One Simple Step (Journey #3)

Was it what I had been waiting for to come, and still hadn’t? Teddy hadn’t uttered the word divorce since he had shown up tonight, but he knew that’s what I wanted. The car was filled with an uneasy quiet all the way to Teddy’s hotel. Once we parked, he ran over to open my door and I reluctantly got out of the car.

“Do I really need to come in? Can’t you just run in and get whatever it is?”

He shook his head sharply without looking back at me and headed towards the main lobby of the hotel, jabbing at the button several times once we reached the elevator. I hurried to catch up with his quick pace once we reached his floor, and he slid his key into the card reader.

“What’s the rush?” I asked, rounding the corner into his room and letting the door shut behind me.

I was quickly caught off guard when he twisted me around, and flattened my back against the wall. He sucked in a deep breath before smashing his mouth against mine and letting out a loud groan. I tried to free my body from the death grip he had on me, but he wasn’t budging an inch.

“Stop fighting this, Ally,” he whispered hoarsely against my lips.

“Teddy—” I shouldn’t have opened my mouth because that’s exactly what he had been looking for.

His tongue pushed in quickly, and I couldn’t help the sigh that escaped at his familiar taste. Cigarettes and the mints he always used to cover them up because he knew that I hated him smoking, though he never once tried to quit.

I attempted to pull away once more, but it was a lost cause. His hands were everywhere on my body as he reacquainted himself with my mouth. I wouldn’t say that I wasn’t willing, but I also couldn’t help but think about Nick. Nick and I were together, right? This was wrong, this would make me a cheater just like Teddy, and I hated cheaters. But at the same time, the image of Nick and his ex, Kara, popped into my head, making me sick to my stomach.

My head tipped back on its own when Teddy’s lips and tongue dropped down to my neck. “You taste so fucking good,” he snarled against my skin before pulling my earlobe between his teeth. His hands dropped down from my hips and worked in a frenzy to find the hem of my dress, pushing the material up around my waist.

His hand slid down, and he traced the edges of the lace between my thighs, before pushing a finger under the material. “Always so wet for me, baby.” My panties were soon sliding down my legs, and Teddy kicked them away.

What in the hell was I doing? I watched Teddy as he flicked the button on his pants open and they fell to the ground. It felt like I was in a twilight zone or something. It should have been Nick standing in front of me like this. But he didn’t want me…

Teddy grabbed onto one of my legs, wrapping it around his waist, grinding his hardness against me, and leaned down to touch his forehead to mine. “I missed this so fucking much.” He thrust his hips into me once more, right at my entrance, and it made me wonder exactly what he had missed.

Was it me, or was it just the sex?

Sex between Teddy and I had never been a problem. In fact, that’s really how our relationship first started. One drunken night after he had played a show, in the grimy hallway behind the stage, up against the wall—just like this.

I didn’t really know that sex could be something more until I met Nick. He made me feel special, paid attention to my needs before and after, and our relationship wasn’t solely based on it.

“Teddy, wait.” I pulled my hips back as much as I could, and he paused, the tip of him just hovering at my entrance. “What’s my favorite color?”

“What, Al?” he huffed, dropping his head against my forehead.

“What’s my favorite color?” I repeated slowly, and he groaned again, clearly agitated by me needing to ask the question as he shifted my body against the wall.

“Pink. Now can we save the talking for after—”

“No.” I let my legs drop, and Teddy pulled back, letting my body slide down to the floor as he looked down at me, his eyebrows raised in confusion. “It’s black, because everything goes with black.”

Nick knew the answer within five minutes of meeting me.

“Sorry, Al, I just figured it’s pink since you’re into all that girly shit. Why in the hell does it even matter? Unless…you’d rather me take you against the floor?” A wicked grin spread across his face as he kneeled down, and attempted to hover over me, but I quickly pushed him away.

“It matters because you never cared enough to know. That’s why it matters. I bet if we played twenty questions about me right now, you wouldn’t have a clue about half of them. Don’t you see a problem with that?”

“Ally—”

“Stop!” I held up a hand to wave him off as he attempted to reach for me again. “I can’t let this happen, Teddy. I didn’t see any problems between us before, but now that we’re through, I can see our relationship in a different light, and it wasn’t working. It just sucks that I had to catch you cheating on me to figure that out.”

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