlobe, the shell, and I shook.
“Please, I need you inside me.” I wanted to get him to go faster, so I decided to push the button. “Make love to me, Dr. Muramoto.”
That did it. My bra and panties were ripped off and discarded on the side, and I heard the plastic of a condom crackle as he sheathed himself. Nick stroked me between my thighs and my flesh swelled and grew impossibly damp.
“You’re so ready for me, aren’t you, Megan.” He aligned himself on top of me, his strong knees pressing my thighs apart. We were close, so close. I held my breath and waited for him to enter me. “Tell me how much you missed me.”
I lifted my legs and wrapped them around his waist, tilting my pelvis so he could enter me easily. My hands cupped his shoulders and I looked right into his eyes. “I missed you more than you’ll ever know, Nick.”
“I love you.” With those words spilling from him, Nick entered me, and I gasped, my core full, my heart full. He withdrew, thrust again. “I love you, Megan. I love you so damn much it hurts.”
“Yes, Nick,” I murmured, the strokes along my walls bringing that delicious surge to my belly. I squeezed him with my lower muscles, and he groaned, pressed his mouth to the curve of my breast.
One of his hands reached up to caress my cheek as he thrust faster. My orgasm was building, building, and my body began to tingle in anticipation.
“I love you,” I told him with all the bald honesty that was in my heart. I loved this man, who had given up something important to be with me. How could I not? My chest filled with everything I was feeling as my heart spilled over.
Nick drove harder, his moves becoming more erratic. He dropped his other hand to flick my tender flesh between us, and I groaned, pressed against those expert fingers. “I need your orgasm, Megan. Give it to me, baby. Please.”
“I’m so close,” I panted. Part of me wanted to close my eyes and savor the other sensory feelings—his mouth sucking my flesh, his fingers rubbing frantically, the throb of his heartbeat against my chest, the mingled scents of our sex. But I needed to see his eyes when I came.
Right there.
Right there.
He must have read it on my face, because his eyes slid into a confident smile and his finger rubbed the perfect spot.
I exploded. My whole body flew apart in a torrent of sensations, and I shuddered and cried out. “God, yes, yes!” I was a riot of feeling, a maelstrom of need. Nick’s body was the only thing anchoring me to the ground.
As the orgasm ebbed, I gave a satisfied sigh and arched against him. My nipples hardened more from each brush of skin. I used my core muscles to squeeze him, and I felt Nick’s body stiffen with his growing need.
“Your turn,” I breathed into his ear.
He growled, filled me to the hilt and paused. I ground our pelvises together; Nick closed his eyes. “That’s going to make me come,” he managed to say.
I cupped his face and stole his breath with a deep kiss. I let all of my feelings pour out into him. Nick’s eyes flew open and locked on mine, our mouths tangled together; he was as deep inside me as a person can get—both in my body and in my heart.
He stiffened, groaned into my open mouth, and I felt his body jerk as he orgasmed, still staring at me. Those eyes gave me everything that was in him. Those eyes promised Nick’s heart belonged to me, Nick’s body belonged to me, that he wasn’t going to let me go.
It was the most intense moment in my entire life.
Nick collapsed, withdrew and rolled onto his side, pulling me against his sweat-tinged skin. My pulse ricocheted and echoed the frantic gasps of my breaths. His head rested on the pillow as our exhales mingled in the scant inches of space between our mouths.
“That was . . . unbelievably intense,” he said as he quickly discarded the condom, then resumed his position at my side. “I’ve never done that before—had my eyes open when I came.”
“Me neither.” I was like our souls had touched. I knew that sounded cheesy, but there was no other explanation for the way it had made me feel. My heart tightened and I sniffled.
His eyes turned sad, his hand brushing the curve of my hip. “Are you upset?”
I shook my head and fought back the tears that threatened to come out. “No, I’m just so . . . happy. So overwhelmed by how happy I am. I thought we were done.”
Nick brushed a sweet kiss to my brow. “Not by far, Megan.”
He loved me. He’d told me he loved me. I was pretty sure my chest might explode from everything I was feeling right now.
As we lay there, luxuriating in coming down from the sexual high, we got caught up on the last month. Nick hadn’t done much outside of work, though he said Gloria hurt her hip and was slowing down. “I think she has glaucoma too.” He sighed. “My old girl’s getting older. And she’s pissed at me that you’re not there.”
I laughed. “How do you know this?”
“Because she keeps going to the front door, waiting for you to show up. Every night. When I call her from the door, she grumbles under her breath and refuses to sleep near me. She misses you almost as much as I do.”
Okay, that made me tear up. I squeezed his upper arm and struggled to regain control of myself. I didn’t want to dissolve into tears, not now. “I miss her too,” I managed to choke out.
“How’s . . . your family?” he asked gingerly.
I knew what he was really asking. “Everything’s going well.” I filled him in on Mom’s breakthrough, her inpatient therapy, her intense outpatient counseling. “She says she still has cravings, but she’s taking it day by day.”
“I can’t tell you how happy that makes me. And I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you during that.” Shame echoed in his words.
“None of that,” I chastised as I leaned over and took his mouth in another intimate kiss. “If we’re going to move forward, let’s let it go.”
Our talk meandered more; I wasn’t sure how much time had passed until I heard the front door open. Nick sat up and looked at me in alarm.
“It’s Casey, my roommate,” I said. “Totally fine.” Her bedroom door closed a moment later.
He scrubbed a hand along his jaw as he jumped out of bed and tossed on his clothes. “No, that’s not it. Gotta hurry. Time got away from me.”
“Where do you need to go?” I sat up and draped the sheet over my naked body.
He eyed my form and his eyes turned inky dark, filled with sensual hunger. “You’d better put some clothes on, or I might end up staying all night here in bed.”
I dropped the sheet and gave him the cockiest smile I could. “Is that such a bad thing?”
He groaned and dropped his gaze. “Any other day, no. But we’re gonna be late if we don’t get going.” He finished buttoning his shirt and tossed me my clothes.
“Wait, where are we headed?”
“It’s a surprise.” He leaned down, kissed my lips, then slipped into his shoes.
I tugged my clothes on, and Nick and I left my room, donned our jackets, then exited the apartment. He ushered me to his car, and we practically peeled out of the parking lot on squealing tires.
“Hold on to your panties, Megan,” he said with a sexy, wicked smile.
“God, I forgot what a crazy driver you are,” I said breathlessly, then laughed. I clenched the handle as Nick wove the car to the highway. Before long, the downtown Cleveland skyline was in front of us. The setting sun was dipping west into Lake Erie, bringing a warm, clear night in its wake.
Had he made us dinner reservations? I bit my lip to fight the girly sigh that threatened to escape. I hadn’t expected anything like that. The preparation he’d put into coming to me today made me feel special. Important.
I reached over and touched his thigh, felt the muscles bunch under my fingers.
Nick got off at an exit and navigated through traffic. He found a parking spot on the street and whipped into it. Shut the car off and practically dragged me out of the car. “Come on, come on,” he said in a breathless tone.
I couldn’t help but laugh. “They won’t start without us,” I mumbled. We speed-walked down the sidewalk, turning toward Public Square. Crowds and clusters of people bunched together as we wove our way through and around them.
We crossed the intersection and walked into the small park area, right in the center of Public Square. Spindly trees thrust into the sky around me, tiny buds on the tips of the branches promising that true spring was right around the corner. A stiff breeze danced through the park.
Nick took me to a bench and sat us down, then wrapped his arm around my shoulder to draw me into his heat. I sighed and sank into his arms. Okay, so we weren’t rushing off to a dinner reservation, but that was fine. I wasn’t starving anyway.
Nick glanced at his watch. There was a strange tension on his face that left me confused.
“Everything okay?” I asked him.
“I’ve been busy today,” he replied lightly. “After I left your class, I had to go offer up my resignation. Then I ran back to my house to pick something up.” He dug into his jacket pocket and gave me a small box.
My heart thudded in surprise. “What is this?”
He handed it to me, and my fingers shook as I took it. When I opened it, I saw a small circular disc on a delicate silver chain. A necklace.
On the disc was etched a series of letters.
A laugh poured from my mouth as I clapped my free hand to it. “Oh my God, did you really?” I said, a grin splitting my face almost in two. “You put a code on a piece of jewelry for me?” I studied the letters; it was the simple code we’d first used in our earliest email exchanges.
I quickly translated, and tears filled my eyes. I looked up at him, not bothering to wipe them away. “It’s beautiful.”
His smile was shy. “I actually got this for you before the stuff happened with work. It has been sitting on my bedside table for a month now. Reminding me what an asshole I was for how things had gone down.” He paused, his eyes glowing with all the feelings he let shine through. “I knew back then how I felt about you. I’m just sorry it took me this long to say the words. I was scared, and I thought that letting you leave was the best thing for both of us. That I was being noble, honorable. But nothing made me happy without you there to share it with.”
I looked down at the pendant.
Love You Megan.
A simple endearment that etched its way into me like a tattoo. My fingers dug the necklace out of the box as I draped it around my neck and fastened it. I touched the smooth, polished surface. “I don’t know how to thank you for this. It’s the best gift anyone’s ever given me.” My heart was roaring with so many things, I wasn’t sure I’d ever get it back to a normal size again. It barely fit beneath my rib cage right now.
He gave a secret smile. “I’m glad you like it. When I was out today, I ran another errand too.” In the dimming twilight his face warmed with that grin I loved so much. “That’s why I didn’t text you back, actually. I was busy arranging this.”
“Arranging what?” I glanced around. I was pretty sure the park was an open space that didn’t need reservations.
Another quick glance at his wristwatch, then he pointed up to Terminal Tower. “Watch.”
A few seconds later, the lights just below the golden dome at the very top exploded with color. Red and green chasing lights danced around the building. A couple of kids in the park stopped and pointed.
“Ooh!” one little girl hollered as she tugged on her mom’s hand. “Look, up at the building! How pretty, Mommy!”
My heart leaped to my throat, and I turned, teary-eyed, to face this man I loved so very much. “Nick,” I whispered through a tightly pinched throat. “I can’t . . . I can’t believe you. . . .”
“They’re red and green, right?” he said with a self-conscious laugh. “I can’t tell, but the guy told me he’d make sure to do it. My friend’s uncle manages the Terminal Tower. I called in a favor.”
“They are the most beautiful Christmas lights I’ve ever seen.” Tears eked out my eyes in a steady stream. I took his hand and moved it to my upper chest, right at my heart. Let him feel the strong, unsteady beat of my pulse. “My heart belongs to you, Nick. I’m never gonna forget this day.”