*
We lay there trying to come back down for what felt like hours. Our combined sweat covering my skin begins to dry, leaving me chilled where his body isn’t covering mine. We don’t speak, but words aren’t needed. I feel it and he isn’t wrong about that. Not only was that the most powerful sex I have ever experienced, but he wasn’t wrong when he said that he was going to love me. I might already be halfway there myself.
He rolls to the side, taking my cheek in his big hand and turns my head to meet his gaze. “Whatever this might have been for you before now baby, there is no trying or going slow. I know you felt it; it was all over your face. I feel like I just found a piece of myself that has been lost forever. A piece of the puzzle that I didn’t even know was missing until you walked into my life. This, us . . . baby, I will work as hard as I can and then some to prove to you that you have nothing to fear.”
He catches the tear that leaks from my eye with his lips, and follows that up with a kiss to my lips before leaving the bed and walking into the bathroom. I hear the shower turn on and a few seconds later, he returns, scoops me off the bed, and carries me into the warm spray. After cleaning every inch of my skin and then his own, he shows me again what it feels like to be loved.
When we finally fall back into the bed, he curls me tight into his body, and with his strong arms holding me close, I surrender to sleep. The last thought that filters through my mind before I fade off is that I don’t feel so scared anymore if this is what love feels like.
CHAPTER 19
Melissa
It’s been a little over a month since Greg and I officially became an ‘us.’ It hasn’t been perfect, but it’s been damn near close. True to his word, a few days after Dr. Shannon fired me, Greg set up an interview with Dr. Roberts. He is an older family man who runs his own practice. Over the years, he has added more doctors to his team, and now, he has the need for more nursing staff. He is one of those people you love to work for and lucky for me, he wanted me on his team. I started the week after I was fired and am the happiest I have ever been at work. It also helps that my pay jumped a lot. There are no more struggles, no more worrying about how I am going to stretch my check to make sure that we’re all comfortable.
I have talked to Greg about helping me find a new apartment since I can now afford rent in a nicer, safer complex. This is what started our first real fight. He doesn’t see the need in my paying to live somewhere when I spend all my time at his place anyway. This, coincidently, is because he took one look at my apartment and the neighborhood I lived in the day after we became us, turned right around without parking, and refused to take me back. I get where he is coming from and to be honest, I have never felt safe there anyway. So if he wants to act like a grown toddler and keep me hostage, who am I to complain? It comes with one kickass house and the best sex ever.
And to be completely honest, I don’t want to be away from him.
I still have my apartment, but the majority of my stuff has slowly started to make its way to his house. Some of it because I need it, but I’m starting to wonder if he is pocketing my belongings and then moving them to his house when I’m not looking. Either way, we are pretty much living together at this point.
Our second fight was over my car. Even though it was ready a few days after Mandy pulled her crazy on it, Greg, without letting me know, told the mechanic to sell it. The next day a brand new Honda sat in the driveway of his house. We fought about it for a good day. He had to endure my silence, but when he finally had enough, he calmly told me that he wanted me safe. My old car couldn’t offer that so he took care of it. When that didn’t work, he pulled me close and said, “Baby, after I lost Grace in a car accident, do you think you could please just give a little here? I want to know you are safe when I can’t be with you.” Yeah, call me whipped but that is all it took.
We have done all the traditional couple things. We date, we go out with friends, he met my mom, and we have tons and tons of sex. I am starting to believe that Greg Cage is unbelievably close to perfection.