World Enough and Time

by Lauren Gallagher

  I smiled to myself when I pulled into the parking lot. Though Connor’s departure in a few short weeks was sure to hurt like hell, he’d certainly gotten Matt out of my mind. I’d finally gotten over him. Getting over Connor is going to be an entirely differ—

  “No need to worry about that now,” I said aloud, banishing the thoughts from my mind. I got out of the car and grabbed the box from the backseat.

  At Matt’s door, I shifted the box onto one hip and knocked. In an instant, the room on the other side was alive with voices—male and female—and movement. The male voice came nearer and I recognized Matt’s irritated growl.

  He opened the door and I pressed my lips together to keep from laughing at his flustered expression.

  “Come on in,” he muttered, standing aside and waving me across the threshold.

  A brunette stood on the other side of the living room, hips cocked and arms folded across her chest. Her lips twisted into a scowl and she glared at Matt.

  “Does she need to come in?”

  Matt let out a hiss of breath. “Jesus, Lynn—”

  I shifted my weight. “I don’t have to stay. If I’m intruding, I can just take my stuff and go.”

  Lynn opened her mouth to speak, but a pointed look from Matt stopped her. The fury in her eyes told me he was going to hear about it after I left.

  “I guess I should at least introduce you two,” he said. “Uh, Dani, this is Lynn.” He gestured toward her and they exchanged looks. The lift of her eyebrows and the tightness in her lips said loud and clear that he was in deep shit if he said the wrong thing. Or didn’t say the right thing. Clearing his throat, he looked me in the eye and added, “My girlfriend.”

  At that, she smiled, but the narrowness of her eyes made it look more like a sneer.

  “Oh.” I offered a much more genuine smile. “Nice to meet you.”

  “Likewise,” she growled.

  “Well, I, um, I’d better go.” I inched toward the door.

  “Wait,” Lynn said. “Before she goes, I want to make sure everything is here.” The thinly-veiled accusation probably should have offended me, but her hostility was almost comical. I had to fight to keep from grinning.

  “Lynn, she’s not going to steal anything.” Matt sounded disgusted. “I’m sure it’s all—” He stopped when she glared at him. To me, he said, “You don’t mind?”

  “No, not at all.” Especially because it’s obviously making you uncomfortable.

  While Lynn opened the box, Matt’s eyes darted back and forth from me to her, from his past to his present. He looked about as comfortable as a mouse between two cats.

  Then he jumped like he’d been shocked. “Oh, I almost forgot. I need to get that box of your stuff.” He made a quick escape, leaving me alone with Lynn.

  She crouched and riffled through the box, inspecting each item as if she expected to find some minute vandalism. Her mouth twisted into an ugly sneer when she picked up the shimmery purple jacket, and her eyes flicked toward me before she tossed the jacket on a nearby chair. For a second, she eyed it as if it was stained simply from being in my home for a few weeks. Then she closed the flaps on the box and stood. “Looks like it’s all there.”

  “Should be,” I said. “I didn’t even open it until he called, and then I just put it in the car.”

  She glanced at me and sniffed. I swore she was disappointed that she hadn’t found something in that box to piss her off.

  “Matt!” she screeched down the hall. “Hurry up.”

  Something rustled in another room, then Matt called back, “Just a minute, it’s under a few things in here.”

  Lynn huffed and folded her arms across her chest. In a way, I felt sorry for her. She was probably perfectly pleasant when she wasn’t blindsided by her man’s ex like this. Knowing Matt, he hadn’t told her I was coming until minutes before I came to the door. Still, I couldn’t help but find her attitude amusing.

  I looked around the apartment. All the little changes I’d noticed before had an identity now. The plants were hers. The magazines had her name on them. The coffee cup beside the espresso maker had her lipstick on the edge.

  “Love what you’ve done with the place,” I said, making sure to sound as genuinely pleasant as I could.

  She folded her arms across her chest and looked around, surveying her territory. “Just needed a woman’s touch, I guess.” The lift of her eyebrow sought a reaction from my face, but I offered none.

  “I always thought it would look nice with some houseplants,” I said, admiring a potted plant on the end table a foot or so away from me.

  She said nothing. Whether or not it was my imagination, I couldn’t say, but I thought for sure I heard an indignant growl coming from the back of her throat, muffled by her tightly drawn lips. My own lips were all that stood between me and letting her know just how much her attitude amused me. I pressed them together, smothering a laugh.

  Fortunately, Matt chose just that moment to reappear, carrying a box in front of him. “This should be all of your stuff.”

  I took it from him. “Thanks.”

  “Do you want to have a look and make sure?” he asked, eyes darting toward Lynn.

  I shook my head. “No, it’s fine. I’ll go through it when I get home.”

  “Um, okay,” he said. “Well, uh, call me if anything is missing.”

  “Will do.” I started toward the door, but paused. “Nice to meet you, Lynn.” I smiled at her, knowing it irritated her to no end. She gave me the same half-smile, half-sneer as earlier, then went into the kitchen.

  Matt walked me to the door. “Thanks for bringing that stuff by.” He glanced over his shoulder and lowered his voice. “Sorry she wasn’t very polite.”

  I shrugged. “Don’t worry about it. She probably doesn’t like your ex on her turf.” The words echoed in my mind. Her turf. Funny how it barely registered that this was once my turf, that it was once my home, but all I could think now was keep it, sweetheart, and everything that comes with it.

  “Well, she didn’t have to be rude,” he said. “Anyway, thanks.”

  “No problem.” I shifted the box on my hip. “Thanks for holding onto this stuff for me.”

  “You’re welcome,” he said quietly. He chewed his lip and dropped his gaze. There was something on his mind. Something he was working up the nerve to say.

  I didn’t know what it was, only that I didn’t care to hear it. Our time for uncomfortable discussions, difficult questions, and awkward confessions had long since passed, so I took a step away from the door.

  “I’d better go,” I said. “I still have some errands to run. Thanks again.”

  He startled, his lips parting as if to protest. For a moment, I thought he was going to ask me to wait while he tried to say whatever it was on his mind, but he bit it back. “Sure. No problem. I’ll, um, I’ll see you around.”

  “See you around, Matt.” I turned on my heel, walked away, and didn’t look back.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  My plane touched down at the San Francisco International Airport at just after ten on Friday night.

  Though I hadn’t checked any baggage, Connor said he’d meet me by the baggage carousel since it was a fairly central location. I followed the crowd and the signs, every indicator of “Baggage Claim—This Way” making my heart beat a little faster. After a few dirty Connorgrams on my cell phone and nearly a week’s worth of nights spent wishing he was in my bed, it was all I could do not to break into a run just to get to him a few seconds sooner.

  Up ahead, like a glowing beacon intended solely to drive me out of my mind, was a sign that simply said, “Baggage Claim.”

  My heart pounded and I walked faster, my palm sweating on the plastic handle of the small suitcase rolling beside me. That man was in for the night of his life when we got to the hotel. There were things he could do to me that I just couldn’t take care of on my own, and everything I’d done to take the edge off had only made it worse.

&nbs
p; “It’s just a few days,” I’d told myself the whole time. It wasn’t like I hadn’t gone without sex before. Then again, going without sex wasn’t quite the same as going without sex with Connor.

  I walked faster.

  Even this late at night, the area around the carousels was crowded, but I found him immediately. I saw him in the same instant he looked up from his phone, and his smile made my temperature soar. It was the opposite effect he’d had on me at the horse show. There, he’d created an undercurrent of calm that kept me sane when the rest of the world conspired to do otherwise.

  The only way he would be able to calm me down now involved throwing me down on the nearest flat surface.

  We shouldered our way through the crowd and when we finally got to each other, he threw his arms around me and kissed me. Thankfully, he held me tight enough to keep me upright when my knees tried to go out from under me.

  “God, I missed you,” he said.

  “I missed you too.” I was suddenly out of breath and it had nothing to do with my walking sprint across the terminal. Pulling him closer, I kissed him again.

  He looked at me and smiled, running his fingers through my hair. Though noise and voices rattled the air all around us, it all disappeared when he leaned in and whispered, “We said in the beginning we had to get in as much time in bed together as possible, right?”

  I bit my lip and nodded.

  He kissed just below my ear and said, “So why don’t we get out of here and get to our room so we can make up for lost time?”

  All the air left my lungs in one sharp exhalation.

  Laughing softly, he kissed me again. “Let’s go.”

  I reached for the handle on my suitcase, but his hand was already there. With a smile, he nodded toward the exit. As we turned and walked out, he slipped his free hand into mine. Ahh, now my world is almost back on its axis.

  Short term parking wasn’t a great distance away, and Connor had managed to snag a space fairly close to the door.

  “A Chevy Malibu?” I smirked when he gestured at the rental car. “That’s a bit of a switch from a Jeep, isn’t it?”

  “Hey, it was all they had available.”

  I tried not to laugh. “I don’t know, it sort of suits you. I mean—”

  “It’s a long walk to the hotel, smartass,” he growled.

  I snorted. “Please, you won’t make me walk.”

  “Won’t I?”

  “No, you won’t.”

  He stopped and folded his arms across his chest, fighting a losing battle against the grin that tried to pull up the corner of his lip. “And just what makes you so sure of that?”

  I slid my hand over the front of his jeans and whispered, “Because if I have to walk, you’ll have to wait that much longer to fuck me.”

  He gulped, closing his eyes when I gently squeezed him. Without a word, he pulled the keys out of his pocket and popped the trunk.

  I winked at him. “That’s what I thought.”

  “Guess it’s a good thing I got a hotel that’s close by.” He set my suitcase in the trunk and I handed him my backpack.

  “How close is close by?”

  He slammed the trunk lid, then turned and put his hands on my face. “Not nearly close enough, but it’ll have to do.” He gave me a quick kiss before he nodded toward the car. “Shall we?”

  It was his custom to open my door, but today, we were in too much of a hurry to bother with chivalry. Every second between now and stepping into the hotel that was close but not nearly close enough was too much.

  We left the airport and headed up the freeway, making mundane conversation just to pass the time. When he pulled onto San Bruno, my heart pounded. This was a main drag, but not an expressway. I didn’t know exactly where our hotel was, but it had to be close now.

  Ignoring my skyrocketing pulse, I said, “So, how has your trip been so far?”

  He shrugged. “Busy, mostly. Looking for a place to live, talking to some of the professors and advisors at the university. Crap like that.”

  “No time for any touristy stuff?”

  “Oh, a little,” he said. “but I figured I’d save the good stuff until you got here though.”

  “The good stuff? Such as?”

  “Well, you said you wanted to see Alcatraz. Then there’s Fisherman’s Wharf, that sort of thing.” The light changed to yellow and Connor slowed down. As he did, he slid his arm around my shoulders, pulling me a little closer while the car came to a gentle stop. The light turned red. “And that gives us about twenty-five seconds.”

  “Twenty—”

  His mouth was suddenly against mine, kissing me passionately. It was easily the shortest twenty-five seconds of my life, and before I’d even had a chance to really taste his kiss, he broke away, returning to the driver’s seat and accelerating just when the light turned green.

  Dizzy and panting, I said, “You knew just how to time that, didn’t you?”

  He grinned. “Damn right. I knew I’d never make it from the airport to the hotel without kissing you again.” He glanced at me and winked. “So I made sure I bought myself some time.”

  I wet my lips. “You knew that particular light would be red?”

  “Nope,” he said. “But I figured the odds were good we’d catch at least a couple of red lights.”

  “So you picked that one and hoped for the best?”

  He laughed. “Who says I only figured out one intersection? I like to stack the deck in my favor, you know? So I—” He paused, squinting through the windshield. “In fact, that’s Huntington Avenue, and if I’m correct…” He trailed off, taking his foot off the gas to lose just a little bit of speed.

  The light stayed green.

  “Damn it,” he muttered, accelerating. Just when he crossed the white line, the signal turned yellow. “Well that fucking figures.”

  Though I laughed, I was as frustrated as he was. Come on, stupid lights. Help me out here.

  We passed several more cross streets, none of which had traffic lights, but as we approached El Camino Royale, the light was green.

  Under his breath, Connor whispered, “Come on, come on, come on…” My heart thumped in time with his barely audible pleas.

  When the signal changed, my pulse soared and my mouth watered. He brought the car to a stop, and I met him halfway across the console. I didn’t know how much time we had, didn’t have a clue how he could keep track, didn’t care if we sat through three or four cycles of the light. I wanted him. God, I wanted him. And the more I tasted him now after a few days of being apart, the more I needed him.

  A car horn honked behind us and Connor quickly returned to the driver’s side, waving an apology as he spun the tires and peeled across the intersection.

  “Didn’t time that one as well as you thought?” I asked unsteadily.

  “Lost count.” He was breathless now too. The Malibu’s engine whined, and though I couldn’t be sure, in the flicker of passing streetlights, Connor’s knuckles looked white on the steering wheel.

  Another light came into view. “How long does that one stay red?” I asked.

  “Don’t know. But I don’t plan on stopping there long enough anyway.” Before I could ask why, he switched on the turn signal and slowed down. I glanced to the right, and the signs for several hotels glowed in the distance. One of them had to be ours. It had to be.

  When he turned the corner and started down Elm Avenue, I leaned forward and reached under the back of my shirt.

  “What are you doing?” he asked.

  “Just saving you some time.” My bra went slack and, with a few quick motions of my arms under my shirt, I pulled it out of my sleeve. I dropped it on the seat between us. Connor sucked in a breath.

  “Jesus,” he whispered. The turn signal came on again, and I could barely breathe as the Malibu turned into the parking lot beside the Marriott. By the time he’d shifted into park and killed the engine, I was already out of the car, and he wasn’t far behind. Leaving my bra
in the front seat and my backpack and suitcase in the trunk, we walked as fast as we could into the hotel lobby.

  Connor hit the button for the elevator and we both stared at the glowing number three above the doors. His arm was around my waist, and I was certain his fingers would burn right through my clothes if that elevator didn’t get here soon.

  The three went dark. The two lit up.

  “Come on…” His fingers twitched against my hip.

  Machinery whirred and hummed behind the double doors, and a second later, the familiar bell echoed through the lobby. The elevator opened and three people shuffled out, struggling with suitcases and luggage carts. We stood aside, Connor holding the door to make damned sure it didn’t close before we got in. Once the other guests were out of the way, we stepped in and he pressed the button for the third floor. Then he hit the “close doors” button a few times, swearing under his breath while they stayed open for one, two, three seconds too goddamned many.

  Finally, they started to close and we both released our breath. The doors had barely come together, sealing us inside this tiny private world, before my back was against the wall and Connor’s lips were against mine. His thick erection dug into my hip, making every nerve ending in my body sizzle with maddening anticipation. My fingers grasped his hair and the side of his neck, unwilling to let him go for even a breath until I absolutely had to.

  My need for him teetered precariously between painful and too painful. Through the haze, a thought flickered through my mind—I’m not supposed to need you this much—but Connor’s hand tightened in my hair and the thought was gone as quickly as it had come.

  I didn’t even feel the elevator stop, but the soft ding politely nudged us out of our embrace and back into reality. Connor held my hips and stood behind me, no doubt to keep anyone on the other side of the doors from seeing his hard-on. When the elevator opened, though, the hallway was deserted. He took my hand and we half-walked, half-jogged past the numbered rooms.