“Yes, Trip. Just you. It’s always been you.”
He kept up his pace, the both of us threatening to completely fall apart. We might as well be… We could just… I felt the dizzying cadence of my every nerve ending tightening, twisting, screaming for release just as Trip whispered, “Say my name again. I want this entire city to know who’s making you come.”
Oh God.
“Say it.”
Holy hell. Fine. Own me.
“Trip…” I whispered back.
He grabbed the back of my hair in his fist and pulled, forcing my face skyward, stealing the air from my lungs.
“Fucking say it.”
“Oh, God!”
“Close enough.”
He closed his lips over my mouth again, smothering me, consuming me. In one fluid motion, his hand plunged up the back of my shirt and gave an expert snap against my bra, undoing the closure with a move smoother than Fonzie tapping a jukebox. The act was so startling that I jumped, knocking the picture fully off the wall, where it landed with a crash onto the side table.
We could have ignored the crack of the wood frame as it came down.
We could have ignored the splintering of glass as it fell to the floor.
We could not ignore the sound of Devin’s voice coming from the answering machine.
Chapter 24
THE PERFECT STORM
I slapped absently behind me, trying to press stop, but of course it was too late. Breathing heavily, the spell broken, I suddenly realized that my legs were wrapped around a man who was not my fiancé.
Trip must have realized it, too. He put his hands at my waist and gave a little nudge, my cue to lower my feet to the floor. I did it, just as his arms wrapped around my middle, gathering me into a tight hug, holding me fixed to him, his face in the crook of my neck, his breath ruffling my hair.
We stood there like that for a moment, the both of us returning to Earth, trying to get our breathing under control, not knowing what to do about this latest development, the reality that was my life.
I felt the gentle kisses he trailed along my temple, the resigned sigh of desperation in his voice as he spoke softly against my skin, “Shit. The guy really knows how to ruin a moment.”
Trip kept me pinned against the wall, but his animal attack was replaced with a soft palm against my jaw, his fingertips smoothing under my hair at the skin along my nape. “But God, Lay. Do you know what I would do, if you could give me another chance at this? Do you think that we can try?”
“A chance at…”
“A chance at us. We’re so great together.”
Yes, that we were. We were electric together. Clearly, that part of us hadn’t gone away.
He was looking into my eyes, the longing clearly displayed in his. “You said you wanted this...” Well, yeah, sure, if you want to get technical about the whole thing. “…I do, too.”
I was still in a daze from our madness, coming down from the sensation of the most incredible “kiss” I’d ever experienced in my life.
But then the guilt slid in, overtaking me even as I tried to minimize the blame. The thought that maybe I had only almost just cheated on my fiancé, the mistaken belief that things hadn’t yet gone too far. Trip had just floated back into my life like a dream, but it felt as though I had suddenly woken up. The echo of Devin’s voice still hung in the air around us, cutting away all the hope and leaving only truth: Living in the fairytale seriously threatened my reality.
And that terrified me.
“Trip? What is it that you want?” My voice was almost accusatory, my turnaround practically instantaneous, and, I’m quite sure, written all over my face.
“I want you, Lay. I’ve always wanted you.” He pulled back as he swiped his fingers to tuck a strand of hair behind my ear. “Can’t you see that? Don’t you know?”
Well, I could certainly feel it, if that’s what he was asking. It was presently trying to poke a hole through my stomach.
I supposed he’d have said anything to stop me from stopping this, pull out his A-game and do whatever it took to get me in that bed. Yeah, sure, he wanted me right then. But what about tomorrow? What happens when he goes back to La-La Land and I’m left here to deal with my real life? Fairytales didn’t exist. Maybe I should have thought about that before falling into his arms.
Yes, we were old friends, good friends. It was amazing to be back in his life the past weeks. But this was a man who was used to bedding lingerie models, the very women that most guys only fantasized about. He employed not one, but two people to manage his exciting life, remind him of the many sensational things on his schedule. He’d circled the globe, seen every exotic locale on Earth.
Clearly, our paths had diverged over the years, because I was a downright bore in comparison.