The sun broke in through Bodie’s window, shining a ray of light across his nose and lips, illuminating them from behind and casting them in shadows in the same feat of physics.
I didn’t know how long it had been since I’d woken — not overly long, I didn’t think — but I didn’t care to move. I didn’t care if my phone had a bazillion texts or if the world was on fire. All I wanted to do was lie there next to Bodie.
I watched him sleep with a smile on my face. His hand rode his chest up and down as he breathed slow and deep, and his hair was mussed, his face soft and young and beautiful. And in that moment, I swear I was the luckiest girl on the whole planet.
Somehow, he’d taken me back. Somehow, we were going to be together, and as scary as that was, I had no fight-or-flight urge at all. I had the love-and-snuggle urges instead, which was far preferable.
He pulled in a loud breath and shifted as he woke, and I lay there, practically bouncing as I waited for him to open his eyes.
When he did, they found mine, and he smiled.
“Hey,” he said sleepily.
“So, whatcha doing today?”
He chuckled and rolled over to grab me and pull me into him, nuzzling into my neck. “Hopefully, you.”
“That’s a guarantee. Wanna spend the day together?”
“Mmhmm.” He kissed my neck, slipping his thigh between my legs. “I wanna take you on a date.”
“Ooh, fancy.” I wrapped my arms around his neck and hitched my leg onto his hip.
“Fancy date for my shiny Penny.”
I smiled and pulled him even closer. “Can we go by my place and pick up some stuff?”
“Yep,” he said against my skin as his hand roamed down my ribs to my ass, his fingertips grazing places that made my heart speed up and hips squirm against his very morning wood.
I hummed and slipped my fingers into his hair. “Good. And can I stay the night again?”
“Pen, you can stay as long as you want.” He licked the skin of my neck and kissed the hollow behind my jaw.
“You won’t get sick of me?”
“Not possible,” he whispered in my ear.
“But maybe it is; you don’t know,” I said as he cupped my breast, thumbing my nipple while he kissed my neck as if it tasted like honey.
“You’re probably right,” he muttered between kisses, shifting his hips to angle for me. “I’m sure today will be awful. All that talking.” Kiss. “Hanging out.” Kiss. “Eating.” Kiss. “Fucking,” he said as he pressed his tip against my pussy and flexed, filling me up with a kablam that made fireworks go off behind my eyelids.
I had no words after that. My lips were too busy with his. My body was too busy processing the feeling of him sliding in and out of me, full and then empty, over and over. My mind was too busy with the realization of just how gone I was over him. And my heart was too busy opening up to let him in.
Bodie fucked me slow and sweet in the golden morning sunshine, and I wished for a hundred more mornings just like it. My whole life, I’d been missing this, missing him, and now that I had him, I wouldn’t give him up so easily. Maybe not at all.
A few hours later, we were laughing and holding hands and walking back to his place from mine. I’d packed a bag and gotten nailed good and hard in the shower, and found myself starving, so we ducked into a donut shop to grab a dozen.
He assured me it wasn’t our date.
Just saying — I would have given him an A-plus if it had been.
By the time we got back to his place, I’d convinced him through begging — whining — to let me play his video game demo. He actually had the nerve to ask me if I knew how to use the controller.
Fortunately, he had Mortal Kombat, and I blew his mind up with all the things he thought he’d knew about me but had no idea. Nobody fucked with Sub-Zero. Not even Bodie, video-game-genius-of-the-world-and-my-heart.
And then I played his game.
It was glorious. For twenty too-short minutes, I ran through a temple solving puzzles and watched cut scenes that looked almost like they were out of a movie. While eating donuts and getting cinnamon sugar all over everything. While Bodie watched me like I was a goddess.
He made me feel like a goddess.
It was in the small moments — him smiling down at me as he opened the door to the restaurant that night, holding my hand across the candlelit table while we ate, the look in his eyes when he told me how happy he was.
But Bodie made me feel like more. He made me feel loved and treasured.
And the best part was that I loved and treasured him too.
At the time, in the moment, I couldn’t place the feeling, the whisper of premonition. I just knew that my life would never be the same. I knew I didn’t want to be without him. I knew he’d take care of me, and I knew I’d take care of him too.
That night, we made love in the moonlight. That night, I lost my heart to him forever, and I never wanted it back.
I had his instead.
Epilogue
Penny - Two Years Later
It was June in New York, which meant it was hot as fuck, but things were looking up. A double scoop of salted caramel was in my hand-slash-mouth, and Bodie was smiling at me from across the table of the ice cream shop where I’d seen him for the first time since high school.
I moaned as I took a long lick of my ice cream, eyes rolling back in my head, hand resting on my very pregnant belly.
“Jesus, fuck, that is so good,” I mumbled around a full mouth, not even swallowing before I went back for more. “I swear, everything tastes better when you’re knocked up.”
He chuckled and licked his ice cream. “Feel better?”
“Mmhmm.” I swallowed. “I’m sorry I’ve been such a raging bitch. It’s just so fucking hot and I’m so fucking fat and I’m so fucking hungry. But this ice cream is so fucking good.”
“You’re not a bitch, Pen.”
I barked out a single laugh. “That’s funny. I nearly slit your throat this morning for leaving your shoes in the living room after I almost tripped and fell and broke my neck. You know I can’t see anything past this.” I gestured to my stomach. “I haven’t seen my feet in a month. Who even knows what my bush looks like.”
He laughed. “Trust me, it looks perfect.”
“Psh, you say that now. Wait until I push your baby out of it. God, my vag is gonna look like a roast beef sandwich.” I frowned, bummed out. And just like that, I thought I might cry.
“Penny,” he said sternly, “your pussy is pink and perfect and mine and nothing will change that.”
I sighed and reached for his hand. “I fucking love you.”
He smiled. “I fucking love you too.”
“Even though I’ve spent a small fortune on fancy stretch-mark lotions?”
“Yep.”
“Even though I’m crazy?”
“Especially because you’re crazy.”
I sighed and licked my ice cream. “You’re the best, babe. You’re like a unicorn.”
“A sex unicorn?”
“I dunno what that is but clearly, the answer is yes.” I pointed to my stomach.