He trailed off, then lifted his eyes slowly to meet mine.
“This is never going to be real to you, is it?”
A cool chill washed down my spine, despite the hot water. So this was it then. We were laying all our cards down on the table. And as usual, Nick had made the first move.
Just as intently as I’d been staring at him, he stared at me now. Watching me flounder as I tried to sort through my thoughts. Interpret my feelings. Find a single moment of clarity amidst the fucking catastrophe that had become this ‘fake’ relationship.
Don’t think, Abby. Just talk. You know what to say.
And somehow...I did.
“Do you remember that night in the bar, when you asked me why I picked Ella?” He nodded silently, and I took a deep breath. “I picked her not because I knew you wouldn’t like her...but because I didn’t want you to.”
His lips parted as a cloud of steam wafted up between us, hiding my blushing cheeks and sticking my wet hair to my shoulders. By the time it cleared, he was standing right in front of me.
“Nick—”
“Enough.” He pressed a soft finger over my lips, then tilted my face up toward his. “I don’t want to talk anymore, Abby. We’ve talked enough.”
Without another word—I was in his arms.
My legs wrapped around his waist, and our lips came together like it was the most natural thing in the world. Like we’d been designed specifically for each other—cut from that same magical cloth. Nick was right. We were finally alone, with all our cards out on the table. And we’d waited long enough.
While one hand wound through my hair—anchoring my face to his—the other wrapped around my legs and carried me out of the tub and up to his bedroom. At least, I think that’s where we were headed. I couldn’t stop kissing him long enough to open my eyes.
He navigated his way blindly through the door, and kicked it shut behind him. A second later, he was laying me down on the bed.
My skin was alive and ready. A trail of little chills followed his hand it ran slowly down the contours of my stomach before vanishing between my legs. My body twitched and writhed beneath him, but before I could even catch my breath, that same hand forced my legs apart.
The next second, he was slamming into me.
“Fuck,” I gasped, dropping my head back against the mattress.
It was almost too much. Very close to too much.
It was fucking perfect.
“Sorry,” he whispered, dropping his lips down to my ear, “are you okay? I could—”
My eyes snapped shut, and my back arched up to meet him.
“Don’t you dare fucking stop.”
A breathless grin spread up the side of his face, and he picked up the speed. Soon, the air was filled with the sound of frantic gasps and moans as the two of us clung to each other with all our might. His hands balled into fists on the pillow beside me, as my fingernails raked long streaks down his back. He let out a sharp cry, then hitched my legs up even higher, thrusting his hips with an impossible force and speed.
I have no idea how long we went at it. I was trapped in one of those ‘floating above your own body’ moments where time ceased to matter.
But just as the pressure inside me was getting almost unbearable, he let out a wild cry and threw back his head. Just the sight of him sent me right over the edge as well, but his lips came down over mine to stifle my scream. Absorbing it into himself instead.
We stayed there for a moment—kissing, frozen, and shivering in the aftershocks—before he rolled off of me and landed beside me on his back.
“That was...worth the wait.”
I had to commend him for even talking. I could hardly catch my breath.
“Abby?” He rolled onto his side, beaming uncontrollably as he trailed a finger in a casual figure eight around my breasts. “I’m going to need to do that from now on, alright?”
A peal of breathless giggles erupted out of me, and I pressed a pillow over my face.